Leopard 45 Owner Review | LEOPARD 45 CATAMARAN REVIEW
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- This is the first interview we have done since uploading our "Leopard 45 review series"
We have had multiple owners contact us and request to submit information or sit down for an interview to share their story, since we began to publicly discuss the issues with our hull and the warranty process in general.
While in Croatia Telicia recently interviewed Herbert aboard his 2021 Leopard 45. Among the topics discussed were some of the issues he’s experienced on his hull, his thoughts on the Leopard 45 catamaran design and prolonged warranty process and opinions on some of the poor workmanship discovered aboard both new yachts.
It is our opinion that owners coming together is the only way that the warranty system will be reviewed and improved. If quality control and the warranty process is improved it will increase the value of everyone's asset. We believe that is it incredibly naive and short sighted to think that covering up issues will be in anyone's best interest, now or in future.
One of the ways we connect with other owners is through the REAL Leopard Owners Facebook group, a uncensored forum for people to connect, share ideas, offer help, and openly and honestly discuss Leopard/Robertson and Caine production catamarans - / 426417381733843
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After backpacking Asia, road tripping Europe and doing a bit of van life, we’re now exploring the world aboard our Leopard 45 catamaran. For documents, tips and other catamaran related info check out our website www.travelsket...
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Thank you both for your honesty. I was - now no longer interested in a new Leopard 45. I can’t believe the issues you have had with both new Leopards. I suggest you find other owns that are having unresolved problems with Leopard and take a class action. As for the safety issues - I would copy your emails detailing the safety issues and Leopard ‘s response to the world maritime authorities. Keep up the good work informing us and hopefully Leopard management / owners will start to do the right thing.
As he pointed out, he doesn't care if they are safety issues or not, it's a new boat, they have a warranty, they expect to get it repaired - in a reasonably quick turnaround. This is totally unacceptable. It's just a case of poor quality from the start and no one is backing the warranty.
I am retiring soon, and was looking at the leopard 50, I think now I will look into a smaller company where quality matters, like Portifino. Thanks you saved me from a million dollar mistake.
I think sometimes we wished we could have typed that comment on someone else's TH-cam channel a couple of years ago.
Thank you for sharing! This information could help others which is the culture of the cruising community. Your video series makes me speechless. You purchased a new boat realizing the dream of a lifetime and don't deserve to have your dreams crushed.
Man o man! Such a fantastic level of incompetence from the boat builder. It really is disgusting and possibly illegal.
You are correct, "strength in numbers" & social media DOES make a difference !. Lagoon fucked people with their "bulkhead fiasco". i just went to the Annapolis Boat Show and the Lagoon sales people admitted that sales/interest are down, but none would admit it is due to the bad bulkhead publicity.
If it is leaking ... it shouldn't ... yep!
I was thinking of leopard but if multiple people are having warranty issues it rules it out which is disappointing.
Great video …. I love that you’re exposing this. Is a new boat 800k usd?
So sad ! All that money and windows leak ! Ridiculous !
Yet another example of ridiculously poor service and zero accountability from R&C/Leopard !!!
Buyers be Warned
Well I won't be buying one now? May be ill spend a little more and get better quality Leopard are junk?
In my opinion you are better off buying a second hand cat that is from a known reputable builder. For instance there's a certain channel on youtube who are sailing around in a beautiful large Balance cat, which will be for sale soon, this boat still looks shmicko and has proven itself in many 1000's of miles of blue water sailing, not just bobbing around in the Med. If there was any structural problems it would've shown by now. Granted it's electronics and mechanics are used but for my mind structural integrity is everything. Also cats must be lightweight, this is crucial because of the extreme structural stresses placed by 2 hulls and these luxury type cats are way too heavy and then get loaded with a ton of shit weighing it down even more. They're ok for charter businesses in the Med etc but they are not blue water boats, nowhere close
that's my concern, the constant torsion or rotational stress between hulls in a cat with every wave, how long before they fail. Comparatively you have just the much less significant or complex longitudinal stress in a monohull.
Leopard and R&C have had a pretty good reputation since the 90s, I'm wondering if supply shortages and everything else relative to the c word caused them to cut corners on recent models they hadn't cut in the past.
Their past reputation was a contributing factor for us buying it so it's extremely disappointing to have experienced such a huge drop in quality first hand and lost so much time to trying to rectify it. Many of our issues such as the engine, saildrive, mast, windows and dry fiber glass were a result of poor workmanship or not following the correct installation process, and we have seen evidence of some of these issues continuing into current builds, for example the 2023 Leopard 45 that features in some of the recent Trinidad videos which also had dry fiberglass and leaking windows.
Lagoons out Now Leopard is out .
However, in Lagoon’s defense at least they stepped up, took responsibility and offered owners a solution.
As I have commented on other videos on this topic, I was looking at three options for a Cat, now I am down to two. Leopard's support is pathetic, and their build quality is substandard.
I think the bottom line here is - you have to do it yourself because you can't trust their quality of workmanship and the simply delay, and delay and finally you get frustrated and do the work yourself. This is good to know so customers should beware of what you just bought is substandard. Scratch Leopard catamarans off the list.
In your friends situation, who actually did the rigging? wouldn't whoever did the rigging should be held responsible for substandard work. If Leopard did the work as a later option, then they still have responsibility for the work done. This is really a warning bell ringing moment.
As I understand them, the chainplate was not intalled at the factory properly. This isn't a riggers' issue. The chainplate has a protective cover that isn't normally checked. Obviously, any and everything needs to be checked on the boats. That should be done at the manufacturer before covering the chainplate and hiding poor installation. Suppose they'd been in heavy winds while doing a crossing. They could have easily lost the boat and maybe the mast. R&C apparently had inexperienced workers who drilled holes, placed screws and neglected to install bolts where needed with little to no quality control.
So what to do? Monohull seems to be the answer. But you can’t compare the room.
plenty of room in a 50 foot mono
The greatest rule for a happy life: If it floats, flys or fcks, just rent it.....…
Hi, could you post the link for their videos please?
They don't have a channel, they're one of a few owners who've approached us about sharing their experiences as new Leopard owners.
Well doesn't work out like that if a brand new boat on warranty as issues needs to be the manufacture to fix it under warranty .
Otherwise if you just charge them the hours who will protect the warranty ? Yourself ?
Wrong wrong is not a 100 dollars dinghy
Wow, the water slap is picked up louder than the voices. Need better isolated mics.
It's on the list of things to do but I haven't had time to properly research it and deal with the import process yet - if you've used a good one let us know 👍