We think a catamaran with about 30 inches of clearance is ideal. Any shorter, and sufficient load-carrying capacity for full-time cruising suffers longer, and the hull and equipment costs skyrocket.Ī stub keel-equipped cat drying out on a beach.īridge deck clearance (BDC): BDC affects the amount of noise in the boat from wave slap, especially while going upwind. We think a 42- to 48-foot cat makes a great cruising home. cost: As with all boats, as size increases, so does cost. Francis got started with a 43-foot cat in about 1990, and now a dozen others in South Africa produce about 30 percent of the world’s cruising cats.Īfter considerable research looking at a number of boats and more than four years aboard, full-time cruising in Southeast Asia, here are our thoughts on some important features to look for in a bluewater cruising catamaran. Soon afterward, South African builder St. Gemini also started building boats in the U.S. Catamaran production took off in the late 1970s and early 1980s with French builders Fountaine Pajot, Catana, Lagoon and several others producing catamarans for the charter industry. During the 1960s, Prout and Catalac of Great Britain were also starting to produce catamarans. The first cruising catamaran to circumnavigate was his World Cat in 1965. Modern multihull production started with the catamarans of Hawaiian Rudy Choy in 1947. Early islanders sailed large twin-hulled canoes many thousands of miles, generally from Southeast Asia eastward to discover new island homes. Catamarans have been around, especially in the Pacific, for several thousand years.
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