The Pat Patterson designed Heavenly Twins is just possibly the best bang for the buck of any catamaran ever built.
With a street price these days of less than $20K there's a lot to be said for an under 30-foot catamaran that sleeps six.
At least a couple of this design have successfully circumnavigated and many others have done transatlantic and transpacific voyages which attests to their seaworthiness.
The interior accommodation is both sensible as well as surprisingly commodious for a boat so small which is no easy accomplishment. I've seen a lot of larger designs that don't have as good livability and ergonomics as the Heavenly Twins.
All in all, there were six versions of the design each with modifications that actually improved the design rather than cosmetic changes or one step forward two steps back sort of engineering.
I've always thought of the Heavenly Twins as being a lot like the VW bug and the Citroen 2CV in that they have a lot of character and appeal to people who are more function oriented.
Like a lot of "cruising" catamarans, the Heavenly Twins are not so fleet of foot and tend to have performance more akin to a monohull.
That said, it is still a multihull and great care needs to be observed. It does not have the load carrying ability of a monohull so while it's a boat with comparable speed to an equivalent monohull, it will become a slug when overloaded.
Over the last few years I've seen Heavenly Twins selling for as low as $8K and as high as $25K with the bulk selling for somewhere in the $12k to $17K range.
That is still more expensive than an equivalent monohull but considering how overpriced catamarans are in general they are still quite a good deal. More info can be found on the Heavenly Twins and Cruising Catamaran Association.
No comments:
Post a Comment