A Catamaran Convert

For the past decade, I’ve served as a judge for Cruising World magazine’s annual Boat of the Year contest, which takes place at the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland. During that time, I’ve sailed every new production sailboat launched in the United States. I’ve had a ringside seat to test the fastest-growing segment of the sailing market: cruising catamarans.

Coincidentally, Annapolis is also the headquarters for Farr Yacht Design, the international naval architecture office with which I also have some familiarity. I’ve covered numerous Volvo Ocean Races, America’s Cups and other events where Farr boats were prominently involved. Last spring, I sailed a Farr-designed Beneteau 44.7 in the rugged Round Ireland Race. In my opinion, the Farr office’s stellar reputation is well-deserved.

But take note: The Farr legacy was built upon a long roster of monohulls, not catamarans. That makes the next part of this story interesting.

These days, the Farr office is run by Patrick Shaughnessy, an Annapolis native who worked his way up from an entry-level job to become the company’s president. Along the way, Shaughnessy sailed professionally aboard Grand Prix yachts for nearly three decades. Also, with his wife, Gisela, he’s undertaken several high-latitude expeditions to places like Antarctica. The common denominator for all that sailing? Single-hull vessels.

Now with retirement on the horizon, Shaughnessy has commissioned his own cruising boat. “Every time we went exploring, at some stage I really wanted to get home,” he says. “So we started thinking, what if we just brought home? We looked around at the marketplace and found a boat that we think suits us. So, we’ve got an order in for a Balance 464 that’s going to be home for us as we go traveling around to do some exploring.”

Wait, what? A Balance 464? That is a slick, performance-cruising catamaran built in South Africa.

“To me, it just makes sense,” Shaughnessy says. “They have reasonably shallow draft and are usually pretty quick for their size. There’s a duplication of systems, like multiple engines. The lack of heeling is pretty appealing. I think the quality of living, compared to a monohull, is pretty superior. You have a big saloon area where you can look out the windows and be part of the environment you’re in. You have good accessibility to the water and can bring a lot of toys. It just seems there’s a lot of goodness there. So we’re going to give it a try and see how we go.”

The next question is inevitable: With a go-anywhere boat, where does he wish to go?

“Ideally, we’d like to sail the boat from South Africa to Grenada, and then do some cruising up the East Coast and down to the Bahamas,” he says. “If we feel comfortable, we’d like to get out to French Polynesia. Since I was a little kid, the idea of exploring the atolls and finding beaches with few or no people seemed pretty appealing. So I guess we want to see what cards we’re dealt and how we react to them.”

It’s a good plan, and Shaughnessy feels he has the right tool for the job. For him, for now, two hulls are better than one.  

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