Time to break one of life’s golden rules
by John Curnow on 2 Jun 2016
Bali cat in Australia's Whitsunday Islands. Dream Yacht Charter
Seriously. That’s exactly what is about to occur here and the purpose of this merry little jaunt is to actually say that you should do it. So what is it? Well it is to do the one thing we are always told not to do – judge a book by its cover. Now before everyone runs off to complain about bad parenting, just ask yourself, ‘Why so?’
Well the cover, or overall packaging here, is the whole discussion. Right there and then. If we were to take in another literary metaphor, it would be ‘read like an open book’. And then again too, open has a lot to do with this entire presentation.
So we don’t get quickly lost in to a scene from an Arthouse movie about nothing too much in particular, let us just say the Bali catamaran is exactly what it appears and portends to be. Catana are to be implored for choosing the name, for the craft embody that island’s spirit and in one word say everything that the boats are trying to be – fresh, open, friendly, warm, inviting, hospitable, convivial and fun.
Like the two hulls they sit on, Bali cats (and you thought it was all about dogs in Bali) will polarise people instantly. To the buyers and charterers, Catana may not mean much, but Bali sure does. Naming them after the Indonesian island that receives over six million tourists a year is almost pure genius, because so many now know what the island is all about. Don’t believe it? Well Dream Yachts have a terrific forward booking list for their charter craft around the globe and no doubt more sales will eventuate from all those happy adventurers.
These craft have an abundance of space up top, down below, up for’ard and out back. The latter, with the electric uplifting saloon doors, transforms the boat into a complete al fresco paradise. Inside meets outside instantly and huge opening glass on the after end of the pilothouse complete the deal. A full size domestic fridge and dinner seating for a football team again show where all this is going.
Up for’ard the enclosed deck, resplendent with umbrellas and seating for all the coaches and medical staff of said team is just another of the social areas. Aft of the bridge there is the sun worshipper’s haven, disguised as a huge bed.
The other group then will be the purists. They’ll look up at the rig, which is not too far of a crane of their necks, and just say ‘no’. Yes, the boom is way high, the roach not too stupid and the clew of the self-tacking headsail is above the arm reach of anyone sub 2.05m in height. Just remember, you’re not who this is targeted at. You’re meant to go look at a Catana or Outreymer.
That’s not to say that the Bali cats are not seafaring. The aft section closes up for both security and inclement weather and with the Bali 4.0 coming in at around 8.5 metric tonnes, which is about the same as a production 40-foot monohulls Cruiser/Racer, she does not have to lift up too many of her skirts to get going. There’s always motor-sailing too.
Also, of the over 50 Bali cats delivered out of the La Rochelle factory, 12 have gone over the pond to the USA on their own bums. Nice feat. So where does the rigidity come from? Well the secret kind of lies on that large for’ard lounge, or more specifically, the GRP mat underneath it.
The unitary deck mould provides for a stiffness hitherto unseen and it is the sole reason for that wonderful open tail to even exist at all. It also provides for a drier area that has historically always just had a massive beam and the trampoline occupying good space.
So then, if Catana call the BALI 4.5 the Open Space, the BALI 4.3 the Loft, and the BALI 4.0 the Lounge, does that make the recently announced Bali 5.8 the Pavillion? Well the whole point of writing this is to say how much the paradigm in large cruising cats has shifted and remember that this is one segment of the sailing world that is going up!
Previously, I have said that we don’t know what will be next. Maybe there will be the drone rides for kids that I offered as a suggestion some time back. Many cats will be able to house them in garages under the aft entertainment pods, but in the Bali we are probably seeing the first of a new ilk, and that always draws comment from far and wide, both in a geographic and literary sense.
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