Catamaran Share - a Smart Choice if you have a Young Family

Our friends can bring their kids and there's heaps of space for everyone.

We find the children often play up at the front of the boat with their life-jackets on, while the adults relax with a cold drink around the cockpit area.

The parents can all chill and unwind confident their kids are safe.

Since many of our friends are not sailors having a yacht that stays level under sail is a huge advantage for us.

Also the undercover cockpit area on the Seawind is fantastic.

There's a huge awning which folds out to the solar panels and gives us an area the size of a generous lounge out of the sun and rain...

... and we can still enjoy the stunning Pittwater views.

Seawinds now have opening front windows which means there's always a gorgeous breeze coming through the cockpit even on a 40 degree day.

Once we had 7 adults and 7 kids on board, it was raining and there was still enough room for everyone to stay dry.

When we go away as a family our 2 girls choose a V berth each as a cubby house.

This gives them each an independent play area and they can have great fun looking out of the hatches.

We also really appreciate the shallow draft of a catamaran.

We often drop anchor close to the beach and just 6ft off the back of the boat the kids can stand up in the water.

This means we don't always need to use the tender... so our day out is just that little bit more relaxing...'

For the same money we have invested in our Seawind share the most we could hope for would be a small fishing boat on a trailer in the driveway.

We'd have to clean and maintain it ourselves... and we couldn't sleep on it overnight.

With a catamaran share we get a huge luxury boat. An instant entertaining space. And best of all?...

... we do no maintenance.

We don't have to spend our spare time making our boat look good.

We walk on board with food and clothes... enjoy our trip and at the end of the day we tidy up and leave.

We don't even have to wash the sheets!

And SmartBoating are available to dock the boat if we have any problems.

If I won the Powerball today I still would not buy a boat outright.

People don't appreciate just how much maintenance is involved in owning boats - they always need work.

I don't have enough time for that.

We used to charter yachts all the time, maybe 14-15 days each year.

I did the figures and realised my annual syndicate costs were equivalent of just 9 days yacht charter.

With the monthly fees and the depreciation I figure this catamaran share costs us $8000 per year.

For that we get 34 days of sailing plus standby days.

A week in Fiji for the four of us would be $6000... and that's before we've even bought a beer or a meal out.

The feel is not quite the same as a monohull but she's quick!

For example in 15 knots of breeze at 120 degrees over the stern she'll do 8.5 knots.

And when I sailed her up from Sydney harbour to Pittwater after she was commissioned, I was very impressed with how she handled on the ocean swell.

The self-taking head sail is the best thing ever invented!

When we're out as a family it means one of us can always be free to deal with any problems the kids might have so we don't feel stressed at all.

Quite simply... we love our catamaran share.

We use all our days and since we live locally in Mona Vale we often take advantage of the standby days.

Our favourite spot on Pittwater is Smiths Creek.

We were married at Cottage Point restaurant 10 years ago and so we often have a meal there before spending the night in peace and quiet surrounded by gorgeous Australian bushland.

It's incredible to find such beauty so close to Sydney...'