I've run into more into often the advice for those interested in
buying a catamaran to charter it first. I've lived aboard two
catamarans for a total of 7 years and took a year with my wife and dog
to cruise down to the Jumentos and back. I would add the following
caveat to their charter advice; catamarans come in, and are built for,
two general types of use: chartering and personal owners. The
charter boats are boats such as the fountaine pajot, the voyage 440,
moorings and lagoon. Their primary sales goes to charters and often
the design criteria that they use is something that you wouldn't want
for a live-aboard vessel.

Think hotel vs. home. Charter boats have galleys which are typically
smaller and centrally located in order to separate the crew from the
guest cabins. This means the guest cabins can be larger as they
would want their own space from everyone else. Even the "owners"
version of the boats still have the same wider, heavier hull meant to
carry provisions for 8 people (4 cabins and 4 heads), water for long
showers by everyone, heavy engines, and generators. Who would want
4 heads in a boat? These four heads are at the expense of well laid
out storage or a large comfortable master cabin. Some boats like the
voyage 440 has laughable storage below as the guests will be living
out of their suitcases. Fountaine Pajot is (or was until I believe
lagoon overtook them) the leading provider of charter catamarans in
the world, and you wouldn't want one as an owner. The rooms are dark,
poor ventilation, a tiny galley, poor quality control and they are dog
slow. And don't listen to the brokers, they are affiliated often
with the brokerage companies and have a steady stream of boats they
have to sell quickly. I've have more than one broker say to look at
a used charter boat as the ideal cruiser/live aboard.

If you are looking for how a boat "feels", I would instead contact the
factory for a list of owners in your area. Most factories are very
happy to do it, and the owners are proud of their boats and happy to
assist. If you want to look at owners boats, look more at PDQ as
an example of a optimum interior layout (10 ft of galley counter space
with a large over huge storage for pots and pans and a stainless steel
backsplash vs. a typicaly charter with 3 ft of counter space and no
storage and smack in the middle of main central living room; PDQ has
two main spacious cabins with good ventilation and lots of locker
space for clothes (winter and summer) vs. 4 smaller ones, PDQ has a
central area for you to lounge and entertain, vs. cook for guests;
finally it has storage in every conceivable location and a build
quality that's meant to have a 5 year warrantee instead of a charter
abuse it and throw it away mentality.)

Cheers,

Doug

Youve given a very pro-PDQ recommendation. Do you have any views on the other
non-charter cats, especially in the smaller sizes (30-33ft or so) such as
Gemini, Seawind, MaineCat, TopCat, etc.?

Thanks........Scott

(DUINK) wrote in message ...
Youve given a very pro-PDQ recommendation. Do you have any views on the other
non-charter cats, especially in the smaller sizes (30-33ft or so) such as
Gemini, Seawind, MaineCat, TopCat, etc.?

Thanks........Scott

Sorry, but there are few companies which target their boats more to
the individual owner than the charter, as the charter is a very large
market. I owned a PDQ 36 for several years and found it had some very
good points, the factory was also wonderful to deal with.

Gemini I'm very familiar with (I live 150 yards from their factory and
I know people who've had them) and it depends on what you are looking
for. The bad points are the cheap construction materials (small thin
stanchions, standing rigging, tiny winches, thin fiberglass) make them
not age well. Literally a comment from one owner was "my first
catamaran was a gemini and I wish someone had brought up how cheap
they were and how their resale value is practically nothing". The
good point is that they are made at half the price of the other
catamarans, so they are very affordable. They have no clearance
underneath them, so they do tend to slam relentlessly (PDQs have
around 20" min, I think the Gemini is much less than that). They now
have westerbeake 30 HP diesel engines. This is frankly a horrible
engine (PDQ used to have it for their 42s and some people were on
their second set of engines after 2 years). I personally would look
for the outboard model as opposed to the westerbeake (sp?). They have
a galley down, but the centerboard eliminates some of the storage.

Maine cat I've heard is a very good boat, with good clearance and an
open bridge deck, similar to a shuttleworth tek 35. The open bridge
deck makes he a faster sailor, but with less all weather accomodations
than a closed bridge deck boat. Again, a great weekend cruiser, but
with small births, and due to it's smaller size, not a great deal of
storage so it would be difficult boat to go extended cruising on with
all of your gear.

I'm looking at Kantor's Cruising in Catamarans for his review and the
layout of the seawind. They put the births in the hulls, which are
narrow for speed. Good for sailing, poor for living aboard on a
catamaran less than 40 feet. There are no cabins really in the
hulls, the birth is right in front of the galley, so you really
wouldn't have any privacy. They had a 3 foot extension added on the
later version to properly balance the boat. If you were looking for
something that would be a good weekend cruiser and fast racer, this
might be a good choice.

I've never run into the top cat and can't find a review in the
"cruising in catamarans" book.