Seawind Catamaran 950

Seawind Catamarans' Founder  Richard Ward unveiled his comány's new 950 model - a long overdue multihull option for the "bottom end of the market" - on the opening day of the 24th Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show.
The 32-foot cruising cat Seawind 950 is a bolt together kitset  cat that can be shipped around the world in two 40ft containers at a fraction of the cost of piggy-backing a fully assembled catamaran on a yacht transporter. 

 The concept is expected to open up new markets in Europe and on the Great Lakes in Canada, as well as appealing to charter companies and young families, who have previously been priced out of the multihull market. 
"The Seawind 950 is a boat normal people can afford. It has a big boat feel, a great family boat capable of coastal cruising , but comes in a box, two boxes in fact."
The Seawind 950 has: 

• a three cabin layout as standard with a spacious bathroom to port aft and a full galley down to starboard. Like its bigger sister the Seawind 1000, the saloon table in the 950 also drops down to offer another double berth. A two cabin, two-bathroom option will also be made available for the charter market.
• The cat is powered by a fully-battened mainsail and overlapping jib
• twin Yamaha 9.9hp high thrust outboards for auxiliary propulsion.

"We think it will charter very well, at the base charter level, for two couples. There is absolutely nothing like this anywhere in the world as far as we know so it's very exciting," Ward said.

The Seawind 950 can be shipped from Seawind's Vietnam factory to any major port from a starting price of A$225,000. Two qualified boat builders could assemble the boat in 1.5 days. Seawind offers to assemble the boat for an additional $10,000 although with just six bolts, Ward believes many owners will choose to put the kitset cat together themselves."Shipping a 30-footer to Europe costs roughly $70,000 which is just ridiculous. We think it will open up a lot of markets now there is no barrier to shipping."

The Seawind 950 will be available from November 2012. 

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