Balance 526 Catamaran. Guided tour by designer. Perfect Balance of performance and cruising comfort
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- In this episode of Cruising Off Duty, we continue our series where we are checking out the Catamarans at the Annapolis Sailboat Show to see what we think would suit us as a full-time live-aboard catamaran as we circumnavigate the globe.
This episode we cover the Balance 526 which seems to have the best of both worlds. It is a performance catamaran, made out of Carbon fibre, but is spacious and well appointed inside. How is it possible that they could have both in one boat? Well, by charging a pretty steep price. It's about $1.7 million. But if you were in the market for an Outremer 5x you'd be paying about the same money and this catamaran is way more comfortable and clearly designed with liveaboards in mind. Watch and see what you think.
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Thanks for touring this cat, even though it is out of your price range. It is very impressive and your tour video showed a lot more detail than the other available walk-throughs.
Thanks AZ
Totally agree
I've been looking at these for a while now. It's a wonderfully done well thought out, intelligently engineered machine!
One of the best walk throughs I've seen. Great to have the detail from the owner/designer. Well built and thought out, worth every cent.
Glad you liked it. Thanks.
Fantastic marine design, well thought out, I love it.
I'm really enjoying the boat show series. Thanks for taking us along
You are very welcome James
AWESOME CAT!!! Best one yet I've EVER seen. Thanks for sharing!
It is a beautiful boat. Too bad it is way out of our budget at $1.7 million.
Beautiful. And i love the electrical switchgear installation, it warms my heart to see a proper install
FANTASTIC BOAT. I researched it on the internet in addition to this super video.
Balance is definitely my favorite! Thank you for choosing Mr Phil Berman for the explanations!
Loved this boat
Best review of this boat
I’ve seen so far. Thanks.
You are very welcome Steve.
Okay, this is a really nice boat. Impressed.
Finally, a good review! Phil & his team have designed & build the perfect offshore voyaging catamaran really. There's nothing that can compete with it for performance, livability and quality build in a true cruising catamaran. Truly an amazing boat.
It is a great boat. Wish we could afford it.
Nicest boat you have presented!!!
It is very nice, for sure.
Again, love your boat reviews.
Thanks Wayne.
A lot of great ideas.
Thanks for the review, and bless y'all two
Thanks Sok
I'm so glad Phil took you through the boat ! One thing he forgot to mention was that the ventilation is ongoing with all hatches closed ! Great when it's raining , you still get airflow through the boat ! Thanks for sharing !😎
That would be a nice feature. Thanks.
How is that working?
How is it ongoing?
I saw Phil talk about it on a video somewhere, but basically it is something similar to a dorade that is under the bridge deck and feeds air into the two forward state rooms.
Very well thought out cat. You had great fortune to meet the company CEO and get a personal tour from him. It would have been better if Janice would have deferred to Phil's expertise and experience and let him get a word or two in edgewise instead of telling him you prefer a seat cushion here or a washer drier there. Janice, I hate to be blunt, however, your desires and preferences paled in comparison to the level of engineering that went into this boat. It would have been much more appropriate to later edit in your thoughts and comments. That said, I do enjoy your boat tours for the most part and I know that producing these videos is very time consuming.
@@abbbee8918 There is probably only one occasion, where she is not talking.....but probably wants to....
Absolutely right. I was noticing how even the normal mmms and uhuhs that we all do in normal conversation really interrupt the flow on video. Something to watch out for in the future.
Have to agree with these comments ... love this couple but was distracting and took away from the CEO’s tour and explanations
Now, that's a great boat! Spacious, easy to handle and service, fast and beautyful. Congrats to the buider and designer.
Yes. Very nice. Too bad we cant afford it.
Very nice! Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the Neel review. 👍👍👍👍👍👍😊⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵
You are very welcome Bill.
I was highly impressed with the Balance boats before. I'm even more impressed now. Beautiful boat, great design, and great walk through with Phil. Thanks!
Daggerboards give much better performance upwind and don't take up an entire cabinet. I would always get daggerboards with a performance boat.
BTW, this is a better value than an HH50, an all Carbon boat at a higher price.
P.S. Some of the other finishes look very different. For example the Zebrawood is a bit more interesting looking.
It is a very nice boat. Wish we could afford it.
You won't find a more knowledgeable and genuine person than Phil Berman.
He did seem to know his stuff. I have heard good things. We just met him there for the first time during the filming.
Excellent video coverage!
Thanks Brian.
That guy gave a great tour, and the more I look the better this boat looks. Quite sweet.
Yes. He designed it and he knows his stuff, for sure.
Yesss.. And double sinks!!🙂
Great service.
Well designed for sure.
BEST electrical layout I have ever seen. Wonderful to have the designer describing everything and to talk about possible options .would like to hear more about flybridge , as I favor them.. Also love to hear more about dagger versus fixed keel . Would suggest a video that deals with choices in design elements as presented by people who design them. Your best vid to date
Thanks LK
daggerboards-vs-keels- it was published when they delivered the custom keel boat they did. multihullcompany.com/articles/articles-by-phil-berman/daggerboards-vs-keels-2/
Not really sailing Cat people, but we were anchored next to a Balance 526 in the Exumas named Dragonfly, first time I’ve ever wanted a sailing cat. She is beautiful. Thanks for the tour guys.
You are very welcome. Yes it would be a beautiful Cat to live on. Sadly, it is too rich for our blood.
I am far more impressed and surprised by this boat than I anticipated. I really liked the versatile helm system. Very nice wood and great storage. That sticker shock though!!
I know. I figured it wouldn't be cheap when he started saying things were made of Carbon Fibre, but wow. $1.7m is not even close to our price range so it would be like us going to a car show and looking at a Lamborghini. Fun to look at but I would be afraid to even take it for a test drive.
It's nice to show it anyway. There are many watching your videos, I'm sure, that have larger budgets.
Thanks. That why we do these episodes Clearly most of the boats are out of our price range (especially new) but we film them anyway because lots of viewers get value out of seeing them.
Double sinks? Washer dryer? A cushion? You don't want a boat. You want a nice town home in a tropical location for a fraction of the cost of any boat. You had the awesome privilege of a guided tour from one of the top boat designers on the number one boat in the world. It would be a heck of an education to just absorb everything Phil said, and even if you can't afford a Balance, at least apply the knowledge to any other boat. I am surprised that sailing features, performance and safety were not the highlights of your video. But sinks, wood, keels,TVs, washer dryers... oo la la... Town home is a safer bet.
Im not disagreeing with you. We do want something that is comfortable while at anchor since that is probably where we will spend 80-90% of our time while travelling the world. Sailing prowess is not really what we are focusing on as a priority. We couldn't afford a boat made out of carbon fiber that is all about speed anyway. People say we are looking for a "Condomaran" as if that is going to hurt our feelings. But it doesn't.
I know it's a year old comment, but it makes no sense. You fault them for liking the double sinks, washer dryer and a cushion, and then praise Phil... But Phil implemented double sinks, washer dryer and like the cushion, so that the hell are you on about. And they filmed what Phil was saying, so they more than absorbed what he was saying. What a sad person you must be.
Same wiring i do on the elevator control unit switchboards,they have gone the full length of doing a good job !!
Good to hear. I'm no electrician but it looked impressive even to me. :-)
Wow! Price is Whoa! But Value!
What a well engineered boat. I would have wished you hadn't talked so much over Phil, that was quite distracting. Still a worthwhile video. Thanks.
Martin Wolfertz, I so agree with you with regard to her speaking over Phil, she is insufferable. I just can’t view anymore videos with her.
What a great opportunity to have the owner of the company give a personal and detailed tour. It was unfortunate that Janice kept talking over Phil. They need to treat guided tours like an interview and listen. On the non-guided tours, a running commentary is OK, though.
Thanks Eric. Janice was just agreeing with Phil. It only sounds like she is talking loud because she is so close to the Mic compared to him. She wasn't talking over him.
Agreed
@Ericson578 I agree.. this is a normal conversation between people. Viewers here are lucky enough to have it recorded, edited etc (lots of work) so we can sit on our butts and enjoy the hard work and efforts that went into these videos. Thank you Janice and Craig :)
Extremely impressed with this boat, love the speed and the cruising features, couple of things I would do is go with dagger boards, put more freezer space and have a complete dive set up for at least eight bottles..
Coleman Adams Several of our buyers have opted for the scuba option which includes a dive compressor and dive tank holders in the large locker by the mast step. When it comes to performance boats, weight is always a factor so you have to choose your additions carefully!
Love the helm design. Hopefully others will follow. One of the nice things about the smaller seawinds is they have the protected helm. You should look at the Seawind 1260, probably not big enough or luxury enough for you two, but a better built boat than the charter brands.
Maybe next show we will film them. We’ve seen them in the past.
Great walkthrough by the owner and it looks very safe now you spent time on the Xquisite X5 whats your preference.
Can’t compare. I’d need to sail the 526 to say the difference. 526 is bigger and more expensive for sure.
Love the boat! Really have a hard time trying to figure out between a Balance or Xquisite.
Balance costs 400+K more. So you have to factor that in.
We have literally watched all of these video's from the boat show. Dreaming of being rich enough to buy one lol.
Great. We wish for riches too. Only way to afford it to sell everything we own to get a used one.
You are going to love the trimaran it's literally a luxury apartment that goes at performance cat speed
It looked good at the dock. Im sure it sails fast. Maybe one day they will ask us to go out on a test sail. :-)
@@Bowmans-Woods as a land locked fan I hope you get to try one out
Which Trimaren are you referring to?
@@michynature Presumably the Neel 51 which they reviewed later.
Beautifully designed boat. Great presentation by the owner designer. However the woman who is filming this video is very annoying.
I really enjoy all the catamaran's they preview but Janice is really annoying not to mention distracting from the catamarans they preview. Oh and lets not overlook the over use of the phrase "oh-la-laa"
I think she was just a bit excited, and she had a lot of reasons to be. Look at their other videos, she's really nice, they both are :)
It is a nice looking as well as laid out quite well. Just looking at it from an outside perspective.... BS aside, they have done quite well for the layout.
Yes. Quite well laid out for a performance cat
This would be my number 1 followed by the Antares.
If we could ever afford it, this would be up there at/near the top.
Looked at the seawind 1600?
Very nice.. wouldn't be my first or second for a full time live aboard though. Little to business like and no front lounge area, or lounge area atop, now if they could customize it to give some deck space that would be great.
The self tacking jib was taking up that deck space. It is more important to have performance on a boat like this than having extra seating areas. I was just happy to see such spacious and comfortable interiors on a performance cat. That was a win on its own. Not that we could ever afford it.
Check out skimmer , the 74 ft. With the fly bridge ! Too bad it got wrecked ! The TH-cam video of skimmer going out on the race to Brazil leaves you wanting more ! I wish there was a video on the 62 ft ! 😎👌
Sounds like what you’re looking for is what we lovingly refer to as a condo-maran. A boat like that is made to sit at anchor. The 526 was made to sail!
Andrew Hodgdon Not looking for any, they're Looking for a full time live aboard, they themselves said would be at anchor 90% of the time. And I'd bet you that this like cat almost all fast cats seldom see the water. Seen them all sitting at anchor forever.
Actually for liveaboard and actually sailing offshore, it is ideal. The flybridge and front porch designs are for charter and day sailing. The flybridge offers no real weather protection normally, and creates more weight and windage. This design can be handled by a couple at 52ft.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
👍🏻
Because this was an Annapolis Boat show week alot of the cruising gear is not present on the boats. That being said, i couldn't tell how the anchor chain and rode were stored. Is it snaked back to the black wench drum on the portside of the mast? I saw the two hatches forward of the mast. But it seems the owner described them for storing docking gear and extra fuel bladders. Did i fall asleep again and miss some details about the anchor locker?
Awesome boat. Like it better than the outremer
Oh for sure. Hands down better in our opinion. If we had that level of cash, this boat beats the Outremer, easy.
@@Bowmans-Woods It looks good, but how does it cruise ?
I'm willing to bet the daggerboards will be more discreet
Just by appearances it looks like it fills that performance niche between an Outremer and a Gunboat. 27kts I am a little bit skeptical. I would like to see a video of it sailing that fast. Does the engineering analysis say that it can sustain that? or is it being over stressed?
Phil's a great guy! His boats are made from years of experience from sailing and selling boats
He built a great boat too.
How does this compare to gunboat and seawind in terms of both comfort and performance??
thinking about the generator how much noise it will make inside the boat. right beside the sleeping area.
Usually generators are in insulated rooms so they are not that noisy. Boats under sail make a lot of noise so the generator is barely heard. But at anchor you can hear them but not loud.
The Balance 620 - my Ultimate Performance Cat --- South Africans build solid Yachts !!!
Yes. Almost all of our favorite boats seem to come from South Africa.
@Alex Taylor Alex go back to scrotum scratching
11:42 is that French's mustard in the bathroom vanity mirror?
Just by appearances it looks like it fills that performance niche between an Outremer and a Gunboat. 27kts I am a little bit skeptical. I would like to see a video of it sailing that fast. Does the engineering analysis say that it can sustain that? or is it being over stressed?
Not sure about that speed. Seems high to me too.
Nice vid! Quick question, what was the standing headroom? I'm a tall guy and like to know if a possible dream boat would even fit me. :D THANKS!
It seemed fine to me. Im 6' and I never noticed the ceiling being low. If you are really tall obviously it could be an issue with any boat.
Other reports say the Balance boats have lots of headroom.
Tonnes of storage for a performance cat!
I agree. It looked very livable with plenty of storage and would still have good performance
nice loooking cat. its not carbon fibre, only in some areas. the new orange one they have about to launch looks uber cool. as you say i to would prefer over the outremer any day.i think a few more hulls and they will iron any issues out. phils a fast talker if you know what i mean.
Yes. Just in some structural areas to save on weight. The whole boat is not Carbon or the boat would be even more expensive.
That is a very nice cat, and that guy knows his shit. Its a little high on the price but if you got the cash it's worth the upgrade. the only thing i didn't like was the cheesy ceiling fans in the rooms and the rooms and the Non flush port holes.
👍👍👍 Do you have any plans to have a pet onboard once you have your Catamaran?
They have no plans to buy anything.
OCEANBLUE I know they are not buying right away. My question is if they are going to have a pet aboard?
Paul. No we do not plan to have any pets. It’s a pain to get them cleared in through customs at each stop.
Cruising Off Duty That’s good....Make your boat smell too.
Yes. We don't want kitty litter everywhere or have to go to shore constantly to let the dog run. Im always shocked how many of the sailing TH-camrs do have animals. That won't be us.
Gotta ask, what happened to the footage from your big camera? 😊
To be honest. I have no idea. I think I lost the SD card before I got the footage transferred. You are the first to notice it was all the small camera footage. :-)
To me I would like to see more conversation about how important the height between the water and the bottom between the hulls. I seen on TH-cam boats sailing and when they bottom out it’s like an earthquake. One sight shows the dog laying down on the deck inside the cabin and the boat bottoms out the dog left the ground. I wouldn’t go near any of these low hanging bottoms.
Ya deck slamming is one issue that cats can have happen. The boats are built to take it but it can be loud. In rough seas, I assume it is something you just get used to.
Actually all the "performance" outfitting & custom design of this vessel has probably added 500 - 750K to its price. Performance cats, especially custom vessels are much more difficult to construct with lighter weight structurally superior materials. It wasn't mentioned but a sizeable LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) battery bank can be quite pricey compared to AGM's but they give130% duty use compared to AGM's. The price of $1.7 M seems like a bargain for a custom performance Cat with all the truly unique features it has. Many so called performance sailing Cats are very sparatan appointed compared to this beauty, at least in my humble opinion.
I agree with much of what you are saying.
I think the Gunboat 66 that is just coming on line is in the 4-6 million dollar range. I like that concept of a forward steering station and step out of the cabin to wenches and anchor....see that on Chris White Atlantic cats...where I first saw it..and now GB. So, i think the Balance performance cats are actually a very good price for a performance cat. One thing i did notice, it seems when the helm wheel is in the up position ...that the seating position versus helm position (top of wheel) is way too low if you are sitting in the seat. If standing maybe your hand can grab the top of the wheel. It might be nothing more than an optical illusion. Because this owner/designer....i talked to him before on Cruiser's Forum is a highly intelligent and passionate man about his cats. Immensely enjoyable conversation with him and if the Gods smile upon me......
Did you guys cheats out any of the Bali boats
Bali told us they didn’t want us to film their boats. Strange eh?
I wanted to hear what the builder was saying but the constant comments got overwhelming
Never say... Never!...
Phillip Berman- he is a legend in the Catamaran world . World champion sailor.
It was cool to have him there to do the tour. Clearly, since he designed it he knows it like the back of his hand.
Why is it not Hydrofoil? It is time to take your engineering up a notch. I am a builder. I almost got a job in LA building boats when I was 17. Wish I had. I became a carpenter instead. Over the years I built machines too.
All that carbon and they still use and alloy cross-member and wire rigging, hmmmmm... For $1.7 M, plus "making our own carbon parts"; there is still significant room for improvement to command that price. Synthetic rigging and a curved, elliptical forward cross member would be significant improvements. I will give credit to several very nice functional features on this Cat, and coming in 3 tons lighter than a similar LOA/Beam Lagoon or Fontaine is significant. I kinda take issue with the "I designed the Versa Helm" claim... The Jefa Tilting pedestal certainly isn't his design, but I'm sure he is referring to the overall Helm area as whole, but even that general concept has been executed on Cats from Down Under and the Kiwis as far back as 15 years ago... nothing new, just different ways of doing the same thing.
thanks for the input. I'm sure he made some great strides to keep it light but had to keep the price down so everything can't be carbon. But still love a lot of the features and thought. Even if we could never afford.
Cruising Off Duty stop saying never
Why not daggerboards
We just don't plan to sail close to the wind and we dont want to have to deal with them and they take up valuable interior volume plus boats that tend to be disigned with Daggerboards tend to have very narrow hulls and are designed for performance over comfort. Just not something we want. Other may want that stuff and that is fine too.
You have totally skipped the Leopard boats!!?? Leopard is the third most popular sail boat and one you will likely find on the used market. A quality boat built in South Africa and far better than the French boats you have seen. Talk to Kent at Just Catamarans in Fort Lauderdale, Fl.
No we haven't skipped them. We cover them at the end of the show because Leopard doesn't have its boat with the rest of the boats. They only have their boats over with the Moorings and Sunsail charter companies area because Leopard sells most of their boats into the charter company fleets.
OK Ben. Something to consider.
waaay too heavy, a charter boat, NOT a performance boat. Completely different category.
speed has a price..
Ya. You want light and fast you are going to pay a premium.
What money can buy🙄
Yes. More money than we will ever have. :-)
$1.6 Million boat and the woman gets exited abouth a $400 washer/dryer 😂
Most smaller boats don't have space for a washer/dryer. Therefore having space for one is somewhat of an unusual luxury, and having the space for it is far more valuable than the washer itself. Also being a marine version that can resist saltwater corrosion better, it's probably 4x as much as a land based washer.
Why are boat builders using e glass instead of s glass? S Glass is significantly superior in modulus and strength. Yes s glass is more expensive, but still relatively low cost compared to the cost of carbon, and only a modest increase in overall cost when epoxy and labor are included. Are these boats being made with polyester resin also? Ugh!
A question you’d have to ask a builder.
Mrs. Robinson, you tryin' to seduce me to catamarans (quoth an ol' monohull man).
Ha ha. It is alluring, isn’t it.
Next time please don't talk at the same time as your guest. Other than that, very interesting video!
Ya. My footage from my camera got lost. We were left with only Janice's camera. I dont think she realized we were using her audio. So she was making more noise than I would have liked. Usually her camera is for B-roll. Better than no video, I guess.
you lost me at 1.7 mil :))
Ha Ha. Ya, me too.
@@Bowmans-Woods from all you show it the Majestic looks BEST for me,even is a kind a old design on the outside,the inetrior and all the standard are best in the market for the price,plus the helm position mmmmmmmm i love it.
Yes. It's a nice boat too. Bigger as well at 53'
You pay for what you get .
In most cases I agree. But if you can’t afford more, you have to expect less.
Your wife make background noises. The gay and his boat are awesome. Not fast but good trick in details.
FFS just buy a boat.........I have had 3 in the last two years that you have been procrastinating about.
Not retired yet. Been explained already why we have to wait.
Sorry Janice. You talked over the owners explanation of all the systems and perks. Please let the reps do the talking. Love the channel otherwise. Thanks Craig
Ya. I usually hold the camera, I dont think she realized how you have to be very quiet when you are the closest to the camera. Lesson learned.
What? No complaining about your personal inability to afford the yacht?
It was never something we would consider so no disappointment that we can't afford it. Maybe some viewers can so this was for them.
The ONLY thing I didn't like was the genny in the guest hull: I understand the weight point, but your guests won't thank you for that. But probably the least 'cookie cutter' cat I've seen.
I am sure it is there to put the weight in the middle. Hopefully it is really sound proofed.
Of all the catamarans at the show I saw, this boat impressed me the most perhaps. It was well layed out, it is just a shame I bet they won't be around much longer. The situation in South Africa is rapidly becoming untenable for businesses owned by white people. The government has started seizing businesses such as this and have been forcing the companies to give half to black South Africans. The leader of South Africa sings the "Kilz all the Wite Pe-ople" song on a regular basis. I am writing funny because otherwise the c-ensors will remove the post. All the South African boat builders are on borrowed time, and the whole country is circling the white shiny porcelain bowl. So sad...:(
There are a bunch of builders from there. So they all share the same risks.
Anything over 10,000 lbs is really just a waste. Cats have become as heavy as mono hulls which defeats the point of the Catamaran.
🙄
that sales guy / owner is very anoying.