Helen Fretter speaks to a few of the astounding 15 new multihull owners who took part in the most recent ARC, as catamaran and multihull sailing continues to boom
The explosion in multihull and catamaran sales has been well documented, with many yards reporting lead times of two years or longer as build slots sold out as quickly as they were released. Now, many multihulls that were ordered post-2020 are on the water.
In this year’s ARC rally there were 16 new boats that had been launched in this year alone, of which 15 were multihulls. We caught up with some of their owners in Las Palmas to find out how the purchase process went and how they’d expedited preparations to get transatlantic-ready.
Custom solutions
Chet Chauhan bought Navasana, a Nautitech 46 Open, in 2021, having previously raced and cruised monohulls. After moving from England to the US west coast for work, he sailed his 20-year-old 38ft Beneteau from San Francisco to Sydney with a previous girlfriend in 2010.
“We visited all the island groups along the way and absolutely loved it. I wanted to keep going, but obviously needed more funds. And I realised the boat wasn’t ideal.”
He moved back to Europ