Buyer's Guide
Buying a Catamaran
Two hulls change the questions. Stability, deck space and shallow draft come almost free; beam, payload and resale decide whether you bought the right boat.
The Market
Three Different Markets Wearing One Name
"Catamaran" covers everything from a 40 foot production cruiser to a custom 30 metre multihull, and the buying process is not the same for any of the three. Most buyers start with a length in mind; the more useful starting point is what the boat has to do and where it has to berth.
Production catamarans
Built in series by the large French and South African yards. Two hulls, four cabins, one price list. Volume means a known specification, a dealer network and a boat you can sell again in a reasonable time. The trade-off is that you buy the builder's decisions, not your own.
Semi-custom and performance cats
Smaller yards building to order, usually lighter and faster, with daggerboards, a narrower beam and a rig aimed at passage-making rather than marina living. Better under sail, harder to live aboard at anchor, and a narrower resale market.
Catamaran superyachts
From roughly 24 metres upward the multihull becomes a custom project: naval architect, interior designer, yard, project manager. Enormous deck and volume for the length, at a build cost and a build timeline that reward experienced representation.
Specification
Start With How You Will Use It
A couple, cruising long term
Two people need less boat than the market usually sells them. Three cabins is ample, and the third is better used as storage or a workshop than as a guest cabin you rarely fill. Prioritise a manageable sail plan, easy systems access and a hull length you can handle shorthanded.
A family with children
The catamaran's case is strongest here: no heeling, a shaded cockpit level with the saloon, twin hulls that keep motion comfortable, and separate cabins with their own heads. Four cabins and four heads is the mainstream configuration for good reason.
An owner who intends to charter
If the boat will earn, the specification is dictated by the charter market rather than by taste: cabin count, air conditioning, watermaker capacity, tender and toy stowage, and a layout that gives guests privacy from the crew. Buy into the programme before you specify the boat, not after.
Ownership
What It Costs To Keep One
A catamaran is not simply a monohull with a second hull. The recurring costs sit in specific places, and knowing where they sit tells you which boat to buy.
Berthing is charged by length and beam, and a catamaran's beam is the number that decides where you can berth at all, not what you pay.
Insurance reflects hull value, cruising area and whether the yacht is in a commercial charter programme.
Two engines and two saildrives or shafts mean maintenance in pairs, and a haul-out needs a yard with a wide enough travel lift.
Standing rigging, sails and running rigging are replaced on a cycle whether or not you sail often.
Air conditioning, generator hours, watermakers and refrigeration are the systems that actually consume the annual budget.
If the yacht charters, expect commercial compliance, a management fee and a marketing commission on top of the operating costs.
Before You Offer
The Six Questions Worth Settling First
Beam and air draft, measured against the bridges, canals and marina berths on your intended route.
Payload. A catamaran's performance disappears under cruising weight: water, fuel, tender, toys and provisions.
Tankage for water and fuel, and whether the watermaker can keep up with the way the yacht will actually be used.
Engine access and the position of the saildrives, which decide how painful routine maintenance becomes.
Liferaft, davits and tender stowage, sized for the tender you need rather than the one that came with the boat.
Whether the layout was designed for private use or for charter guests, and which one you are actually buying.
A multihull survey is a specialism. Ask for a surveyor who inspects catamarans regularly, and have the rig, saildrives and the deck core looked at by people who know where these boats fail.
Catamaran Questions, Answered
Talk Through The Brief
Tell us how you intend to use the yacht and we will set out which configurations suit it, what the annual budget looks like, and which boats on the market are worth inspecting.
Speak to a broker