MULTIPLE CHOICE
Australia’s east coast is multihull heaven because of its many islands, shoaling waters and prevailing winds. So, it’s just a matter of choosing your escape capsule. It could be a liveaboard vessel, one you holiday on or enjoy the occasional regatta with. There’s plenty to choose from, coming mostly from overseas. But here I must quickly give a shout-out to some Aussie battling brands such as Schionning, Seawind, Lightwave, Spirit, Fusion and other custom yards. They may not have new models regularly but are still building boats specifically for Australian conditions. In terms of budgeting, the falling Aussie dollar will make finance challenging. Expect to pay about $700,000 for a new entry-level cruising catamaran, and triple that for a performance model. Freight charges hurt nowadays for Europe-Australia bound cargoes, so have put costs up substantially. Delay this by opting for a factory pick-up and a season or two in the Med before negotiating a favourably priced ride home on container ship. It’s a popular way of reducing costs, along with less import duty. Alternatively, adventurous skippers may join the ARC rally across the Atlantic before a sojourn through the Pacific and home.
Challenging the economies-of-scale enjoyed by the large international yards is hard for our local brands, so overseas is where many buyers look. Ground zero is the world’s largest multihull show on the French Mediterranean shores at La Grande Motte – a
