The Selection Process
This is the techie bit so if you aren’t interested in boats then bypass this section else it will bore you rigid. Hopefully this will explain why we came to the decision of buying the Leopard 46.
Before I start rattling on I need to qualify that everything below is purely our personal opinion of the boats we tested and viewed based on our specific wants and needs.
Early on in the process we were starting to find the selection process very difficult as every cat we looked at had features we liked so we would swing from one to the other quite dramatically. We felt we were getting nowhere and needed to find a way of capturing all the features we liked on each boat. I happened to be reading Gregor Tarjan’s book “Catamarans, Every Sailors Guide” at the time and picked up on a section about trying to mark each boat on its merits so this is where good old Excel comes in. We sat down one night and started to write down all the things we were looking for in a Cat. As you can imagine our ideal boat didn’t exist, it had the volume of a Lagoon, the performance of an Outremer and the finish of a Privilege so the word compromise became key to the whole process. We scored each criteria on their importance, safety for example was high on the list so that was marked out of 30 rather than 10 therefore making up a higher percentage of the overall mark. Quality of galley appliances although important wasn’t critical and was scored out of 10 and so on.
Cat Rating Spreadsheet Download.
The spreadsheet developed into a work of art (even if I say so myself) but some things are very difficult to measure, such as performance and value for money. As for performance you can go out on as many test sails as you like but trying to repeat the conditions is impossible at best so we needed to find another way of measuring it. This is where Kate decided I was getting too anal about it all but being an engineer I had to find a way of measuring performance that was fair and accurate. After reading about race handicapping I decided the only way was to do it mathematically using data that was available from the internet and brochures (if you can believe what the manufacturers print). I found a website called “Multihull Dynamics” which was extremely helpful in working out how to compare each boat and so the spreadsheet developed again. Although performance wasn’t high on our list we felt that we needed a cat that had the potential to outrun an approaching squall for safety purposes more than beating another boat to the next anchorage. Value for money was a bit easier to sort out and the only way we could decide, due to the varying lengths and beams, was to use cost per square metre.
Over the next few months we filled in the spreadsheet using the technical data available, from 12 months of visiting boat-shows and test sails. A shortlist started to develop which comprised the Leopard 46, the Fastcat 455 and the Lagoon 440, all very different I know but that’s what we ended up with. The others although all had their merits were crossed off the list for one reason or another. One piece of advice which we consider a must is to “try before you buy” don’t rely on a day at the boat show or a test sail as you might come to regret it. Only after you have spent at least a weekend on board the boat should you make your decision, if the agent says no, then don’t buy it. Every boat has its quirks and just like people some you can live with and some will end up just driving you nuts!!
The Lagoon 440. Kate had fallen in love with the 440 the first time we saw it at Southampton 12 months earlier and I have to agree that in beautiful anchorages there probably isn’t a better boat on the market for liveability. My concerns were more with practicality issues whilst at sea and our aim was to try and cross Oceans. The flybridge helm although great in the Caribbean I wasn’t so sure about getting stuck up there alone in big sea’s whilst on night watch. On paper the Lagoon also doesn’t score well on the performance figures but what do I know after seeing the results of the 2007 ARC and a 440 crossing the Atlantic in just over 13 days.
The Fastcat 455. We flew to Amsterdam to meet Gideon and hopefully test sail the Fastcat but unfortunately the weather wasn’t with us that day. We saw the white caps as we flew over the Channel and sure enough the F7-8 conditions meant the test sail was off but we still got chance to climb all over the boat and meet Gideon. We really liked the boat but what we appreciated most was Gideon’s passion about building boats to suit the owners and their needs. Gideon’s approach was the complete reverse to what we had experienced throughout the process as most of the large manufacturers just wanted to sell “off the shelf” boats. Dealing with the big companies was a nightmare with their attitude but here we were looking at a boat that would suit our needs, was fast, high tech and could be customised in any way we saw fit. The Fastcat was on our list until the very last moment but unfortunately due to other financial commitments the extra cost (and it wasn’t that much in the end) was just too much for us at the time and delivery would have been another 18 months which we felt was just too far away. Gideon has remained in contact (even though we bought another boat) and has been a great help to us throughout.
The Leopard 46. We had always liked the look and the lines of the L46 but everyone kept telling us it was a charter boat and wasn’t suited to private owners who wanted to go cruising but we weren’t convinced. Due to it being a new model we couldn’t get to see one in Europe so our only option was to charter one from the Moorings/Sunsail fleet in the BVI (and have a holiday at the same time). We had a great couple of weeks in the BVI but we also had our fair share of boat problems. The charter L46 was about 10 months old but looked 8 years old and was very poorly maintained. We watched the Sunsail staff with amazement as the boats would come in from a week charter and were just cleaned, hosed and given to the next party, not an oil check or equipment test in sight. The list of problems with the boat grew over the first three days to such a point that we decided the only way to avoid spoiling the holiday was to return to Road Town and have the list looked at. All of it was mainly minor and had it been my boat and the tools were available I could have probably sorted it all in a day. Having enjoyed our time on the boat but still having certain reservations we wrote a report to the agents listing every area that we felt the L46 could be improved. Our list was passed on to the designer and the factory and within a few days we had a reply identifying all the changes that had been put in place since the hull number we chartered. Nearly every point we had commented on had a fix and if not already in place would be by the time we would take delivery so it was decided the L46 would be the boat for us. The negotiations started and then stopped, a pattern which went on for at least 2 months until we reached an agreement and the order was placed.
The Buying Process
The R&C Leopard line is handled by The Leopard Catamarans sales head office which is based in Ft Lauderdale USA. Leopard Catamarans is a part of the huge TUI group which incorporates Moorings, Sunsail, First Choice, Thomson Travel and numerous others. R&C will not deal direct with anyone and all purchases are in US Dollars through the Ft Lauderdale office for Europe and most of North America right now.
One piece of advice to Leopard potential buyers I would offer is to always remember that R&C are a production boat builder and not a custom one. They work on the old Henry Ford principle back in the days of the Model T; “you can have any colour you want as long as it’s black”. This translates in boat building terms to; if you want anything changed spec wise, finish or equipment then forget it unless you have it completed after-market. If you charter a Moorings 4600 or 4000 the only layout option available to private owners is a 3 cabin version rather than 4. If you want a galley down layout or similar major change then the Leopard is not for you. There are plenty of custom builders out there who will change anything to suit your every whim. Once you have accepted this (and it took me quite some time) the process runs quite smoothly. Our main problems were with locating trustworthy subcontractors in Cape Town to fit the after-market options such as solar panels, SSB, wind generator etc. I have to thank Steward Marine at this point who are the R&C sales agent for the South African market and have helped me no end with advise and technical information.
This brings me on to my main gripe throughout the process, information or lack of it. Buying a boat to fulfil your dreams should be an exciting time but from experience it can also be quite stressful. All sorts of curve balls appear on a regular basis and the way this information is communicated to the client is very important to avoid unnecessary stress. A number of problems are caused through dealing with so many different time zones. As a simple scenario, I’m in the UK on the phone to an electronics supplier who needs some more information before I can buy an additional option, I cannot contact the factory direct who are only 1 hour ahead of the UK but instead I have to speak to Florida who are 5 hours behind. The message is then requested of the factory who, are probably just leaving work at that time so won’t answer until the following day (if you’re lucky). When they do answer, it again goes via the US. The main problem comes when you go back to the UK supplier with the newly arrived information only to be told they need some more clarification and so the process starts all over again. A simple request can, and has, taken nearly 2 weeks to solve which is very frustrating. Scott Woodruff (Leopard Sales Manager) and I, have had many a heated conversation about just this subject which as we speak Scott is addressing with a Leopard employed technician within the R&C factory. Leopard are somewhat a victim of their own success as Leopard Catamarans only used to make up a small percentage of R&C’s overall sales compared to charter cats but with the introduction of the 40 and 46 a lot more private buyers are buying. Due to this change in market the infrastructure is currently not present to aid the demanding private buyers who don’t want a standard boat.
As I write this we are off to Cape Town in two weeks time for the boat acceptance trials after which I will be able to comment in more detail on the overall process.