Balance 442. High Performance with all the comfort of a Live-Aboard cruiser.

[@schnelma605]

Glad to see catamaran reviews from you again

[@Bowmans-Woods]

Thanks. Good to be back doing them.

[@carlosvallejo4926]

hello my dear friends, Thank you so much for sharing this videos with us. Really missed your reviews. What a beautiful boat!! A great surprise. Cheers from Canary Islands

[@Bowmans-Woods]

Glad you liked it Carlos. Thanks from ever colder Ottawa, Canada. OK you win. I'd rather be where you are. LOL

[@stephenmurray9850]

Very beautiful cat, while you think 44' is a bit small , both Sailing Ruby Rose (Seawind1370) and Gone with the Wynns (HH44) seem to think that , 44 feet is good enough. Not knocking your thoughts though, you have done a hell of lot more sailing and Ocean crossings than I will ever do. I also think go big or stay inshore . The problem is I might be able to scrap up enough money for a dingy .. lol Thanks for the tours . Great to see you back touring Cats again. ( Oh a few months ago there was a 60' Cat for sale in Florida for 750K .)

[@Bowmans-Woods]

I just think for comfort on big waves the sweet spot is probably 47'-52' and the lower end of acceptable size is a 44. Ocean crossing can certainly be done with smaller boats. If you do great weather planning you may be able to cross with only moderate winds and in that case, the waves should not be a problem. But, even with planning you can get stuck in some very nasty squalls and the waves can get pretty big and even worse would be the "confused seas" where the waves are hitting you from all different angles. You will feel it much less if you are in the 526 vs the 442. Like I said perhaps our budget ends up being that we can only afford the 442 and after seeing it, I could certainly be happy with that boat. But, if I had the choice between a new 442 or a used 482 or 526 for nearly the same money, I would go bigger. There is a limit to the go bigger concept though. If you get it too big then it is hard for a sailing couple to handle. 60' is too large. I think the upper end in size would be something like the Windelo 54'.

[@stephenmurray9850]

@@Bowmans-Woods Thanks for the reply and I agree with you on your points you have stated. I have always thought that around 50 feet or slightly larger is the sweet spot for speed and comfort. Thanks again.

[@ronaldharmon9891]

That dish drying area is something you could use when designing your kitchen at home I'm sure the insert is removable for cleaning and it must tie into the sink drain, sorry got off topic😂

[@Bowmans-Woods]

It did look like an awesome idea, even at home.

[@schnelma605]

13:34 Good idea to add a datasheet to the video

[@Bowmans-Woods]

Thanks. I will do that in every video so people can see all the important specs. Polars are nice to have also, if I can find them.

[@mikemendes7598]

Nice job with limited access. I know you like to "talk as you walk", and that is a better presentation than a voice over, but it's a boat show! Lots of people around! I 100% get your thought process on the waterline length and big waves. But there is also something to be said for a smaller sail plan that is more manageable. The "all power everything" is great until it doesn't work, then you are back to wrestling lines and sails. I watch Zatara wrangle their 58 footer with everything supersized and even with 3 strong teenagers, (And Keith the size of a bear) it gets pretty hairy.

[@Bowmans-Woods]

Ya. Boat shows are packed and you can’t ask them to clear the boat so you can film and talk in quiet. As for size. I’m not sure it’s a ton more effort to control a 44’ boat than a 48’ boat? With a larger boat usually comes larger winches which means the physical strength to turn it should be about the same. Now if it were a 60’ boat, then yes. That would be daunting. Hopefully you never lose your electric winches on a huge boat.

[@carlospereira9838]

I have to agree the balance 44 for it,s size is very well layed out. Have you thought of building your own.

[@carlospereira9838]

The problem with all these new boats is that they are all getting crazy expensive even the smaller ones are now pushing or very near 1 million. Remember the prices they quote you is with no options.

[@Bowmans-Woods]

I agree that a lot of these boats have jumped up substantially in price over the last 5 years. Maybe the coming recession will have some of the builders dropping the price or at least throwing in a lot of the common upgrades for free? Time will tell. If nothing else the price of used Cats should come down a lot over the next 2 years. That may be the route we go to stretch our budget to get us into a bigger boat than what we could afford new. As for building our own. That is just way too much work and I am not naval architect specialist so I would have no clue how to built boat. Best to stick with the brands that do it well and let them overcome the many obstacles that probably come in any boat build.

[@carlospereira9838]

@@Bowmans-Woods Not going to happen the prices only go one way and that’s up. The prices may stabilize for a while but not going down in price. All the manufactures are full and some are even turning clients away because they are at max production unless you want a leopard, lagoon or fp. They can build a boat in 60 days. Quality not so good I call them 10 year boats. A well built boat takes about 1 year to build properly and not cut corners and that’s a company with lots of workers. The companies have higher operating costs but dam these prices are getting crazy expensive. I can build it for a much better price and higher build quality. For me it takes about 2 years to build it with wood epoxy for a 50 footer. That’s a boat that will last 50 to 100 years easy not a 10 year boat. Also the boats are all CE certified with full inspection.

[@eaglee4010]

Everything's cool. Only the front should be the same as in Bali.

[@Bowmans-Woods]

You mean outdoor front cockpit? No, that would add way too much weight. Balance is trying to be a performance oriented Cat. Bali is far from a performance cat.

[@allynonderdonk7577]

Aww man,,,didn't run into you this year. You should have gotten a slot at the YT booth.

[@Bowmans-Woods]

Were you there? Ya, I didn't see you. We were around the docks and saw a lot of people. I hear you have to apply for a spot at the YT booth and allegedly there is a waiting list. We don't crave the attention like some of the other YTs do, so Im fine with just walking around in the show.

[@FlesHBoX]

Man, that thing has way more space inside than any 44 foot cat has a right to have. I mean, sure the hulls a a bit less spacious than something like a lagoon, but that bridge deck looks straight off a 47, and yet they managed to do that without sacrificing too much trampoline area up front.

[@Bowmans-Woods]

I see you are just as impressed as I was.

[@ontheroadaustralia-soleman1911]

Nice boats

[@Bowmans-Woods]

They are!

[@handroids1981]

So it weighs 25% more, costs more and is now pure Fibre glass?? I don't understand.

[@Bowmans-Woods]

Not sure what you are talking about? 25% more than what? From what I was told the 442 has Carbon Fiber in structural areas?

[@handroids1981]

@@Bowmans-Woods I had a look on Sailboatdata and compared the 451 to the 442. I commented before watching the video, my bad.

[@ysesq]

$850K wow.

[@Bowmans-Woods]

Is it $850K base? I thought I heard in the $940k range but I could be wrong. I never asked prices at the Balance booth because I know they have to caveat it with "it depends what upgrades you go for". With all Catamaran manufacturers the base boat price is just the start but if you are buying new there are definitely some upgrades that are best added when it is being built and will be hard to upgrade later, so expect to get some of those add ons.

[@handroids1981]

Wow as in cheap, good or terrible for that price? For that money you have boats in a similar size from Fountaine, Lagoon, Seawind and Nautitech. The Balance would be the only performance option. You could also buy a Bali for that but only if you hate yourself and your family. Haha!

[@DougGonda]

Stunning boat. But 4,000lbs away from performance.

[@Bowmans-Woods]

OK. It is clearly not sparse inside and built for racing but it is really comfortable looking inside and I bet is sails pretty well for a small live-aboard cruiser. Need to do a test sail next to see for sure.

[@gerritgovaerts8443]

That is not a performance cat with an SA/D of hardly 23 . It's nearly as heavy as a (slow) Seawind 1370 wich is 45 ft and probably a lot cheaper .

[@Bowmans-Woods]

OK. the 442 is probably not as light performance as the bigger Balances

[@StudioBhobho]

Why does this guy (Phil) always wear sunglasses in all the tours, I can't take him serious and it's off putting.