Design Team
Phillip Berman
President
Phillip Berman is the president of Balance Catamarans and The Multihull Company and a lifetime catamaran sailor and racer. He grew up racing Hobie Cats in California in the late 1960’s and published his first book on catamaran racing at the age of seventeen. He was the Hobie Cat World Champion from 1979 to 1981 and won numerous international and national catamaran competitions in the 70’s and 80’s. He went on to write many more books on the subject including the best-selling catamaran training manual of all time, CATAMARAN SAILING FROM START TO FINISH. He has been a regular contributor of articles over the years to Sail Magazine, Cruising World, and a wide range of yachting publications around the world.
Anton Du Toit
Designer
Anton has over thirty years of practical sailing and racing experience in various locations around the world. He grew up on boats, spending thirteen years cruising around the world with his family in their Sparkman Stephens Tartan 46 ft. sloop. As such, he has a very practical, hands on level of understanding of what it means to live on a boat and sail seriously in all sorts of winds and conditions. On returning to South Africa in 1990 he worked closely with prominent South African yacht designer Angelo Lavranos & Associates and at world-class yacht building facility Southern Wind Shipyard. He decided to go on his own in 2000, and with the business growing steadily hired several additional designers. He has designed numerous catamarans, both power and sail, and overseen some of South Africa’s largest catamaran build projects. In 2013 he formed a partnership with Phillip Berman and Balance Catamarans to design a range of new performance sailing catamarans, commencing with the new Balance 486 and 526, which are both in the tooling phase in St. Francis, South Africa..
Build Team
Balance Catamarans are proudly built in South Africa at Nexus Yachts in St. Francis Bay and Balance Catamarans Cape Town.
NEXUS YACHTS and BALANCE CATAMARANS formed an exclusive partnership together in 2012 to build and market together high performance voyaging catamarans factory direct to the consumer after Phil Berman saw their first catamaran, the Nexus 60, at the Annapolis Boat Show in 2010 and came away deeply impressed with both the build quality and design philosophy. Over the ensuing months and Phil’s visit to the factory to meet the team the two companies joined forces. Nexus Yachts now builds the Balance 526 and 620 Catamarans.
Balance Catamarans Cape Town started in 2019 after Berman and Du Toit designed and built a custom day charter catamaran Mark Delany for clients in the Caribbean. Mark completed the build of the vessel in 10 months, and being so impressed with the quality of craftsmanship and professionalism throughout the build, Berman and Delany began Balance Catamarans Cape town and formed a partnership to build a new model Balance in Cape Town. BCCT is now the builder for the Balance 482, 442 and the Balance Catamarans Custom and Day Charter Divisions.
Jonathan Paarman
Chief of Production, Nexus Yachts
To say that Jonathan Paarman grew up with salt water in his ears and resin on his hands would be an understatement. Starting in 2000 Jonathan ran the factory floor for Voyage Yachts. These seven years were enormously fruitful in that Jonathan enjoyed working closely with some of the early Gunboat builders, as well as with Uwe Jasperson and Kay Oldenburg. He then enjoyed the experience of working with designers Alexander Simonis and Anthony Key. After 7 years running the composite side of Voyage Yachts Jonathan left to form Nexus Yachts. Jonathan is also a legendary professional surfer.
Mark Paarman
Co-Owner, Nexus Yachts
After a lifetime surfing adventure, and then developing the largest fleet of commercial fishing boats in the squid industry, Mark Paarman couldn’t get his mind off heading out to sea again, on yet another surf crusade, and it was then that he started discussions of the dream catamaran over napkins and coffee. Soon enough the entire family got stoked on the idea and the first Nexus 60 Adventure Cat was borne in 2009. Mark has two children, Jaryd and Simone. Jaryd is a qualified yachtmaster and is currently skippering a boat in the Carribean. Simone is a journalism student in Port Elizabeth
Roger Paarman
Manager, Nexus Yachts
Like his older brothers, Roger was born into a family with very strong ties to the sea, and he is also a keen and successful surfer. He has a long relationship with the composites industry, having started by working for a surfboard manufacturer, followed by the manufacture of surfboard and sailboard fins, as well as being involved in a canvas blind manufacturing company. Roger has valuable experience in the running of production facilities, and he takes over the administration and management of the business.
Mark Delany
Managing Director, Balance Catamarans Cape Town
Mark Delany is the Managing Director of Balance Catamarans Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa. Mark was born into the South African Boat Building business when his father founded his facilities in 1989 from humble beginnings as an extension to a fuel service station, and growing into one of South Africa’s leading custom boat and manufacturing yards.
Sales Team
Phillip Berman
President
Phillip Berman is the president of Balance Catamarans and The Multihull Company and a lifetime catamaran sailor and racer. He grew up racing Hobie Cats in California in the late 1960’s and published his first book on catamaran racing at the age of seventeen. He was the Hobie Cat World Champion from 1979 to 1981 and won numerous international and national catamaran competitions in the 70’s and 80’s. He went on to write many more books on the subject including the best-selling catamaran training manual of all time, CATAMARAN SAILING FROM START TO FINISH. He has been a regular contributor of articles over the years to Sail Magazine, Cruising World, and a wide range of yachting publications around the world.
Andrew Hodgdon
Technical Director
Andrew grew up sailing his father’s Hobie Cat and transitioned that into a long career as a USCG licensed captain in the yachting industry. Working his way up from his college years as a sailing instructor to a position as a private yacht captain aboard a Gunboat 57, he brings with him a comprehensive knowledge of catamarans and the cruising life. His career has taken him on a wide variety of multihulls from his home waters of Cape Fear, through the waters of the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Central and South America, and the South Pacific Islands. He now works as the Technical Director for Balance Catamarans and is eager to share these amazing boats with potential buyers.
