To my eye, designer Pierre Delion designed the Explocat with comfort in mind. The D/L is 133 and that indicates a boat of “medium” displacement. But a warning here. The displacement listed is a “light displacement” and I always take those with a grain of sea salt. I would not be surprised if the real D/L was not closer to 150. The L/B is 27.9. Of course we can’t relate that to any monohull L/Bs but we can use it when evaluating other catamarans. If I divide the LOA by an estimate of the individual hulk beam I get an L/B of 7.58. Draft is a scant 4 feet 11 inches so this particular cat will do far better reaching than it will beating. I have no drawings or images that show the underbody. Damn art departments! I think we can safely assume the keel is a long and low-aspect-ratio integral fin. This would make beaching the big cat quite convenient on some beaches. 

I like the hatchet bow profile and the overall styling of the hulls. The flat, slightly reversed sheerline goes well with the high freeboard. I see a subtle chine but it is well above the DWL and my guess is that it’s more for styling than performance.

 

There are three interior layout options. The main difference is between four and three double staterooms. There are some saloon options as well, depending on whether your priority is seating or having the galley on the main deck level rather than down in the starboard hull. As you may know I like to hack my way around the galley so I’d go for the galley “up” layout. 

If you go with three double stateroom you get two staterooms in the port hull and one in the starboard hull with an extended head and shower area in the bow of the starboard hull. This turns the entire starboard hull into the “owner’s suite.” I like that. All layouts feature a well-laid-out nav station along with inside steering. With the galley up you lose some seating in the saloon but there is lots of seating in the covered cockpit so I don’t see this as a negative. With four staterooms you get four heads with shower stalls. Trust me. You will be very comfortable in any of these layouts.

The upwind sail area is listed as 1,802 square feet and I’m sure that includes all of the square-top mainsail. That gives us a SA/D of 23.89. I think that should be plenty of sail area to keep the Explocat moving in light to medium air. The mainsheet traveler attaches on the hard top over the cockpit. Jibs tracks are on the cabintrunk top and lead to the raised helm station, keeping the running gear off the side decks.

There is a forward cockpit that you access from a door forward in the saloon. There are seats and a table in this forward cockpit. The aft cockpit is a bit broken up by the elevated helm station that is required for visibility over that big house. I’m not one for sitting in the sun so that covered aft cockpit would be perfect for me. 

The Explocat 52 is unusual in the world of cruising cats in that it features all aluminum construction. 

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LOA 53’6”; LWL 52’; Beam 27’11”’; Draft 4’11”; Displ. 41,887 lbs.; Sail area 1,798 sq. ft.; SA/D 23.89; D/L 133; L/B 1.91; Twin auxiliary 75-hp.; Fuel capacity 211 gal.; Water capacity 211 gal.