I should mention that we have another project boat sitting and waiting for us to spruce up sitting on the hard in MD... Just before we had the opportunity to buy So It Goes, I came a cross a very nice Irwin 28 which was in great shape but minus an engine and in need of a new interior. Work, distance and various projects have kept me from it but I do hope that I can get to it sooner rather than later.
Not too long ago some friends in St Thomas with a sister ship mentioned that they get a lot of surprised looks when they sail past some of the 50-foot catamaran charter boats in a 28-foot monohull. But it does make you think just how badly performance on multis gets degraded when you keep piling on the weight. One of these days, I am going to go around and take photos of all the various cats I find and concentrate on bridge deck clearance... might be entertaining!
Of course we keep looking at cats and tris for the LM 4/4/4 project and have been finding that boats that meet our requirements are very few and far between. While there are many many cats and tris chartering and cruising, sadly most of them are not doing it with the performance that we expect from multihulls. One charter boat that has got it right is the awesome Bossanova which I guarantee is not a cat that is going to be passed by an Irwin of any sort (unless it is at anchor!). Tem is an ex-pro skier who was inducted into the boatbuilding madness by his father (they built a tri together) and set out to design and build a cat that incorporated the needs of the charter business (air conditioning, freezer, toys, etc, etc) and he certainly seems to have gotten the mix right.
Bruce+
13 hours ago
