Greetings and good wishes catamaran sailor:

With the Annapolis Boat Show coming up next week I wanted to encourage those of you who will be visiting the show to drop and by and say hello to us at our big tent on the multihull lagoon. This year we will have on display the exciting new Catana 50, a Dean 441, and a Dolphin 460.

I write this as I am flying back from the Cannes Boat Show. Here at 30,000 feet, with time on my hands, I cannot help but reflect on the wave of change breaking over the catamaran market. Five years ago I came often to these shores because we represented a small catamaran shipyard called Sud Composites, builders of the Switch 51 performance catamaran. Back then a well equipped Switch ran about 590,000 Euros, or a bit less than $550,000 U.S. Dollars. The Euro was trading then at about 90 cents to the Dollar and many French built cats were wonderful bargains for my clients.

Just around the corner from Sud Composites, in La Grand Motte, they built the Outremer Catamaran, a rather simple, basically finished cat made of solid fiberglass. At the time, the Outremer was the “budget” option for the performance sailor who could not afford a composite Switch or Catana. Today, however, few French catamarans look like a bargain to an American buyer.

It did not take me by surprise to learn at the Cannes Boat Show that Outremer is now in bankruptcy reorganization and Sud Composites out of business. Both of these smaller, specialty yards simply could not survive without at least a handful of American orders to sustain their small production. While the American market represented less than one third of the buyers for these specialized catamarans, the loss of our market placed both companies in financial peril.

During my stay in Cannes, the Euro hit an all time high of 140 to the Dollar. A catamaran priced at the boat show for 440,000 Euros, for example, was $620,000. Sadly, the problem is not the strength of the Euro as much as it is the weakness of the Dollar. Indeed, it has weakened over 30% to the Brazilian currency in the past three years as such that Dolphin Catamarans have had to raise their prices over four times during this period. Much the same thing has happened in South Africa. I can still recall when the Rand was trading at 12 to the Dollar – it is now in the 6 to 7 to the dollar range. We are talking here about a nearly 50% swing in the value of this currency to ours!

To add insult to injury, the cost of yacht construction has skyrocketed over the past few years. Resin prices this year alone have gone up 14%, carbon prices nearly 20%. It simply costs a lot more money to build a fiberglass sailboat than it did a few years ago.

Of course there are winners and losers in any currency shift. The good news for the seller of a used catamaran (particularly high-demand owner’s version boats that are well equipped) is that your boat has likely depreciated very little over the past three years. In fact, for those who are selling low supply, high demand used cats, like Catana’s or Dolphin’s, your boats have likely appreciated since you bought them. I recall purchasing a used 1999 Catana 431 for an American client in France back in 2002 for $380,000. He sold that boat a year or two later for $410,000, and two years later her third owner sold her for $430,000. Owners of cats built by the larger production builders will not experience quite the same good luck due to greater supply and lower demand, but most will experience just modest depreciation if they bought their cats from 2001 to 2003.

The net impact of the rising cost of new cats, together with the weakness of the Dollar, is that many American buyers are getting priced out of the new catamaran market. They are either giving up on their dream of buying a new boat or turning to the used market. Evidence of the growing demand for clean used catamarans is that our sales in this area have been extremely strong over the past six months. Sadly for the American buyer many of these used cat purchasers are Europeans, Australians, and South Africans who are taking advantage of our weak Dollar to pick up the best deals in brokerage boats in the Caribbean and U.S. East Coasts. Because cats can easily be sailed almost anywhere in the world, a bargain conscious buyer is more than happy to take a long flight to save many thousands of Dollars on a used catamaran. But this, of course, drives up the cost of used cats for every buyer, no matter where they are in the world.

When the slide of the Dollar will end is hard to say. As long as the Fed keeps lowering interest rates it is unlikely to occur in the near future.  I simply counsel buyers that the strength or weakness of the dollar will play a larger role in the resale value of their cat than any other factor, due mainly to the fact that 90% or more of the catamarans built today are built outside the U.S. As long as new boat costs go up, whether due to raw materials costs or currency fluctuations, used boat prices will remain strong and depreciation will remain far lower than normal.

The 38th Annual United States Sailboat Show is being held October 4th through the 8th in Annapolis, MD. If you haven’t made travel plans yet, don’t wait another day. This is a great opportunity to see the catamarans and trimarans available from ship builders around the world. Not to mention the multitude of exhibitors with everything you could possibly need to outfit yourself and your yacht. Look for our red, white, and blue tents on Dock “G”.

We are thrilled to announce that we will have three catamarans on display: The Dolphin 460, and two Boat of the Year Contestants…the Catana 50 and the Dean 440. Phillip Berman will be available every day to answer questions, as well as Patrick Gilot from Catana Catamarans and Peter Dean and Rudolph Jonker from Dean Catamarans.

Take this opportunity to introduce yourself to Alexis de Boucaud and Darrel McDaniel, Office Manager and Brokers from the Ft. Lauderdale office; Tom Kintz, Office Manager and Broker of the Mystic, CT office; and, Matthew Dunning, Office Manager and broker of our new Seattle office. Carol Skari, Office Manager and Alexander Roscoe, Webmaster, at the Philadelphia Corporate Office will also be there to answer your questions.

     Take advantage of the Multihull Symposium sponsored by Multihulls Magazine. Experts in the field will share their knowledge and answer questions during talks scheduled Thursday through Monday. On Thursday from 2 – 3 PM, Phil will join a panel to discuss The Right Size Multihull for You. On Sunday at 3 PM, Phil will discuss How to Buy the Catamaran that Best Suits Your Needs. Don’t miss these free sessions; it is rare to have so many experts ready, willing, and able to freely discuss issues that should be addressed before buying a multihull.

The Multihull Company, along with Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Phillips, sponsored the “1st Annual Sail for Inner City Youths” on the Chesapeake during the week of August 13th at Phillip Berman’s Offshore Catamaran School under the direction of Captain Jeff Bowen.
The six children participating in the sailing program were recognized by Project H.O.M.E., a Philadelphia, PA organization dedicated to meeting the needs of the chronically homeless.

Project H.O.M.E., founded in 1988, has been recognized as a national model for their comprehensive services to the homeless. In 2005 they opened Kate’s Place, 144 apartments for single occupancy in a renovated eleven story historic building in Center City. The co-founder and Executive Director, Sr. Mary Scullion, has been acknowledged as an influential leader in Philadelphia. In 1991 she was awarded the prestigious Philadelphia Award and in 2002 she was honored with the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award. (www.projecthome.org)

The children, accompanied by an adult chaperone from Project H.O.M.E., spent the week on the Chesapeake learning the responsibilities and rewards of sailing. They learned sailing jargon, how to plot a course, the intricacies of rigging, the whimsy of the wind, and holding the helm. They sailed together and learned first hand the importance of working as a team with the sun, wind, and water; a brand new experience for each and every child.

However, the highlight of their trip was when they left the sailboat to find dinner. The group used a dingy to learn the fine points of crabbing. Once their buckets were full they returned to steam the crabs and feast for the remainder of the evening. They experienced nature at its best.

There was one young man that was stoic. Very rarely did a smile or any emotion flash across his face. But at the end of the trip, he is the one that shook Captain Bowen’s hand and glibly remarked, “Thank you for making my summer.”

     Olivier Poncin, owner of the Poncin Group, owner of Catana Catamarans, was excited to announce that the preliminary drawings for the new Catana 41 and 46 are fresh off the drawing board of Christophe Barreau. Both new boats will likely be launched in less than 18 months, but pre-sales of the first several new cats will likely make the waiting period for new buyers about two years out.

     The initial plan had been to build the smaller Catana’s in South America to take advantage of lower labor rates and overhead costs, but after a considerable degree of thought, Poncin recognized that the only way to be absolutely certain of achieving high build quality was to stick with the French team at the factory in Canet. While the price of the boats would not be as low the quality would be assured.

     The new Catana 46 will cost approximately 750,000 to 800,000 Euros, fully equipped. The new 41 will sell for approximately 450,000 to 480,000 Euros. It is not possible at this time to offer exact figures as the designs are only now being finalized and product pricing, options, and specs are not yet in place.

      To learn more about the new Catana product line, please visit our website regularly. As soon as design drawings and specifications and pricing are firm we will post them on our website. Of course, you are always free to call us if you have questions beyond what we present on our website. We will have the new Catana 50 on display at the Annapolis Boat Show, October 4th to the 8th, so please drop by, see the boat, and say hello.