South Pacific Catamaran haulout adventure

[Atlantic42]

Above: s/v LightSpeed heading up the slipway for bottom paint.

We recently hauled out our Atlantic 42 LightSpeed in Fiji after designing and fabricating a rack that mounted to a conventional marine rail type slipway.

The slipway is located at the 73 year old Royal Suva Yacht Club and a huge thanks goes to the membership for supporting this one-off project.

The plan was to support the catamaran solely by her underwing crossbeams which would greatly facilitated painting of hulls as no blocking or supports would contact the bottom paint. This worked out great and made for a quick and through anti-fouling application.

The upfront cost to build the custom support structure was significant and something of a pay it forward contribution to the cruising community. It was also more cost effective than the alternative of going to a commercial shipyard in Fiji or sailing 1000+ miles to New Zealand or elsewhere.

Name brand paint like International Ultra is available in Fiji and basic labor costs are very reasonable. Finding special parts and skilled workers can be a Easter egg hunt of sorts, but eventually you can usually find or order from NZ what you need in the capital city of Suva. More on the adventure can be found on my website.

This week a Outremer 43 'Blue Bie' using the newly modified adjustable supports hauled out as well. Adventurous catamaran owner with fully laden cats weighing less than 10 tons now have a haulout option in Fiji.

[FSMike]

David - I doubt I'll ever use it, but you certainly deserve an "attaboy"!

[barnakiel]

That's one of many reasons I love cats!

b.