Power Catamaran World

Easter greetings . . .

. . . from our friends at Motorcat:

Passagemaker 50 from Aventure

The Passagemaker 50 is a new model being introduced by Aventure Power Catamaran.

Tom Jordaan says the economic meltdown around the globe is a wake-up call to boatbuilders such as Aventure Power Catamaran which he heads.

"The crisis has affected all of us, but in a strange way, it as woken us up as well," Jordaan says. "We have spent more time finding easier and quicker ways to build, more cost-effective, and at the same time trying to make catamarans, which are largely ugly craft, more attractive to the consumer."

For example, in the new Aventure 50 Passagemaker, which has a beam of 15.85 feet, "we have managed to offer four full-size master bedrooms with two very large bathrooms.

"We moved the single drive station back and three feet higher which allows the client and his wife the opportunity to desigh their own galley, free-standing dinning table and forward seating/sofa, blinds, carpets, all handcrafted and delivered.

"This feature insures the participation of the owners and allows them to create a home away from home. This design is easy to build, very cost-effective, with lots of storage area, including a laundry with washer and separate dryer.

"There are still buyers, but buyers who demand more than just a fancy vessel that does not really suit all their needs," Jordaan says. "We believe that a well-designed power catamaran, with the look of a motor boat, not a sailboat without a mast, has many advantages, and will now create a market of its own in this day and age."

With Balsa Core hull, Nida Core deck and sides, twin 315-hp diesel engines, 8.5-kw generator, 48,000 BTU AC, autopilot, chartplotter, radar and VHF radio as standard, the price of the Aventure 50 Passagemaker works out to US$585,000 or 496.000 Euros.

All Aventure powercats are designed by Angelo Lavranos and built at its factory in Cape Town, South Africa.

The new Aventure 50 Passagemaker features four full-size staterooms with two large heads.

World Cat acquires Glacier Bay

Founded in 1990, Glacier Bay became the best-selling powercat brand in the U.S. before running into financial difficulties. The popular 3080 Express Cabin is shown.

World Cat, which has battled Glacier Bay Catamarans for market share for more than a decade, has purchased the assets of shuttered Glacier Bay in a deal sealed February 20. Nevertheless, the two brands will remain competitors.

Glacier Bay, based in Washington, has run into financial difficulties in recent years and shut down the factory this winter. World Cat, based in North Carolina, is backed by the financial strength and management smarts of its parent, Hornet Capital. The holding company also owns American Composites, a leader in outsourcing services for the FRP industry.

Andrew Brown (left) and his partner, Chris Brockway (right), are majority owners of the parent.  Brown continues as president of World Cat while Brockway is the new president at Glacier Bay. Together, they dominate the small powercat market, even without the recent failure of Twin Vee.

In a statement, Brockway describes Glacier Bay as Mercedes-Benz and World Cat as BMW.

"They have very distinct brands and different customers," Brockway said. "Our goal to keep these brands separate and our challenge is to continue chipping away at the V-hull market.  We need to continue to educate the marketplace as to the significant advantages of owning a power catamaran. The V-hulls are our competitors . . . they have historically owned the market share we seek.”

Indeed, monohulled boats own about 90 percent of the U.S. market for fishing boats and sports cruisers.

"World Cat has competed with Glacier Bay for over 10 years and this competition will continue in the future," Brockway said. "World Cat will focus on the performance of their semi-displacement hulls and Glacier Bay will continue developing full displacement cats. 

"World Cat will stay a fishing boat that can cruise while Glacier Bay will continue being a cruising boat that can fish."

Brockway said he and Brown are  “thrilled to be able to carry on the strong tradition of high-quality displacement cats as pioneered by Glacier Bay. The union of these two brands will provide incredible synergy and ability to serve our combined customers better. We are extremely fortunate to have this opportunity and look forward to meeting all of the customers and dealers.”

Brockway, six days after the deal closed, took charge of the Glacier Bay Online Forum to announce the acquisition and extend a welcome to existing Glacier Bay owners:

"Glacier Bay has thousands of satisfied owners, a huge global brand, and is the father of the power catamaran market in the United States. Glacier Bay owners are proud of their boats and the incredibly soft and stable ride in rough water. They are passionate about the brand, their dealer, and their fellow Glacier Bay owners. Along with our loyal Glacier Bay dealers, we intend to do the right thing for you all and continue taking care of your service issues. Our customers are our best sales people! We need to take care of the brand advocates and our most valuable asset . . . YOU!

Currently, Glacier Bay offers 14 models, from the 2240 Dual Console to the 3480 Hardtop. In the World Cat stable, there are 10 models, from the 230SF Center Console to the 320EC Express Cabin.

Glacier Bay was founded in 1990 by Larry Graf. He left in 2005 and has been developing and promoting a power proa under the Aspen Catamarans banner.

World Cat has a reputation for building quality boats that perform well in all weathers and seas. The high-performance 250DC Dual Console is pictured.

Twin Vee files for bankruptcy

A 26-foot Pilot House Catamaran was one of a full range of spartan fishing and cruising boats made by Twin  Vee in Fort Pierce, Florida

Twin Vee Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Documents filed with the Southern District of Florida show that the company has listed about $1.7 million in liabilities. It owes debtors between $1 million to $10 million.

Twin Vee founder Roger Dunshee, who sold his majority share in the company in 2003 to Tampa-based investment firm Stonehenge Capital Co. for an undisclosed sum, evicted the company from his Fort Pierce, Florida, manufacturing facility last month.

SLC Commercial, Inc., a commercial real estate firm, is now soliciting offers for the 7.2-acre manufacturing plant at U.S. 1 and Edwards Road. The asking price on the 80,000-square-foot property is $4 million and lease rate is $4 per square foot, plus property taxes and insurance.

“It is my opinion that they made a lot of bad business decisions,” Dunshee said about Stonehenge Capital.

Former Twin Vee CEO Scott Noble could not be reached. The attorney handling the bankruptcy, Fort Lauderdale-based Jason Slatkin with the law offices of Slatkin & Reynolds, could not be reached.

Read more at TCPalm.com.

At this writing, the Twin Vee Catamarans site was still live.

Apologies from the webmaster

Since past April, I've been so preoccupied with the three great loves of my life--starting magazines, boating and my Admiral--that I've had to let Power Catamaran World slide.

I'll try to do better in 2009, starting right now by updating a host of links and completing the Malcolm Tennant pages under Features at right.

Here you can learn more about the magazine project, and here's our cruising blog.

—Georgs Kolesnikovs

Building your own in Paraguay

Marie Dufour is dwarfed by Domino early in construction when the hull was first righted.

Marie DuFour and her husband, Jean-Pierre, are building a custom Tennant design at Dream Performance Yachts in Asuncion, Paraguay. Natives of France, they have lived and worked in California for many years. Marie explains why they're enjoying the build process immensely:

1) Cost

A recent survey of cost of living in the world’s capitals identified London and Moscow as the most expensive capitals, while it placed Asuncion at the bottom of the list. Yes, Paraguay is still one of the places where one can live decently for cheap. Land is inexpensive and business cost is low. Salaries are the lowest in all of South America.

When building a boat that requires an extraordinary amount of labor, such as Domino, a 65.5-foot/20-meter custom power catamaran, it makes sense to choose a country where labor is abundant, skilled, and affordable. Certainly, building costs in China and Taiwan are also low, but we are not convinced that the workmanship is as good or the overseeing as easy.

2) Technical Assistance

Norman Hellmers is the heart and soul behind Dream Performance Yachts. Norman is a first-class engineer, capable of mastering all the details of boat building: fiberglass, electrics, electronics, plumbing, fuel, exhaust, and all other systems.  His CNC machine cuts all the needed foam or wood panels to perfection and his trained eye watches over the perfect layering of fiber, as well as the mixing, soaking and squeezing of the epoxy resin. He is surrounded by a team of trained mechanics, welders, carpenters and fiberglass technicians. 

Norman draws on his 25-year experience of re-building aircraft to the exacting FAA standards and his personal touch and genius are obvious in all the finishing details.

Building his first large boat is a challenge to which Norman is rising with energy. When confronted to an issue, Norman researches possibilities, hammers out the alternatives with the boat owner, and contributes enormously to the success of the project. Working in symbiosis with the builder to achieve the best possible result is a most rewarding experience.

3) Workmanship and Leadership

The Paraguayan people not only have a tradition of excellent workmanship but also of highly structured teamwork. In addition, there is a large pool of workers to choose from and only the best remain on the job. At Dream Performance, we found Lucio, a master fiberglass craftsman and a leader of men whose natural abilities eclipse any MBA recipient I have ever met. His assistant, Julio, is a good-natured Jack-of-all-trades, as nimble with the “tiko-tiko” (jig saw) as with the welding arc. Two years ago, they assembled a team that was eager to learn the new trade of boatbuilding.

After a year on the project, the highly selective team accepts nothing but perfection. Each worker, although able to perform any task, has developed his own area of expertise. There is the Chemist, the Machine King, the Sander, the Finisher, the Plumber. Each is proud of his achievement and eager to expand his knowledge.

4) Technical Control

Perhaps the greatest—and least quantifiable—advantage of supervising the building of your own boat is technical control. Every system design, every pipe, nut and bolt, every piece of equipment is controlled by you. You can change anything you desire; no need to ask the builder a) Whether it’s possible and b) How much the change will cost. You may discuss the technical ramifications of the change with Norman Hellmers, but you can change anything you want—without paying exorbitant “custom” premiums.

The flipside of this coin, of course, is that you have to be technically savvy: either have boating experience, or building experience, or have an engineering mind, which is not granted to everyone. If nothing else, advice from experts worldwide is always available . . . for a fee!

5) Cost Overrun Control

The second greatest—and very quantifiable—advantage of building your own boat is cost control.  You decide on the brand, the size, the quality. You want to go cheap? You want to go first class?  You want to add, delete, or change an item?  Go ahead, you’re the boss and Dream Performance Yachts has trade (OEM) accounts with major suppliers of the boating industry. 

If your expectation of buying a one-off, custom catamaran is to have a turn-key boat, the self-build experience is not for you. But if, on the contrary, you have a couple years to devote to your dream (boatbuilding is always a dream), a solid engineering background, a good set of plans (ours are by Malcolm Tennant), and can speak a little Spanish, come down to Paraguay. Your reward will be a boat for roughly half the price of what you would pay in Canada, Australia, or New Zealand (we didn’t cost Taiwan or China), and you will be, as one of my lectors put it, “the world expert on your boat.”

Here's our construction photo album and here is our blog.

If you'd like more information about becoming an owner-builder, click here to email JP Dufour.

The Dufours hope to launch Domino in 2009.

Domino is a Malcolm Tennant design. LOA is 65.5 feet, beam, 22.4 feet, displacement, 85,980 lb at full load. Twin 300-hp diesels will drive her at 20 knots. Range at 10 knots is estimated at 4,000 nautical miles.

Queensland 55: Not quite a world cruiser

Fountaine Pajot, the second-largest French catamaran builder, has announced plans for the Queensland 55. It replaces a 60-footer that was initially slated to be the queen of its fleet but obviously found no takers.

Queensland Hull #1 is to be launched in spring 2009. The introductory price is 1,300,000 Euros which, at today's exchange rate, works out to about US$2,000,000.

Specs in brief for the Andrieu design: LOA - 56.6 ft, LWL - 52 ft, Beam - 26.6 ft, Draft - 3.6 ft, Displacement no load - 48,500 lb, Power - 2 x 435 hp, Water - 264 US gal, Fuel - 790 US gal.

The last item is the disappointment as at 10 knots the Queensland 55 will have a range of only 1,300 nautical miles. That's wonderful for coastal cruising but the new model cannot be promoted as a "world cruiser" as it won't make it across the Atlantic or Pacific.

Perhaps production powercats are destined to remain coastal cruisers, a role they are perfectly suited for. It's just that when we see a powercat longer than 50 feet, we immediately wonder if it's capable of real passagemaking.

Fountaine Pajot also builds the Highland 35 Pilot and the Cumberland 46.

PDQ goes SCRIMP

No, SCRIMP isn't the southern pronunciation of shrimp. It stands for Seemann Composites Resin Infusion Molding Process.

Here's the official announcement from Pearson Composites about the future of PDQ power catamarans:

Warren, RI, USA -- Pearson Composites, LLC announced today (February 11, 2008) that it has acquired the power catamaran business of PDQ Yachts, Whitby, Ontario, Canada. PDQ has been building catamarans since 1987 and their boats are widely recognized as superb in design, quality and performance.

"We are extremely excited about bringing PDQ into our organization.” said Patrick Burke, CEO of Pearson Composites. “PDQ boats align perfectly with Pearson’s strategy of designing, manufacturing, selling and servicing premium luxury branded products for niche markets. PDQ is a wonderful complement to our Alerion Express sailboat and True North powerboat products. All of these boats compliment the unique yachting interests and lifestyles of our customers”.

Pearson’s experience in building multihulls is not new.  For many years they were the exclusive builder of Lagoon Catamarans in the United States.  Under Pearson, PDQs will be built using SCRIMP construction which will make the boats even lighter and stronger, and this building process is less harmful to the environment. These factors, combined with the proven low fuel consumption of PDQ’s extremely efficient power catamarans, will give Pearson one of the most environmentally friendly cruising boats available on the market this year.  The first Pearson-built PDQs are expected to launch in August 2008.

Burke noted, “The benefits of owning a PDQ Powercat are nothing short of remarkable.  These boats deliver approximately 50% more living space than similarly sized monohulls.  Draft on both models is well under 3’ so they can safely cruise in waters where other powerboats cannot.  Stability is second-to-none, and their overall underway performance spectacular. We are very enthusiastic about how well these boats meet the evolving demands of boating customers.”

The PDQ 34 is equipped with twin Yanmar 110 HP diesels and, while cruising at 15 knots, burns only 4 gallons of fuel per hour - total for both engines!  The PDQ 41 is equipped with twin Yanmar 260’s and at a cruising speed of 18 knots burns less than 10 gallons per hour total!

PDQ finds savior

Molds sitting in the fiberglass shop at insolvent PDQ Yachts in Whitby, Ontario, will be transported to the new owners in Warren, Rhode Island.

True North Yachts/Pearson Composites has acquired the tooling and molds for PDQ power catamarans and the rights to the well-known name.

Production of the PDQ 34 and 41 could start as early as this summer at the Pearson plant on Narragansett Bay in Warren, the smallest town in the smallest county in the smallest state in the U.S.

PDQ's 44-foot sailing catamaran will also continue. A new company, Antares Yachts, will build the luxury cat in Whitby. Rob Poirier, for many years the face of PDQ at boat shows everywhere, will serve as president of Antares Yachts.

Dick Tuschick of Rhumb Line Yacht Sales, the largest dealer of PDQ powercats, issued the following statement this morning:

Remember the cliché “in every cloud, there’s a silver lining”?  With that in mind, here is some great news on the status of PDQ Powercats!

Wednesday it was “official”!  Pearson Composites LLC of Warren, RI has acquired all the powercat assets of PDQ Yachts of Canada.

This is an extremely exciting change for several reasons.  First and foremost, Pearson Composites is regarded as the most advanced, hi-tech boat builder in the US and is infinitely capable of continuing - and even improving -  the quality, performance and functionality of the PDQ 34 and 41 Powercats.

Pearson Composites is probably best known for their on-going production of the J/Boat line of sailboats, and their own product lines:  True North yachts and Alerion Express sailboats.  They are also the inventors of the SCRIMP® fiberglass construction technology and have been leaders in advanced composite technology for over 20 years.  We anticipate that with a much larger technical and engineering staff to focus on the PDQ models that numerous product enhancement will be forthcoming in future production.

We encourage you to visit Pearson’s website:   www.pearsoncomposites.com to learn more about the new ownership.

In our initial discussions with the Pearson management team, it is apparent that they share the same values that “we” have enjoyed with the former PDQ company and staff.  Namely:  pride in the product, commitment to quality, a strong sense of responsibility to the client and a corporate goal of making the yacht-purchasing experience a truly enjoyable one for the buyer.

Pearson plans to move the PDQ Powercat production to their Warren plant as soon as possible. They will be building the 34 and the 41 to the same exacting standards that we have grown to expect, but now there will be the added advantage of being able to deliver yachts year-around. Production at the new location is planned to start within 60 days, with new boat deliveries anticipated in late August.  We understand that the tradition of PDQ University will continue and PDQ Flotillas to all points of the world will be planned, as well.

To ensure a smooth transition in both production and marketing, Pearson has retained several of the key management staff, of the former PDQ company, as consultants for start-up assuredness. 

Rhumb Line will have both the PDQ 34 and the PDQ 41 on display at the Miami Boat Show, starting February 14th.   See us at the Sea Isle Marina, Pier 5, slip 566.

What does all this mean for owners? Well, there will certainly be a great hi-tech company reinforcing the brand and that should quell any doubt that there might have been about the future of PDQ products.  In the long run, more advertising and expanded sales will increase the popularity of the 34 and the 41 and a strong customer service network will all enhance the value of existing PDQs.  In addition, we anticipate that the first few hulls ordered will continue at the current all-inclusive price of $379,000 but then another sizable price increase will be implemented.

The closing of the Whitby, Canada PDQ factory was truly a disappointment and Rhumb Line will sorely miss the great people who made PDQ what it is today. I’m sure we all would agree that the closure was not a reflection on the products or the skilled professionals that built the yachts but rather on the difficulties of the economic times and the current boating industry, in general.

Powercats on show in Miami

The new-to-the-U.S. ArrowCat 30 is designed and engineered in New Zealand and built in China.

Thinking about heading for the Miami International Boat Show in February? Here's a sampling of who's exhibiting power catamarans:

Africat Marine
ArrowCat Marine
Defiant Catamarans
Endeavour Catamaran
Glacier Bay Catamarans
Manta Catamarans
Moorings Power (formerly NauticBlue)
Nautica International
Twin Vee Catamarans
World Cat

Seminars of interest, albeit sail-oriented:

Cruising Catamarans
Explore the new hybrids and the latest offerings while comparing catamarans to other vessels, learning both the virtues and the vices.
Presented by Charles Kanter, accredited Marine Surveyor, delivery captain, school instructor and full-time live aboard cruiser
Sponsored by Sail America Author's Corner
Thursday, Feb. 14, 10:45 a.m., Monday, Feb. 18, 10:45 a.m.

Cats vs. Monos - Which Wins?
Learn about the pros & cons of cruising on catamarans vs. monohulls
Presented by Captain David Bello
Sponsored by Fair Winds Sailing School
Friday, Feb. 15, 3:45 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 17, 1:15 p.m.

Multihull Haulout Tactics
Learn about haulout options, yard selection and locations, project planning, project management and selection of contractors and subcontractor
Presented by Matthew Dunning
Sponsored by The Multihull Company
Sunday, Feb. 17, 2:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 18, 3:45 p.m.

All things being equal, Thursday, February 14, Premier Day, is the best time for visiting the show.