Offbeat is a comfortable cruising catamaran. The big advantage over monohulls is that a catamaran will stay flat and level rather than rolling and having to live life at an angle when sailing offshore. A cat also offers great views whether sailing or at anchor in the saloon or in the sheltered cockpit and of course they offer really spacious accommodation.
The Catana 53 offers a variety of standard layouts with the ability to choose the materials for the flooring, cabinetry and also for the soft furnishing, cockpit and sail covers.
Our boat has the owners cabin layout. The starboard hull is almost completely dedicated to one cabin, although we also have a small double bunk cabin forward. The port hull has a double cabin forward and the aft cabin can either be set up as twin berths or, by adding an insert, a double berth. All four cabins have a heads and a shower.
Anne-Laure chose a very light theme, primarily to keep the light and airy feel to the boat but also to reflect the sunlight in hot climes.
The cockpit has a daybed, which is great for lounging on passage or at anchor but also provides extra storage for safety gear, cleaning products, fishing gear and snorkelling equipment.
The galley is all electric. The Lithium batteries and multiple power generation allows us to eliminate the normal gas cooker and ovens. Gas is a fire/explosion risk but is also difficult to source when blue-water cruising as each territory has different standards for connectors and some are propane only and others butane. The galley has an induction hob, electric oven, a microwave, two fridge drawers, two freezer drawers, a dishwasher and a wine-cooler!
Just to add to the home from home feel we also have a TV, so we didn’t miss West Ham winning the UEFA Europa Conference League final!
In the starboard hull we also have a full-sized washer drier. The one problem is it turns out that the Candy has a sensor which causes it to think it’s outlet is blocked if there is any movement… perhaps not the best choice by Catana for an offshore cruising boat which might be at sea for three weeks! At least we can use it when at anchor.
