So were going to take one last RV trip for the season in a few week’s time. Were taking the motorhome down to Annapolis Maryland for the 2019 United States Sailboat Show. This is one of the biggest sailing specific boat shows in the world. They hold the show in Annapolis every year to showcase the latest and greatest in the sailing world. There will be dozens of boats on the water and many boating-related displays onshore. If you registered early and got time off from work, there is a big cruisers university speaker and education series on the weekdays preceding the show as well. Several YouTube celebrities are planning to be at the show this year.
Part 1 – Catamarans
Our long term plans involve a catamaran. A big cat for living aboard long-term. This will likely be our retirement yacht, however. Were still in the prime of our working careers and have two young children who should probably have a more normal life with friends and school and cub scouts and all that stuff. We also need more time to amass the necessary funds to support the very comfortable retirement we have planned. As such, a mono-hull is a much closer reality for us. Give our location in the north Atlantic coast, the first foray into full time cruising for us would likely be to Europe and the Mediterranean. For this, from what we have seen, we should probably have a monohull as the med is not so friendly to catamaran sailing. Distant Shores, and Ruby Rose copying in reverse direction, make a strong case for a shallow draft monohull to cruise the French canals as well.
In the near term, a cat would be excellent for entertaining and everything except dockage and storage. Moorings in New England are unobtainium unless you lease them from a marina. Moorings at a marina are a little cheaper than a slip if you can find one, but not too much. Slips can also be hard to find in desirable locations and a catamaran will likely cost you two slips. A cat is also not particularly trailerable given thier beam. So this means any long term storage is limited to nearshore if not at the marina from where it is hauled out.
But, this doesn’t stop us from drooling and dreaming. It’s still fun to look at what we might look for in the future. Besides, you never know what the future holds. Maybe we strike it rich early making YouTube videos and blogging about SV Belle and the Beast.
Catamarans we expect to see at the show (according to thier website):
- Antares 44 – Claimed to be designed as a liveaboard for couples.
- Balance 526 – High performance cruising cat with innovative convertible helm station.
- Bali 4.1 – Bali is a Catana’s charter boat brand
- Bali 4.3
- Bali 4.5
- Bali 5.4
- Catana 53 – Semi-custom performance daggerboard cat known for blue water capability
- Fountaine Pajot New “Elba” 45 Fountaine Pajot is a production cat builder from France. One of the big three production builders. Known for thier “looks”.
- Fountaine Pajot Astrea 42
- Fountaine Pajot Lucia 40
- Fountaine Pajot Saona 47
- Gemini Legacy 35 – Long-time “budget” catamaran made in the USA
- Knysna 500 SE – Custom cruising catamarans
- Lagoon 40 – Known for mass-producing cats for the charter industry. Solid, wide cruising cats with lots of room
- Lagoon 42
- Lagoon 450 “S” or “F”?
- Lagoon 46
- Lagoon 50
- Lagoon Seventy7 – Behemoth Luxury Cat
- Leopard 40 – The “other” charter cat company out of South Africa. Perhaps a bit more sporty than the Lagoons
- Leopard 45 – Slated for fall 2020, curious to see what they bring.
- Leopard 50
- Maverick 440 – Marketed as a “beachable” couples cruising cat
- Nautitech Open 40 – Bavaria Yachts catamaran division. Claimed performance/cruiser crossover.
- Nautitech Open 46
- Outremer 45 – Besides Gunboat, perhaps the most famous performance cat builder
- Privilege 500 – Luxury cruising cat builder
- Royal Cape Majestic 53 (530) – Balsa Cored “budget” cruising cat is my guess. I never heard of them until I saw the boat display list.
- Seawind 1260 – Australian performance cruisers
- St Francis 500 – Another I never heard of. Took a bit of doing just to find thier website
- Xquisite Yachts X5 – Relatively new company from South Africa claiming luxury cruising yachts for families
Let us know if there is anything, in particular, you would like to see at the 2019 United States Sailboat Show!
