THE WORST CAT IN THE WORLD?

Maybe according to most that saw it. This is an example of how big plans can go very wrong. There is more to this story!!! But for now here is what I had to say in my Sanctuary cove boat show review in the most recent edition of The Coastal Passage.

The worst boat I have ever seen!!!!!

"And this is hard to write. I am laughing so hard I can hardly type!
In past the principals in this enterprise had contacted me on several occasions in hopes that I would feature or promote their catamaran and dinghy. The statements and claims didn’t add up but to make sure I went to Cardwell, [northern Queensland] where they were located to have a look myself and I was NOT impressed thus declined involvement. So my expectations for the Chinese made version of the Multihaven cat that was to be at the show were very low, but not low enough!! It was so ugly in appearance and so hideous in finish it's a wonder anyone had the guts to show it. I've never seen anything like it at a show! (and hope I don't again!)

So what made it so bad you ask? Where do I start… OK, how about the finish. It looked like the resins weren't applied as much as thrown onto the thing. To correct surface irregularities in boats the tool you use is a length of something semi-flexible with a sheet of sandpaper glued to it and referred to as the 'torture board'. I think on this boat they only used the “somewhat annoying board” when they should have used the “agonising death board.” Flat paint can hide a multitude of sins and the paint on this boat looked like cheap ceiling paint but still couldn't hide the mess. And Design??? Oh yeah, lets talk about design! How about knocking off a set of 30 year old Prout hulls (or something similar) and piling on way more accommodation than the buoyancy of the hulls were meant for. I saw the thing sink into the water 100mm past the antifoul with just a few people on board and the boat still didn’t have a rig! The bridge deck design looked like the job was given Salvador Dali. It looked like a Putt Putt course!

In short, how ugly was it? Answer? (insert drum roll here) It was so ugly it had to sneak up on the water. (Boom bada boom) The boat was so ugly, the tide wouldn't bring it in. It was so ugly, when it was beached on the sand a cat tried to bury it! (my favourite!)
OK,OK... Seriously, or as close to it as I can, I rang Bob Oram to tell him about the thing but though he hadn't been to the show the word had spread far and wide. He commented; “I have had full reports from people that went to the show, telling me about the Multihaven monster. My feeling is that the multi community has become reasonably sophisticated and will see that boat for what it is. With the developing sophistication of the multihull buyer/sailor new builders/suppliers will need to be wary of sinking vast energy and money into 'production' boats that don't have credible design or build history. One would assume all prospective buyers of multihulls do all their homework.”

As this goes to press the finger pointing and blame games have begun in earnest. The parties in press and industry that are involved in this should all be taking a hard look at themselves instead of picking scapegoats and taking pot shots at the messengers. If I wanted to be really cruel, I would reprint some of the flattering quotes that appeared in press before the show. There are no innocent parties and tis a poor skipper that blames his crew. I saw this coming a mile away and I don’t walk on water so...?"

More on this later. To see the whole article or to download a free edition of the full edition in PDF see http://www.thecoastalpassage.com/recent_issues.html

I would like to hear from anyone who has seen worse!

Cheers

Bob