ORION is a marvel to behold, unique in every respect and represents thousands and thousands of hours of design and construction technique from the pre-eminent catamaran builder in the world. She is unquestionably the finest Catana ever built and very likely the finest catamaran of her size ever built.
Unlike so many custom catamaran projects, cooked up by men with big dreams, big budgets, but little experience, Orion was built for a seasoned seaman who owned two previous catamarans, including a Catana 582 he sailed around the world. He knew what it was like to live on a cat, voyage on a cat, care for a cat, and sail a cat through massive seas and winds. He set out, in partnership with Christophe Barreau, the famed naval architect for Catana, to create his dream boat. It took thousands of hours to design Orion and many more thousands to build her. Sadly, due to the complexity of the project, it took 1.5 years beyond the planned launch date to finish her to her owners exacting standards. She is in fact at this time just getting the final bugs worked out at the Catana after market care facility in Port Pin Rolland, France.
I was in France to personally inspect Orion and meet with her captain who lived in Canet (near the Catana factory) during the construction of the yacht to oversee every aspect of her build. What is most striking when you first approach Orion is that she looks almost identical to smaller Barreau designed Catana 65's and 50's, but sits off the water so high that, yes, she has two floors in her tall hulls - a first in catamarans. The top floor of the yacht hosts a massive salon, owners cabins, guest cabins, galley, and crew quarters, while the lower floor of the yacht is devoted entirely to systems - watermakers, generators, inverters, wiring, plumbing, etc. Every system on the yacht is easily accessed for care and repair. She is the most carefully thought out large catamaran I have ever had the pleasure to inspect with regards to her systems. And of course, like all Catana's, she sports a massive carbon fibre mast, high tech sails, etc. Fact is, you could not possibly "upgrade" Orion in a single area because not a penny was spared during her fabrication.
For the most part, catamarans of this size are male-molded products, not female molded, for the simple reason that tooling up female moulds for a yacht of this size is seldom done due to the enormous costs. Yet Orion is a female molded boat and looks as such. Her hulls are perfectly fare, gelcoated, and her decks are factory perfect molded non-skid. If you walk onto Orion she looks like a production yacht in terms of fit a finish - no sprayed on paint, no sprayed on non-skid, etc. And her furniture is cabinet grade in every respect.
Sadly, the owner of the yacht has decided to sell her because during the several years it took to construct Orion he became re-consumed with his business as such that he longer has the time or passion to do another circumnavigation. He is not selling the yacht for any other reason than this - he simply prefers at this time to focus on his business. The boat sails flawlessly and has been fully debugged by the Catana team in France.
Please view our extensive list of pictures and U-Tube posted video. If you are a yacht broker or buyer and have any questions at all, or would like to arrange a showing or Orion, please contact Phillip Berman at The Multihull Company. Orion is proudly and exclusively listed by The Multihull Company. She is a very special yacht for a special catamaran sailor.
Contact - Phillip Berman
The Multihull Company Philadelphia Office
