Monohull Sailors Go Multi
It all started as many sailing stories do: I raced monohulls as a kid in San Francisco with my dad. After Lennie and I married, we stepped away from sailing to raise a family, but we chartered in the Caribbean. After a few trips, Lennie suggested that a catamaran would be a good choice for our three kids. I was horrified and didn’t want any part of it. Eventually I succumbed, and we realized just how great catamarans were for a crowd like us. But whenever Lennie and I charted without the kids, we sailed strictly on monohulls.
When our youngest went to college in 2012, we decided that it was time to buy our own boat. Neither of us even considered a cat. We bought a Hunter 49, which we could sail to weather, with a generator, air conditioner, a washer-dryer and a watermaker—and the added bonus of headroom for me (I’m 6-foot-4). We sailed the Caribbean for three years and loved every minute of it.
A few years into it, several couples who owned large monohulls started telling me they were switching to cats, for the creature comforts and the ease of sailing flat. “Sailing flat?” I asked. “What does that have to do with anything? To sail, you have to bury your rail!”
Eventually, curiosity overtook us, and we did our research and visited Leopard Catamarans in Florida and really liked the forward cockpit. The designer, Simonis Voogd, said that they designed boats to sail and live on comfortably—not the other way around.
We ordered a Leopard 48 and outfitted it in Fort Lauderdale with Just Catamarans. By the time we took delivery, half of the new Leopards were going to private owners instead of into the charter fleets. We sailed that boat 18,000 nautical miles. The leg from the Caribbean to the Panama Canal would have been a rockingand-rolling mess on our monohull. On our cat? A calm, luxurious trip. We averaged around 7.5 knots under sail and had some thrills at 12 to 14 knots.
After three years, we pulled the trigger on a new Leopard 50. Its design and construction made the boat stiffer between the hull and bridge deck. We took delivery in 2019 and were set to sail to the South Pacific with a rally in 2020, until the pandemic canceled those plans. Instead, we sailed to New England and then throughout the Caribbean again. We had a great time. Our five years of experience sailing catamarans gave us time to consider upgrading to a performance cat.
Today, we have ordered a Kinetic 54, which we think of as the ultimate cat. It’s solid carbon fiber and still full of luxury, another Simonis Voogd creation. When we sail this boat, it feels as comfortable as a typical cruising cat but performs like a speed machine. And tacking into the wind achieves 50 degrees easy, so we can leave the motor off and sail more. Our Kinetic 54 will be delivered in May. We plan to spend a month in Cape Town, South Africa, shaking her down. After that, who knows? We’ve seen every island in the Caribbean thrice, so it’s time to go beyond.
Here are six boats handpicked by The Multihull Company’s president and CEO, Capt. Will Miller, as excellent choices for brokerage-catamaran seekers. He says that these are all worth a look, whether you’re a first-time buyer or an experienced monohull sailor.
Fountaine Pajot Lipari 41 Looking for an affordable liveaboard cruiser? The Lipari 41’s deck layout is ergonomically designed for convenient sailhandling and alfresco entertaining, making for an enjoyable sailing experience all around. The Maestro version offers an owner’s suite full of cabinets and lockers complemented by a large master bath. There’s also abundant stowage in the forepeaks and anchor locker on deck for all of the cruising essentials. Whether you’re a seasonal cruiser or fulltime liveaboard, the Lipari 41 checks all the boxes at a friendly price point.
Lagoon 42
The Lagoon 42 (or the 420 model, as a more budgetfriendly option) is a solid choice for first-time catamaran buyers who prioritize onboard comfort. This cat delivers unparalleled volume and stowage capacity in its size category, making it a trendy choice for those with large families or frequent guests. A self-tacking jib and simple deck organization allow for easy singlehanding, while the semiraised helm station adds great sightlines and the vertical salon windows offer panoramic views from inside.
Catana 431
If sailing performance is high on your wish list, then the Catana 431 is a must-see. Upwind performance is dramatically enhanced with daggerboards, an aerodynamic cabin top, tulip-shaped bows, and intelligent weight distribution. The Twaron reinforced layup further strengthens the vinylester foam-core construction, making these yachts extremely light and stiff. Creature comforts were not an afterthought, with high-quality interior fabrics and finishes yielding pleasing aesthetics inside and out. This generation of Catanas continues to retain resale value and marketability more than 20 years after they were originally launched. If you grew up racing and are now transitioning to the liveaboard lifestyle, you’ll appreciate the responsiveness and speed that the 431 delivers.
Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 Delivering a sophisticated look with decent sailing characteristics, the Helia 44 is among the most coveted models from Fountaine Pajot. Its modern Euro-styling strikes a unique balance of comfort, stowage and space utilization. Peninsula-shaped berths make climbing in and out of bed all too easy, and the rest of the interior flows together, creating a very livable space. The Helia 44 has a generous sail plan with a cockpit designed for entertaining your buddy-boat crews. It’s no surprise that this model transitioned seamlessly from a popular charter design into a capable offshore cruiser.
Leopard 46
For the experienced sailor who wants a larger boat that balances performance, value and comfort, the Leopard 46 is a top contender. Leopard prides itself on system design and accessibility, making this a very user-friendly cat. Its spacious cockpit and salon join seamlessly, creating optimal social flow. The helm and cockpit can also be easily enclosed to extend your sailing season. Beefy davits with an integral step and complemented by extra-wide sugar scoops make deploying the dinghy exponentially easier.
Seawind 1260 Beginners looking for high-performance adventure without sacrificing interior volume for daggerboard trunks would do well to peruse the Seawind 1260. Its vinylester-resin construction and foam coring ensure durability, lighter weight and solid performance. Garage-style salon doors create a desirable interior-exterior feel with great ventilation. With a galley-down configuration, the salon feels like a much larger yacht. The 1260 sails with ease in light air, conserving fuel and minimizing passage time.
can find one open. Know before you go.
There’s also the need to adjust to handling such a beamy boat. I remember the joy of flying down Florida’s Caloosahatchee River in a 50-foot power cat over a Thanksgiving weekend, heading for a reserved spot at Sanibel Marina. But when we arrived at the dock with the light fading and the current and wind against us, I was relieved to see the dockmaster standing ready with a line. “It’s like parking a tennis court,” he said.
Dave Newman, a cruiser who sails the Balance 442 performance cat Umoya, says that the trade-offs he and his wife have made for the multihull life are worth it. He acknowledges that slips cost more and are harder to come by, but he usually anchors out. “More living, less camping,” Newman says. “Our boat’s comfortable on long passages and is a relatively flat sailing platform. The salon provides lots of light, great views, and headroom for taller people. We have redundant power with two engines, more coachroof space for solar panels, and a galley that is very pleasant to cook in.”
Although they need to manage weight sensitivity and clean two hulls instead of one, he’s happy with the design and sailing performance of his cat and, after a couple of years of cruising the Caribbean, hopes to head to the South Pacific.
“Don’t wait too long to buy a boat,” he says. “Buy what you can afford and just go. Multihull or monohull, whichever sparks your desire to sail.”
“Catamarans have been in my DNA since 1970, when I was racing Hobie Cats in Southern California,” says Kevin Hutton, who recently joined Newman, Berman and others at a Balance Owners Rendezvous in St. Maarten. “However, in those days, cats were still unique, and our family sailed monohulls, specifically Catalina yachts. Our last boat was a Catalina 440, but to be honest, I never gave up my Hobie Cats and have a few of them stashed in the Bahamas and Baja that I still sail.”
He and his wife, Sandy, chartered catamarans a few times, but they missed the performance of Hobie Cats, so they decided on a new Balance 482. Sandy loved the idea of being part of the development of a new performance cat, and liked the ability to stow everything a second home requires. Stability, ease of anchoring, and ease of sailhandling became more important over time too.
They both love the integration of the cockpit and salon, which allows a greater area to socialize. And they both felt more comfortable with the boat’s systems and performance after some training. “The days of singlehanding a monohull doesn’t prepare you for singlehanding a performance cat,” Hutton says. “Any sailor who has not had modern performance cat experience needs to be humble enough to seek experienced training, especially if your crew is new to sailing.”
Over time, you learn that your boat will need repairs and things will get broken, he says, but you will also enjoy fixing things, eventually. All boats have frustrations; attitude is everything.
“My wife and I have embraced the education and training, and I am glad that I took the ASA Course and hired professional captains to help us learn together.
It’s made us a better team, and that extends well past sailing. We’re looking forward to expanding our experiences and capabilities. And we’re hoping to add our dog, Roca, to the crew next year.”
Theresa Nicholson is senior editor of Cruising World. She cruised the Caribbean, South America, South Pacific, Micronesia and Southeast Asia for 11 years on her gaff-rigged Atkin ketch, Tosca.