Why we chose a Catamaran Sailboat

We are not here to  sell the sea-going attributes of a Catamaran, rather provide thoughts that may help your decision in progressing the 'Catamaran' direction. There is much written on the 'catamaran verse monohull' story and we don't want to enter the 'armchair misinformed judgement' that some may want to portray, but just say that 'catamaran design' has moved on since the fifties and bad judgment of a few should not be painted on the majority, whether it be catamaran, multihull or monohull.

We spent many hours sifting through the copious amounts of information and found that Catamarans (if it can be afforded) come out way ahead in our family cruising situation.

 

---

 

The thought of sailing out at dawn to Morton Island of the coast of Queensland, Australia and mooring in the quiet tranquil afternoon sunset has been driving the incentive of someday, being able to do this. While James had been afforded as a child the opportunity to fish, dive and sail, the rest of the family were not so lucky. The boat had to therefore be stable, as our young family had never sailed before.

Contending with a possible constant lean of a mono hull was therefore out of the question. Having a hot shower and toilet dictated the size and comfort. Was it to have sails with outboards or sails with diesels or sails at all? Many a night was spent mulling over these challenges.

If the building of this type of sailboat was to ever go ahead, we would have to closely assess the budget required to complete the project and as with every budget, ours was very tight. This in turn forced us to narrow the building material to plywood/fibreglass and its here that the first seed was planted on the direction that we finally took.

Australia appears to have very good ship/boat building standards and appears to lead the world market in Multihull design, from internal design and development to speed and hull shape. Per capita, Australia also appears to be at the top end of the respected sailing market.

There are a dozen or so multihull yacht designers in this area who are all keen for our business, many not knowing that we had very little to spend. Many had gifted sales pitches that would attract even those with no sailing or water experience. After countless hours on the Internet, scanning for months through periodicals and magazines and talking to designers over the phone, we finally fell onto our feet.

 

---

 

One afternoon James and his son (seven at the time) bundled into the 94 Laser and set course for Landsborough in Queensland, some 45 minutes north of Brisbane. Met by a tall skinny man and his wife, we were directed to a rear shed and allowed to tramp over their newly completed pride and joy, an 11.6m sailing Multihull. Movie camera in hand, we quickly filmed as much as we could, making the most of this valuable time trying to document ideas. This was then followed by a chat and coffee (the bubbly amber type of coffee that is).

The couple were non other than Peter and Anne Snell, Peter being the proud designer of the ‘Easy’ series Multihull's and Anne his wife (and as I very soon found out) definitely in the know on everything about the vessel, right down the recommended battery charging rates from two 80 watt solar panels. This was their first 11.6m series Easy off the ‘production line’ so to speak. Peter soon sussed us out, spoke at our level with little sailing and building jargon. When we spoke about “the wood bit that holds the main entry door between the hulls”, he kind of smirked and we got a kind answer (known as Frame 7 by the way). They most probably killed themselves laughing after we left though.

We shot home that evening wondering how we were going to convince Mary-Ann that we had found our Cat, not only that, but just outside of the budget (as everything always is). Would we attempt to bury our heads in the sand when it came to the budget and fight that battle another day? James thought 'Investment Opportunity', build the vessel sell it for double and walla........got the money back. While doubling your money was true, that was not the reason for wanting to build a boat in the first place.

There has to be another way, which is another story. This sparked the writing of the Pure Majek Diary where this and much more has been written.