CullisonSmallCraft.com

I usually refer to the difference between custom boats and factory produced boats as the difference between a suit picked up from Macy’s, or a custom tailored suit stitched over a couple of sittings in a top New York tailor shop.

Quite simply, with custom tailoring, you are bound to get a better fit.

The same way, a custom boat is invariably better suited to your needs than a store bought boat. If you pick up any of the boating magazines that have flourished recently, you’ll find that there are more than a handful of companies advertising their boats. While these are all good companies making good boats, fact remains that a man’s boat is as specific to him as his clothing. Every serious sailor requires a boat for a specific purpose – do you want to take it fishing on the lake on weekends? Do you want to sail across the Pacific? Do you want to cruise in the Mediterranean?

Uniqueness

There are hundreds and thousands of boat owners in the world, many with similar boats bought from the same company.

A custom boat, on the other hand, is completely unique. You may call it vanity, but a custom boat does give you the chance to stand out from the crowd.

Material

Most factory produced boats are made of synthetic materials. To mass produce boats, factories use molds. Synthetic materials such as fiber glass are ideal for this purpose.

Custom boats, on the other hand, can be made of any requested material, including that richest of all materials – wood. Wood is highly mouldable, non toxic, sturdy, and can be easily crafted by a skilled boatmaker. Wood gives off a sense of history and elegance that synthetic materials lack. And for a wooden boat, you’ll usually have to go to a custom boat maker.

Price

The usual perception is that custom boats tend to be more expensive than factory produced ones.

However, it does not always have to be that way. In the process of transportation, distribution, dealer commissions, etc., factory produced boats are usually bumped up several fractions in terms of price from their original cost. A custom boatmaker, on the other hand, can craft a similar boat using locally available material at a much reduced cost, simply because he doesn’t have to pay for transportation, distribution, or commissions. A locally produced boat built by an efficient builder and picked up by the owner may prove to be a better value than a factory produced one.

So the next time you go boat shopping, do look into the possibility of buying a custom boat. It won’t cost the earth, and it will land you with a far better boat tailored to your needs.

The word “catamaran” comes from the Tamil word ‘kattumaram’. It passed into the English language after India’s conquest by the British in the 17th century and was ‘anglocized’ like so many other Indian words (case in point: ‘Mumbai’ was changed into ‘Bombay’).

The catamaran’s were first discovered in the 5th century when they were used by the ancient south Indian Chola dynasty to move their fleets to invade other southeast asian countries. There have been historical records of catarmarans being used even before that for fishing purposes in the southern parts of India. Polynesian sailors also used catamarans extensively to go colonize other islands.

In recent times, catamarans have become the most commonly used design for sailing boats and ferries, despite criticism from western designers over its structural shape; rather than relying on the tried and tested concept of weight distribution, catamarans relied on geometry for their balance.

A big advantage catamarans have over single hulled vessels is the space; mutlihulls allow the boat to accomodate more.

In western culture, catamarans have come to be associated with quiet, pleasant life by the beach in small coastal towns, an image that has contributed, perhaps, a lot to the popularity of the catamaran as a sailing vessel. Catamarans with colorful sails drifting aimlessly along a beach has become the staple of western literature which contributes to the “sun and sand” image of catamarans.

Catamarans can be very cheap to build. Since they are based on geometry rather than weight distribution for balance, even an unskilled craftsman can build solid catamarans very easily. Also, because catamarans are larger (wider) in size than regular sailboats, they can accomodate larger sails. This, thus, makes them faster than other sailboats of similar size. Catamarans are also immune to capsize “beam wise”, but rather, catamarans capsize forward when the hull dips into the water and tilts the boat forward, upside down.

Catmarans are not very suitable as cruising vesseles, primarily because of the limited live-aboard space their design allows. Rather than having one single livable area (as on a monohulled boat), catamarans, with their multi-hulled design, split the livable area into two halves. Thus, to make a catamaran livable, it must be made fairly large – an impediment that makes this design unsuitable as a cruising vessel.

In the recent years, there has been a mushrooming of sorts of large scale catamarans (called ‘mega catamarans’) that exceed a 100 feet in length and with a top speed of 50 knots. This is a phenomenon quite like the profusion of mega yachts (i.e., yachts over a 100 feet long) over the past two decades. Desipite their limits on living accomodations, catamarans are becoming popular, especially in the larger sizes.

This article appeared at EzineArticles.com. I’ve reprinted it here with the author’s permission.

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If you were to ask me why people buy boats, I wouldn’t be able to give you a clear, straight forward reply.

Some of them buy it for transportation. To go from point A to B. But these kind are dwindling in numbers, fast,
especially in the developed world. Sure, there are ferries and boat charters, but more often than not, its about
the journey itself, and not merely about being taken to your destination.

Some of them buy boats for the joy of owning a boat. I’ve known people who buy boats but don’t even know how to swim. Their boats are often kept in the garage and friends and guests are paraded before it as they glide their hands across the smooth, wooden surface or ogle at the finely crafted oarlocks.

Then there are the boating enthusiasts who will visit each and every boat show within 500 miles of their home. They’ll marvel at the boat designs, roll off names of famous boat designers and haggle with every boat owner for a price. These are the people who are consumed by a “boat lust”.

Then there are the sailors, men who’ll use boats for a living – fishermen, captains, etc. etc. These men love their boats and often treat them like children, or pets.

There are also the rich yacht owners who live to, one day, sail off into the sunset after retirement, hopefully with the love of their life by the side.

Boating can very easily be compared to motorcycling. Motorcyclists are often very zealous about their bikes; I’ve heard many a biker call their bikes by personal pet names, just like boat owners. To compare further, most motorcycle and boat owners care more about the journey than the destination. Some motorcyclists ride zippy race bike, while some boat owners swear by fast speed boats. Some will ride heavy cruisers for cross country adventures, while some boat owners will save earnestly for years to buy that sailboat for the ‘across the world’ trip they’ve been planning for since childhood.

Whatever your motive, boating is, and will remain, a profoundly pleasurable activity that will always remain more than just a means of transportation.