By: Andrew Hodgdon, Technical Director, Balance Catamarans
Printed with Permission from Multihulls Quarterly
What’s really involved in designing, engineering, tooling and building a new catamaran?
In 2019 designers of the Balance 526 Phil Berman and Anton du Toit were discussing the best way to build on the success of their award-winning catamaran. Due to my growing role at Balance Catamarans I was fortunate enough to be brought into the brainstorming process and excited to share my insights from the past decade as a professional multihull captain. We started the conversation based on a trend we had noticed in the feedback from many of our customers; they loved the design and build quality of Balance Catamarans but wanted a smaller option at a lower price point. We were eager to enter this segment of the market but needed to be cautious.
It should first be mentioned that no company will go through the process of creating a new catamaran model unless they are quite confident it will sell and have a strong market. Creating a new design, engineering it, and building the tooling is very costly. For that reason many builders use the same tooling for a decade a more; simply making slight revisions to it after a few years in order to call it something new. I am amazed, as a yacht broker, how many two decade old designs are still being marketed and sold, often as brand new models. This is due entirely to the high cost of designing and tooling up a new boat. The good news for Balance was that we had very high demand for our 526 and 482. We knew our concepts and designs were well vetted and felt confident the market would respond favorably to an entirely new 44ft model that shared the DNA of her very popular larger sisters.
It was imperative that we capture the same soul of the 526 and 482, only this time in a more compact package. The resulting concept was christened the Balance 442. The objective of the 442 was to create another fully modern, daggerboard equipped, world voyaging catamaran. It must also be truly livable for a couple or family to sail anywhere in the world, along with the expected equipment they would need to carry. The task was made easier because the boat was a refinement and scaled down version of the 526 – a tested design, with tested features.
We knew several of those features absolutely must be transferred from our flagship model over to the new 442 design. We had to include the innovative VersaHelm, we wanted to maintain the 6’10” headroom throughout the interior, and the design had to share the same balance of livability and performance that is our namesake. Meeting at the office of Du Toit Yacht Design in Cape Town, we began the laborious process of bringing a new Balance model to life.
The process began with an overall design brief. Phil, Anton and I wanted to sustain a real performance orientation in the new 442 without sacrificing her livability and payload capacity. We had to decide on the basic dimensions of the new boat and the list of necessary equipment she would need to have aboard. All liveaboard catamarans need much the same equipment – water- makers, solar panels, two engines, refrigerators, freezer, air conditioning, etc. The smaller you go in size, the more challenging it is to equip a catamaran properly and keep her light enough and narrow enough to achieve that ideal balance. Base on those parameters, we then determined the materials we would use for her construction. We also had to consider the size and layout of her sail plan and match it to her projected displacement to achieve our performance goals.
We accelerated the design process by taking the specifics of the Balance 482 and simply shrinking them on a computer aided design program (CAD) to see where we would have to alter the 442. Anton then began the brand-new design by drawing the hull and cabin top of the vessel using the measurements that we’d already agreed upon. Once we had a basic drawing, Phil and I gave our input about possible adjustments. Let’s give the bows a slightly sharper rake. I would prefer a rounded curve to the hardtop bimini. Make sure the davits aren’t pushed back too far. Eventually, spars and sails were added to the drawing. The trampoline and longeron dimensions became clear. We decided on the perfect size and outline for the sugar scoops. Slowly but surely the new vessel took shape on the screen.
Next, we moved the design focus to the interior. We played around with different placements of cabinetry, lockers and heads striving to find the best fit for all the necessary equipment. Tables moved from one side of the saloon to the other. Companionway stairs shifted fore and aft to find the best placement in relation to the daggerboard trunks. It became a game to see who could come up with the best idea for saving a few inches here or an extra centimeter there. Believe it or not, we actually got out a tape measure. We rearranged Anton’s office furniture so that we could simulate the space in a hallway or through a doorway. We stood on a chair to determine the height of a shelf or locker. We stacked books to see the clearance of a step. We had to have a clear understanding of how people would live and move in these spaces, using every bit of space to the best application. Always with the knowledge that Balance owners need to be comfortable in these spaces both at sea and at anchor. No detail could be overlooked or disregarded.
A great design is the culmination of thousands of small decisions and subtleties that most people miss. It is always about attention to the smallest things which, if gotten right, add up to a superb finished product. Can you sleep on her? Lounge on her? Is there good visibility from the helm – up or down? Is she managed easily under power or sail? Does she have enough cabinetry for long term storage? Does she have enough payload to carry equipment – tenders, kayaks, etc? Does she have enough headroom to avoid turning tall people away? Will she perform upwind? Will she ride over the seas or pound hard into them? Every choice is a decision that is a balancing act between form and function- always striving to design a catamaran that is a marriage of beauty, functionality, and speed.
Once we were all happy with the overall design, we handed the project to Anton’s amazing design team to finalize. They scoured the layout looking for imperfections. Will this door open all the way? Will this plumbing be obstructed? Can this angle be improved? They put in hundreds of hours staring at every minute detail on the screen. Finally, the revised drawings were sent to the builder, Mark Delany at Balance Catamarans Cape Town, who has the daunting job of taking the design and turning it into reality. This inevitably leads to another round of revisions and adjustments as Mark dealt with the reality of taking a drawing and bringing it to life. Not only did we have to design the boat well, but we had to design the boat to go together well. So it went with all parties to the design process working together to make a great catamaran. It is a collective belief at Balance that a total team approach to the design and build process improves our product. Disagreement, push back, and collective head scratching from as many knowledgeable parties as possible inevitably yields the best results.
It brings me great joy to play just one small part in the development of such amazing products. I am only one person in a process that will eventually involve over two hundred others, who dedicate their professional lives to building incredible catamarans. We are all very eager to see the new Balance 442 come to life over the next few months. Moving from a simple design on a computer screen to a floating work of art, carrying its new owners across oceans and creating memories they will cherish for a lifetime.
By: Francois Tregouet, Multihulls World Magazine
There is no doubt that with their large industrial groups, the French currently dominate world multihull production. With their huge market, the United States is the industry’s engine. We admire the Aussies and Kiwis for their passion for everything that sails (quickly ideally) on two or three hulls. But who ever mentions South Africa? This is a country where boat culture and production (particularly catamarans) have been firmly entrenched for decades. Behind the giant Robertson & Caine, there are lots of smaller shipyards which, when taken as a whole, make the Rainbow Nation the “other multihull country”. Multihulls World took a closer look.
Despite their world cup winning exploits in 2019, South Africans aren’t just great rugby players. Among their other qualities (resilience being one of them) they have carved out a substantial niche in the multihull construction industry. So how does a country that was shunned for decades because of its apartheid regime manage to succeed in its export markets? And how does a country that is far from the well-sailed wake of the favored sailing regions and with minimal internal demand become the world’s second biggest catamaran builder? At 35 degrees south, the climate is pretty good, but the swell, with no other land masses to get in the way of it, can be huge. The weather can also be capricious, with violent storms coming from the Indian Ocean, and depressions rushing from east to west down in the roaring forties. Add to all this the grim reputation of Cape Agulhas (which separates the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans) and it’s clear to see that it’s not a boating paradise for hedonistic sailors. Unsurprisingly therefore, Springbok catamarans (the rugby team’s nickname) have traditionally been pretty solid. Even though they didn’t previously have the technology to build lighter-weight boats, the demanding sailing conditions justified super-solid construction, and this is still part of the mindset. For a long time, their rigging used double shrouds when their European counterparts were using single ones. The sails were also made from heavier cloth to survive the long delivery trips – usually to the Caribbean. Today, most multihulls reach those more peaceful waters on cargo ships. Yet a whole generation of young skippers got some amazing experience sailing multiple transatlantic crossings from the Cape of Good Hope to the West Indies.
Looking back across recent history, there would seem to be three main stages in the development of multihull construction in Nelson Mandela’s homeland. First of all, let’s go back 40 years. It was December 1979, so midsummer in the southern hemisphere. The fifth Hobie Cat 14 World Championships were being organized by South Africa, at Plettenburg Bay, 30 miles east of the small tourist town of Knysna. The competition was won by the US and a certain Phil Berman, who we will come back to later. More importantly, the 72 brand-new Hobie Cats which were used for the competition, were sold for peanuts after the end of the competition and won over the skippers who up until then had sailed on monohulls. On board their IOR prototypes, they could be seen on the waters around Cape Town and Durban every Sunday. This was the era of John Robertson, Jerry Caine, Duncan Lethbridge, and the experience stayed with them.
DUE TO CORONAVIRUS TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS, BALANCE CATAMARANS WILL NO LONGER ATTEND THE LA GRANDE MOTTE INTERNATIONAL MULTIHULL SHOW IN FRANCE
It is with sadness that Balance Catamarans will no longer be able to attend the La Grande Motte International Multihull Show this coming April. We were looking forward to showing one of our Balance 526 catamarans to Europe, conducting demonstration sails and meeting the many Europeans who have been reaching out to us about our product line.
We send our deepest regrets to the lovely staff and owners of this superb boat show. The La Grande Motte International Multihull Show is to our mind, the best run and most pleasant boat show in the world. The staff are superb and the “all multihull” nature of the show makes it significantly more intimate and beneficial to those of us in the industry who craft performance-oriented multihulls for sophisticated consumers. We promise to support this show again and look forward to next April when we can attend.
At present, Balance is exploring a Balance University, late Summer sailing demonstration weekend in Crete on the Balance 526, “KIA PAI”
STAY TUNED!
To arrange a time to personally inspect the boats or schedule a time to speak with a balance associate, inquire here today!
By Bobby Jordan, International Boat Industry
Newly-launched Balance Catamarans Cape Town had confirmed six orders for the new Balance 482 on the back of a successful Annapolis show.
Balance Cape Town is a joint venture between US-based Balance Catamarans, Balance Catamarans Cape Town, and top South African naval architect Anton du Toit. The new 482 design is still in the tooling stage, but has already generated an impressive string of orders, according to Balance president Phil Berman.
The Cape Town company was set up to build a range of custom and semi-production catamarans, and hopes to emulate the success of Berman’s other South African joint venture with Nexus Yachts in Cape St Francis.
Speaking to IBI during a visit to South Africa earlier this month, Berman said the growth of his South African business ventures was largely thanks to key partnerships with Du Toit, Mark Delany from Balance Cape Town, and the Paarman brothers from Nexus.
“When you are starting out you always have doubts but I did always feel confident that if I got the right people together we would be successful,” Berman said in relation to the success of the Balance 52, of which seven hulls have so far been built. “I will say that the partnership I’ve had with Anton [Du Toit], Johnnie and Roger [Paarman] has been a really good partnership because a lot of listening and collaboration is going on, between all of us, and this has just led to a really good boat.”
He said he was equally confident about the future of his collaboration with Delany and his team.
Berman also highlighted a successful business model that linked the two South African ventures to the global marketing reach established by The Multihull Company, Berman’s US-based brokerage which sells around 100 boats a year. “Because we have the marketing resources globally through that other company, it is much easier for us to brand a product and reach the market cost-effectively,” he said. “The first three Balance 52s were all bought by customers of my other company.
“When a company is starting out, securing the first customers and building the trust required… is very important,” Berman said.
The new 482 model has an owner version configuration that accommodates up to six people. She is built for both speed and cruising comfort, and includes the trademark versa helm.
Continue Reading the full article at International Boating Industry Online
By: Sandy Parks, Blue Water Sailing
The new Balance 482 cruising catamaran, designed by Phil Berman of The Multihull Company and Anton du Toit, a South African yacht designer, is the little sister to the Balance 526 that was launched three years ago. The 48 is a true couple’s performance cruiser that from the start was intended to be easy to sail, easy to maintain, fast and comfortable at sea.
The new boat uses many innovations introduced in the 526 including the trademarked Versahelm. This inspired design innovation allows the helm wheel to pivot from a vertical position at the helmsman’s seat to a horizontal position under the protection of the hard Bimini top. In the up position, visibility forward and of the sails is good. In the down position you have good visibility forward through the huge saloon windows so you can stay out of the sun or be protected from wind and rain.
With the three-cabin layout, the master suite offers a spacious home for the owners while guests or children can bunk down in the large cabins in the opposite hull. A four-cabin version will offer everyone good private cabins and plenty of space.
The saloon is set up for indoor-out-door living with a dining area in the front of the saloon that can seat six or be folded down to convert into a double berth. Berman is all about maintaining as perfect a balance as possible between sailing performance and comfortable living and the 482 promises to do this nearly perfectly.
By Francois Tregouet, Multihulls World
There is no doubt that with their large industrial groups, the French currently dominate world multihull production. With their huge market, the United States is the industry’s engine. We admire the Aussies and Kiwis for their passion for everything that sails (quickly ideally) on two or three hulls. But who ever mentions South Africa? This is a country where boat culture and production (particularly catamarans) have been firmly entrenched for decades. Behind the giant Robertson & Caine, there are lots of smaller shipyards which, when taken as a whole, make the Rainbow Nation the “other multihull country”. Multihulls World took a closer look.
Despite their world cup winning exploits in 2019, South Africans aren’t just great rugby players. Among their other qualities (resilience being one of them) they have carved out a substantial niche in the multihull construction industry. So how does a country that was shunned for decades because of its apartheid regime manage to succeed in its export markets? And how does a country that is far from the well-sailed wake of the favored sailing regions and with minimal internal demand become the world’s second biggest catamaran builder? At 35 degrees south, the climate is pretty good, but the swell, with no other land masses to get in the way of it, can be huge. The weather can also be capricious, with violent storms coming from the Indian Ocean, and depressions rushing from east to west down in the roaring forties. Add to all this the grim reputation of Cape Agulhas (which separates the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans) and it’s clear to see that it’s not a boating paradise for hedonistic sailors. Unsurprisingly therefore, Springbok catamarans (the rugby team’s nickname) have traditionally been pretty solid. Even though they didn’t previously have the technology to build lighter-weight boats, the demanding sailing conditions justified super-solid construction, and this is still part of the mindset. For a long time, their rigging used double shrouds when their European counterparts were using single ones. The sails were also made from heavier cloth to survive the long delivery trips – usually to the Caribbean. Today, most multihulls reach those more peaceful waters on cargo ships. Yet a whole generation of young skippers got some amazing experience sailing multiple transatlantic crossings from the Cape of Good Hope to the West Indies.
Looking back across recent history, there would seem to be three main stages in the development of multihull construction in Nelson Mandela’s homeland. First of all, let’s go back 40 years. It was December 1979, so midsummer in the southern hemisphere. The fifth Hobie Cat 14 World Championships were being organized by South Africa, at Plettenburg Bay, 30 miles east of the small tourist town of Knysna. The competition was won by the US and a certain Phil Berman, who we will come back to later. More importantly, the 72 brand-new Hobie Cats which were used for the competition, were sold for peanuts after the end of the competition and won over the skippers who up until then had sailed on monohulls. On board their IOR prototypes, they could be seen on the waters around Cape Town and Durban every Sunday. This was the era of John Robertson, Jerry Caine and Duncan Lethbridge, and the experience stayed with them.
The world’s biggest multihull yacht broker lands on SA shores yet again to spearhead two ventures
Featured in The Sunday Times, South Africa January 2020, By Bobby Jordan
American Phil Berman has ignited a boatbuilding Renaissance in South Africa
As an author and philosophy student, Phil Berman spent years wondering what makes the world go round. He discovered it’s more fun just to go around the world – and help others do it, too.
The New York Times bestselling author and former world champion sailor has teamed up with SA boatbuilders to construct some of the world’s best multihull catamarans – 50ft vessels able to circumnavigate the globe.
And in so doing, he has turned his personal philosophy into a commercial fairytale for the local marine economy.
Berman, who gave up writing books to become the world’s biggest multihull yacht broker, is spearheading two boatbuilding joint ventures in SA, one with Nexus Yachts in St Francis Bay, the other with Two Oceans Marine in Cape Town.
Phil Berman, pictured with Hobie Alter, won the inaugural Hobie Cat World Championships in South Africa – the start of his South African love affairBoth involve Berman’s US-based company Balance Catamarans, which is also building vessels in China. To date, Balance has built seven luxury catamarans in SA, with several more in production or on the order book. One of the models has already earned the prestigious international Cruising World ‘Boat of the Year’ award.
Berman first visited SA in 1979, when he won the World Hobie Cat World championships in St Francis Bay. He says the visit made a lasting impression and set in motion a love affair with SA that continues to this day.
“After the world champs I travelled SA, learned about apartheid, what it meant and followed Bishop [Desmond] Tutu and Nelson Mandela’s progress,” Berman told Times Select from his base in Philadelphia.
“I have seen the SA experiment in racial justice and the effort to create a rainbow nation and am committed to it. South Africans’ number one challenge is jobs … and boatbuilding is a great business for job creation.”
Like many boat industry stalwarts, Berman was drawn into the industry due to a love of travel and adventure – particularly sailing. His CV is unusual in that he turned his back on an Ivy League education to contemplate the finer points of epoxy resin decking.
The garrulous Berman has earned a reputation as a master salesman, even among those who consider his ‘American-style’ self-confidence too brash.
Before selling and building boats Berman wrote several books, including a bestseller he co-wrote in 1999 with primatologist Jane Goodall. Most of his books examined philosophical ideas around belief and ethics, which he also explored in his Harvard master’s degree on the history of religion. His CV lists several TV appearances, including on the Today Show, CNN and the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Ultimately, however, Berman preferred to mix some secular with the profound: “Many people ask: ‘Why did you stop writing books?’ The reason was that I was sitting by myself all day, lonely. I like people, and I love travel. As a writer, it is a very solitary life and sedentary … those two things are really not well-suited to my personality.
“I said to my wife, we’ve made enough money so that I could explore other things. I really want to get back to the water. I want a more adventurous life again – that is what compelled me to start another company. I wish I had started Balance Catamarans sooner.”
Berman said his literary career and academic training laid the foundation for his business career. “I learned a lot about how to write well and how to think clearly, and also a lot about marketing and promotions. I think that has helped me a great deal.”
American boat tycoon Phil Berman has put together a dream team in South Africa, building multihull yachts for the international market.
The garrulous Berman has earned a reputation as a master salesman, even among those who consider his “American-style” self-confidence too brash. His public persona contrasts starkly with some of the more reclusive SA boatbuilding and yacht designing global stars – who include several of Berman’s local partners. SA has a proud boatbuilding history and is the world’s second-largest catamaran producer, with about 3,500 people employed in the sector. Local boat yards produce famously sturdy yachts due to the demanding Southern Ocean conditions.
Local maritime industry sources said Berman’s sales acumen was a natural fit with SA’s design and boatbuilding skills. “He finds guys [in SA] who really do a good job building boats and then tries to sell them into the American market,” said one of Berman’s former clients, businessman Ivor Karan.
“He is a straight shooter – a straightforward, honest fellow. He works, is full of energy, and is an accomplished sailor.”
Vanessa Davidson, executive head of the SA Boat Builders Export Council, said: “The relationship Phil Berman has with SA boatbuilders has been cultivated over many years. He has a very good understanding of the American boat buyer, and vertically integrated partnerships such as the ones he has established with local boatbuilders are definitely beneficial to the industry.
“Phil pulls the threads together, and this creates efficiencies in getting SA-built boats on to the world stage.”
Landlocked yacht club says its sailors can’t get to the sea.
With Special Thanks To The Sunday Times
