Berth dearth hurting Australian catamaran sales, says distributor

The situation is so difficult that not a single catamaran was on display at the 2022 Melbourne Boat Show.

Speaking at the boat show where he had a monohulled Dufour 470 on display, Yacht Sales Co. sales manager Bob Vinks said his dealership – which represents brands including multihull specialist Fountaine Pajot – could sell catamarans in bigger volumes if the berths were available to tie them up to.

Vinks said it was “almost impossible” for a new owner to find a multihull berth in Sydney or Melbourne.

“It's all related to the price,” Vinks said. “You're paying about 180 per cent cost of a monohull berth [to moor a catamaran]. 

“For example, in Sydney, it’s around about $1750 a month [for a monohull berth]; a multihull is going to be two and a half grand, more, nearly three grand a month.”

However, Sydney’s longer-term struggle is that it does not have the infrastructure to house any more catamarans.

“The problem with Sydney is that it’s very closed. You know, we've got developments going everywhere, it's very hot, and the government's not wanting to reinvest in marinas,” Vinks said.

“And it's the old supply and demand curve from economics, you know, limited supply, raise the price.

“We need new infrastructure in place.”

The multihull berthing situation was better in places such as the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Mooloolaba where particularly secondhand sales were strong.

Fountaine Pajot builds a range of powered and sail-driven catamarans, including the recently revealed Fountaine Pajot Aura 51 electric-powered sailing cat.

In the future, Fountaine Pajot aims to add solar, wind and water-based recharging capacity to give its products a much lower carbon footprint than they have today, with 80 per cent of a conventionally engined boat’s lifetime carbon footprint relating to running the engines.

The French monohull maker plans to launch hybrid systems that run on a combination of electricity and diesel as a short-term measure before switching over to full electric systems that use hydrogen fuel cells as a renewable power source.