Sailing Nahoavideo
11 Years Offshore Led Us to Design This Catamaran
5 April 2026 · 36 min · 437K views · Cape Town
Solo catamaran cuts clean wake into deep blue sea
What this video covers
Ben and Ashley, owners of the sailing catamaran Nahoa, announce the Nahoa M — a custom 57-foot aluminum catamaran they designed after 11 years of offshore sailing, including a circumnavigation.5:42 The core design problem they address is the aft helm position standard on production catamarans: sailing downwind on trade-wind routes, squalls and following seas approach from astern while the helm is exposed to them, and reaching forward sail controls requires traversing narrow side decks.11:43 Their solution is a forward working cockpit that centralizes all line handling and electric winches in one hub, with no winches aft.15:41 They tracked 127 days on their last circumnavigation where the forward cockpit position was optimal versus 38 days where an aft position would have been preferable.13:51 For close-quarters maneuvering — reef passes, docking, crowded anchorages — a separate elevated aft watch station provides visibility to the boat's corners and connects visually and acoustically to the saloon.20:34 The hull is 56 feet on the waterline, deliberately narrower in interior volume than a comparable 48–50-foot cruising cat to reduce weight and sustain higher average speeds; the hull-speed formula yields just over 10 knots.31:42 The design prioritizes simplicity, shorthanded operation, redundancy, and load-carrying capacity.23:32 Engineering is complete, suppliers for glazing, solar, rig, and engines are confirmed, and the plan is to build three to four hulls concurrently.33:59
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