Moving to the Dark Side

DarkSide1We’ve all heard that raspy voice calling us to the dark side inviting us to explore the inner demon. For most monohull sailors the dark side is the multihull division and so for us the calling to explore our inner demon came in the form of Fontaine Bahia 46 ft catamaran. I guess the right question is why? After so many years sailing the traditional monohull, circumnavigating Australia in our wonderful Kelly Peterson why would we jump ship, so as to speak, and move to the dark side.

Living at 30 degrees as it so often referred to on a monohull does wear on you after a while and although our Kelly Peterson was great for just Di, Widget and I we wanted the ability to add more people over longer distances. The experience gained from our circumnavigation showed us that faster passage times would also be a great advantage. Our KP44 was a fantastic sea boat but our passage planning was constantly done at 5kts which is not always ideal when dealing with bad weather.

In mid 2012 along with our WA family we chartered a catamaran in Thailand for a vacation and during that time we found ourselves discussing more and more the advantages of a catamaran. And so the call to the dark side became stronger and finally last year we gave in to the inner demon, flew to Annapolis and bought Toucan a Fontaine Bahia 46. In June this year we will return to the US with a view to splash Toucan, develop her cruising side and in early November head to the Caribbean to start the great adventure of the trip back home.

We have gone to the dark side! More Toucan adventures to come.

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