DH550 Catamaran "Valerie"

"Valerie" is the newest DH550 catamaran, launched in Durban, South Africa, a few months ago. Now she is in the Seychelles, awaiting her charter licence. Within a few weeks she should be licensed and available for crewed charter among these gorgeous Indian Ocean islands.

DH550 "Valerie" relaxing in an idyllic setting.

"Valerie" with Argie 15 as yacht tender.

A closer view.

Starboard aft cabin.

Galley on port side of saloon.

Settee on starboard side of saloon.

Inside helm and nav station.

Fast, comfortable sailing.

"Valerie" was built from a kit from Exocetus Marine in UK, who supplied a fairly comprehensive kit. It included CNC-cut components for hull, deck, bulkheads and interior joinery, as well as deck hardware, machinery, electrics and many other items.

"Valerie" will have a website in a few months. Until then I can forward any enquiries about chartering her to her owners.

To see our full range of designs go to our main website or our mobile website.

Proven DH550 Cruising Catamaran For Sale

The DH550 "Friends Forever" was built by a team of very accomplished professional boatbuilders on a farm in wine country, outside of Cape Town, South Africa. One of the leaders of this team is also co-owner of this beautiful boat and is a very experienced sailor, having competed in the 1994/5 BOC Challenge single-handed around the world race. This he did on a boat that he knew intimately, having been the leader of the team that built it for legendary single-handed racing yachtsman, "Biltong" Bertie Reed, for a previous version of the same race.

DH550 "Friends Forever", doing sea trials on Table Bay soon after launch.

Sailing Southern Africa magazine published an article about her soon after launch. "Friends Forever" has been well-proven since her launch in May 2016. She did her sea trials on Table Bay before heading off cruising. She has crossings of both the South and North Atlantic under her keels, separated by cruising the Caribbean, then extensive cruising in the Mediterranean, ending in Greece. She is now on the market because her other co-owner needs to sell.

She is laid out with a large owner's suite in the port hull, with a utility area forward of that for equipment, storage and an extra single berth. This hull can be closed off from the rest of the boat by a privacy sliding door separating it from the bridgedeck accommodation. She has two double cabins with shared heads and shower in the starboard hull. View a PDF with full description of her accommodation and specification. With that information in your hands, I will let photos speak for her.

"Friends Forever" cruising the Mediterranean Sea.

Diagonal view of saloon, looking forward. Galley and dinette to port, navigation and lounge area to starboard. Helm with engine controls on centreline. There is a second helm in the forward cockpit, mounted on the same shaft.

Opposite view of saloon, looking from the galley.

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Saloon, looking aft.

Aft double berth.

Port heads.

Port heads and shower.

Forward double berth, starboard hull.

Bow storage area

Engine under aft berth.

Forward (working) cockpit, with helm, all sail controls and a liferaft.

View from forward cockpit.

The forward cockpit is well protected from rough seas.

Aft cockpit, able to be completely screened off.

Cabin roof, with solar panels

Asking price for "Friends Forever" is US$1.1 million. If you would like more information about her, please email me and I will connect you with the owner.

To see more of this and our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

DH550 Catamaran Video

Today I saw a rather nice walk-through video of the DH550 "Cheetah", posted by Wiley Sharp. This boat was custom-built for her owner by Peter Lane in Trinidad, to a gorgeous standard. She has beautiful veneered finishes throughout, unusual for multihulls. Click on the link to watch the video.

The layout of "Cheetah" is a bit different from our standard layout, modified by her architect owner to suit his needs. The normal arrangement is four equal cabins, two in each hull with a large shared heads with shower between the two.

The other big difference between "Cheetah" and the other boats built to the DH550 design is in the powering. "Cheetah" has a pair of electric drives powered by large battery banks charged by solar panels backed up by a diesel generator. Each of the other boats has a pair of 50hp diesel motors.

DH550 "Cheetah" on launch day.

"Cheetah" and most of the other boats have daggerboards but the design includes a cruising keel option, as fitted to "Friends Forever". The drawings also show the option of dual steering, one inside the saloon as used on "Cheetah", and the other in the forward cockpit. The two wheels share a common shaft that passes through the bulkhead that separates the two.

DH550 "Friends Forever" under sail.

Cheetah was built from scratch, using plans only. There is a company in UK, Exocetus Marine, that has developed a very comprehensive CNC kit that includes all plywood components that go into the boat, to speed up construction of amateur and professional projects. Boats are being built in Australia, Germany and South Africa using their kits.

DH550 being built from an Exocetus kit in South Africa.

More recently we have introduced the DH550 Charter, with interior layout more suited to charter service, as well as aft elevated cockpit for helming and all sail handling.

See more info on these and our other designs on our main website or our mobile website.

Updates on the DH550 Catamarans

Last year the DH550 "Friends Forever", built by JJ Provoyer and his team, was launched in Cape Town, South Africa. For a few months "Friends Forever" day-sailed locally, then set off trans-Atlantic (South Atlantic) to cruise the Caribbean. Then back across the Atlantic again (North Atlantic this time), headed for the Med, final destination Israel. Last that I heard she was cruising France.

DH550 "Friends Forever" on Table Bay.

Easy sailing in beautiful conditions.

While "Friends Forever" was in France, she was visited by Kevin Bream of Exocetus Marine, supplier of CNC kits for the DH550, Dix 470 and the Dix 430 (currently in the design phase). Kevin did a drone fly-around video and sent some photos and a sailing report. He said "We went for a sail for one day. We were on a close haul tacking out from Cogolin past Saint Tropez, and making better speed than all the mono hulls, tacking speed was impressive as well. Overall very impressed."

"Friends Forever" sailing off St Tropez.

Back in South Africa, Sea Tribe Catamarans is building a DH550 in Durban. They are building from a kit supplied by Exocetus Marine and are moving at a fast pace. They have a series of time-lapse videos of their project on the Sea Tribe blog, showing the build process. I wrote earlier this year about the kit that was shipped to Southern Africa.

Sea Tribe turning one of the hulls of their DH550.

To see more about this and our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

DH550 Kit Shipped to Southern Africa

Exocetus Yachts has shipped another kit for the DH550 sailing catamaran, this one to a builder in Southern Africa. This was more than a CNC plywood kit, it included many extras in the form of equipment and materials for the boat. The total package needed a 40ft container to keep it all together. The photos below show the order during loading. Exocetus is able to customize their kits to suit any builder, from a partial plywood CNC kit through to almost everything needed to build the boat.

"Wild Vanilla", prototype of the DH550 design. This is what the completed boat will look like.

Some of the components of the building stocks.

Pre-formed plywood panels for the hull radius.

Plywood and more plywood, CNC-cut and clearly referenced for assembly.
On top are timbers for stringers and other structural members.

Generators and engines. Behind them, porthole frames, also cut with CNC equipment.

Hardware, plumbing, electrical and other equipment.

Epoxies, tanks and more equipment

Container packed and ready to be closed and sealed.

Container loaded and heading for the ship.

To see more of this and our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

DH550 "Wild Vanilla" Videos

The owner of the DH550 "Wild Vanilla" sent me videos of his boat. Here are two of the best ones, courtesy of Roy Wirthlin.

This one is a drone video of her sailing in light breeze off southern Florida.

This is an onboard video, sailing at 10 knots in 10 knots of breeze, about 15 knots apparent. She slips along easily with little wake.

To see more of this and our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

Didi 29 Retro and DH550, Two Boats with a Connection

This week two owners have sent me rather nice "at rest" photos of their boats.

First was "Arabella", the Didi 29 Retro of Bruce Mierke. This radius chine plywood monohull has retro styling and a gaff rig and has surprised some with her nimble performance and handling. She was exhibited on the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show in October then launched in North Carolina. She sailed for a week or two before going to her inland South Carolina winter home. Now she is afloat again, this time in the warmer waters of Florida.

Didi 29 Retro "Arabella" now in the warmer Florida water.
Click on the photos to enlarge.

Bruce has some sailing photos, taken this week. He will send them to me when he is back home.

The other boat is the DH550 prototype "Wild Vanilla". She is a radius chine plywood cruising catamaran of very modern styling. Built by Phil Harvey in Trinidad, she is now owned by Roy Wirthlin and lives in southern Florida. Roy is very proud of his boat, particularly the interest that she attracts. In his email today he passed on these comments.

"We have the boat located just north of West Palm Beach FL and I can’t tell you the number of comments that we get: “that is the most beautiful cat I have ever seen.”  One older gentleman made a point of chasing us down to find out what make it was, he said: “I have been sailing for over 40 years and that is the best looking cat I have ever seen … makes me think I might go over to the ‘dark side’ :).”

Even the bridge operators have given us compliments.  

“Speed of a Catana, with the space of a Lagoon and so easy on the eyes” is how I describe her."

Thanks Roy, for your comments.

DH550 prototype "Wild Vanilla".

Roy has also given me some videos of "Wild Vanilla" sailing, both from inside the boat and from a drone. I will post some of those here in a day or two.

So, what is the connection between a 29ft classic monohull and a 55ft modern catamaran, aside from construction material and method? The are close to opposites in concept but are both derived from the same earlier design, the very popular Didi 26. The Didi 29 Retro hull is the same as the Didi 26 but extended aft into a counter stern. The DH550 has Didi 26 hulls that are reproportioned to the needs of a big cat.

Didi 26 "Panic Knot". Her design is the basis for both of the other boats mentioned.

For more info on these and our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

The Launching of a Big Cat

People who have never seen the process may wonder how a large catamaran is moved from the build site to the launch site, if they are not close to each other. Recently a DH550 catamaran was launched at Royal Cape Yacht Club in Cape Town, South Africa and it was built about 30 miles away in a rural location. This series of photos and videos sent to me by the builders tell the transport story nicely.

The new boat, named "Friends Forever", was built by a team headed by Jean Jaques (JJ) Provoyeur and Richard (Thirsty) Bertie. JJ Provoyear is the owner of the boat and it was built on his property. The rig is being set up this weekend and we should soon see sailing photos.

Inside the building shed, being readied for transport

The men in this photo give scale to the boat. Ready for the transporter to be backed in.

This is a big boat, so it needs specialist transport equipment to get it to the water. Cape Town is the home of a few production catamaran builders, so there are transporters available that are ideal for this job. In countries where this sort of project is more rare, large flat-bed transporters from other industries can do the job as long as the boat is properly supported.

On the transporter and moved out of the shed, with the keels still to be fitted.

Cruising keels were test-fitted before leaving the build site but only fitted at the launch site. Road clearance would have been an issue if transported with the keels in place.

With a large package like this, it is very important to research the route before the build even starts. There is no point building at a convenient location then finding that you can't get it to the water. That means finding a route that is wide enough and high enough for the boat to fit through on the trailer. It may also mean having people on the boat during transport to lift lift power cables and tree branches if they are hanging a bit low.

It also needs liaison with and permits from local authorities to move the load on the roads. It may need narrow roads to be closed to other traffic and for police escorts to help it through congested areas and along heavily trafficked highways.

Negotiating tight corners can be an issue due to the width of the load, even on roads designed for use by tractor/trailers. This boat fills up three lanes of highway, which can become interesting when negotiating tight corners. That is when it really helps to have a transporter that has steerable wheels all along its length. These can be seen in the video below, at about 0:30, where the trailer wheels all steer to move the back end sidewards when they have a very tight 90 degree corner to negotiate at a traffic light, without taking out any poles nor damaging the boat on the curbs.

After being on the move from mid-morning through to well after dark, "Friends Forever" arrived at her launch site, at Royal Cape Yacht Club. There her cruising keels were fitted and other preparations completed over the next two days before she was launched.

Crane lowering the spreader frame over the boat preparatory to fitting the slings.

In the water for the first time. The end of her first journey.

At time of writing the rig of "Friends Forever" had still to be stepped, prior to sea trials. Thanks to Esther Provoyeur for the photos and videos.

To see more of this an out other designs, visit our main website or our mobile website.