The Multihull Company is pleased to announce the formation of its Multihulls Northwest Office on Bainbridge Island, WA.  The new office provides the Pacific Northwest community with a long awaited regional center for the sale and service of multihulls. Conveniently located on Eagle Harbor, 30 minutes from downtown Seattle, Multihulls Northwest offers TMC’s complete line of new Catana, Dolphin, and Dean catamarans as well as a full service brokerage for sailing and power cats and tris. 

Multihulls Northwest is operated by Matthew Dunning.  Matthew brings fifteen years experience cruising multihulls on Puget Sound and points north to the TMC brokerage team.  Along with his practical knowledge of multihull designs and seamanship, Matthew is a graduate of Dartmouth College with a degree in geography.  He has an intimate knowledge of the Northwest’s unique maritime geography that he describes as, “One of the world’s most beautiful, intricate, and extensive cruising grounds. The joys of which are advantageously and endlessly displayed to the owner of a cruising multihull.”

If your plans include the San Juan’s, Canadian Gulf & Discovery Islands, the Sunshine Coast, or perhaps a trip up the Inside Passage through the Broughton Archipelago en route to Southeast Alaska with a return circumnavigation of Vancouver Island and, perhaps, an optional jump-off to the South Pacific via Mexico . . . or if you’re a Northwesterner with cruising plans anywhere in the world . . . we encourage you to contact Matthew at 206-297-1151 or Matthew@multihullcompany.com and fill him in on all the details.

Multihulls World, known in Europe as Multicoques, has recently produced a large review of the Dolphin 460, written by veteran Jay Boat racer and Senior Cruising World Editor-at-large, Tom Linskey. To produce the piece, Linskey flew to Brazil to visit the factory, chartered a Dolphin 460 for a week in the Caribbean, and met with the builder, owners of Dolphin, and Phillip Berman.

As Linskey has written, “In vivid contrast to boats intended primarily for the charter market, the Dolpin 460 stands apart: every aspect of the boat is designed and built for private ownership and blue-water cruising.”  He further states, “Now five years into production, the Dolphin 460 is establishing itself not only as an affordable bluewater cat but as a boat that delivers value for money – in a number of areas, the Dolphin offers custom-yacht construction and features at a production-boat price.”

Veteran sailboat racers Phillip Berman, President of The Multihull Company, and Sir James Hardy, skipper of three America’s Cup challenges for Australia, have been chosen by The World cruise ship to serve as onboard commentators and lecturers for the America’s Cup finals in Valencia, Spain, from June 23rd to July 4th, 2007. A great place to keep up on the happening’s of the America’s Cup is the official website of the event. By visiting www.americascup.com information, history, and current standings and statistics can be found. To learn more about The World, visit www.aboardtheworld.com

Kya & Russel

Kya

Hi! This is Amy Willson aboard the Dolphin catamaran ‘Free Spirit’. Captain Russell Eddington and I are sailing from the Galapagos Islands to Marquesas, South Pacific.

Personally, I am sailing from Europe around the world, via Caribbean, Panama, New Zealand, back home to South Africa and then back on up to Europe. I left from France last November and expect to arrive back in the Mediterranean in a couple of year’s time, after traveling New Zealand, Australia, Asia and Indonesia.

Russell is owner and skipper of this boat and has sailed her from Brazil, where she was built, via Columbia.

We have a fine breeze coming out of the South-East, trade winds found us at last. Swell is moderate, the sun is out and we are eating a tuna fish we caught yesterday. With 1,437 miles to the Marquesas, we are looking forward to touching land again after an aprox. 18 day voyage. Hiking, horse back riding, scuba diving and surfing, as well as discovering the indigenous culture and people, are all activities that I am eagerly waiting to do in some of the most remote parts of the world.

After these islands, most boats will head down to The Tuamotus Islands, Society (Tahiti), Cook Islands, Samoan Islands, Tonga or Fiji, then down to New Zealand or across to Australia. I am hoping to be in the Samoa islands in July/August, where the South Pacific games are being held this year.

Let me know if such an event of fate occurs: amyjayewillson@yahoo.co.uk

“Talk to the universe, listen for its reply.
Be on intimate terms with nature, see life in everything.
Carry yourself as a child of the universe.
Let not your heart be troubled nor let it be afraid.
There is nothing like dreams to create the future,
Utopia today,
Flesh and blood tomorrow.”

Best of luck with everything you take on in life!

Amy Jaye Willson

South African Boatbuilders Business Council Finalizes Industry Code of Conduct
By Veda Raubenheimer info@sabbc.co.za

The South African yacht manufacturing sector has come under the international spotlight in recent years. The primary reason has been the unprecedented growth, especially in the Catamaran Sector and at the 2006 Miami Strictly Sail Show the proof was in the pudding with 16 out of the 31 catamarans on show being SA built. However this growth has also come with a downside, one or two serious liquidations and other incidents of poor Customer Service and Warranty Issues.

The industry has banded together to address the issues flagged by these incidents and an Industry Code of Conduct funded by the DTI (Department of Trade & Industry) is the result.

The Code of Conduct is not only an end-goal in itself, ensuring that minimum standards are adhered to, but has a developmental aspect focus, to assist and encourage laggard firms to be brought on par with international best practice. The Code is not prescriptive but provides a good guide on how companies can improve their performance. Companies will be audited against the Code to obtain the accolade of an “SABBC Accredited” company.

The test phase, completed in April 2007, saw the process assessed and implemented at two boatbuilding yards. Dean Catamarans and Robertson and Caine were selected as test subjects, as the differences in size and management style covered most variations within our industry. They were both awarded their accreditation in May 2007. Right now the entire industry sector has been invited to apply and at present there are six more companies going through the accreditation process. It is the goal of the DTI and the SABBC that all companies wishing to exhibit at Miami Strictly Sail 2008 will be accredited.

For more information about the SABBC Accreditation process please contact the SABBC at info@sabbc.co.za