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.