Hybrid Catamaran and Hydrofoil Speed Record

One of the major reasons I have become fascinated with Sailing is the fact that I can theoretically get from point A to B without using Fuel. Initially I thought about buying a yacht, but I know I wouldn’t want to take it out due to the huge cost of fuel. Even if I can afford the fuel, it still bugs me to know with each passing mile I am burning expensive fuel not to mention the smell, impact to the environment and the noise. I know someday I can afford the boat, but can I happily afford the maintenance and fuel that it takes to fully enjoy it. This why I get so excited when I read about new technologies that harness the Sun, wind, water etc to help power the craft.

I just heard about the new Island Pilot DSe Hybrid Catamaran. It takes advantage of two hulls rather then one which is a must for me and it runs on solar power. It is a step in the right direction. They claim it can go for 4 hours with 0 emissions at a speed of 7knots. Although that is not fast enough for my taste you can run the generator and go 13knots burning diesel. Still not ideal for me but I know things can only improve. I still like the idea of letting the wind do most of the work. The Island Pilot option would take some of the fun out of it for me.

CNET Car Tech recently reported that the Internal Combustion engine is on the way out, but that batteries are still the weak link. They need to be lighter and more efficient. Apparently the new Chevrolet Volt only has a range of 40 miles. But I am optimistic and look forward to the future. The more products that jump on the bandwagon to reduce our dependence on Oil and do it cleanly that happier we all will be.

Have you seen this yet? For the performance minded sailor you have to check out this You Tube video. The title is Hydrofoil Speed record. The craft is apparently sailing along at 54 Mph. If my French is correct they claim a top speed of 47.2 knots per hour. The hydrofoil is just floating over the waves. It is amazing. The next step is flying. Check it out. Here is the Image Gallery for the craft.

Newly Discovered Catamaran Manufacturers

Wow. It’s been a month and a half since my last post. Lets just say life throws curve balls at you once and a while. My desire and dreams have not changed although the time frame to make my dreams a reality seems very far in the distant future. This doesn’t stop me from learning and researching though. I came across some new Catamaran manufacturers that I thought I should pass on. They are new to me anyway. Enjoy!

The Boat System Prometh looks very interesting but the website is all in French from what I can tell so I didn’t spend much time there. They build their boats in Aluminum and some models appear to have dagger boards.

I was impressed by the performance stats of the Tournier Marine Catamarans. They appear to be great performers. The accommodations appear practical, functional and durable rather then posh, delicate and expensive. For the Freydis 46 and 50 cruising models, they advertise a speed of 7.5 knots with a wind speed of 10 knots. For the 50 footer, the Aluminum rotary mast is required to achieve this speed VS the carbon rotary mast. The amount of bridge deck clearance appears to be more then adequate for serious ocean cruising conditions. The photo shown here suggests you might be able to use the underside as a parking garage for a small fishing vessel or two. I would sure love to take a closer look at this line of Cats.

Schionning Marine sells catamaran kits. One of the Cat’s in their line, the G-Force 1400 boasts a top sailing speed of over 25 knots. They also sell the Waterline performance/cruising catamarans. They come in several sizes from 38 to 57 feet. They have the Cosmos cats more suited to cruising and their new Wilderness X Series with 6 different models to choose from.

I keep finding more and more catamaran manufacturers out there. I can only hope that supply is going up which will bring prices down. Unfortunately as supply goes up I suspect demand is also going up. Perhaps more and more boating enthusiasts are switching from power boating to sailing due to the increase in fuel prices.

Wave Slap on a Catamaran

I recently posted a question on an active yahoo live aboard community group called Captain’s & Admiral’s Café. As a subscriber to this very active group I was receiving lots of posts but none were on the topic of cruising Catamarans. So I asked for some Catamaran related experiences from the members and I received several opinions.

The 1st advice I read was to go to the Toast Floats. I read “That which doesn’t kill us” and loved it. Although it talks about things that break I am jealous and I can’t wait to be that person fixing that which is broken. It appears there is much more to read and learn from this family living aboard their Lagoon 380 catamaran named Don Quixote. The blog contributor describes his cat as a slow starter houseboat. Check it out.

Someone also mentioned TeamHudson and their excellent adventure. So far I have just skimmed this blog, but from what I can tell he is just like me only quite a few steps ahead. He began his blog before buying his cat and is now living on his cat with his family. Again, I am jealous and inspired to keep dreaming and to find a way to make this dream a reality. His blog covers many topics from Environment, fishing, moving aboard, financing and sharks to list a few.

The one comment that stood out as a possible deal breaker was the issue of Wave Slap. It started with some comments about a Catana owner that complained of wave slap on a recent passage. Wave slap is what occurs when heading into steep waves and is more prevalent on cats with low bridge deck clearance. The wave crashes underneath the bridge deck and can make for some uncomfortable passage making. See the photo of the Catana shown to the right. The bridge deck clearance is good in some places but not all, so perhaps the design although maximizing interior space, contributes to wave slap. There is no doubt wave slap is a concern, but so is healing over at a 45% angle in a monohull.

I was concerned and was happy to hear from the owner of a Fountaine Pajot Athena 38. His thoughts were just what I needed to hear and as I expected. His thought was “All designs have their unique design effects” and that wave slap is an issue and just that. With over 2000 miles on his boat he claims only 200 or so were miles that may have included some wave slap. He mentioned one trip that was particularly bad. “Slogging into 8ft swells sucked and was noisy with the slap issue “ but he also said there aren’t many boats that would have been any more fun in those conditions. He also said if needed the boat was doing fine and he could have kept going, but instead changed course to resolve the issue. He still prefers his Cat and said “All and all the positives far out weigh the negatives for my family.”.

Another family chimed in that switched from a Morgan 41 classic to a Manta 42 Mk IV and said there are ups and downs, but they are very happy with the switch.

"We’ve had no problem at all getting used to our new huge salon, cockpit, washer/dryer, water maker, genset… the list goes on and on."

They did bring up some important information surround rig fatigue.

"Since cats don’t heel the standing rigging is tensioned far more often than a mono hull so rigging needs to be replaced way more often. Most experts I know say 5 years max. The good thing is that we have a lot less wire so it only costs about $1500.".

They are happy with their Manta and recommended them as a great company to deal with.

La Paz Mexico

It’s been a while since my last post. I was in La Paz Mexico on a 7 day trip. 5 days of the trip was devoted to Fly Fishing. The photo to the right was taken at Sunrise aboard our Panga. Although the trip was dedicated to fishing, I wished I were staying on a Cat. I imagined what it would be like. Someday I plan to turn imagination into reality. You can read more about my trip to La Paz on my Adventure Blog here. Since it is not related to Catamarans and Sailing I keep a separate blog.

I wished I had brought snorkeling gear on this trip. Although we stayed in La Paz, we fished an hour from the hotel in an area I believe they called Las Arenas. While fishing was slow one day we searched for a spot to fish and the captain of the Panga we were on drove right by a rocky point that was loaded with what seemed like an unlimited variety of fish. The water was as clear as day. It was so clear I felt like the prop was going to drag the rocks below. I am sure it was plenty deep. My only concern however is that I know there are Hammer Head and possible Mako’s that cruise the area, so I don’t know how safe it would be to dive there. The Mant Rays were plentiful as well and were taking flight all over the place. Although it is rare, they can be deadly as well. I recommend asking some of the locals if it is safe.

The local fisherman apparently do a good job of thinning the shark population. They have Shark buoys all over the place. The shark buoys’ are anchored to the ground. They will tie large hooks with Bonita or whatever bait they have to these shark buoy’s and then come back the next day to see if they caught anything. Not very sporting and I bet there is little to no regulations on how many they can harvest. We saw the fisherman go from buoy to buoy checking the lines. I didn’t see a whole lot of shark caught each day, so I guess that means sharks are not thick in the area. From what I have heard the future of fishing in this and other area’s of Baja doesn’t look good. I guess there are big boats netting up all the fish. At least us fly fisherman released the majority of our catch.

From what I have heard, La Paz is a popular sailing destination. I know I plan to sail there someday. I did see a nice Catamaran cruise by our hotel as well as several other sailboats and watercraft. We stayed at the La Concha Beach Resort in La Paz. The hotel is in-between two of the Marina’s. The Marina de La Paz and the Marina Costa Baja. I watched several sailboats cruise by the hotel through the channel. The Marina Costa Baja is home to one of the Moorings Charter locations. Here is a map of downtown La Paz which shows the location of Marina de La Paz , Immigration, Port Authority and more. I ran across a story by Mitch Mandell who tells of his time sailing a catamaran in La Paz here if you are interested.

Please feel free to reply to any of these posts or send me an email with any catamaran related news or general Sailing information. I am always looking for new information. My last post on May 20th I wrote about the Admiral Yachts Catamaran. I was unable to find the stats for the cat. I guess Alan Geeling read my post and was nice enough to give me the missing stats. I have updated the Catamaran statistics and performance potential rankings table if you are interested. Check them out here. Thanks for the info Alan.

Catamaran Statistics and Admiral Yachts Info

I have updated stats on the Catamaran Statistics chart that is always located at the bottom of this blog. I was looking for stats on the Admiral Yachts Catamarans and came up empty. They have a nice website, but the stats are missing. They do have links to their specifications, but I couldn’t find length, width, sail area etc information. I searched the internet and no luck. It appears the 40 footer is new as I could only find info on the older 38 model. I apologize in advance if some of the links are not working correctly. Web sites seem to change often.

I did find their day sailor option interesting. If you don’t plan to live on your boat and you are worried that day sailing with a bunch of strangers that will trash your boat, then this might be the way to go. It is very accommodating, yet rugged. I suspect a lot of weight was cut down with this configuration so it may be a great performer. I just wish I had the specs to do the math with.

The prices are very reasonable. Just not sure about quality or what you are missing for the price, but it is very intriguing. It is apparent that some of the fluff and elegant wood grain accommodations are missing, but for some, this is ok. Less maintenance this way.

My Catamaran research has been limited lately due to increases in trips and family life. I just added a blog to my CatManDaves Adventure page regarding my recent trip to Lake McSwain. There is a video that includes fishing, and wildlife viewing of a Bobcat, deer, coyote and other creatures.

I have not stopped dreaming though. The plan is still on. It just takes time. I need to win the lottery. That would speed things up.

CatManDave's Adventures

I have created a separate blog so that I can stay on topic here on my Catamaran Dreams site. I figure those that are interested in Catamarans may not care about anything other then Catamarans and Sailing. If however you still want to read about my adventures that are not sailing related please checkout my other site here. http://catmandave.blogspot.com/

Although I don't have much here yet you might enjoy the post titled "Trophy Room". I plan to add more trophies to this as I find time.

If you want you can subscribe to my blogs. Scroll down the left or right hand side and subscribe to receive emails notifications when new posts are submitted.

Don't forget about the Catamaran Stats at the bottom of the page. I plan to update that soon with new links and stats.

You will also find some useful links that I think are pertinant to each blog. These are not advertisers. Look for the "Useful Links" section. I will be adding more soon.

Overnight Sailboat Adventure in Monterey Ca

My wife and I spent an eventful overnight trip in Monterey Ca for our 4 year anniversary. Aside from a sleepless night aboard a 30 foot sailboat it was a fun trip. We witnessed a couple Deer wandering the streets, a seal that was ringing the dinner bell in hopes for a free meal, I did some free diving, went shopping and we stayed overnight in a 30 foot sailboat.

My wife is aware of my fascination with sailboats and decided to schedule an overnight stay on a sailboat. She was unable to find a catamaran so she settled for a 30 foot monohull. I thought it would be interesting too so I encouraged her to make the reservation even though I knew very little about what to expect. Unfortunately neither of us knew exactly what we were in store for. Had we known, we wouldn’t have done it, at least not on this boat under the circumstances of which I will explain.

Knowing Monterey I expected to hear some seals making noise, and maybe a fog horn and some other harbor noises, but I didn’t expect to be kept awake most of the night. As you enter the main cabin area there was at 1st a subtle odor, but after 15 minutes of it I felt a little nauseous. Perhaps it was the combination of the sway of the boat and the really bad 4 pack of Woodbridge Chardonnay that my wife picked out. The bathroom required a man to arch his back, or sit down to go to the bathroom. The smell in the bathroom was worse then the fuel smell in the main cabin. The Candle provided just didn’t do the trick.

You could barely stand up in the aft cabin and I had to sit and spin to get into bed. I almost knocked my wife out in the process. I realize some of this is par for the course in a small older sailboat, but for 99.00 a night we expected a lot more. Check in was at 8:30PM and checkout was at 10AM. We were out before 8AM since there was no coffee pot. There was no TV or music. You weren’t allowed to use the shower. The place appeared to be lived in and was in disarray. The seat and bed cushions looked as if it has never been replaced or cleaned. A sheet was covering the bed and another sheet was there to sleep under, topped with an unzipped sleeping bag. I was either too cold or too hot all night.

We slept in the aft berth. My left ear was a few inches from the Starboard hull. Just outside of the hull there was three bumpers. There was a fairly significant surge in the harbor and the noise put out by the squeaking bumpers was almost unbearable. If they could turn the craft around it may have been an improvement. Needless to say we didn’t sleep well.

My wife found the overnight sailboat offering on the Monterey Bay Sailing website. Here is the link to the overnight offering. http://www.montereysailing.com/overnight.html Although I am sure the day sailing is fine the 99.00 we spent was a rip off.

Here is a quote from the Monterey Cruises page “Boat Overnights are romantic and the sleep that falls over you as our vessel gently rocks in her berth is the most restful you will ever have and less expensive than most hotels”. This statement could not be further from the truth. My goal here is not to bash someone’s business, but I feel others should be warned. If you are interested in spending a night in Monterey on a boat don’t do it through the Monterey Bay Sailing company.


Boat Name: Pegasus
Boat Manufacturer: Celestial
Length: 30ft

Catana 431 and Fishing Report

There was a recent article on the Catana 431 in the Boat U,S. magazine. There was a few interesting points that were made. The 1st thing they mentioned is that the number and size of multihull’s on display increase with each passing boat show season and that the popularity is growing. Although this is not news to me it is good to hear it. Something of concern that was mentioned was that the wire sizes and systems may not be suited to U.S. hookups. This will be a concern whenever purchasing a boat manufactured outside of the US. They also mentioned that the Catana was considerably more expensive then similarly sized multihull’s which again is not surprising to me but I thought it should be mentioned.

I was recently informed of a local radio program on KFBK 1530AM that covers hunting, fishing and camping in Northern California. The best part about it, is that it is recorded so you can listen to it anytime you want. It lasts 3 hours and there are no commercials for the most part. I have found it to be informative so far and look forward to listening to it every Monday while working or Saturday if I plan to fish on Sunday. I am listening to last Saturdays show and they have talked about Stripers, Bass, Chad, Sturgeon and Salmon fishing. They have discussed the influx of seals, and mountain lions and recommended some equipment. They even give out advice on where to fish and how to fish it. If you fish in from the Bay area up to the Sacramento area this should be a good program for you.

I am going Striper fishing again this Friday while the fishing is still good. I have several spots that should hold fish so we should be able to find a school. Once we find them I want to try to catch one or more on a fly. My dad tied up a couple fly’s that rattle that I think would work well. I plan to do some free diving as well in Monterey on Saturday, so I hope to have some good pics and video for the blog soon. I am going to talk to the local dive shop to find out about regulations on Spear fishing. .It might be too early yet, but the Halibut move into the shallows soon so if all goes well we will have some halibut in the freezer soon. Speaking of Sport fishing regulations here is a great way to find the regulations for the California coastline. http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/fishing_map.asp

I am starting to wonder if I should maintain more then one blog so that I can keep things on topic. Although my ultimate goal is still to buy a Catamaran, readers might find my site more useful if it stayed on target. I could have another blog that covers my angling adventures. Any thoughts?

Thoughts on Used Catamarans and US Dollar Update

Been thinking more seriously about narrowing down the list of cats that I might want to purchase sometime in the future. Outremer certainly comes to mind. There is a good article comparing two of the Outremer 42’s. One uses diesel and the other uses diesel electric propulsion. Check it out here. There is some promising information surrounding electric propulsion. Although there are still ups and downs, I have to remember that my boat will be power hungry. This is another reason to go with an electric cat.

Another cat I would love to own although I am guessing it will be out of my price range is a Gunboat. Just to see what is new I went to there website. There are a couple links to some interesting Gunboat blogs and additional news found here. They have announced the new Gunboat 66 although not much info on it yet.

I would love to own a cat 50 feet or more but I suspect I will at some point have to do a reality check and drop that goal. A 41 foot Maine Cat might be a better option for me. It would be substantially less money and still be a good performing and functional cat which are two of my top priorities. This would free up much more money for upgrades and ongoing maintenance.

Here is an update on the US dollar to EURO that I have been watching. Things are starting to show improvement for the US Dollar. To recap, I started on 2-14-2008. In my sample I made the assumption that someone might buy a Catamaran at 500k EURO and converted that into US Dollars using http://www.xe.com/ as a translator and kept track over time. Below is the data I have gathered so far. As you can see as of April things are beginning to trend downward.

12Lb Striper caught on Yo-Zuri shallow runner

We went fishing last Sunday on the Delta. Check out the Video of a 12.5 lb striper that we caught. We had a better then average trip, and I have a feeling if we went again we would do even better. We tried here and there to catch some Black Bass, but they weren’t biting. My main goal was to catch some striper and we did just that.

I kept reading about guys catching stripers trolling using shallow running rebels at 5mph so this is what we tried, and it worked once we found the fish. What I also learned is that on outgoing tide the stripers were hanging out near the down current side of a large sand bar. I trolled in as shallow an area as possible without going shallower then 6 feet. Seems most of the fish caught were in the 6 to 10 foot depth range.

We caught a 5# and 12.5# striper and several shakers and at least one missed strike. I had a 17 inch striper practically rip the rod right out of my hand as I was letting out the line. I thought for sure he would be a keeper, but he was just shy of 18 inches. The striper's seemed to be well fed. We kept the 5# and had fish tacos last night and released the 12.5 pounder which I presume to be a female.

As a result of this trip I have identified two new places that will hold fish on outgoing tide. We fished around Decker Island and caught our 1^st keeper just east of the main channel. After that nothing on the Sacramento, so I headed to one of my favorite spots on the San Joaquin near the sandbar up stream from the Antioch Bridge. We saw others fishing up north about a mile and a half, but didn’t try although I heard there was a decent run there recently.

All fish accept one small shaker came on one rod that had a Yo-Zuri on it. I tried to purchase a couple more prior to the trip, but I couldn’t find any in Tracy. I will have to make a trip to Manteca’s Fisherman’s Warehouse most likely prior to my next trip. I am sure if we had a couple more we would have had better luck. The Yo-Zuri has a much more pronounced rattle and ran shallower then the other two shallow running broken back rebels that we had. I used a small 2.5” grub with curly tail, white with sparkles on all rebels. I have heard of others using longer trailers around 6”, but based on their posts they had a lot of missed strikes.

2008 12lb Striper on Yo-Zuri

New Catatamaran - Marquee 380 - CatStats Update

I ran across a new Cat at the Strictly Sail Show last Friday. The first Maverick 380 Sailing cat will be available this month according to their flyer however the distributor is advertising July 2008. This cat is being distributed by Catamaran Marquee out of South Africa. The cat is aimed at the Private owner and offers a Twin owner layout with space an privacy.

One thing that I noticed right away is the large protected cockpit which will be ideal for SF sailing. It appears to come with boards. I entered the statistics into my CatStats table to see where it ranks in performance compared to the rest. It doesn’t look like it will be very fast compared to the other cats out there, although it is not the slowest either. I added more links and corrected a few stats on the cats statistics table as well.

Strickly Sail Show Catamarans

I was at the Oakland Strictly Sail show on Friday. I could have used two days at the show rather then just one. I only saw one of the presentations. There were at least two others I wanted to watch. I just couldn’t fit everything in. There was only three catamarans at the show. The Lagoon Hybrid 420, Fountain Pajot Mahe 36 and the Seawind 1160. I didn’t get to spend as much time as desired on each of the cats. For a weekday, the show was very busy. You had to wait your turn to go through the cat. Just walking though these cats isn’t enough. Eventually I will need to do some sea trials.

There were no surprises on the Seawind. It was what I expected. Wide open cockpit area with the sliding glass doors up. I was happy to note that while standing behind the helm I was able to see through ahead just fine. Sailing in the busy SF bay would be a must though to know if the visibility is a concern. You can’t really navigate without having to look through windows with this design. However there are a lot of windows and the visibility was excellent so perhaps that makes up for it. I suspect this boat would be very nice and allow one to stay relatively comfortable out of the cold SF wind if desired.

I was surprised at how spacious and roomy the Mahe 36 felt. I realized when I was done why it felt so roomy. Unless I missed something, there was only one bathroom on the whole boat on the Owners side. This concept has it ups and downs, and may not be a bad idea in some cases. I like the idea of only having to clean, maintain and replace parts on just one bathroom as apposed to two, three or sometimes 4 separate bathrooms. It really made it feel like a bigger boat. Privacy would more then likely be an issue though if there were 6 people staying in the three berths.

The biggest disappointment came from my discussion with the salesman aboard the Lagoon 420 hybrid. He didn’t have much good news to say about the hybrid technology. In fact something very important he mentioned was that they could barely make it out the Golden Gate Bridge on electric power. I am familiar with the strong winds and currents that can occur. It is not uncommon to have a strong incoming current and a strong headwind while heading out of the SF Bay through the Gate. In fact it can be rather nasty if the seas are rough. This wasn’t the only issue. The salesman advised me that you are supposed to replace the batteries every two or three years or so. This hardly makes up the difference for the fuel savings. I mentioned solar power and he shot down that idea. He said if you can afford the boat, then you can afford the gas and that most likely there is no savings by going green with the Lagoon. He mentioned that some have discussed more powerful electric motors, but that this raises safety concerns as there is possibility for electric shock from the more powerful electric system required for the larger electric motors. This salesperson is just one opinion, but it isn’t a good one. More research is needed on the Hybrid topic.

I know that better batteries are being made. I recall reading about a lighter and more powerful batteries are available now. There was a battery vendor advertising 7 and 10 year warranties on their batteries. I wish I had more time to discuss this issue with them. I was hoping to run into an OSSA Powerlight vendor at the show. Perhaps Lagoon should look into better batteries or better salespersons. I would like to think that the Lagoon salesperson just wasn’t very informed. Regardless this is a serious blow to my theory of going green on a cat for the purpose of saving money. If prices keep going up on fuel, hybrid technologies will make more sense, but perhaps we are just not quite there yet.

Traffic on this blog has jumped up sharply over the weekend for some reason. Could be that search engines are finally finding me. I hope that folks are finding the site informative. there is so much to learn and research before buying your first cat. It is not uncommon to hear about folks taking two years or so to find the right boat. Now I know why. I feel like I have only scratched to surface. I really need to get out on more Cats for some real world experience. I just don' t know when that will happen at the moment.

Video Editing and Underwater Photography

I have not been blogging as often. Work and family life is taking a lot of my free time. I try to provide something entertaining or educational in my posts. Things will start to get interesting soon. I will be at the Strictly Sail show this Friday. Soccer Saturday and Sunday so there goes the weekend. Camping will happen this month as well as La Paz next month. I need to sneak a fishing trip in somewhere in between as well.

Meanwhile I have been struggling with Video editing and streaming issues for the past week. What a mess. Avi, mpeg, mov, vob, etc etc. Can’t we all settle on just one format for crying out loud? I am not happy with the Microsoft WMM(Windows Movie Maker) and I am not a lone. For some reason it will not import my Sony DCR-SR100 mpg video’s. I have tried converting them to AVI’s and still no luck. I guess I will need to break down and buy some video editing software. I was able to use some old avi’s that came from my Cannon S50 and create a 3 minute avi with WMM. It turned out well and was easy to use.

Microsoft Windows Media Player is finicky as well when it comes to streaming videos. I have installed several codec packages, and still no luck. TVersity is working better although I have an issue with it loosing its connection. TVersity won’t handle mpegs, so unless you have video converters chances are half the stuff you want to stream through these programs won’t work. Hopefully they will improve on things soon.

Just received the latest issue of Multihulls World magazine and am reading it from front to back. I keep seeing information on multihull boat shows. I am going to have to travel far to see a good one. I will be lucky to see 3 multihulls at the upcoming show here in Oakland, Ca.

I plan to do a lot of exploring above water as well as underwater when I eventually go on a serious voyage. What I would like to find though is the best place to start weather I am fishing or diving. So I have often thought an underwater camera would be a good option. One that you could drop down. Often times you see things on the fish finder and you just don’t know what it is for sure. I could see myself getting a little more serious about underwater photo’s and video. But not too serious unless I can recoup my costs. A quick internet search and I found the Backscatter Underwater Video and Photo online store. $7,515 bucks for the FX1/Z1 Housing package. I might have to settle for the mini system at a mere $1899. wow. Save you pennies.

I keep thinking about all the things I want to do on my adventures. Everything cost money and is gear intensive and will add weight and take up space. I am going to need a bigger boat and a sponsor. Maybe there is a video crew that want to film a reality Catamaran Sailing show with me as the captain. Yeah right. :)

Surfing for New Catamaran News

In a way I am kind of glad I am not ready to buy a Catamaran just yet. There is so much innovation and change going on, although not fast enough for my tastes. I hope that when I am ready to buy, the cat I desire will be available at a used price and in relatively good shape. I may end up waiting a long time for this to happen. I am sure I won’t wait any longer then I have to. I may instead opt to buy something as new as possible for as less as possible with the idea that I will replace the power plant and generator to support a diesel electric/hybrid concept. I really feel like this will be the best bet and I expect in the next year or two that technologies will improve in this area.

The area I plan on parking my cat will require me to motor for short periods of time here and there to reach to my destinations. While I am not motoring, the solar panels, props and wind generators will replenish the batteries. My ultimate goal is to travel using Mother Nature 99% of the time. This may sound like I am a tree hugger. I am sure I would get along great with them, but I am not so sure about the whole global warming thing. Bottom line is I just don’t want to pay 4 or 5 bucks a gallon to get from point A to point B. Can you blame me? If I can figure out a way to cook, heat water and keep things frozen without using fossil fuels, you can bet I will be looking into it. While moored I do not want to have to run the generator either. But you can bet I will want to shower, watch TV, and run lights all night if needed, maybe even do laundry if I have one on board. Question is, will I have any choice in the matter? Depending on the situation I am sure I will hit a point where the generator will need to kick in. I just want to minimize this as much as possible.

I did a little surfing today to look for some Catamaran news. Not much new though. There is some news about the Voyager 10, however this is two small for my taste. . Apparently the Lagoon 440 is now offering as an option the same hybrid power plant that comes standard on the 420. I am not a fan of Lagoons yet though but it is nice to see this technology taking off. You can read about some recent launchings here. Most are below 40 ft in length. Although I don’t know if I want to go aluminum, it is something I would love to take a look at. The Sirus Racha 1530 Aluminum Catamaran might be something to keep an eye out for. It is considered to be very weight efficient for a 50ft cat. She doesn’t look very pretty without paint, but maybe that is a good thing. Looks mean. Something that pirates might pass up.

Directv, On Demand, Photo, Music, Video's Sling Box

Thought I would share the recent flood of techie stuff that I have learned lately. DirecTV customers listen up. So what does this have to do with Catamarans. The catamaran of my dreams will have all the conveniences of home. The information below could be used to improve life on your boat or your house. Check it out.

The HR10-250 is one of the 1^st HD DirecTV receivers that came out a couple years ago. It is similar to a TiVo box so you can record and pause live TV. It comes with an Off-Air receiver on it. Many of us are in the process or have already upgraded to the HR20 and HR21 DirecTV receivers. Don’t throw away your old HR10-250. Did you know the HR10-250 will function as a free off-air HDTV receiver and you don’t need to pay for DirecTV service to use it? It will still allow you to pause, rewind and FF live TV. You don’t need to have it activated as a receiver through DirecTV to use the Off Air receiver capabilities. I fumbled through the steps to get the unit working without instructions so it is not difficult. You will need to go through the setup and let the system know that you only have an Off-Air antenna. You will need to go through the step of identifying the off air channels in your area and then it should work. I apologize that I don’t have more detailed instructions. There are Help Forums out there like http://www.dbstalk.com/ that will more then likely have the instructions somewhere. You just have to search for them. If you don’t have any luck, send a comment to this post and I will see what I can find.

If you have gone through the recent upgrade to the DirecTV HR20 or HR21 you may already know this, but it is not widely known or advertised since I believe they are still in a beta phase. DirecTV now has On Demand. This is great when there is nothing on TV to watch. Go to On Demand and you can usually find something you want to watch. You will need an Ethernet connection to the Internet connected to your DirecTV receiver. Your best bet is a direct Cat 5 connection from your Internet router to the DirecTV receiver, but in my case I am using wireless. I purchased a Linksys WGA600N which isn't difficult to install. It is marketed towards networked gaming machines. It is a dual band Wireless-N adapter so it will work with the older wireless networks or the newer and faster network standards. It was easy to setup, however in my case I skipped over one step that I shouldn’t have skipped over. The step that advises you to update your wireless routers firmware. This turned out to be a requirement. Don’t skip this step. There is a ton of information here which should point you in the right direction regarding setup here.

Once you have On Demand working you can also share Photo’s, Music and Videos from your PC so you can watch them on your TV through your new DirecTV receiver. The music and photo’s are working great. You can have a slide show while listening to your mp3’s through your TV. It’s great for gatherings and parties. I have not been successful with Video yet which I presume is due to a wireless bandwidth shortage. I have an older Linksys that transmits at a maximum of 54mps and the receiver is not close to the wireless router. It will play for a few seconds and pause or cut out altogether. My plan is to upgrade to the new Linksys WRT600N Dual-Band wireless-N gigabit router. I hope this is the solution, otherwise I will have to try running cat 5 to the TV. Also keep in mind from what I have read and from my experience the Video’s must be mpeg 2’s.

Once the above is working, then the I plan to pick up the Sling Box. This looks cool. Since I work from home a lot and spend a lot of time in the office it would be nice to watch TV there. With the sling box, as long as you have an Internet connection I can watch TV. You could be on you boat connected via Wi-Fi and watch your TV at home. If you are in a Hotel, or Wi-Fi enabled coffee shop you can watch your TV. Pretty cool. The only issue is, whatever you are watching on you PC is what will be shown on you TV, so if you are at home and someone is watching the TV and you want to watch TV on the PC then you will have to fight over what you will be watching. This might not be the case if you have cable since I believe one of the unit’s has a cable tuner in it. This way the TV could be tuned to one show and the Sling Box is tuned to a different channel.

Photo's courtesy of http://www.aeroyacht.com/Yapluka/Sail/main.htm, www.linksys.com and http://www.sunreef-yachts.com/

Justification for a Dream

How do you justify making your dream a reality? There is a wealth of information out there that I am collecting surrounding sailing. Today I received an email from the Captains’ and Admiral’s Café Yahoo group which appears to be a fairly active group. The email mentioned some of the pros and cons of living aboard their boat. Although she says they enjoy it, there is some boredom and frustration that comes with this lifestyle. Additionally she mentioned that whatever you think cruising will cost, you have to double it. She also mentioned a saying “Cruisers look out for one another” that is not always accurate according to her experience. Well, I hope to learn from her experience and others in hopes to prevent or at least have the appropriate expectations.

She mentioned that there are some frustrations with customs and immigration officials and the issue of not being able to get what they needed. I am sure living life on land has similar frustrations. They are just different and on land I suspect that there are more frustrations. I guess boredom can get old, but I am so busy, I would welcome a little boredom. I also think that by learning from this experience that one might be able to do things and equip your catamaran with things that will prevent or at least reduce the amount of boredom.

Perhaps if you knew ahead of time that you would likely run into customs issues, that it wouldn’t be so bad. If you knew it would take a while and you were mentally prepared it wouldn’t be so bad. If you are in a hurry, then customs could be frustrating. If you don’t have the necessary items to clear customs it could be a challenge. If you researched ahead of time what you would need to get through customs, perhaps the experience wouldn’t be so bad.

A natural thing that happens with me is when I hear some negatives that will impact my dream; I begin to formulate theories as to why these things won’t be an issue for me. Being better prepared is a valid theory. Buying a newer boat would perhaps be less frustrating. Installing a satellite dish, game console, and lots of books might prevent boredom. I have to be careful here though. After all this wouldn’t be the 1st time I have theorized and been wrong. This is not the 1st time I have been blinded by love. In this case it is the love for a dream. It is easy to make excuses for a negative, because you don’t want to admit that there are negatives. It will take some time before reality sets in and love ceases to be blinding.

One of the reasons I have chosen a Sailboat over a power boat is that in theory this should be a less expensive option, but is it really less expensive long term? How much fuel can you save sailing vs the cost of owning a power boat? How much does it cost to replace the sails? Does it make up for the fuel savings? I am still concerned about ongoing costs and maintenance needed to keep a Catamaran. I know that when it comes time to take out a Sail boat VS a large Yacht, I will be much more excited to take out the Sailboat because there is almost no fuel costs to take out the sailboat. If you take out a power boat, you know that every mile will cost you. On the other hand, could put a price per mile on a sailboat after including maintenance? Although I am 99% sure what I want to do, when it comes down to it, I have to be 100% sure that a catamaran sailboat is the way to go for me. As you can see I still have some convincing to do and reader comments like the one above do cause one to pause just a bit.

I am confident I will be purchasing used. The price needs to be right. I have some ideas of what I will be looking for. I have to justify jumping into this dream of owning a cruising catamaran. Since boats don’t generally appreciate in value (Here is an interesting post on resale value of Catamarans) I need to make sure I can turn around and sell it if needed for a fair price. I need to make sure that if things don’t work out that I can still get out of the relationship unscathed. I want to keep it simple, however my needs are complicated. The more luxuries I have the more items that will eventually need repair or replacement. Will it cost more to live on a boat or on land? Which is more fun? Which is less frustrating taking all into account?

In the end I might just have to try it to answer some of these questions. After all, the best way to learn is to learn it the hard way. I am notorious for learning the hard way. This is most likely why I do so much research. Unfortunately one can never research enough so it seems. At some point you make a decision and hope that your research paid off. If I could buy a cat now, I would probably do it, but the fact remains, that I have a lot of time to research. I find my self doing a ton of reading. Every little bit helps to educate me and helps me to cope with my strong desire to achieve this dream.

The cat pictured above is a Kynsa 440. I just came across this cat today and thought I should share it.

Main Cat 41 and Catamaran Statistics Updated

I read about the Main Cat 41 today. This appears to be an easy to maintain and pilot, performance minded, functional Cat. It doubles as a day sailor or cabin cruiser. The cockpit and cabin are integrated into a great room. The great room can be opened like a day sailor or closed up to keep out of the weather. This should create a wonderful central social/sailing area with excellent 360 degree visibility for navigation. Accommodations appear to be simple, hardy and functional which is all I require in a starter cat.

The Main Cat will perform will and ranks very high on the Performance Potential scale. The price per lb may be the highest which indicates that it is a very lightweight cat compared to the other cats on my Catamaran Statistics table. Bridge deck clearance is ample so this cat should perform well in rough sea’s. The price for a new Main Cat 41 including the Performance Cruiser Package is listed at $499k as of 8/9/07 here. The Main Cat 41 was also certified in 2006 by the US Coast Guard as a “T-Boat” for commercial day-charter service to carry 18 passengers and two crew.

Each time I visit a catamaran manufacturer’s website I will check the specs with the Catamaran Statistics table. I am slowly picking away at the lengthy list making minor changes and updates to it. I have just updated it with new information. Check it out. You will see that currently the Main Cat has a Ranking of 10 which is very good compared to most. I have also added Bridge Clearance, Mast Height and Payload columns. I don’t have much data yet for these columns, but I will add to it as time goes by.

Vessel Certification & Mast Failure Related Fatalities

I was reading an article on a website that brought up the fact that in order to run charters in a vessel in US waters it must meet the minimum U.S. Coast Guard Regulations. Since there is a chance that I may run charters in my Catamaran, I will be looking for one that is USCG certified. There is a CE Certification that is required for all recreational boats entering or being sold in the European Union. As it turns out, the NMMA verifies annually, or whenever a new boat model is introduced, to determine that they satisfy not only the minimum U.S. Coast Guard Regulations but also the more rigorous standards based on those established by the American Boat & Yacht Council. So it appears that the CE Certification kills two birds with one stone.

I don’t expect to be circumnavigating for a long time. I am a ways away from retiring, and as a result it will be difficult to take any long journeys. I suspect I won’t make it to Europe on my 1^st Cat, however just in case I will be looking for boats that meet the USCG and or the CE certification. The NMMA certification information can be found here. This web site also has a chart that compares the U.S. Coast Guard Regulations to the higher standards used by NMMA to inspect and certify boats.

There is also a list of certified boats, however I don’t see any sailing catamarans manufacturers on the list. According to the PDQ web site, the PDQ Antares 44i is CE Certified Category A Ocean and they even let you see their certificate. So why are all the Catamaran manufacturers missing from the list? I suspect that most Cats are certified. I just checked out the Lagoon and the 500 is CE Certified/EEC Certificate. I would hate to buy a Cat only to find out it will not pass USCG Certification.

It appears that the Coast Guard will inspect your craft but the certification may be limited. In the report mentioned below theirs was only good for 5 years. At least that is what I am reading from this tragic story where a sailing catamaran on a whale watching tour lost it’s mast and eventually sank. One life was lost and 50 were saved. Apparently the crew was unable to detach the rigging from the broken mast and the boat was drug under the water and eventually sank.

Move it or Sell it?

Part of the master plan to achieve my dream will require us to relocate. So I have been looking around my house and noticing we have a ton of stuff we don’t use that is still worth something. I don’t want to move it, so it has to go prior to the move if at all possible. My 1^st thought was to have a garage sale. This thought wasn’t a fun thought. I am sure a garage sale is a lot of work. I was also reminded that I won’t get that much for the items in a garage sale.

I have messed around trying to sell things on Ebay, but the thought of having to be concerned with boxing up and shipping the item wasn’t very attractive. Additionally the items I tried to sell didn’t sell. So I temporarily gave up on the idea. The suggestion I kept hearing about was to use craigslist. http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html So I gave it a try and it is working out great. Everything I have put up has sold. I am starting to wonder if I should be charging more for my items.

The nice thing about craigslist besides being free is that people will come by the house or stop by near where I work to pick up the item. So far so good. I have lots of stuff to sell. Now I always have cash in my pockets. Haven’t used the ATM in a while. It adds up and it is very easy to sell on Craigslist. The website is not fancy. It is a little old school by today’s web development standards, but it really works so it doesn’t bother me. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broke.

I have been selling items that were acquired for free, or are scheduled to be given away. If it has been on a shelf for more then a couple years, then it probably needs to go.

By the way. I sometimes wonder if my readers think I am just advertising for other sites within by blog, but this is not the case. I am simply passing on good info. Maybe someday someone would like to pay me to say something, but for now I do this for free. I do have some related advertising on the left side if anyone is interested. They pay me .05 each click. Woo Hoo. I have made 6 cents so far. Oh well. This blog helps me to process my thoughts and share my experiences. As time goes by I hope to blog about things that will be even more informative and useful.

Moving Aboard Your Boat

So I clicked on one of my advertisers links and found a good site. The site owner has a we book on 7 secrets to Moving Aboard Your Boat. One of the Authors quotes really made an impact. This is because it sounds exactly like how I feel right now. Here is the quote.

“I was living a life most dirt dwellers would be jealous of. I had a high paying career and a big house. I had lots of expensive big boy toys. Supposedly, I had it all. Why then wasn’t I happy? I felt my enthusiasm and life’s energy being sucked right out of me. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I knew I wanted to do something amazing with my life, today. Why shouldn’t we be able to live life in the present and stop deferring living life until we retire?”

I have also joined the Yahoo Group that is listed on this site where others apparently share the dream of a live aboard cruising lifestyle. After going through the svbellarose site I will have to watch the Captain Ron movie as well. It appears to be right up my alley. The internet is a great place for sharing knowledge. It appears to be never-ending. I am not the 1st person to write about a dream nor will I be the last.

I am not the only one that is or has pursued his dreams. One of the big issues that will impact my ability to pursue this dream is to ensure financial success. My theory is that I wouldn’t need as much income to survive on a boat, however the expense required to keep up these Cats seems high. I don’t want to eat up what little retirement I have saved so far just to replace the sails.

Some folks write books, some will run charters, some sell photo’s and write articles for magazines, but is all of this enough to support you and still have money left over to help out the kids with college? I have much to learn. Catamarans don’t go up in value like a home right? At some point I might want to upgrade right? If all I can do is break even or worse, then it may not be the right time to buy the Cat.