As long-time bareboat charter sailors, we had the opportunity to sail a variety of mono-hull and multi-hull boats in the 35-50ft range. From his racing days, Glenn was biased towards mono-hulls. Pamela was biased towards boats that don’t heel. The notion of being on board for longer stretches and occasionally hosting family and friends on Mira led us to value the comfort and living space of a catamaran. Glenn will still miss sailing at Mach 1 with the rails in the water and his hair on fire – but, all will be happier with a cat.
- Built for charter business – emphasizing comfort, maximum sleeping capacity, and a simple sail plan
- Built for performance – emphasizing speed and sail plan
- Built for extended global cruising – emphasizing blue water safety, short handed sailing, and a balance of comfort and performance
- Live-ability – full size galley, owner’s version, sleeping for at least six, dedicated nav station
- Covered helm station for us blue eyed blonds 🙂
- Ease of handling by a crew of two (or one, if Pamela’s blow drying her hair)
- Safe, blue water cruiser with high bridge deck clearance
- New construction or less than 5 years old
- Reputable production builder
- Proven aftermarket with solid resale value
- Auto pilot
- Electric winches
- Electric windlass
- Furling main and headsail
- Genset and generous solar plan
- Watermaker
- Radar, AIS, SSB, and satellite communications
The Antares 44 checked all the boxes and came standard with almost everything we wanted. The company arranged for us to test sail a boat, and we came away impressed with the handling and performance. In addition, we felt drawn to the active Antares owner community. They are a great group of like-minded cruising sailors who generously share their experience and lessons learned. Owners consistently gave the boat high marks on all things we valued and aftermarket Antares prices were nearly 100% of their original new construction price. So, in March 2016 we wrote a contract to build a new Antares!
Mira catamaran blog 