Catamarans Surge in Popularity

by Sail-World Cruising on 30 Mar 2007 They used to be a rare sight on any waterway or ocean, but the day of the catamaran is fast approaching, as both sailors and manufacturers adopt the multi-hull as a smart way to go for the cruising sailor.

One of the big coups of 2006 was the news that that Robertson and Caine of Cape Town, South Africa launched the new Leopard 46, a 12m (39ft) blue water cruising catamaran to be marketed by those two top chartering companies, The Moorings and Sunsail.

The cat was designed in collaboration with US naval architects Morrelli and Melvin. While The Moorings is a US Charter company and Sunsail is based in the UK, they are both owned by UK holding company First Choice Marine, and they are marketing the new yacht as The Moorings 4600 and the Sunsail 464, respectively.

'From a global point of view, these exciting brands have 72 bases worldwide, and a fleet of 1,800 boats, and 300,000 customers per year,' says Lex Raas, chief executive of First Choice Marine. 'With catamarans making up a third of the fleet, this means that nearly 100,000 people worldwide are holidaying on Robertson and Caine boats every year.'

This is just more evidence about the surge of popularity in catamarans.

Sail-World Cruising asked a number of multi-hull sailors who had changed from keel-boats, as to why they did so, and what their impressions were. Here are some of the comments, with duplicates omitted:

'We find the ability to anchor and transit shallow waters fantastic. So many more places are accessible than before.'

'Even crossing the Atlantic, with bad cross seas that everyone was complaining about, we could eat our meal at table, and when playing scrabble off watch, the board and pieces stayed in place without any problems.'

'There’s much more room for the kids – they don’t feel so confined as when we had the other boat.'

'The shallow keel is terrific -- the closer you can get to the shore to anchor, the calmer the water and the better sleep you will have – we love this about our cat.'

'Our old boat had a long deep keel and we could never reverse it well – it would go all over the place. This cat has two engines, and I can manoeuvre without any trouble into very tight corners, and almost spin on the spot.'

'We love the living separation it gives with the two hulls. One complete hull is for our sleeping quarters, and when we have guests, they have a complete hull to themselves. It’s very ordered and civilised, not having to live on top of each other.'

Robertson and Caine has supplied more than 370 catamarans to The Moorings over the last decade. The latest order, which was worth in excess of US$30 million, is for sailing catamarans to be delivered over the next twelve months. The South African shipyard has also been appointed the official sailing catamaran supplier to Sunsail.

Robertson and Caine’s most recent project is a new 14.3m (47ft) power catamaran for the Nautic Blue group, also part of First Choice Marine, which was launched in earlier this year.