Isabel wants a bigger boat. A Seawind 1400 ish thing, something in the 45 foot range? Has to do with more volume and load bearing capacity, more internal and external storage lockers to allow extended cruising in remote environs. More room for the toys such as SCUBA gear, tanks and compressor. Inflatable SUPs and kite surfing gear that we want to store in an outdoor locker while on passage. Less or no requirement to devote a guest cabin to piling gear in or on (mostly on the bed). More comfortable seating.
The Seawind 1160 is an amazing boat, but we’ve heard even the big brother 1260 still lacks what we want. We’ve spent 3 years in Mexico and 1 year in French Polynesia, so we’ve gotten familiar with lots of other catamarans. We’ve toured Outremers, Catanas, Lagoons, Leopards, Fontaine Pajots, Privileges. Newer and older models. None are as well ventilated as our boat. Those near our size with galley up designs have almost no counter space making cooking unnecessarily difficult. Few have a master cabin that allows occupants to climb out without disturbing their partner.
We love JollyDogs but cruising in a rainy tropical environment full time has made us acutely aware of her design compromises and flaws.
The only reasonable seating/dining position for the saloon table provides for 4 folks. Rotating the table 90 degrees to create a bit more seating space means everyone has to lean way out to reach their plates. We’ve also realized that settee isn’t full sized; there’s a lack of depth to the seats that limits thigh support, and the backs don’t offer good lumbar support. Sorry to be a whiner, but there’s nowhere else to sit while on long foul weather passages and we all end up with backache.
After enduring about 3 weeks of hard blowing rain last year we realized that the cockpit to structure isn’t optimized for rainwater catching. That’s important when weather conditions in the anchorage are gray and icky for days on end and we’ve on extra solar input to run the watermaker. Why waste lovely clean rainwater? The other shortcoming is the cockpit top design that doesn’t provide good attachment opportunities for an effective rain enclosure tent.
Removable windows with no designated storage design accommodation seems silly, but we think you solved that later on. Looks like you solved the galley counter space issue by changing the way the freezers open. Bravo.
We’ve found room for 1440 watts of hard Sunpower solar panels, and 720 a/h of LiFeP04 batteries. It’s changed our life, and the only reason we have a little 2kw Honda generator on board is because someone gave us one. We’re the quietest boat in the anchorage and quite profligate with our power and water use. Isabel gets a hot shower anytime she wants one. We almost always boil water with the electric kettle, which makes our cooking gas supply last even longer.
For us it’s all about how long we can enjoy remote locations. Sail drives are much quieter than direct drive. The Yanmar 3YM30’s with SD20 sail drives and Gori 3-blade props are extremely efficient, and the dog clutch design in the SD20 is great. The prop shaft wear from the lip seals to be really annoying, but perhaps a ceramic coating on the lip seal bearing surface will fix that forever.
Unlike most newer cats, JollyDogs sails well in light air and her solid structural design gives us confidence in rough conditions. The helm and line working stations keep us safe and less exposed to wet or danger. The visibility from the saloon is superb and we’re never wet or cold on passage. The saloon door still amazes other cat owners, and the BBQ grill is the best one in the anchorage. Sleeping sideways underway is great – we don’t roll around in beam seas.
She’s still the best boat in the anchorage and we appreciate the design compromises you had to make in 2008. Still, why not strive for perfection? Build us the perfect JollyDogs-II!
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