Cruising Multihullr

The Novara cat is the brainchild of Dr. Martin Mai, a Viennese dentist, (who'd a thunk it?) and several other designers including the Coventry Polytechnic Department of Industrial Design. I can't tell exactly who has contributed what in this package. It appears that most of the hull design work was done by Phil Morrison of Southampton. The object of this exercise was to develop a series of fast and versatile cruising catamarans. I have spectacular photos of the first of these cats being launched by a giant crane off the autobahn, over a wide riverbank and into the river. At 44 feet, 3 inches LOA and with a 31-foot, 6-inch beam it's easy to see how this was a traffic stopper. With that amount of beam I would imagine this cat's stable enough for most dental procedures.

It's a spectacular looking design with near flush decks and a clear bubble covering the nav station. If you could get those lamb patties positioned perfectly under that bubble on a sunny day they would be cooked in no time. There is a flush sliding hatch in the bubble that is done well enough to be completely invisible in the photos. If I owned one of these I'd name it Beam Me Up Dr. Mai.

The hull shape was a result of tank tests using a John Shuttleworth-designed Tektron 50 as a benchmark. Test runs were run to explore the effects of volumetric distribution and BWL. If I am reading the brochure correctly the hull form chosen was the one with the least BWL and the deepest canoe body. The topsides fair out above the DWL and there are two chines that add to the volume where you most need it for interior components. There is one deep daggerboard to starboard only.

When I first looked at the photos I thought what a great looking cat this was. Then I realized that one of the reasons this cat looks so good is that it has no house. (You can hardly count that nitrous oxide bubble as a "house.") There are no accommodations in between the two hulls. Okay, the berths extend inboard a bit in pilot berth fashion, but there is no deck saloon at all. This boat is all cockpit and working deck between the hulls.

There are three staterooms, two to starboard and one to port, each with a double berth. On the port side, in place of another stateroom, there is a dinette. It's a very clever layout. There are three heads, a nav station on the starboard side under the bubble and a galley to port without a bubble.

I'm not kidding when I tell you that the photos show a high-tech dental chair in one of the stateroom areas. "Go below Fred and whip up some lunch, and while you're at it, take out Ben's wisdom teeth."

The rig is huge. That's where all that beam comes in handy for sail carrying power. Of course, you can customize your own Novara with a smaller rig if you like, and in fact the one photo that I have of the boat in any wind does show a shallow reef in the main. If we go on faith and use the published displacement and the areas for mainsail and No. 2 jib we get an SA/D of 24.89. This includes mainsail roach. The mast appears to be a rotating type.

When I first opened this package, which consisted of two large brochures complete with a myriad of versions of the boat, I had my doubts. I had the sense that someone had spent too much time in the bubble with the gas turned on. But the more I studied the information the more impressed I became with this effort. At this point I'd have to say that the Novara is one of my very favorite large cruising cats.