Catamaran Buying Guide: Sail, Power & Ex-Charter Tips
A catamaran purchase only looks like a monohull purchase until the invoice arrives: two engines, two hulls, a slip billed on a boat half again too wide, and a used market split in two by the charter fleets. This catamaran buying guide covers the decisions that are genuinely different with two hulls — sail versus power, the layout versions, the real cost stack, the ex-charter question and the checks a cat demands at survey. Which makers build the best cats is ranked in our best catamaran brands guide; where the type came from is told in the history of catamarans; the universal buying process is in the boat buying guide. Here, the process belongs to the cat alone.
Sail Cat or Power Cat? Start With How You'll Cruise
A sailing cat is a cruising platform that happens to sail: level motion, a saloon at deck level with panoramic glass, shallow draft from fixed mini-keels, and auxiliary diesels doing more of the work than romantics admit. The production heartland runs from 38 to the low 50s in feet — Lagoon's sailing range alone spans 38 to 82 feet — and passage speeds average what a comparable monohull manages, with far less heel. Buy sail if the sailing itself, the range and the quiet miles matter.
A power cat is a different proposition: a trawler's economy and space on a planing or semi-displacement pair of hulls, with cruising speeds in the high teens that no sailing cat touches. Leopard's power line — 40, 46 and 53 feet — shows the format's shape: flybridge living, twin diesels sipping fuel by powerboat standards, and apartment volume. Buy power if your programme is distance at speed with a crowd aboard.
Catamaran Sizes and Layouts: Galley Up vs Down, Owner's Version vs Charter Layout
Size in cats is really two numbers. Length sets accommodation; beam — typically about half the length — sets everything else. A Leopard 45 carries a 24'2" beam and the Leopard 50 spreads to 26'5", widths no standard monohull slip was built for. Most cruising cats cluster at 40–50 feet because that band sleeps a family or three couples, stays manageable two-handed, and still fits — just — into marina infrastructure designed around monohulls.
| Length band | Typical beam | Layouts offered | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38–42 ft | 21–24 ft | 3 or 4 cabins | Couples and small families, first cats |
| 43–47 ft | 24–26 ft | Owner's 3-cabin or charter 4-cabin | The cruising mainstream |
| 48–53 ft | 26–29 ft | Owner's versions, flybridge models | Liveaboard and extended passages |
Layout is the second decision. Galley-up puts the kitchen in the saloon, social and bright, and pushes a cabin out; galley-down gives a serious sea-going galley in one hull and an extra berth's worth of saloon. The bigger fork is owner's version versus charter layout: an owner's boat gives one entire hull to a suite — berth, desk, head and shower — while charter layouts split both hulls into equal cabins with en-suites, maximising rentable berths. Leopard built its reputation on exactly this choice, marketing dedicated owner's versions against the fleet layouts its builder, Robertson & Caine, supplied to The Moorings. Owner's versions command the resale premium; charter layouts house more guests per dollar. Choose by whose heads will actually be in the berths.
What a Catamaran Really Costs: Purchase, Double-Width Slip and Haul-Out
Start with purchase: a new production sailing cat in the 40–45-foot mainstream costs roughly what a premium 50-foot-plus monohull costs, and power cats price against mid-size motor yachts. Quotes from finance providers and insurance providers should be gathered on the specific model, because underwriters price cats on beam, value and cruising grounds.
The slip is the recurring shock. Marinas bill by length but berth by width, and a 45-foot cat occupies the water of a 45-foot slip and the width of nearly two — expect to pay for a double berth, an end tie, or a premium cat berth where they exist, and expect some marinas to simply say no. Haul-out repeats the lesson: the yard needs a travel lift or trailer wide enough for 24-plus feet of beam, which rules out smaller yards and makes lift scheduling a planning item, not an errand. Two hulls also double some maintenance lines — two engines to service, two saildrives or shafts, twice the antifouling area — while deleting others: no deep keel, no heel-driven wear, and systems access that monohull owners envy.
New vs Used Catamarans — and the Ex-Charter Question
New cats carry long order books and current design — flybridge lounges, forward cockpits, solar arches — at prices that have climbed steadily. Used supply splits into two distinct pools. Privately owned boats, especially owner's versions, are the low-hours, high-spec end and price accordingly.
The second pool is the charter fleet. Production cats are the world's charter standard, and fleets retire boats after a set service life, releasing large numbers of same-model boats at prices well below private equivalents. An ex-charter boat is not a damaged boat; it is a high-hours, professionally maintained, hard-used one. The charter wear pattern is predictable: engine hours in the thousands rather than hundreds, tired sails and soft furnishings, gelcoat scars at the bows and quarters from a hundred dockings, and systems run daily for years. Bought at the right discount with a survey that separates that honest wear from structural trouble, ex-charter is the rational value route into the type. Bought at private-boat money, it is the classic cat-buying mistake.
What to Check on a Used Catamaran
The cat-specific structural item is the bridgedeck. The flat underside between the hulls slams in a head sea if clearance is low or the boat is overloaded, and chronic slamming leaves evidence: stress cracking around the bridgedeck edges and bulkhead joints, repaired impact areas, and doors or furniture below that no longer close square. Sight along the underside, tap-test suspect areas, and treat fresh paint under the bridgedeck as a question.
Next, the escape hatches. Cruising cats carry a hatch in each hull for exiting an overturned boat, and their seals and locking dogs age like any hatch — perished gaskets and seized hardware are common findings and cheap fixes, but they must be findings, not discoveries. Then multiply the monohull list by two: both engines and their saildrives (saildrive diaphragms have a manufacturer replacement interval, and the paperwork should show it), both rudders and their bearings, crossbeam attachments on the forward beam, and window bonding — the big saloon windows are structural-era glue joints on many models and re-bedding them is a yard job. The BoatUS Boat Buyers Guide sets out how a condition-and-value survey grades what it finds; on a cat, insist the surveyor has multihull experience, because the failure modes are not a monohull's.
Survey and Sea Trial for a Catamaran
Book the haul-out at a yard that can physically lift the boat — confirm the lift's beam capacity when you book the surveyor, not after. Out of the water, the surveyor needs the bridgedeck underside, both hulls' keels and rudders, and the saildrive legs all accessible in one lift. Underway, the trial differs from a monohull's in three ways. Motor on one engine at a time: a healthy cat steers and makes way on either engine alone, and the test exposes a weak side immediately. Sail her to windward and watch the windward hull and the bridgedeck clearance in the chop actually present — slamming you can hear at trial weight will be worse loaded for cruising. And test the helm positions in manoeuvres, because twin-engine close-quarters handling is the cat's party trick: opposed throttles should walk her sideways and spin her in her own length, and any reluctance is a finding about an engine, not about your technique.
Catamaran Buying Guide Mistakes Buyers Repeat
Shopping by length and forgetting beam — then discovering the home marina cannot take the boat. Pricing an ex-charter boat against private listings without the charter-wear discount, or the reverse. Overloading a cruising cat until the bridgedeck lives in the waves; cats are brutally weight-sensitive, and every cruising toy costs clearance. Assuming two engines means double reliability without doubling the maintenance budget to match.
How to shop catamaran listings
Boat Deals Direct has no catamaran category, and this guide will not pretend otherwise: sailing cats sit inside the sailboat listings and both kinds run through the full boat listings. Search by the production makers — Lagoon, Leopard, Fountaine Pajot, Aquila for power — and read for the version (owner's or charter), engine hours on both engines, and saildrive service history before you travel.
Catamaran Buying Guide FAQs
Are catamarans more expensive to keep than monohulls?
Yes, in the specific lines this guide names: wider and sometimes double-priced berthing, haul-outs at wide-lift yards, two engines and two hulls to maintain. They give back in space, stability and shallow draft — the premium buys a different boat, not the same one at a markup.
Is an ex-charter catamaran a bad buy?
Not inherently. Charter boats are professionally maintained and sold at a real discount for their hours and wear. The buy is sound when a multihull-experienced surveyor confirms the wear is the honest, cosmetic-and-systems kind and the price already reflects it.
Why do catamarans need special haul-out arrangements?
Beam. A 45-foot cruising cat is around 24–26 feet wide, wider than many travel lifts and yard trailers are built for. Owners plan haul-outs around yards with wide lifts, which can mean travelling for annual maintenance in some regions.
Can a catamaran be sailed short-handed?
The mainstream 40–47-foot boats are designed for exactly that: lines led aft, electric winches, autopilots and twin engines for docking. Larger flybridge models stay manageable but reward a second pair of hands for sail handling and docking in wind.
Bottom line: this catamaran buying guide buys on beam, version and survey — not on the saloon tour. Choose sail or power by programme, take the owner's layout if resale matters, price the charter discount honestly, and start the search across the Boat Deals Direct listings.