Thursday, August 14, 2008

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.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

have you seen the Fusion 40 catamarans? http://www.lapassionbyfusion.com/ I've been looking at those and found them to be an interesting new boat maker. The lines on the boat are beautiful and it looks like some of the other boat manufactures are incorporating the inward sweeping stairs as well.

Like you, I'm dreaming and scheming on how to afford a boat. So far this has been one of the options on my short list.

Jim and Heather on Meerkat said...

The cats made at the Tournier facility are very, very close to our cat... Look at the bow and the crossbeam. Same original designer - Erik Lerouge. The Freydis & Soubise are beautiful, just weren't in our price range.

Anonymous said...

I have the same dream as most of the people to this site. I only have 5 years to wait. I have found numerous catamaran builders. Look at the following list: ALIBI, ROBERTSON & CAINE, JEANTOT, SCHIONNING, MANTA, PROUT, VOYAE, GEMINIS, VICTORY, FORTUNA, LAGOON, TOURNIER AND LAPASSIONBYFUSION. If any of you know any more please post them here so I can start checking them. Thanks! Luv the site!

Anonymous said...

I am also "chasing the dream" and I am hopefully only 3-5 years away...another catamaran manufacturer that I have seen and like is Fontaine Pajot.

Anonymous said...

Late 2010, the first Alibi 54 has been launched

The project was initiated by Loic Goepfert, engineer and naval architect from Southampton, racer at heart and passion for racing. This passion has led him to work, among others, in the Design Team of Yves Parlier ( mediatis ) and the ORMA trimaran 60‘ Sopra. He also was crew aboard 6th Sense, the boat of the French challenger for the America’s Cup 2000. From this experience, he has carefully distilled the essence in the Alibi 54.

To complete the experience of racing and sailing performance, he has surrounded himself with a team of experts. The yard Marsaudon Composites (Trimaran IDEC Francis Joyon) Thierry Eluère, specialists in High-Tech shipbuilding, the Alibi Catamarans team has given the best of this experience to made a high performance and healthy catamaran.

Alibi Catamarans has developed several solutions and each is a small revolu tion in itself. The rudder system is designed to be used in 4 different positions so you always benefit from the location (eg against the weather). Without sacrificing visibility so you always have the right to control the sails. Self-tacking solent and mast, controls so simple and easy to reach that you could manoeuvre single-handle. The onboard computer allows centralized control of both the music of the Hi-Fi setup that way points of GPS navigation software.

More details here : http//www.catalibi.com

Watch this video ! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_48QFCD1esQ&feature=email

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