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