Shopping Trip

We may have found our boat! A Catana 472 actively cruising Pacific Mexico and the Sea of Cortez.

Good friends are cruising there now aboard our old boat. They know we’ve been looking for a performance cruising catamaran. As fate sometimes does, they were introduced to the owners of this Catana 472 and subsequently connected us to them.

After exchanging photos and videos and a Zoom meeting, we decided the boat and the deal looked promising enough to fly to Puerto Vallarta to see her live and in person. This was a stretch as we were up against a vacation and work trip the following week. However, we’ve been shopping long enough to know that you need to act quickly when a suitable candidate boat hits the market at a reasonable price. Off we went.

Why a Catana 472?

Our shopping efforts to date convinced us the right boat needed to be:

• Comfortable to live on for long periods
• Fun to sail
• Manageable for the two of us
• Reasonably fast while carrying a typical cruising load
• Built and equipped to comfortably and safely cross oceans
• At a price point that made sense for us
• Not a “project boat” requiring an extensive refit

We were also hoping to find a boat that was being actively cruised. We felt it would result in a “healthier” boat with fewer problems and projects.

Seven months of boat shopping led us all over the world: Northern California, Southern California, New Zealand, Pacific Northwest, Bahamas, Florida, Columbia. In addition to the Catanas, our short list included Outremer, Dolphin, and Nautitech catamarans. All are well-regarded, performance cruising cats. We came close on a Catana 471, a 472, and a Catana 431. But, for various reasons, those deals didn’t work.

We made an offer on a Nautitech 46 Open in the Bahamas that would be a great fit. Ultimately, we backed out because we didn’t feel it would have the sailing performance we were looking for.

We kept coming back to the Catanas and, in particular, the 471 and 472. The designer, Christophe Barreau, perfectly balanced sailing performance, load carrying, and livability. Patience is a virtue when boat shopping.

Meeting our coach and consultant

Meanwhile, our friend and catamaran sailing coach, Eric Witte, was, at that very moment, delivering a Catana 47 from the Bahamas through the Panama Canal to her new home in the Sea of Cortez. Eric has been working with us for several months, helping us evaluate boats. We spent some time with Eric and his wife, Captain Annie Gardner, aboard their Catana 472, El Gato. Among their many endeavors, they provide training and coaching for sailors stepping up into performance cruising catamarans. Annie also runs Wind Goddess Retreats for aspiring woman sailors.

Could his delivery schedule coincide with our visit to this Catana 472? YES! IT IS POSSIBLE! And that is indeed what happened. Eric and his crew arrived in the La Cruz anchorage the same day we landed from the US, and he was able to join us for our first live look at this boat! 

Spending a few hours aboard with Eric and the owner convinced us we likely had the right boat and that surveying it would be worth the effort and expense. The poor owner had recently come down with Covid but hung in with us while we dug around in her boat, all of us covered with masks and gloves.

We also had some time to sail with Eric aboard the Catana 47 that he and his crew were delivering from the Bahamas. One afternoon, we took a long sail and treated ourselves to some excellent whale watching while in Banderas Bay. That evening we had cocktails aboard the boat and played guitars with the entire crew of musicians. We capped off the night by taking the crew to dinner at the excellent restaurant, Masala in La Cruz. 

Paradise Village

During this visit, we decided to stay in Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta to get to know the resort and marina. Our old boat was berthed there, and our former boat partners loved being there. The marina is managed by Dick and Gina, whom we met in the mid-nineties during our last Mexico cruise. At the time, Dick was running the newly opened Marina Mazatlan, and we were one of the first transient boats to tie up there. We had great memories of that experience, and it was nice to catch up with Dick and Gina and see their fantastic facility. We were sold. If we can make this deal work, the new boat will live here for the summer.

We sat on the beach at Paradise Village that evening, watching the sunset. “Well, are we doing this?” Yes. We are. And with that, we wired the deposit to the escrow agent.

Click to enlarge photos