Visayan 50' Catamaran (V15) Deck Plan

Visayan 50' Catamaran (V15)

Deck Plan

Floating Real Estate

One of the real advantages of a thoughtfully designed cruising catamaran is the large amount of "real estate" available to make the boat truly comfortable outside as well as down below. This is appreciated especially in tropical waters where it is rarely necessary to hide from the cold.

In northern climates a bit of sunlight is a wonderful blessing. In the tropics however, you should be doing all you can to avoid it. In addition to the large airy salon on our Visayan 15 Catamaran, the permanent aft deck hardtop covers the deck seating and helm station for even more shade. The forward windows in the hardtop open fully as in the salon. This structure is built lightly, but with running braces to carry the powerful mainsheet loads. The hardtop-mounted traveler keeps the highly tensioned mainsheet safely away from crew on the stern deck, and provides a convenient out-of-the-way surface for a large array of solar panels, particularly useful on a live-aboard tropical cruiser.

Comfortable steps lead to the salon roof for access to the mast base and boom area for mainsail handling. This plan shows our easily handled Barlow-designed rotating wing mast, which we recommend with a fully battened mainsail for efficient cruising. A standard sloop rig is also available.

All deck areas of the boat are flat or only gently sloped for safe movement. Large self-draining lockers with flush hatches in the fore and aft decks provide a huge volume for outside stowage, and this boat can carry the weight. Space is available on the aft deck to carry a large dinghy while underway so there is no temptation to tow it.

Full height (90 cm.) lifelines surround the complete deck perimeter for safety, with the aft deck lifelines and stanchions made quickly removable to facilitate boarding the dinghy. There is space in a flush aft-deck locker to stow a large inflatable rolled up. A sturdy swimmer's ladder is concealed under the aft deck and accessed through a large flush hatch. Vertical radar and antenna poles in the stern quarters double as a dinghy crane and awning support to add even more shade to the aft deck.

To avoid the penalty of forward weight, and to reduce the possibility of underdeck pounding the foredeck is open but filled with strong netting. An optional a-frame prodder arrangement forward of the bow-pipe facilitates handling of a large and useful, but completely removable, "screecher" headsail.

The Visayan 15 Catamaran, will be as comfortable on deck as down below. Take a good look at this design for your cruising future.

//back to the top