Advantages of a Catamaran Cruisers houseboat

Obviously we think we made a good decision choosing Catamaran Cruisers as our houseboat builder. Here are few reasons why.

• Catamaran Hull - We LOVE the fact that our home is on a cat hull. It rocks very little, draws only 14-16 inches of water and is very efficient. A monohull rocks and rolls, draws a lot of water and has to push a lot of water out of the way. We can achieve speeds of up to 12-13 knots with our boat and still use very little fuel. At 5 knots we burn about 2 gallons per hour. Because we draw so little water we can go places most other boats can't, and we can beach almost anywhere. AND the best of all, no part of the living space is in the water, that means that in winter the water is not sucking the heat out of your living space, creating condensation problems, etc. Also there is no sound of water slapping the hulls to echo throughout the living space.
• Elbow room - On other boats your rooms are oddly shaped, you have to go up and down levels, live in the same space as your fuel tanks and engines, etc. In a Catamaran Cruisers houseboat the living space is all boxes just like a house. Every room has full headroom (6'8") and it's all on one level, from front deck to back deck. The only stairs are to go to the upper deck where the entire area of the living space is duplicated in fully open deck. The fuel, propane and engines are sequestered outside, so there are no bad odors to spoil your home.
• View - Let's face it, if you don't have a good view you might as well be living downtown, living on a boat is all about the view! Our boat has the best viewing area of any boat we have ever seen, an astounding 26,716 square inches (185.5 square feet) of double pane insulated glass. The windows are tinted glass which really helps in the summer. Every window has a removable screen, we take the screens down in the winter to improve the view, and in summer, do we get airflow!
• Quality components - We have been surprised at the quality components installed in this boat. Our house water pump is the best one Shurflow makes. Stainless steel screws abound EVERYWHERE. The frame is welded aluminum, the plywood is all glassed on both sides with the edges sealed with plastic edging. The roof is fiber-glassed with a minimum of penetrations.
• Responsiveness - This refers to the company, they gave us what we wanted and didn't charge us extra for it. Although their price sheet states that a $5000 surcharge is assessed for floor plan changes, they waived it for us. We feel that they would have done pretty much anything we asked for, and do it well. When we asked for a stove with an oven, they found one for us and installed it with no extra charge even though it meant that their cabinet maker had to change the kitchen layout. They had our boat done in a month, try getting that from any other boat builder! And they launched it at a public boat ramp, saving us having to deal with a lift and boat yard.

We went to a boat show seven months after moving on board and looked at one of those monsterous Lake Shasta houseboats and realized we made a GREAT decision. It had a single outdrive on an aluminum monohull, single pane windows, tiny bedrooms, and three levels.

Call me chicken, but having been through 50MPH windstorms with our catamaran houseboat, I would not want to own a three story monohull houseboat. Yes, the upper deck hottub is nice, but who would want to deal with the kids splashing up there all day and night and hauling propane tanks up and down the docks day in and day out. And of course the price difference is about $400,000, so yeah, I'll take the single story houseboat WITH twin motors, double pane windows and a cat hull, thank you very much.