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Honestly, it was the first of it's kind and the rig was not suitable for an off shore cruising catamaran to start and it was rushed leaving South Africa by the previous owner so it just wasn't tested enough for them to realize it or maybe they did and just passed it on to us. We have since replaced it with the standard Vision Rig which you will see in a future video.

Thanks so much!! I was excited about putting this one together!

Aw Thanks! We have had some unique challenges that we will show as I catch up on our story. Overall, it's been a great adventure! Reach out anytime if you have questions!

The spinnaker sheave block at the top of the mast broke and the halyard ripped through the carbon fiber. The rig was a prototype Advanced Wing Sail System (since replaced with a conventional Sparcraft Rig for other reasons, a future video will explain all that). This was not necessarily a rig problem though...don't want future Vision owners to be concerned about the safety of the rig. In this case. There was a little swiss cheese effect of a few things going on when it happened. Going to write it up in our blog soon.

Si :)

Yes, since we plugged that small screw hole we haven't had any water intrusion over the past year. Ours was a unique Vision as it was hull #4 and came with electric Oceanvolt motors and a prototype wing sail rig. We have had a number of issues relating to those two systems which you will see as I catch up to present time with our videos (or you scroll back on our social media), but the hull itself and our new standard sparcraft rig that comes on all the Visions has been fantastic. We have been hauled out a few times due to those systems and every shipyard has commented on how solid the construction of the boat is. It sails very well. Honestly we contemplated selling the boat due to the rig and motors, but love the hull so much that we were willing to correct those systems ourselves and keep the boat. And they keep making changes to the future hulls that we would have loved to have! So they are just getting better :)

Thanks! The 444 was Cruising World's Cruising Catamaran under 50' Boat of the Year!!

We are actually here in Annapolis this year (and were in Fort Lauderale most of the summer coincidently! (I'm a bit far behind on these videos...new stuff is coming in like a week or two!). The hull has been awesome. We love her. We purchased #4 from an investor who unfortunately put a prototype rig on it and we have been battling that, but should have the standard rig on it shortly which will make life much easier for us! Hope you love your Leopard and enjoying the cat life as much as we are!

We do have a compressor! We have yet to use it sadly. Our plan was to get all the remaining tanks and gear we need while we were back here stateside. Unfortunately our costly surprise motor issues delayed that a bit.

We've had a lot of ups and downs. Our rig (not the standard rig) was a bit of mess and we are in the process of replacing it (8 months into the process), but we love the boat otherwise! Still enjoying the live aboard lifestyle :)

@@waterwingssailing did you replace your rig under warranty?

@@julien.pubert Unfortunately no. It's a long story we may cover eventually, but it was a racing prototype rig that the previous owner (an investor in the product) put on and we knew it was risk, but gave it a shot. It just wasn't durable enough or designed work for a cruising lifestyle. The Vision 444 standard rigs, which we are replacing it with have been great so we are excited to move on!

Working on it ;)

Ha! Fair enough. I was curious if anyone would even catch that as they skipped through :) I'll talk about it more in an upcoming video on our haul out where we believe we found the root cause, but yes. Not a fun find!

Ah thanks so much for replying and sharing your lovely boat. But I must admit at this moment I’m wondering what’s going on with it…. a halyard pulled through the carbon fibre mast, water through the hull…. I’m sure I’m wrong but it’s sounding like incorrect infusion? In any case may I please make two suggestions? In your “about” section perhaps say something of the type and size of the boat? And another is to slow the long text section display time. Thickheads like me aren’t fast enough readers. :) But thanks again for sharing your adventure and lovely boat with us.

@@tonyfromaus7855 Great suggestions. I want to move to voice overs instead of the text explanations. It's all mostly pictures so far on our journey. Trying to do more videos. Just don't have the "tech" yet to make it sound okay! Will add the details! It's a Vision 444, Hull #4 which splashed in 2021. And there are lots of issues to discuss, but mostly due to the uniqueness of the Rig and Motors that came with her when we got her. She is very sturdy hull, which is good. B/c we have certainly tested her!

Thanks GED!

So excited for you! It's quite the transition. Lot of stress and a LOT of fun and adventure. Look forward to seeing how it goes for you. Good Luck!!

Beth, we plan to feature it more as we cross the Atlantic and as we cover our pre-Atlantic crossing in future videos. We have A LOT of thoughts. After I started creating these, we found in our travels we have very limited bandwidth and computer memory so I haven't been able to make more videos. We'll be back in the states in a few weeks, I'll be able to post more. Our blog on Waterwingssailing.com will also be talking about it quite a bit.

Thanks Jeff! Way behind on the videos I want to make b/c my computer hasn't been up to the task LOL. Hopefully we'll get better in the future!

Up to this point it has been almost impossible to clean due to the constant Saharan dust and shipping port grime covering the boat in Spain, now that we are in the Caribbean, with each rain shower we are starting to see them clean up and the lighter color re-emerge. We are hoping for a longer rain where we can get out and scrub them a bit. Then we'll really know! We have not experienced any staining, including diesel being spilled on them. We're not sure if we would have put them forward of the helm since we are not up there a ton, but I do love the feel of them.

Thanks Sean! It's funny how much TH-cam I used to make a TH-cam video!