Good morning from the Royal Cape Yacht Club in Cape Town, where we’re celebrating a milestone.
We’ve been dropping hints for weeks that we were closing in on triple digits, and here it is: the 100th Balance catamaran since the original Balance 526 has hit the water has launched.
To be clear, other catamarans have carried the Balance name before. But the Balance you know today, the one built in South Africa, the one that redefined what a performance cruising cat could be, started its build count 100 boats ago. That’s the number we’re celebrating.
Congratulations to everyone who made it happen: the builders, the designers, the crews, and above all, the owners. You’ve been our best brand advocates, and your support is the reason we can now say, with pride, that there are more than 100 Balance catamarans in the water sailing around the world today.
Where It All Started: Filling the Gap
Back when Phil Berman started to imagine Balance Catamarans, the market was split into two camps: charter cats built for comfort, and race boats built for speed. There wasn’t much in between. So we built the boat that took the best of both worlds, added a heavy dose of innovative new ideas and launched Balance Catamarans representing our own idea of how to sail fast and in comfort.
Our first launch was the Balance 526, that first model found her balance (hence the name) between blue-water performance and genuinely comfortable life aboard. In 2017, that formula earned her Cruising World’s Import Boat of the Year. Thirty-four 526s were eventually built, but that model line turned out to be just the beginning.
Growing the Family
Owners asked for something smaller, but with the same soul, the same look, and the same feel. The Balance 482 answered that call and went on to win Sail Magazine’s Best Boats, Sailing World’s Boat of the Year, and Cruising World’s Best Performance Catamaran. Thirty 482s were built.
Around the same time, there was demand for something even more compact, closer to 40 feet, without giving up anything that made Balance, Balance. The Balance 442 delivered, holding 11 knots in 16 knots of true wind and earning a spot on Sail Magazine’s list of the year’s 10 best boats. Thirty were built, with the very last one launching recently, right here at Royal Cape.
But the range didn’t just get smaller. It also grew larger, longer and even faster. The Balance 580, with her extraordinary rig, spacious salon, and generous cabins, carved out space for high-performance blue-water cruising at a bigger scale. Named a Sail Magazine Top 10 Boat for 2026, five 580s have been built so far, with a strong order book behind her. (And watch for the launch of our newest model, the 464 launching this fall, and the 540 launching in February of 2027. See more below.) And beyond even that sits our flagship, the Balance 750, a stunning yacht in a class entirely of her own, built to command the high seas and turn heads in every anchorage she enters.
The Boats That Got Us to 100
Which brings us to the boats that carried us across the finish line.
Over the last two years, the 442 and 482 have cleared the yard floor to make room for an all-new model: the Balance 502. She carries two extra feet of waterline, more sail area, more carbon, and nothing traded away on livability. This isn’t a facelift. It’s ten years of owner feedback and creative thinking on the part of the design teams all distilled into a single build.
Takoda is the fourth Balance 502 off the line, and the 100th Balance catamaran built since this story began in South Africa.
What's Next
The milestone doesn’t mean we’re slowing down. Two brand-new models are already on the way.
In Cape Town, the Balance 464 is nearing the end of her production journey. And out east in St. Francis Bay, the first Balance 540, the model now taking over line honors from the original 526, is well underway, with her launch set for early 2027.
More Than a Number
100 boats is just a number. Behind it is a huge network of livelihoods, and an ever-growing community of owners who’ve trusted us with their lives and time on the water.
And now, through our new partnership with the World Cruising Club, that community, and everywhere it can sail, goes further, together.
Thank you all for being part of this journey.
Stay in balance.
