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.

Language Translation for a French Catamaran Site

I came across a catamaran web site that was only available in what appears to be the French Language. It is the NG Yacht Design company. I searched for translation software so that I could read the specifications on the HIVA’OA 45. As a result I found a website that is worth sharing. It is the http://babelfish.altavista.com/ This site will allow you to enter a web page URL and it will translate the entire web page to the language you prefer to view it in. Although it is not a perfect translation it does the trick. For example, this “113.8 m² GV 72.6 Solent 41.2 m² Code 0 83.5 Spi 139.8” was translated into this “113.8 m² Steam Generators 72.6 Solent 41.2 m²”. Not sure where the “Steam Generator” came from. I theorized that the Solent is similar to a Jib. Someone correct me if I am wrong. The translation site is easy to use. You simply enter the url and the from and to language and click go. Pretty cool. By the way, the HIVA’OA 45 ranks in the top two on Cat Stats Performance Ranking. This is assuming I translated the specifications properly.

I have had visitors to my site from Brisbane, Melbourne, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand, France, Europe, Germany, Switzerland and of course The US and Canada and the list keeps growing. Surprisingly none from Mexico. Most of these locations are well known for sailing and manufacturing of sailing catamarans. There is a high probability that the catamaran I end up desiring will not be anywhere near my home county in the US. More likely I will find it in the UK, Australia or Africa.

Speaking of buying a Catamaran in another country. Here is an update on my comparison of the US $ to the Euro. Imagine buying a catamaran for 500,0000 Euro. As of February 14^th, 2008 you would have had to pay $731,903.10 US. If you bought the same cat priced at 500k Euro today, March 26^th, 2008, it would cost you $792,225.51. That is a difference of $60,322.41 US. At that rate Catamarans purchased in the UK from the US are going up in price $1,471.28 per day. The good news is, there is a hint that things are going to level off soon, however only time will tell. The US economy is looking bad. Is there a country with a booming economy? Maybe I should sail there and take up residence.