44 catamaran review

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2024 Boat of the Year: HH44

• By Dave Reed
• December 18, 2023

On a cool late-October morning in Annapolis, Maryland, Sailing World ’s Boat of the Year judges stepped on board the gleaming red HH44 built by the Hudson Yacht Group in China. With them for the test sail was HH Catamarans president Seth Hynes and commissioning skipper Chris Bailet, who had tuned the rig and bent on the boat’s Dacron delivery sails. (The race sails were delayed in shipping.) It was their first time sailing the boat too, and like the judges, they were eager to see what it could do.

As the crew slipped dock lines and motored away in silence, the boat’s twin 10-kilowatt electric engines propelled the sleek catamaran through the mooring field in silence. If not for the sound of water gurgling from the transoms and the apparent wind blowing across the foredeck, the judges could barely tell they were underway.

The mainsail was then carefully hoisted inside the lazy jacks, and the halyard held firm with an innovative Karver KJ cone (a conical rope-holding device that acts like a restricter). They bore away and unfurled the non-overlapping jib, which snapped full, and the boat immediately accelerated. 

“Once we got going, it was 5, 6, 7 knots and then—boom—we’re right up to 10,” Stewart says. And with that they were laying tracks all over the Chesapeake Bay, making good pace on all points of sail, even without a reaching sail to deploy. (That too was stuck in transit.)

After two hours of straight-­lining, tacking, jibing, and enjoying the comforts of the interior in a 10- to 15-knot southerly and sharp Chesapeake chop, I extracted the judges from the boat and asked, “So?”

“Boat of the Year,” was veteran Boat of the Year judge Chuck Allen’s immediate response. “That thing is wicked.”

Greg Stewart and Mike Ingham confirmed with nods of approval and big grins. There was no need to debate any further: The HH44 had earned the first award of what will be more to come. This $2 million crossover catamaran is the performance sailor’s retirement race boat. [Editor’s note: The judges’ estimated price was based on an expected racing inventory and associated hardware, but according to HH Catamarans, the new 2024 pricing is as follows: The HH44-OC will start at $995K and is approximately $1.3m fully optioned with EcoDrive and sails). The HH44-SC will start at $1.45m and be approximately $1.6 million fully optioned with EcoDrive and sails.]

With a stated 37 of these 44-footers on order as of late October and a waiting list of three-plus years, HH44s will someday be scattered about in cruising grounds around the world, says Hynes. But it’s only a matter of time—and it will be sooner than later—before owners gather and give the racing thing a go.  

The HH44 is the smallest of the builder’s new lineage of hybrid-powered performance catamarans (there is a 52-footer in the works), so it is positioned as an entry point into big-cat sailing. This model does not require a professional captain or crew because simplicity and owner-operator considerations are prevalent throughout the boat, which is designed by young naval architect James Hakes, son of Paul Hakes, one of the company founders. Chinese entrepreneur Hudson Wang is the other “H” of HH Catamarans.

“It had a great groove upwind. The self-tacking jib was really easy to deal with, and for the mainsail it was just a few feet of ease on the mainsheet, adjust the powered traveler up to center, trim on and go.”

“James brought the hybrid idea with him, and Hudson was willing to take a risk and look at doing something kind of game-changing in the industry with our parallel-­hybrid approach,” Hynes says. Morrelli & Melvin was intimately involved in every performance aspect of the boat, from the appendages to the final hull profile.

“It’s a diesel engine with a shaft drive, and then independent of that is an electric motor with a belt to the shaft, so they’re really independent of each other,” Hynes explains.  

HH isn’t the first or only builder to use the system from Hybrid Marine, but Hake’s approach to the boat overall is inextricably linked to maximizing solar coverage, which means a clean roof and placing the helm stations down in the cockpit. To address the known challenges of cockpit steering in such catamarans, the steering wheels pivot inboard and outboard to allow for better forward visibility and communication with anyone on the foredeck dealing with sails, anchors or dock lines.

Placing the steering stations in the cockpit eliminates the tiered wedding-cake look of most big catamarans these days. More importantly, doing so allows them to lower the sail plan. “That allows for more sail area and less stress on the standing rigging,” Stewart says. “Plus, it looks so much better.”

There are 4,432 watts worth of solar panels piled onto the coach roof, which Hynes says has plenty of juice to get by off the grid, even in low-light conditions. “At full battery capacity, you can run the boat at full throttle using the two 10-kilowatt electric motors and get 7 knots of boatspeed for approximately two hours,” he says. “In light air, you can even keep your leeward electric motor running to build yourself some apparent wind. That’s what’s great about this system: You can sail quietly when no one else can sail at all.”

The port helm station is where a lot of the boathandling happens; there are powered halyard winches and a meticulous array of labeled jammers. Tails disappear into a deep trough forward of the pedestal. The wheels are sized just right, Stewart says. “Initially, I was steering from the weather wheel and I could see fine, and when I went to the leeward wheel, I could easily see the telltales. It had a great feel to the helm—light and responsive with no slop or tightness.”

In Allen’s sailing assessment of the HH44: “It had a great groove upwind. The self-tacking jib was really easy to deal with, and for the mainsail it was just a few feet of ease on the mainsheet, adjust the powered traveler up to center, trim on and go. There is some choreography to learn with the steering wheel, though. You have to move the wheel inboard to get better access to the sail and daggerboard controls during the tack. But once you’re done, you pop the wheel right back out to the outboard position. We didn’t have a screecher to really light it up downwind, but even with the Dacron jib and main, the boat took off. I was really impressed.”

One wish for Stewart would be a sliver of a coach roof window for quick sail-trim checks, but he understood the priority of using every inch of solar-panel coverage.

Not having a sail-trim window wasn’t an issue for Ingham, however. “Most of the time, you’ll trim it to your best guess, take a step outboard and up the stairs right next to the wheel, and check yourself on the trim. It’s all push buttons anyway, so you’re not having to reload a winch or anything like that every time you make an adjustment.”

Even as the morning’s fresh breeze abated, the boat continued to perform beyond expectations, Stewart says. “As we got down to 5 knots of wind, the boat was still quick through the tacks. We didn’t have to back the jib at all, and it sailed at good angles upwind. I was impressed with how well it tacked, and how well it tracked with only one daggerboard down.”

Stewart, a naval architect himself, also appreciated the boat’s modern styling and “sexy-looking profile,” especially the uncluttered interior. “It’s a nice departure from other similar-­size catamarans,” he says. “I like the styling—it caught my eye the very first time I saw the rendering. The transom angle and the reverse bow give it nice aesthetics and the buoyancy you need. The curved boards worked well and are integrated nicely on with the boat. Overall, it’s a great-looking package, and it would be a lot of fun to do some races on.”

“We will definitely end up racing in the Caribbean and doing some fun events for owners,” Bailet says. “The cool thing about this boat is you can take a smaller crew of friends and race competitively, and it isn’t going to cost you $50,000 in paid crew and housing. You can race this boat with three or four people, no problem. Doublehandling is pretty easy too, but if you really wanted to go banging around the buoys, with this boat it would be easy.”

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This sexy looking cruising cat was designed for speed

At first glance at the 2D sailplan this 44-foot catamaran appears to be a stubby and kind of awkward looking cat. But don’t be fooled. Add the third dimension, the depth and the complex geometry of this cat is revealed and it is anything but stubby looking. But before I get into the meat and potatoes of this design I’d like to compliment and thank the builders who are also the designers for providing such a well-prepared package of design drawings. It’s very clear when you look at the drawings that those involved with this cat were really enjoying the design process. Unfortunately, to do this design justice I would need four pages. I’ll do my best with the space allotted.

This cat balances comfort against performance with an all carbon fiber build. The D/L at light ship displacement is 111. If you use the max load figure displacement this increases to 148. That’s quite a range. Using an individual hull the L/B is 9. The typical cruising cat today is designed for charter and tries to use the biggest rectangular footprint to cram as many accommodations in as possible. That’s fine if you are selling charter boats. But the downside is very moderate performance. This 44-foot cat has plenty of accommodation volume but it does not fill the entire footprint and that allows a much lower overall displacement translating to more boat speed.

The Achilles’ heel for a lot of cruising cats is the shoal-draft, low-aspect-ratio fixed keels. The HH44 attacks this with daggerboard fins built with pre-preg carbon that are arc shaped to provide both lift and extra righting moment. This is a huge advantage. The draft with boards down is 9 feet 10 inches and boards up is 4 feet 7 inches. The overall beam is 23 feet 5 inches.

There are numerous interior options and I get the idea that these boats are built with semicustom layouts. I will concentrate on the “August Release” layout. There are three double berth sleeping cabins. The forward cabin in the starboard hull is tight. The mirror image, aft double berths appear to be generous. The starboard cabin shares the head with the forward cabin. In the port hull the entire volume is used for sleeping cabin and head all the way forward with a large shower stall. On the main deck there is a galley aft to starboard. This galley has tons of counter space and will be a pleasant place to cook. To starboard there is an L-shaped dining area. Adjacent to the settee forward is a navigation station that will make any navigator happy. There is another L-shaped dinette aft on the “veranda.”

The deck is complex. That “stubby” house is faceted artfully to provide the headroom where needed while reducing overall bulk. It almost has the look of a stealth fighter jet. The wheels are pushed outboard and aft about as far as possible for great visibility forward. Lines are lead aft, under the deck, port and starboard to both wheels. Large bins are provided at each wheel for stowing the lines. There is a track for a self-tacking jib. There is a fixed sprit to get the downwind sails away from the headstay. The mainsheet traveller is on the cabinhouse top. 

Swim platforms hinge down from each transom. The dinghy  is carried on davits between the hulls. All deck hatches are flush type. There is room on the cabinhouse top for flexible solar panels that provide 3,190 watts. Another 550 watts of solar power is available from optional panels mounted on the davits. The solar panels will come in handy because this cat has a hybrid power system using twin Beta 30-horsepower engines located under the aft berths and lithium ion batteries with a Victron monitoring system.

As I anticipated I’m running out of “word count.” To quickly sum up, the rig is all carbon with a fixed mast and a square-topped mainsail for a SA/D of 28.62 if I use the Solent style overlapping jib as the working jib.

I would really love to have a ride on this exciting design.

LOA 49’9”; LWL 43’7”; Beam 23’5”; Draft board up 4’7”, board down 9’10”; Displ. 27,558 lb.; Sail area 1,349 sq. ft.; Fuel 146 gal.; Water 106 gal; Auxiliary twin 30-hp; SA/D 28.62; D/L 111; L/B 9

HH Catamarans

[email protected]

386-414-6700

www.hhcatamarans.com

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Description

The first HH44 was launched in 2023 and premiered at the Cannes International Yachting Festival. This innovative design is the “baby” of the HH Catamarans range and has some interesting features such as her closed transoms, swing aft helms and a side boarding gate aft.

She’s a very pretty cat and will turn heads in the marina. This is HH’s first hybrid electric-powered catamaran although you can also opt for standard diesel power with shaft drives.

There are 2 versions, like much of the HH range. The Sports Cruising model: HH44-SC and the Ocean Cruising model: HH44-OC. The SC version is a “no-compromise-boat” with C-shaped carbon daggerboards, a carbon rig, a painted hull finish and 4,232 watts of solar with EcoDrive.

The OC saves you some money with the same hull, interior fit and finish quality as the sportier SC but with an aluminium mast, e-glass longeron, white gelcoat finish and mini-keels as standard.

Many of the ideas on this boat have been driven by a desire to maximise solar generation. There are 4,232W of peak solar on the cabin top alone with an option for more on the davits.

To maximise the solar, they have positioned the helms aft in a traditional sporty set-up. That way, there’s plenty of surface area up top to load on solar.

To help you stay protected in weather, these swing inboard, under the long coach-roof.

There are foldaway seats that tuck into the sides allowing you to either steer the boat from an outboard position with the wind in your hair and your sails’ tell-tales in full view.

Or swing the helms inboard and steer from the protected three-seat sofa on the aft beam.

To make it easy to board the boat in the marina, there is a side gate aft for when you come in along the dock.

The HH44 has been designed to sail. The whole idea behind this catamaran is to get sailing in light winds (you should match wind speed on a beam reach) and to maximise your SOG over a wide range of conditions.

So she has a self-tacking staysail, a solent, a fractional reacher and a furling gennaker. The boom is very low over the coach-roof which keeps the centre of effort from the mainsail low.

There is a traveller aft on the coach-roof to manage your mainsail shape. The HH44 points well into the wind (45 TWA) thanks to her C-shaped daggerboards which provide a bit of lift at speed.

All the lines come back to the helm, so she is set up for short-handed sailing.

• Light, rigid and fast, the HH44 is a great sailor
• Swing aft helms give you flexibility while opening up the living space in the aft cockpit
• The finish on this boat  is excellent
• Those closed transoms create a safe enclosed living space. They’ll also save you money in the marina
• A great looking boat that should hold her value well in the market due to the high demand
• The EcoDrive strikes a great balance between electric motoring with back-up diesels for safety
• With those aft helms, visibility is reduced towards the opposite bow, although the sight lines through the salon windows is good.
• This is not a cheap yacht
• The forward cabin is cosy. There is an option for a Pullman berth here (or convert to a workspace)
• The bow lockers seem small, although they are deep

Light Construction

Carbon and epoxy have been used to build as strong and stiff a yacht as possible while minimising the weight.

All of the lines run under the decks, so you have clear walkways around the boat. Stanchions are 900mm tall and a continuous, unbroken toe rail runs the length of the deck with all hull and deck joints fused and hidden.

Living Space

Moving inside, you’ll notice that the aft cockpit and salon forms one fully protected space with a large sofa on the aft beam and her closed transoms make this a safe family boat.

The angular cabin has two large, forward-facing windows that open fully from the the generously sized (187 sq ft or 17.4m2) salon. The standing height is over 2m (6’6”) high throughout.

One of the things that sets the HH44 apart from her competition is the quality of the finish on this semi-custom yacht.  She has foam core furniture and exceptional joinery throughout, and Bosch electric appliances as standard.

There are two options for a BBQ, one which replaces the aft sofa with a large LPG BBQ & Dive Tank station or you can mount an LPG Grill in the aft fishing rod holder, keeping the aft sofa. There is an outlet on the aft beam so you can run an electric BBQ.

In the salon, there is an L-shaped sofa with a table forward to starboard and a large nav station/workstation to port.

Tuck yourself into the U-shaped galley behind the nav station or pull out some cold ones from the fridge on the starboard side. The ventilation at anchor is excellent with those huge forward windows.

The starboard hull is the owner’s side and consists of the master cabin aft and a walk-in shower and head forward. The finish has an Italian feel to it and it is very light down here with a large window aft in the owner’s cabin.

This is a 44 foot performance cat, so there is not as much room down her as you’d find in a cruising cat, but she has ample space in the aft cabin and the storage is well organised.

HH offers three different forward cabin combinations. One is the standard layout with a single berth.

The second has a Pullman berth above the standard bed that folds away when not needed.

A third option does away with the beds and replaces them with a large work bench with shelves (for pantry storage or tools) and an extra Fridge/Freezer unit.

If you go for the option with the EcoDrive, the House Bank is powerful enough to run the A/C overnight without the need to run a generator. There is enough power to run the A/C in the master cabin for over three days.

EcoDrive, her Electric/Diesel Parallel Hybrid System The HH44 was designed from scratch to work with a parallel electric/diesel hybrid, with a minimum of 4,232W of peak solar array on the cabin top and hydro-regeneration while sailing.

EcoDrive gives you silent fume-free motoring at 7.5kts, fast torque for manoeuvring, and hydro-regeneration while sailing. Plus you have parallel, trusty diesel engines for safety.

A diesel engine is paired with a large electric motor, much like an alternator sits on a traditional diesel engine. A belt links the two units and a camshaft allows you to flip between the two power systems, giving you good redundancy. And remember, you have 2 of these systems on board!

The system is designed to offer from 1.5 to 3 hours of electric propulsion: more than enough time to exit the marina or anchorage and hoist the sails.

This boat has been designed to get sailing in light winds which ultimately is the key to an eco-friendly sailing yacht. And you will be recharging your batteries as you sail.

You can also fit the HH44 with traditional standalone diesel engines with shaft drives.

The HH44 is an innovative design that will appeal to sailors setting out across long distances who want to sail more and beat well to windward when needed. This yacht is in a different price league to something like an Aventura 37 of course, but there are two options here: the Sports Cruising and the Ocean Cruising models.

She’s a comfortable boat, although there is a trade-off on space down below particularly in the forward cabins.

With the EcoDrive option and a bow locker full of sails, you’ll be able to minimise your diesel usage on this boat while crossing oceans safely and quickly.

What is the price of an HH44? How much do they cost? The sportier HH44-SC starts at $1,325,000. Meanwhile the HH44-OC version starts at $957,000 USD. The total cost will vary depending on your options, but you should budget an additional $300k, perhaps more for the SC.

How much solar is there on the HH44? The HH44 has a generous 4,232W of peak solar as standard on the SC on the cabin top. You can fit 1,200W watts over the Davits, but this comes with a weight penalty.

What is the length of the boat with transoms up? With the transoms up, the LOA from davits to Bow Sprit is 14.23m (46.68 feet), so fine for a 15m berth.

What size tender can you carry? The optimum sized tender is 3-3.5m (10-11 foot). The davits are carbon fibre and will soak up a high load.

Technical Specification

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Behind the Scene of the New HH44 Catamaran. VIDEO

We are thrilled to present the first in a five-part video series entitled “Designing the HH44”. The all-new HH44 catamaran is a yacht with many innovations. It features 100% electric propulsion with a diesel hybrid backup, 3,190 watts of solar, built-in hydropower generation, swing helms, folding transoms, forward opening windows, 48-volt deck systems, shaft-drive folding propellers, pre-preg carbon fiber C-shaped daggerboards, and near wind-speed sailing performance (all of it standard).

In this video, we hear from Paul Hakes (CEO & Co-Founder of HH ) and James Hakes ( HH Naval Architect) on how they and the team at HH Catamarans developed the all-new HH44.

Something more about the HH44 catamaran

The HH44 catamaran was conceived from the ground up to work with a parallel hybrid system. The HH44’s parallel hybrid provides all the benefits of an electric boat, silent fume-free motoring, instant torque for maneuvering, and hydro-regeneration while sailing, with the reliability of a trusty diesel engine. The helms have been positioned in the aft corners which opened up the cabin top for up to 3.2kW of solar panels (+.5kW mounted on the davits) to complement the hybrid. The hydro-regeneration combined with the possibility of huge solar and excellent sailing performance in all wind strengths give the HH44 essentially infinite range.

The parallel hybrid system can operate in several different modes:

1. Standard mode – operate the diesel engines with the hybrid system disengaged, just as you would on a traditional yacht.

2.  Engine mode – operate the diesel engines as you usually would, with all extra horsepower being pulled off the engines and used to charge the large battery bank.

3. Generator mode – Disengage the clutch in the prop shaft and turn the two diesel engines into two 6kW DC generators.

4. Silent mode – Disengage the electric motors from the diesel engines and use the electric motors to provide 10kW of silent propulsion power per shaft (20kW total)

5. Hydro Regen mode – while sailing, disengage the electric motors from the diesel engines, open the folding propeller and allow it to free-spin, this turns the shafts and the electric motors generating electricity for free! Regen mode is greatly enhanced by the fast sailing speeds of the HH44.

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Nautitech 44 Open review: space and performance?

• July 26, 2022

Offering space and a comfortable interior while keeping a cat light enough to perform is a tough brief. Does the Nautitech 44 Open deliver, asks François Tregouet?

Product Overview

Price as reviewed:.

It’s been more than six years since the Nautitech yard in Rochefort launched an entirely new design, but this Nautitech 44 Open marks the company’s return to the forefront of the multihull scene.

It shares the Open layout of Nautitech’s past models, but embodies the brand’s new strategy to address owner-operators rather than the charter market. We were able to judge the concept during an early sea trial on the Bay of Biscay.

The Nautitech 44 Open was developed in just 14 months during the middle of the pandemic and owes a great deal to the dozen owners and dealers consulted to define their ‘ideal’ catamaran. The feedback from this working party convinced the yard to focus on cruising owners and to go for a more performance-oriented design than the market average.

Marc Lombard’s design team has succeeded in expressing this externally by using fine bows, a narrow waterline and controlled volumes. The line of hull windows is more tapered than in the past, and the nacelle is less pronounced and voluminous than typical production cruising cats.

Nautitech’s Open concept, which was initiated nearly 10 years ago on the Nautitech 40 Open, allows the length to be contained by merging the interior and exterior into a single volume. So the true saloon is located outside, protected by a long, rigid bimini and coachroof windows that extend beyond the sliding bay window. Not splitting the saloon/cockpit function saves space – and weight, which is crucial on a multihull, especially at this size.

Good performance, a covered saloon. Photo: MULTImedia

Transformative

The chart table and L-shaped bench seat on the port side, and the galley to starboard, are thus able to benefit from the entire interior space. Facing forward, the chart table is a proper indoor navstation, while the bench seat can be transformed into a watch-keeper’s berth. Strategically positioned between control screens and cockpit winches, it will be ideal for night passages.

The galley benefits from a large 144lt fridge and optional 75lt freezer, anticipating the demands of owners wishing to sail with complete self-sufficiency wherever possible. Designer Christophe Chedal-Anglay, known for his work on the Gunboat 68, has incorporated a clever bar unit in the centre of this living space, which works very well to distribute guests, and naturally becomes a focal point for discussions.

Aft helms remain key elements of the Open concept. Photo: MULTImedia

In the three-cabin version we sailed, reflecting the emphasis on owner-sailors rather than the charter market, the port hull is dedicated to the owner’s cabin with aft double berth, separate heads and large washbasin and shower room forward.

On the starboard side double cabins forward and aft are separated by heads and washroom spaces – the yard preferring to offer more volume to a heads and shower/washbasin area on one side instead of duplicating identical bathrooms.

Photo: MULTImedia

A ‘SmartRoom’ concept allows for a forward cabin to be fitted out to suit a choice of uses: office, dressing room, technical room, workshop or stowage.

On deck, Nautitech remains faithful to its double aft helm stations which are protected from the sun by two small biminis. They remain exposed to the apparent wind and spray, but the view of the sails is excellent and the view forward is better than you might think. The blind spots forward are very small – apart from when the removable cockpit enclosures are in place, which will likely only be in port or at anchor – and a step to the side immediately remedies this.

A central bar area divides saloon and desk/chart table, and gives the interior a social heart. Photo: Nautitech

When manoeuvring in marinas, a camera mounted under the radar antenna and pointing towards the bows, gives the helmsman an accurate and useful picture of the distances available.

Nautitech continues to improve the comfort, design and ergonomics around the aft helm set up. The winches are within easy reach, and well separated from the lounging area, and the moulded dash binnacle elegantly accommodates all the necessary elements (engine controls, plotter, repeaters, etc.).

Access to the deck to go forward, to take care of the anchor or lower the gennaker, is a formality thanks to the two teak steps and the handrails integrated into the coachroof and around the deck.

The main saloon is outside aft, but there’s also a dinette inside. Photo: MULTImedia

Handy performance

The sporty first impression that the fine bow sections give is confirmed once at sea, where they are also noticeably dry. Nautitech has managed to keep the Open 44 to the designed light displacement of 10.9 tonnes. However, the standard configuration with a self-tacking jib giving 110m² sail area proved to be a minimum in the 10 to 12 knots of cold wind we encountered.

Narrower hulls than many of today’s cruising cats, but still plenty of comfort. Photo: MULTImedia

I’d have liked to have tried the overlapping genoa, which increases the sail area to 133m². Once the Code 0 was unfurled, however, the boat came to life. We reached 8.4 knots at 55° to the apparent wind in only 12.8 knots of breeze. Of course, if you bear away a little, the pace becomes even faster, and we regularly exceeded 10 knots at 110° to the wind.

The extensive design resources used for the first time, with three digital models tested in virtual reality, have clearly had an effect. The helm is direct and offers just the right amount of feedback to steer accurately but without too much effort. The new hexagonal shape of the Goïot steering wheels quickly overcame our conservatism, as their shape allows an easy understanding of their degree of rotation. Switching from one side to the other without rushing to get the best angle of vision on the telltales is straightforward, as the boat is so stable.

There was no slamming when going through waves thanks to good speed under sail and a comfortable bridgedeck clearance. And when returning to port, powered by the two optional 50hp engines (30hp as standard), the Nautitech made 7 knots at 2,000rpm. French tradition dictated that we would be home in time for lunch!

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The non-slip surface lacks a bit of texture to offer good grip in wet weather, but this is one of the only minor niggles we found with this well-founded Nautitech. The ‘Open’ concept involves a smaller coachroof but, conversely, a very large exterior saloon. And in this context we can say that the 44 Open keeps its promise to improve the comfort-performance compromise, a factor cherished by the brand. The abolition of the inside-outside boundary serves to limit displacement and help deliver attractive performance. That lack of boundary is underlined by the continuity of the lighting between the two areas, while inside, the quality of the finish has improved and the layout is intelligent. With its smart positioning between industrial yards which are very influenced by the charter market, and specialists with more radical (and expensive) choices, Nautitech has created a ‘sweet spot’ with this new model, which will appeal to many multihull enthusiasts.

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Helia 44 catamaran.

Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 is both sleek and spacious. Although Fountaine Pajot does not offer anything new in terms of the dimensions and specifications, Helia 44 boasts a number of cosmetic alterations that make the catamaran more comfortable and luxurious.

Table of Contents

DESIGN – INTERIOR & EXTERIOR

The deck layout of the Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 is easy to navigate, neat and family-friendly. With wide side decks lined with grab rails, the movement aboard the Helia 44 is safe and comfortable. The sugar scoops on each side have swim ladders and boast Alpi wood finishing, giving the catamaran a cozy look.

The foredeck of Helia 44 is wide and spacious with two large lockers at the bottom of the mast, one for anchorage and halyard tail storage, and another for the generator. It also hosts a wide trampoline and a seat both to starboard and portside.

The aft cockpit of Helia 44 is entirely protected from the weather by a rigid bimini. It is large and spacious, with a bench seat which along with a sofa can comfortably accommodate up to 8 people around a table. This space makes up the main dining area on the boat. There are storage lockers underneath both the bench and the sofa and a chest for storage of a couple of bottles. The cockpit receives natural lighting and ventilation via deck hatches.

The helm station, accessed via stairs from the cockpit, has a helm seat with enough room for 3 people. All the sails can be controlled from the helm station and the visibility from the station is excellent, although viewing the port aft portion can prove to be a bit of a struggle. The helm station is complete with an instrument control panel and a bin for halyards.

Another key feature of Helia 44 is a lounge deck on the coachroof which can be accessed via steps from the cockpit. The lounge deck is not only comfortable but also offers breathtaking views of the sea and the sky.

The saloon layout of Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 is different in terms of the unencumbered space it offers, thanks to the recessed mast. Another interesting feature to note is the way the cockpit seamlessly blends into the saloon, offering a smooth transition between outdoor and indoor areas.

The saloon is accessed via a narrow sliding glass door and is illuminated by the sunlight that filters in through the panoramic, all-around windows. There are two forward opening hatches which along with an aft-facing porthole and 2 roof bays ensure that the saloon has good ventilation as well as natural lighting. The bench seat, surrounding a wooden coffee table, has storage lockers underneath and can easily accommodate up to 6 people. Part of the bench also serves a seat for the navigation station.

The navigation station faces forward and has an unobstructed view of the outside. It has a wide wooden chart table and storage under a flap. Complete with a high navigation instruments console, an electric panel, and an electric outlet, the chart desk is lit with a reading light.

The U-shaped galley, positioned between the cockpit and the saloon, has easy access to not only the inside but also outside to the cockpit, which makes serving food and drinks through a sliding bay fast and efficient. It features double stainless steel sinks, 3 burner stove, an oven, and space for an optional dishwasher. There is enough storage space available for cutlery and supplies in the form of large cupboards under the sink and to the side of the entry door. One of the storage cupboards can also accommodate a fridge, which is optional and not standard. The galley is also well-lit and an opening hatch placed above the stovetop ensures ventilation.

ACCOMMODATIONS

Helia 44 is available in two different layout versions. There is a Quatuor version with four double cabins with a separate bathroom for each and a Maestro version with three cabins and two bathrooms.

In the Maestro’s version, the entirety of the starboard hull is taken over by the owner’s suite which is accessed through a wooden sliding door. The owner’s suite has a double bed with lateral access and is well-ventilated and well-lit with a panoramic bay, deck hatch, and a porthole. It offers cupboard storage, shelves, and drawers along with a wooden writing desk and bench. The owner’s suite has a separate shower and head.

The other two cabins in the port hull are similar and with double bed and drawers and cupboards for storage. Both the cabins also enjoy the rear panoramic bay and have a separate bathroom.

ENGINE ROOM

Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 is powered by two 40 HP diesel engines. The engine room is located under the transom platform and is accessed via a hatch. The engine room is spacious and lit with neon lights to allow for comfortable and efficient maintenance and routine checks. It is also sound-proofed to prevent disturbance caused by the noise of the engine. The grab rails along the sides of the sugar scoops offer a little bit of protection while accessing the engine rooms so the risk of falling over when underway is reduced.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

The overall length of Helia 44 is 13.3 meters with a beam of 7.4 meters. It has a full load displacement of approximately 15,700 kg and a lightship displacement of approximately 10,800 kg. Helia 44 has a total freshwater capacity of 750 liters and a total fuel capacity of 470 liters.

PRICE RANGE

The price of Helia 44 varies from $450,000 to $480,000.

In conclusion, Helia 44 is a good deal of a catamaran for both families looking for a comfortable trip and sailing enthusiasts seeking a lightweight catamaran for quick offshore cruising. Helia 44 offers significantly redesigned features that make this catamaran more efficient and habitable, such as the portholes with lighting increased by 30% and the large, spacious cockpit. It is also easily customizable so the undesired features, if any, can be fixed conveniently and fitted according to the owner’s needs.

Helia 44 Specs

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HH44 - Fast cruising in hybrid mode

Article published on 05/08/2021

By Emmanuel van Deth

published in n°179 sept. / oct.

This is a new catamaran announced for late 2022 that manages to reconcile a very “performance” vision of cruising (all-carbon construction, a sleek sail plan with a 62’ / 19 m mast, and deep daggerboards) with a hybrid propulsion system.

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• By Mark Pillsbury
• Updated: December 9, 2011

South African catamaran builder Robertson and Caine and veteran multihull designers Morrelli & Melvin teamed up once again to produce the new Leopard 44, which is also available for charter as the Sunsail 444. The builder’s longtime role as the supplier of catamarans to both Sunsail and The Moorings means that the build team has extensive owner and charterer feedback when it comes time to launch a new model. The result has been cats that are easy and fun to sail, ruggedly built to avoid downtime when in charter, and relatively affordable ( view the complete photo gallery here ).

In those respects, the new 44-footer should fit right into the fleet. The most distinguishing feature on this catamaran is the cabin top that extends forward, past the saloon, to shade a forward-facing cockpit located just aft of the trampoline on the bow. While we were motoring north from Miami to Fort Lauderdale one evening last winter after the boat show, this cockpit was the place to be as the sun set. The view was tremendous and the breeze refreshing as we skipped along with a crowd aboard at a little better than 6 knots at 2,600 rpm. Throttling up to 3,200 rpm, we added another half a knot. Two 29-horsepower Yanmar diesels are mounted facing backward, well aft in each hull, with saildrives forward of them; under way, this reduces noise levels in the aft cabins.

Earlier, with the boat under sail, I’d found it simple to maneuver, with all controls, including the halyards, leading back to winches at the raised helm to starboard. There, the skipper sits just about at bimini level under a hard dodger; an overhead port provides a view of the main. In 13 knots of breeze and open-water waves, we made 6.5 knots while sailing closehauled, tacking through about 110 degrees.

A Sunsail representative quipped that the boat was designed with the Caribbean and its steady easterly trades in mind. One can enjoy sunrise and breakfast around a small table in the forward cockpit, leave the watertight door open as a steady breeze blows through the saloon all day, and then enjoy sunset in the large shaded cockpit astern, with dinner around a table that should seat eight with ease.

Access from the dinghy or when swimming has been simplified via transom platforms that extend slightly past the side hulls, conveniently located handrails, and just a single step leading to the bridgedeck. Once you’re aboard, wide decks make for easy movement fore and aft, and the bimini’s overhangs provide sure handholds.

The boat I tested was a private owner’s version, with the accommodations for the captain and mate taking up the entire starboard hull. A queen berth is aft, with a sitting area amidships and a head with separate shower in the bow, behind a watertight bulkhead. To port, double berths with en suite heads are fore and aft, with a child’s berth far forward. That same layout is mirrored to starboard in the four-cabin Sunsail 444.

Hulls are constructed using isophthalic gelcoat and vinylester resin to resist osmosis. Balsa coring in the hulls and deck reduces weight and adds strength and stiffness. Hard chines and hulls that flare above the waterline provide both performance and increased interior volume. There’s plenty of the latter—and it’s well appointed, to boot. The doors fore and aft in the saloon, plus opening hatches, let in lots of light and ventilation. The interior decor is a blend of cherry laminates with white panels and light-colored upholstery. The up-style galley—with the storage and kit one would expect for a boat this size—is located aft to port and includes a two-drawer fridge and freezer and Corian counters. An optional generator is located forward, in a cockpit locker.

Overall, there was much to like about this latest offering from Robertson and Caine, and if I were a betting man, I’d wager that the concept of a cockpit forward might just set a trend for tropics-bound cats in the future.

• More: 2011+ , 41 - 50 ft , catamaran , Coastal Cruising , leopard catamarans , multihull , Sailboat Reviews , Sailboats
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Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 Review

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. PLEASE READ OUR DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.

Last Updated on May 14, 2021 by Amy

Starry Horizons, a Fountaine Pajot Helia 44, was launched in October of 2014. Since then, we’ve tackled over 40,000 nautical miles and completed our world circumnavigation . Over the years, we’ve had a lot of thoughts on the performance of our boat and the things we liked and didn’t like.

20,000nm Helia Review

Upon our arrival into Fiji, we crossed the longitude 178° 51′ E.  This meant we had officially sailed halfway around the world (!) on our Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 from the factory in France.  Since my original review, Fountaine Pajot has released the Helia Evolution , which did address a few of my original gripes, namely the dinghy davits, so I’m going to try and focus on things in this review that will hopefully be applicable to all Helias.

To answer the basic question I know everyone is thinking; yes, we are still very happy with our Helia 44.  Since we left France in November 2014, we’ve:

• sailed almost 20,000nm
• crossed two oceans
• visited 20 countries
• published over 325 blog posts
• almost 50 YouTube videos

It feels like the time has flown by, but actually writing all that out, we’ve done a lot in a bit over two years!

Through it all, our respect and admiration for the Helia has continued to grow.  We did a lot of research before choosing to buy a Helia and all of our experiences since then have just served to confirm that we made the right choice.  That’s not to say that the Helia is the perfect boat.  All boats are a compromise in one way or another, but for our requirements, it’d be hard to do much better.

In my first review, I mentioned that we enjoyed sailing the Helia 44 and that definitely hasn’t changed.  Overall, she’s a very comfortable boat at sea, capable of taking everything we’ve thrown at her and more.

I keep pretty detailed spreadsheets from all our passages and I figured some of this data may be of interest:

• Overall Avg SOG: 6.7 knots
• Overall Avg NM/Day: 160.8nm
• Fastest Passage SOG: 7.45 knots (Grenada to Panama) over 1,249nm
• Note: we purposefully sailed slowly on this passage to arrive in the Tuamotus in daylight and with proper tide conditions
• Fastest 24hr Run: 8.71 knots and 209nm (Grenada to Panama)
• Slowest 24hr Run: 4.92 and 118nm (Marquesas to Tuamotus)

Sailing Overview

The Helia isn’t the fastest boat in the world, but she definitely isn’t the slowest either.  Since we’re doing a trade winds circumnavigation, we’ve spent a majority of our time going downwind.  We have, however, experienced all kinds of conditions.

Sailing Dead Downwind

Many purists will say you shouldn’t sail dead downwind because it’s slow, but man is this an easy point of sail.  We’ve had lots of success with a wing on wing set up, starting with main and genoa and recently with genoa and screecher when AWS is 15knots or less.  The Helia 44 is so wide we don’t need poles and we’ve seen wind gusts to even 160deg AWA and the sails stayed full.  With the genoa and screecher, we’ve even been able to sail all the way down to 8-10 knots TWS.  Main + genoa requires more wind to keep the main full.

This is where it gets fun.  Come off the wind a bit and the Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 can really come alive.  Main+genoa on a reach usually gives us about 7-8 knots.  Using our screecher gets about 8-9 knots.  We’ve seen bursts of 10+ knots boat speed when conditions are just right.  For comfort reasons, we don’t usually push this hard out in the open ocean, but our 209nm day was a perfect combination of smallish waves, right wind angle and just enough wind to allow us to keep full sails.  And we did it using just our main and genoa!  We are confident in saying that our Fountaine Pajot is faster than most cruising boats.

I don’t care what kind of boat you’re on, upwind sailing is just no fun.  Bashing into waves is uncomfortable, plain and simple.  Our longest/worst stretch of upwind sailing was the start of our Fiji to New Zealand passage.  We had 25-30+ knots AWS where we sailed at AWA’s of about 47-42 degrees.  With several reefs in the sails, we still managed to do about 6.5knots but we lost quite a bit of leeway.  If you want to sail to windward on a regular basis, get a cat with daggerboards.

This comes with a major disclaimer that I’m no world-class racer, but there are a few annoyances about sail trim on a Helia.  The genoa track cars are too far inboard to be of great use while sailing deep wind angles.  We’ve solved this problem by rigging up a block at the shrouds to be used with an additional line tied to the clew of the sail as an outboard jib lead.  This has worked well.

The mainsheet traveler spreads almost entirely across the coachroof.  While sailing downwind , you want the main let far out.  However, the shrouds and spreaders are in the way.  The mainsail, when let all the way out, can chafe against the rigging.  We reinforced the mainsail at the contact point for the spreaders, but after hearing of chaffing stories from other Fountaine Pajot owners, we are very careful not to let out the mainsail too far.

To be fair, you would likely encounter these issues on pretty much all other cats, not just Fountaine Pajots, but it is still something you have to account for.

Slamming Update

In my first review, I mentioned how disappointed I was in how much Starry Horizons slammed while we sailed across the Atlantic.  Since then we replaced our 300′ of 1/2 chain with 300′ of 3/8″ HT G4 chain and reworked the dinghy bridle so that we can actually keep the outboard on the dinghy during passages.  This saved us about 500lb of weight up at the bow of the boat and has essentially solved the problem.

We still experience “wave slap” on the inside of the hulls, but any cat will experience this.  Very rarely do we now experience the whole boat shuddering slamming effect.

Construction Update

We get a lot of compliments from guests about how new she looks.  We both do quite a bit of work to keep her looking good.  This also speaks to the quality of her construction.  Sure there are a couple of gelcoat cracks that have shown up, and we can hear a few more creaks while out at sea, but after 20,000nm that’s not unexpected.

Even in some of the worst seas we’ve experienced, I’ve never been concerned that the structural integrity of the boat was at risk.

Sail Plan on a Helia 44

The Helia really is an easy boat to sail.  We’ve modified things so that all lines are led back to the helm (we purchased single line 1st reef from the Fountaine Pajot factory and modified the 2nd reef to be single line reefing as well) which means we can enclose the helm and be incredibly protected.

It was important to both of us that we be able to essentially single hand the boat in case something happened to the other person and with the Fountaine Pajot Helia 44, we can do that.  The electric winch makes raising the mainsail a breeze but it can be frustrating having to go back and forth to the helm pod to adjust the autopilot when raising or reefing by yourself.  Having two people does make this easier.

I touched on this in my first review, but it bears repeating.  We love the space we have in the Helia.  We’re usually the ones hosting get-togethers in an anchorage because the Helia has more space than almost all the other boats there.  The lounge deck is a great spot for sundowners, we can work out up on the bow, the galley has enough counter space to actually prepare food and the jealousy on people’s faces when they see the size of the owners’ hull is readily apparent.  Fountaine Pajot has done a great job of organizing the boat and the living space.

We give up some speed to cats with thinner hulls and daggerboards.  But since we’ve spent 85% (107 days on passages out of 2 years) of our time at anchor/on a mooring/dockside, I’d rather have more space.

Maintenance and Repairs

We’ve been incredibly fortunate with how Starry Horizons has held up so far.  Overall we’ve had far fewer troubles with her than other boats (and other Fountaine Pajots) we’ve met.  Here are some of the big-ticket items we’ve had to work on:

• We discovered a crack in our port mini keel while hauled out in the BVIs .  We’re fairly sure we haven’t hit bottom on that side yet.  Our best guess is when we “beached” the boat in La Rochelle on the asphalt ramp so Uchimata could do some work on the props for us.  Can’t really fault the Helia for this one.
• Our hydraulic steering system had a leak coming from the “drain fitting” on the hydraulic pump.  It wasn’t a big leak and was easily fixed by adding some Teflon tape.
• Since buying the boat, I’ve since come to discover that Onan generators have a reputation for eating impellers.  We’ve gotten a Raw Water Flow alarm several times and the solution has always required replacing the impeller.  Again, a simple fix, but rather annoying, and we haven’t found a longer-term solution.
• Classify this one under preventative maintenance.  So far our generator and engines have run almost flawlessly (with the exception of the genset impeller) so all I’ve had to do are scheduled oil and filter changes.
• The drain for the shower in the owner’s head is constantly getting backed up.  This is due to the accumulation of soap scum/hair/etc that gets down that drain.  The sump box itself is easy to open up and clean.  However, the long hose run from the drain to the sump box isn’t.  We try to use a snake to clean the hose, but it doesn’t work all that well.
• I have now rebedded all the courtesy lights in the engine compartments.  I have also rebedded all but two of our deck level hatches .  It appears that Fountaine Pajot used silicone to bed all of these things, which was a terrible idea.  The courtesy lights leaked salt water into the engine compartments, which has caused some premature rusting.  Using Sikaflex or 3M 4000UV has fixed the hatches and BoatLife Life Seal fixed the courtesy lights.

One More Gripe

The owners’ hull sliding door…  The nut and bolt system for keeping the door in the track sucks!  The nuts are constantly coming undone.  When they unwind up the bolt, they grind into the track and prevent the door from moving.  Try to tighten the nuts all the way down and the level of the door raises too high and scrapes against the ceiling panels!  Those same ceiling panels are glued in so you can’t easily remove them.  It’s difficult to adjust anything or get easier access to the track.  Frustrating all the way around, and you’d think Fountaine Pajot would have a better solution.

Final Comments

This review tried to focus strictly on the Helia itself.  We’ve also done quite a lot of modifications to Starry Horizons.

I’d like to again reiterate that we’re extremely pleased with our Helia.  We are happy to be part of the Fountaine Pajot family.  She’s a great compromise of safety/performance/liveability at an acceptable cost. 

6,000nm Helia 44 Review

Well, technically we hit 6,002 nm on  Starry Horizons as we pulled into Regatta Pointe Marina but that doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well, so for the purpose of this post, we will round down slightly. There are others out there with more experience on their Helias, but after picking up our boat in France and sailing all the way to Florida, I finally feel qualified enough to share my thoughts.  So buckle up kids, this is the post for those of you who are interested in some of the more intimate details about our boat.

What I Love

Sailing:  Overall, I enjoyed sailing the Helia.  The few times we got on a good beam reach in calm seas, she took off.  We haven’t done too much upwind sailing yet, but downwind was easy, comfortable and relatively quick!

Construction:  This boat is well built and you can tell.  We had some pretty decent winds during our passages and at no time did I ever fear that the boat couldn’t handle things.  We were very cautious with our sail plan which helped, but this boat is solid.  It’s not an Antares so don’t expect perfect finishing everywhere, but she’s got it where it counts.

The Helm:  This space is going to get even better with the hardtop we’re having custom made, but the positioning of the helm is great.  The person on watch can still be social with others if they’re in the cockpit or even in the galley.  When it’s just the two of us for long passages, ease of social interaction makes a difference.  Visibility is also good, with the sole exception being the port aft portion of the boat.

The Space: I’ve heard the term “condomaran” used in a derogatory term, but personally I think those people are just jealous.  We love how much liveable space we have on the boat.  Our master stateroom is huge, the galley (almost) has enough space for all the items Amy wants and if the salon and cockpit start to feel restrictive (can’t see how this would happen), we can just hop up to the lounge deck and enjoy even more open spaces.

Interior Navigation Station:  Others have varying opinions, but we really liked having a place inside the boat we could set up a dedicated laptop to download weather reports, send/receive emails, and use our charting programs. We also kept our logbook here and had easy access to information to update it.  It would be nice if it had a backrest, but we just used one of the cushions from the salon to make a temporary backrest.

Wire Runs: Other boats do it better I’m sure, but I’ve been relatively pleased with the easy access to wire runs inside the boat.  Outside the boat for our solar panels was a bit of a different story, but overall we’ve been able to figure out how to get our wires run.

Engine Power:  We chose to upgrade to the 55hp Volvos and we’re glad we did.  They give us lots of power and with the Flexofold props that we had Uchimata install, we’ve felt pretty comfortable maneuvering the boat around the dock, even in decent winds.  As an added plus, there is a decent amount of space in the engine compartments so getting down there to work on things hasn’t required me to do my best Russian gymnast impression.

Raymarine Electronics:  Four of the five boats in Amy’s fleet had Raymarine electronics, so we had a pretty good familiarity with them, but the system we installed on  Starry Horizons works very well.  Our plotter has it’s own wifi network and we can connect our phones/tablets and see/control the system.  This led to much greater peace of mind when you could wake up, check your phone and see how things were going.  And our autopilot worked flawlessly during the crossing.

Vesper AIS:  Another custom thing we had Uchimata install, but our Vesper AIS is a godsend during our passages.  In fact, we liked it so much that I now say it should be on someone’s “must install” list if they want to go cruising.

Equipment Quality: In general, the quality of the important equipment from the factory is good.  We have a Victron inverter/charger, Volvo engines, Onan Generator, and CruisAir Air Conditioners all from the factory.  If we were building the boat ourselves, it’d be tough to do much better.

Her Looks: Superficial?  Probably, but I don’t care.  I still think the Helia 44 is one of the best-looking cats out there.

Things I Don’t Love

Dinghy Davits: FP raised the davits from the first Helias to ours, but in my opinion, they’re still not high enough.  We took our outboard off and stored it in the generator locker so we could try and pull the dinghy as high as we could but waves still touched the bottom of the dinghy!  We are reworking the bridle for our dinghy so that we’ll be able to pull it even higher and hopefully keep the outboard on as well, but a better davit design would make all that work unnecessary.

Bridgedeck Clearance: One of the biggest surprises for us was how much slamming and wave slapping we experienced.  Slapping against the hulls is a bit easier to understand, but the amount of slamming was unpleasant and unexpected.   Starry Horizons is well equipped (meaning heavy!) but this was disappointing.

Trampoline: Another personal preference, but both Amy and I think the factory trampoline is quite uncomfortable to lay on, and I dislike how “springy” it is.  I never felt like I had good footing when I went forward while underway.  We replaced it after six months.

Everything is in French:  While this is understandable for a French boat, it can be very frustrating trying to map out electrical wiring when everything is labeled in French!

No Starboard Aft Winch :  We went with the “Bowsprit and Gennaker Gear Option” which includes an aft winch on the port side to use for the sheet for a headsail.  However, it doesn’t include a corresponding winch on the starboard side.  There are two problems with this:

• Instead of a dedicated winch, there is a block along the toe rail to take the line back up to a winch at the helm.  This makes moving around the helm difficult and blocks off the deck.  Not ideal!  Since we also used the aft winch for our boom preventer and a sheet we rigged up to an outboard jib lead, it got a lot of use.
• We’re going to be reworking the winches to add one to the starboard side.  However, FP didn’t design for this possibility and the headliner in the owners cabin is flush up to the deck, meaning we’ll need to do some creative re-design.  On the port side, they dropped the headliner down to accommodate the bolts for the winch.

Reefing:  I really dislike having to go to the mast for anything while underway.  We went with the “automatic” first reef, which is really just a single line reef, but the other two reefs have lines that go up the leech of the sail but require you to go pull a webbing strap through a grommet and into a snap shackle on the mast in order to secure the tack.  It’s not so fun to pull this strap through when the boat is slamming into large waves!  We have moved to a single line reef for our 2nd reef and will be removed our 3rd reef, as if the winds are that high, we’re just going to be taking down our mainsail.

Chain size:  The Helia comes from the factory with 1/2″ chain.  I didn’t quite realize just how big this is and how much it weights and went ahead and ordered 300′ of it in preparation for some of the anchoring in deep water we’ll be doing.  The bow of the boat immediately sunk down!  We’re going to swapping out our windlass gypsy and chain to Acco G4 5/16″ chain.  This will save us almost 600 pounds of weight!  Speaking of which…  anyone need 300′ of 1/2″ galvanized anchor chain?  Please??

Cleats: During a wild day in Las Palmas when  Starry Horizons was jerking forward and back thanks to the wind and swell, we managed to bend a cleat.  We’ve had several people tell us they’d never seen that before.  In addition, our stern cleats were starting to come loose by the time we arrived in the States.  We had large backing plates made to help reinforce things and hopefully prevent those type of issues in the future.

Automatic Bilge Pumps:  I tested out our bilge pumps by blocking off one compartment and filling it with water.  I was quite dismayed at how much water (several inches) was required before the pumps kicked on.  And since the bilges are all connected, it would take a lot  of water in the bilge before they activated automatically.  The pumps are activated by air pressure sensitive Rule Eco Switches , but as I looked up the installation diagrams, they are not installed correctly.  The lines leading from the “cup” to the switch are not straight as they have to run throughout the compartment.  These sensors may be a good idea, but it’s a bad execution.

From the “What the F&*K Were They Thinking” Files

Mainsail: I know I’m not the best sailor in the world, but I’m not truly incompetent either.  However, I could not figure out how to get the mainsail down easily in anything over 10/15 knots of wind.  It would “billow” out, catch the wind and refuse to come down, requiring me to go to the mast and manually pull it down.  Doing this was the most scared I felt on the boat and thanks to our boat guru Pat, we rigged a downhaul to help us cross the Atlantic which worked well.

After getting back to the land of internet, I discovered that other Helia 44 owners have had this same problem and in talking with them, I/we have determined what I consider to be two root causes:

• There are no intermediate cars on the mainsail from the factory.  I have never sailed another boat like this and it means that the distance from the cars on the sail (where the battens are) ranges from about 11-14 feet!  When the sail drops, having this much distance from the cars leads to the billowing effect and prevents the sail from coming down.
• Friction.  The factory-supplied main halyard is a 14mm line and is rigged with a 2:1 purchase.  The stopper used for the halyard is rated at a max 14mm and halyard rubs against the sides of the entrance into the mast.  As the weight of the sail aloft decreases as the sail falls, the remaining weight of the sail isn’t enough to overcome the friction in the system.

In my mind, this is the absolute #1 negative of the Helia and in spite of seeing assurances sent by FP to other owners that the factory setup works and that it was tested out by riggers, my practical experience has led me to strongly disagree.  I believe that most Helias are going into charter and thus are being used in relatively calmer conditions where it may not be a big deal to go forward and help the mainsail down, but for serious cruising it is unacceptable.

To remedy, we’re adding 4 additional intermediate cars, which of course necessitated the modification of our stack pack, as well as upgrading our main halyard to an 11mm T900 line.  Just running the line through the stopper, you can feel how much less friction there is!  We’re also contemplating getting rid of the 2:1 halyard if the new setup still doesn’t work the way we want it.

(Okay, I’ll get off my soap box now, but as you can tell, this is an area that I strongly believe FP needs to address)

Navigation Lights:  FP may have changed this, but they did not offer a tri-color light at the top of the mast as a factory option.  In big seas, there is no way that another ship is going to easily see the deck level navigation lights!  On a boat this size, I believe a tri color should be standard.

In addition, the stern light is located  inside the cockpit!   When using the nav lights at night (when else would you really use them??) it lit up the  whole cockpit.  And in case you haven’t done a lot of night sailing before, this is not a good thing as it really messes with your night vision.  We ended up adding a tricolor light and moved the stern light to the end of the davits.

Running Rigging:  This was a debatable one to put in this category, but the fact that all winches and stoppers are rated for a max 14mm line and the factory genoa sheets are 16mm lines pushes it over the edge.  I had wondered why it was difficult to get the genoa sheets into the winches and finally figured out why when doing research on the Harken winches we have.  In general the rigging on the boat is pretty low quality and we’re working on replacing it.  The fact that the owner’s manual lists the main halyard at 55m/180ish’ when in reality it is about 63m/207ish’ (discovered after running the new halyard through the mast!) also helps push running rigging into this category.

Overall, we’re satisfied with our choice of a boat.  There are a lot of things that FP does well and most of the things we didn’t love about the boat are fixable.  We’re going above and beyond by doing some pretty extensive outfitting to make the boat even more awesome and I’m pretty comfortable saying that by the time we’re finished, she’ll be the most customized Helia 44 in the world.  At the end of the day, we still believe that she will be able to take us safely around the world and in a decent level of comfort, which is what matters most.

Lounge Deck Review

If you’ve been following us, odds are you’ve heard of or seen pictures of our lounge deck. Cruising friends “Oooo” and “Ahh” over it. It sure comes up in Fountaine Pajot’s marketing pictures. Who doesn’t love the idea of the lounge deck?

As we toured boats at the Annapolis Boat show way back in 2013 we looked at the lounge deck, thought it was gorgeous, but wondered “how often would we actually use it?”

While we are cruising, the answer is EVERY DAY. Looking at other catamarans, there’s no reason why they couldn’t have a lounge deck, as long as they have access.  For the most part, it’s wasted space on their coach roof.

Our guests love sitting up there.  They don’t have the 24/7/365 sun exposure we worry about, so the lounge deck becomes very popular.

There’s the beautiful time of day in cruising called “sundowners”. Hopefully, your projects for the day are done, you’ve got a cocktail in hand. If it’s typically hot out where we are, the weather starts to cool off as the sun sets.  Stepping on top of the lounge deck gives us a pretty wonderful view of the horizon.

We do have two words of caution.

One:  The aft portion (the proper seat) hardly ever faces the sunset.  Prevailing winds go from east to west, and therefore, sunset is typically directly behind us.  If I really want to face the sunset, I sit on the top of our helm station or without a backrest on the lounge part ( Go-Anywhere Chair optional)

Two:  Fountaine Pajot has been gradually increasing the height of the backrest towards the stern of the boat.  It used to be just a few inches (see top photo).  Then ours is mid-back.  It looks like the Helia Evolution has been raised a few inches again.  But, I am super impressed with our friends on Let It Be’s solution .  They replaced their cushions and had a cushion with built-in support installed to the height they wanted.

I’m pretty pleased with the lounge deck, and it’s been a feature we’ve been surprised to love so much.

41 Comments

I found your review the most informative ever, I especially loved the section about the max, avg, slowest….crossings. I’m starting may search for a used Helia 44, how would you suggest I go about it. Should I use the typical sites such as yacht world or boats.com or you have any other suggestions. I’m planing to leave the boat in Greece.

Hi! There are some facebook groups that might be helpful, like Catamaran Sailing Group or Fountaine Pajot owners. Otherwise, definitely keep an eye on YachtWorld.

Pourriez vous me donner votre contact svp ? marc-henri.renard chez orange.fr

• Pingback: Starry Horizons, Fountaine Pajot 44’ | Harbormoor Blog

Try Screw lock for your owners sliding door nuts, which I have used for many purposes where a nylock is too big

Thanks for the tip!

Hi, David and Amy Loved following your Journey and we now have a 2017 Helia, After sailing for 12 months and reading your frustrations I added an additional electric winch to the helm and relocated the original winch to the Starboard rear opposite the port one. It’s so much better with the screecher now as you can pay out one line while pulling in the other all from within the cockpit. We also borrowed your design on our new Clears so thanks for that. I have also added a small winch at the mast for putting up Screecher Halyard plus any line that is at the mast which has saved keep running them back to the helm. One question I do have is how did you put in a second single line reef as I have already nearly been bounced off the boat reefing in big seas off the Australian East Coast. Once again thank you for the inspiration your videos provided anyone wanting to take the plunge.

Glad you’ve been able to learn from our experiences! 🙂 We did the second single line reef exactly the same as the first single line reef. I re-routed the second reef line to come under the sheave at the gooseneck up towards a low friction ring that had been lashed to the cringle at the 2nd reef point, then back down to the blocks at the base of the mast, then back to the helm. It wasn’t super hard to do BUT…

We did eventually take out the single line reefs for both our first and second reefs and went back to using a strop through the cringles at the luff. The problem came with trying to get a decent amount of tension along the foot of the sail which meant the low friction ring at the luff was getting tightened all the way down into the gooseneck. That actually damaged the metal at the gooseneck which was then chaffing through our reef lines. Perhaps we were just tightening things too tight, but when I loosened things up, I thought the sail shape when reefed looked terrible.

At the same time we went back to the strop reefing method, we also changed our reefing procedures. Starting out, we had always used the engines to get straight into the wind and drop the main. This of course required furling the genoa completely and the motion of the boat would be extremely bouncy as we pounded directly into the waves. Not fun. Instead, on the advice of some friends who are much better sailors than we are, we started sheeting in the genoa extremely tight, used the autopilot to put the boat about 42-43 degrees off the wind, let out the traveler and the mainsheet until the main was luffing, and then dropped the sail. The motion of the boat was much more akin to a hove to motion which was a lot more stable going up to the mast to pull the strop through. Not having to use the engines was also a plus.

As it’s not super hard to switch to the single line reef, definitely give it a try but keep a very close eye on how things sit when everything is tensioned. If you’re not using the sheeting tight to the wind reefing method, I’d suggest giving that a try as well either way as I felt it was a lot easier on the boat then bashing straight into the waves. Hope that helps!

Thanks David, will look into that new method to drop the main as I have experienced trying to reef into the waves and was nearly bounced off the boat at Double Island Point Qld in 2 to 3M seas. I Also didn’t like the shape of the sail reefed as it looked like it had a twist in it and one of the experienced sailors helped me adjust all the lines on the boom and now they look ok. Safe travels and look forward to hearing about any future adventures you plan.

Hi David, It would be great to see a youtube video of these modifications. Thanks.

Just so you know I have also advised our broakers Atlantic Cruising Yachts and they in turn have advised FP or the MARCH AC seawater pump issue. I’m not looking for a remedy from either I want FP to stop using the MARCH pump that is not fit for taht use in my opinion. Regards.

Not related to asym issues but still having trouble with the master sliding door. Being an engineer its the most rediculous set up ever. Talking of that I just want all the readers of this great blog to be aware of an issue I have recently resolved on our own Helia 44 2018,#228, Otium. The MARCH AC seawater circulation pumps can never run dry. We have Otium in the Kemah Boardwalk Marina Kemah TX ( I know you will know it well) all the time pending our own early retirement and travels. I have had at least 5 AC pump failures three leading to significant water ingress saved by our dual bilge pumps until we manually shut the thru hulls! The issue in my mind is the MARCH pump selection. Just becuase the water intake is below the water line does not mean it cannot get the thru hull blocked or filter blocked. I have now switched to KOOLAIR pumps PM1000-230 ODP. They are an exact replacement but can run dry. I dont know how long for but at least is the correct pump selection. The MARCH pump FP use as standard is not correct and may expose the boat to sinking if the bilge pumps dont cut in. I like insurance so I’m changing all three of ours out. Looking foward to more in Asia and beyond all the best and the Helia is still the best looking 44′ ish cat around. Fair winds and trailing seas to all.

Hi Great work on your you tube and honest reports and reviews Good to see you are not going the way of some You tube site’s telling us how great XX companies things are as they got them free I am looking at a Helia now and a quick question, if you were buying today knowing what you know after owning one for several years would you buy the Helia again or go somewhere else FYI I am also looking at a Lagoon 42 but the Helia seems slightly cheaper by comparison

David/Amy Can you provide an update on the main sail operations in regard to the main halyard change to 7/16″ T900 and the intermediate cars. Did this solve the issue and did you ever take out the 2:1 halyard running? I have added the intermediate cars and changed the main halyard but kept the 2:1 rigging. The main comes down more easily but does not drop on its own. We have to work it at the mast with a free running halyard to get the main down? An update on your experiences would be appreciated. Douglas & Kim Kirk (SV Otium)

Hi! We are able to get the mainsail all the way down without coaxing it, no problems now. I think the intermediate cars really made the big difference.

David/Amy – thank you, thank you, thank you. You have stopped me turning my head inside out about the insane owners suit door. We are also from near Houston at Katy TX. We bought Otium, our Helia 44 Evo, in March of 2017 taken ownership late July 2018 in FL. Everything you have touched on I already agree with (hence why we bought it in the first place), not a speed boat but not a snail either, and looking forward to retiring onto her. Now back to the reason for the comment. I have no idea what FP were thinking about. I have looked, starred, mirrored, poked and mulled over the whole scratching sliding door for weeks now. Mental! I just stopped as I could not fathom a path foward. Your comments show me there is not path, just somehow fettle into the bolts and tighten the nuts up until next time they start scrapping. Have you thought of ‘thread lock’. I will look and if I go down that route and it is successfull in stopping the nuts moving I will advise. On the davits, yes the EVO are alot better and higher, however I dont believe we got our strops for the dinghy short enough, so on the Gulf crossing to TX did have some engine splashing issues. Cargo straps kind of sorted that out. Our only major issue in year one has been a serious leak in the March AC seawater pump. The plastic housing behind the pump shaft melted and leaked. Lucky we were onboard. Note to others new pump $350 ish, new housing $13… It is a frought extraction from a small hole but well worth the odd swear/curse word for $300. Again thank you for your update and keep on cruising. Fair winds and following seas. Douglas Kirk (SV Otium)

Thanks for your review. We are chartering a 2018 Helia 44 in July in the Florida Keys. We plan on heading out to the Marquesas to get some true dark skies so I feel like I need to be prepared for an unassisted week. Your details on the minor deficiencies, which we all know exist on every boat, are very helpful. I would love to know how you find your water usage?

Thank you and keep posting!!!!!!

I’m probably very late to the party on this one, but have you tried replacing the nut causing the door issues with a Nylon self locking nut, even with a little Loctite blue threadlock.

The problem is you can’t access the end of the bolt without removing the entire door. It’s a very poorly designed setup, but I did try to get some loctite on the bolt using a screw driver the last time I had to fix it so I’m hoping that will help!

As for your generator impeller problem. Checkout sailing IMPI, he did away with his water pump on the generator and added a electric pump. He said that it solved his problem.

We have the exact same pump Impi has and we tried removing the impeller, but it did not work for us. It night be a longer run then Impi has?

We are sailing our Helia evolution in Greece this year. It was new last year and we sailed it from La Rochelle. A lot tamer than your passages I think.

Anyway I empathise with all the points you make and we have similar views and exactly the same problems.

One I can make a suggestion on…the sliding door. Ours did exactly the same and it was impossible to get to the rear nut. Eventually we very carefully removed the fascia panel so that we could get to the mechanism and the bolt and nut. Had a good look at how it all worked and re-attached the bolt and nut, a very fiddly job to get right ! It’s clear that this will happen again so we refitted the fascia using heavy Velcro and 3m double sided tape. So far it’s been a month since the repair and everything has stayed in place

All the best julian and Robyn.

Hi Julian and Robyn! Crossing the Bay of Biscay is never tame! And thanks for your suggestion on the sliding door. I have contemplated doing exactly what you did and reworking the fascia, but I have this concern that if I mess with it, I will probably ruin something. And it’s not so easy to fix those sort of things here in the South Pacific! It may be a project I tackle in Australia. Thanks again!

Fascinating post, David. I enjoyed the follow up comments as well! Of course, :-). Most of the sailing technicalities went over my head, but it definitely sounds like all of your research has paid off!

Thanks for the thorough, and honest, review of your Helia. We saw Frank McCarthy and the rest of the Atlantic Cruising staff at the Annapolis Spring Sailboat Show this weekend (April 28 – 30). My wife and I had the chance to spend quite a bit of time on a Helia Evolution while there. After chartering an Orana in the BVIs this past January, it was impressive to see the “evolution” of FP’s 44′ catamaran in just a few short years. The new Helia is quite impressive. We have begun our homework with Frank to get ourselves on one of these boats; hopefully sooner rather than later.

Glad to hear that you got the gelcoat cracks checked out while in Whangerei. I’d politely suggest that you do a gelcoat repair on them to prevent the ingress of water into the laminate. If you are not sure how to do a gelcoat repair I’ll write you a paper on the steps etc.

David, I read your blog with considerable interest. I note that you said, “Sure there are a couple of gelcoat cracks that have shown up, and we can hear a few more creaks while out at sea.”. I am wondering where these gelcoat cracks have appeared? Gelcoat is very weak and will quickly crack if the inderlying structure either moves or is subject to loads that have exceded the designed limits. If these cracks are in structually loaded areas then I’d suggest they should be investigated thoroughly.

If I can be of assistance then please by all means ask – I’d be happy to assist, (uot of interest) – a starting point would be photograpns with explainations of their location.

Christopher Naval architect Boatbuilder

Hi Christopher, thanks for the concern. The gelcoat cracks are all superficial and aren’t in any structural areas. I had them checked out while we were on the hard in Whangarei. So other than just being a cosmetic issue, I’m not too worried about them!

Also, I forgot to ask, but did you manage to have the drains cleared while you were in “N/Z?” If not, I would ask Fountaine Pajot for a drainage plan to know where the bends are. One answer might be to use a “Karcher Pressure cleaner.” One of the hose attachments that they have is a “drainage cleaner!” Might be worth looking into?

The particular shower drain we have problems with is actually just a straight section of hose from the shower drain to the shower sump. So no bends. I’ve thought about a pressure cleaning before, but that would require removal of the drain itself in order to get a good seal and I’m not sure I’m ready to go that far yet.

You mentioned the new model Evolutions had addressed some gripes. Is the Helia you guys are going to crew on one of the new models? If so would love to see some more info on changes and how it compares in “real life” to Starry. Based on your genset impeller issues would you go with a different genset? Keep the updates coming, you guys are a sailing course online!

Julia is a new Helia Evolution so yes, we’re going to get to compare! I’m rather excited about it and will definitely keep a comparison blog post in mind for once we’re done.

Other than the impellers, our Onan has worked flawlessly so that’s a tough question. We have friends who really like their Northern Lights generators so that could be one option. But Onan is offered through the factory and is one of those things that it’s nice to have installed while the boat is being built so that you don’t have to do a whole lot of making more holes in the boat later!

Hi… just a question… whenever you needed to turn to fountaine pajot, or your dealer, to honor your hella’ s warranty and ship spare parts to you free of charge, or reimburse parts you had to prepay, did that go with no glitches ? Thanks again

It’s Fountaine Pajot’s policy to work through warranty claims through the dealer. We’ve been very fortunate in that up to our arrival in Tonga we’ve never had many issues and the ones we did FP worked quickly to help us address.

Greetings Admiral Amy and her sidekick Captian David.

Thank you for such an overview of your love affair with Starry Horizons. We haven’t had a lot of exposure to the Helia, though we have to the Ipanema.

We have sailed a fair distance on our Privilege 615. We had a similar issue with one of our shower floor drains. We resolved it by hunting through a plumbing & swimming pool supply store for a “basket catch filter” that for us just happened to be near enough to the right diameter/depth to insert into the drain. To this, we insert a section of cut to length “old stockings” to act as a fine filter to collect all of the hair. Worth considering.

Wishing you all a safe passage aboard Julia. Cheers.

Thanks for the suggestion. We tried a drain filter in the past that just never worked very well. It may be well past time to try a different type of filter to solve this problem!

Yes, I would investigate the drain issue further. We have grown accustomed to the Admirals red hair, and it would be disappointing if her hat flew off because you made her undergo a number one marine cut! “L.O.L”

David, Many thanks for this excellent summary. We’ve shared some of your incidents (trapped in the Owner’s cabin door stuck shut- crawled out the hatch) but also appreciate the overall resilience of our Helia, Big Papa Lulu. As always, blue water sailing is a humbling experience and appreciate your sharing of Starry Horizon’s experience. I know you had shredded your asymmetric at some point. Any thoughts on the furling asymmetric vs. a chute and how do you view your downwind sail now? Best, Allen & Linda

We just got our asymmetric fixed while in NZ and haven’t had a chance to redeploy it. I’m not quite ready to give up on top down furling, so I’m going to reserve judgment until we either successfully use our spinnaker or destroy it for good. This is definitely a blog topic idea I’ve got for the future!

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Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 Review – The Sea Creature!

The last time we went on a sailing trip off the Italian coast, all of my friends were unanimous over getting a catamaran with a skipper and crew.

My friends and I agreed that catamarans would provide the best of both worlds in terms of creature comforts as well as the sailing experience.

Once we had decided about the catamaran, it was easy to settle on Fountaine Pajot’s Helia 44. The La Rochelle-based boat maker has been a leader in the multihull market for years now, and we wanted to experience their latest in the 40-45 feet segment, the Helia 44.

It also gave me a wonderful opportunity to write a first-hand and in-depth Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 review.

Table of Contents

Accommodation

Designed by the Fountaine Pajot design office in collaboration with Berret Racoupeau, the Helia 44 marks the evolutionary step up from the earlier Orana 44.

In terms of layout, Fountaine Pajot offers two choices of three or four cabins. The latter option is clearly an acknowledgment of the demand generated by the charter industry and can accommodate 8 people.

For private owners, however, there is the three-cabin layout, designed to luxuriously entertain as many as 6 people, with the master stateroom occupying the whole of the starboard hull.

In the master stateroom in the owners’ layout, the large queen size bed is located aft, with space for a private lounge and a work desk. Both of these layout options come with en-suite bathroom facilities.

Regardless of the layout you choose, it is hard not to be impressed by the sense of space and luxury afforded by the Helia 44.

Located next to the passageway, the cabins are truly cavernous and peaceful for a mid-size catamaran.

In addition, the large and cleverly designed windows allow for plenty of light so that guests are not overcome with a feeling of claustrophobia.

While the Helia 44 may be offered in twin layouts catering to both the private owners and the charter industry, the design office at Fountaine Pajot has wisely chosen not to compromise on its interior design, seeking to enhance the total social space aboard.

For example, the galley-up design allows for cooking to be done in a truly social atmosphere with provision for al-fresco dining.

As a matter of fact, the moment you step aboard the Helia 44, it is hard not to be struck by the fact of how large and capacious it seems from the inside for a midsize catamaran.

Some of it can be put down to the use of clerestory windows in both the saloon as well as the lounging deck, allowing for plenty of natural light. It makes for a truly airy and expansive feel.

The saloon itself has been thoughtfully designed in a french chic manner that is not only plush and luxurious but also caters to all the needs aboard a cruising catamaran.

The large sofa with the adjoining coffee table is the perfect place to curl up with a book. There is also a forward-facing navigation station that comes with Fountaine Pajot’s standard range of Garmin electronics.

The navigation port is well-designed in terms of both accessibilities as well as 360-degree views.

The open plan galley on the aft port side comes fully equipped with some of the top range appliances, including a 3 burner stove, microwave, oven, and two generously sized fridges.

The storage options are similarly plenty as well as innovative, with a hatch leading to a nifty underfloor storage facility.

That Helia 44 has been designed not only for socializing but is clear once you are at the main helm station that is joined to the starboard.

Seamlessly connected to the cockpit below through a staircase, the helm station features a large seating arrangement so that as many as two guests can join the skipper during a sail.

The sail controls are standard Fountaine Pajot, refined through years of experience, and appointed to offer easy control and maneuverability.

The saloon top converts into the flybridge area, designed alongside the helm station. The luxurious sofa on the flybridge offers another picturesque spot to soak in the sailing experience.

At the lower level, the saloon is integrated into the outside through a large slide in the door. Protected with a hardtop roof, the aft deck is a capacious 50 square meter space.

Here, you can find a large teak dining table that can seat 8 people without any fuss. In addition, there is a large bench opposite it with a cavernous storage box beneath.

Noting the potential of this aft deck as a prime social area, the makers have provided another fridge for sundowners.

Among other clever design interventions, the provision for transom walkways is particularly novel as they allow for crew or other guests to move about without bothering people lounging on the aft deck.

Our skipper took us out on the sail aboard the Helia 44 on a perfect day with gentle winds and moderate swells.

At its stiffest, we recorded the wind at a clock below 10 knots. Under these ideal conditions, Helia had no problems in swiftly reaching a speed slightly north of 7 knots while at the same time exhibiting a level of stability we can expect from a well-designed catamaran.

Setting up the mainsail and Genoa was a breeze with the aid of electric winches.

We did get a chance to start both engines during a period when the wind died out and found ourselves motoring at a maximum of 9 knots.

We also got a taste of its excellent autopilot function, as the electronics took over steering while we enjoyed a cold one.

Why Sail the Helia 44

1) Vast space complemented with an excellent, intuitive design 2) Interior quality and the fit and finish which rivals 5-star resorts 3) Massive storage spaces for long offshore voyages 4) Excellent sailing characteristics for a catamaran of its size 5) Top-of-the-line appliances and electronics.

In Conclusion

Fountaine Pajot has won several prestigious industry awards in the multihull category over the years, and it is easy to see why.

Offering true blue water sailing capability, the Helia 44 is perhaps the finest blend of performance and comfort.

Indeed, if there is any doubt why catamarans have done so well in the market over the last few years, a guided tour of this boat should erase all doubts.

When it comes to sailing in style, you cannot go wrong with the Helia 44.

Specifications

• Manufacture: Fountain Pajot
• Model: Helia 44
• Length Overall: 13.25 m / 43.50 ft
• Beam: 7.40 m / 24.30 ft
• Draft: 1.15m / 3.80 ft
• Air Draft: 20.44m
• Main Sail Area: 70 m² / 753 sq ft
• Genoa Area: 45 m² / 484 sq ft
• Engines: 2 x 40 hp –
• Fuel/Diesel: 1 x 470 liter
• Freshwater: 2 x 375 litre
• Cabins: 3 to 6
• Berths: 8 to 10

Have you sailed the Helia 44?  If so, share your experience in the comment below

Daniella has been passionate about travel, the sea, and nature for many years. As a child, she frequently traveled throughout the Mediterranean and continued with her journeys throughout her adult life.

Her experiences have created the desire within her to share her love for traveling with other passionate and adventurers who want to discover beautiful horizons and new cultures.

6 thoughts on “Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 Review – The Sea Creature!”

Nice website. The Helia 44 is beautiful inside I wouldn’t mind staying in there for a few days while relaxing on the ocean. You have a lot of information that I like of pro’s and con’s that is useful. Well put together and beautiful picture of the Helia 44 on the water. Wish I was there.

Thank you for the comment, I really appreciate:)

Yes, I personally think that the Pros and the Cons are very important information when wanting to hire or buy an item, it gives us the opportunity to make the best choice.

See you and wish you to sail soon!

I would love some day soon to be able to treat my family with a cruise holiday. The yacht you presented is beautiful, it would be lovely to enjoy a day or more in the sea with it. Does the company offer pre-selected routes or they can make one according to our preferences? Where do you usually meet the boat and team? Are there specific ports in Europe? I loved the pictures you provided. They really make you start planning your sea voyage. Best regards

Indeed, the Helia 44 is a beautiful catamaran and not so expensive:)

It depends on what type of charter you choose. For example, if you charter a bareboat then, you can plan your itinerary alone and if you charter a crewed yacht, then the skipper will plan the route, but in general, they are very flexible, it is very common to plan the itinerary with the charter company, even if you chose to hire a bareboat.

You’ll meet the crew in the charter base at your chosen destination. The company through which you’ll sail will give you the best advice on how to easily arrive where your boat is waiting:)

They are many beautiful, well-equipped marinas and yacht clubs in Europe! Without a doubt, you’ll have plenty of choices, but take into consideration the peak seasons when sailing in Europe, you might not have a place left to anchor your boat if you don’t book your place in advance.

Thank you for the comment and if you need to know further information, please, feel free to contact me, I’ll be glad to assist!

Have a wonderful day!

My boyfriend and I have been looking at boats…. well just staring to. We have a bit of a difference of opinion on what type of boat we want. I like this boat…and really think a Catamaran is the way to go for leisurely outings. How fast can a catamaran go, I mean would it also be possible to tow toys behind to ride on?

To answer your question; It all depend on the cat design, size and weight. Usually, a well-designed catamaran can reach 15 -20 knots in good weather conditions, but that is called, racing. You don’t need to sail that fast to enjoy your trip:) Catamarans are powerful but don’t have as much momentum as motorboats. A powerboat would be more appropriate to tow towable toys or jet sky through the water:)

I hope it helps! Feel free to contact me with any question. I’ll be more than happy to assist!

Thank you for the comment and wish you a great day!

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Leopard 44 Catamaran Review

• Post author By BJ Porter
• Post date July 28, 2020
• No Comments on Leopard 44 Catamaran Review

History / Background

South African boat builders Robertson and Caine have built over 2,000 catamarans over the last three decades. The Leopard 44 results from another successful collaboration with American catamaran designers Morrelli & Melvin. The goal was a solid, affordable mid-sized catamaran capable of blue water sailing and good for the charter market. Multiple awards and the boat’s enduring popularity show how well they hit the target.

The Leopard 44 starts with a hull construction of vacuum-bagged balsa cored e-glass with vinylester resin. This makes for a light, strong and blister resistant foundation to bond the fiberglass liner. The interior layout is open, to make a galley and living area combination which keeps the cooks in the mix with everyone. The common area living plan feels open, and social and light, like a casual dining room and open kitchen plan in a house.

They built two versions of the boat—a three cabin, three head Owner’s Version, and a charter version with four cabins and heads, branded as the Sunsail 444.

Talking with the owners of a Leopard 44 on a mooring, I couldn’t miss the attention to quiet and comfort. The whole time we chatted, the generator was charging the batteries. I only knew because they were monitoring the charge progress, I couldn’t hear or feel any vibration or noise from the generator.

First built in the 2010, Leopard produced from 2010 through 2016, with 185 boats built. Ex-charter four cabin models are easier to find on the secondary market.

Forward Cockpit

The forward cockpit on the 44 is the innovation that drew eyes to this boat. The forward cockpit on the boat does so much more than give more place to sit. It puts you in the breeze the way an aft cockpit can’t, but still keeps you out of the sun. Sitting at anchor in the tropics, this would be the best place for sundowners every night. Even the slightest breeze would dissipate the last of the day’s heat as you watch the sun set.

The other important thing the forward cockpit does is open the boat up for through breezes you can never get in monohulls or a cat without a similar cockpit. In the tropics, comfort is all about getting air moving through the boat. With any kind of light breeze opening both fore and aft cockpit doors, the airflow is fantastic. Many cruisers don’t like to use their ovens in tropical conditions, but with this kind of ventilation pizza may be back on the menu.

The construction of that forward door is impressive. The 12mm Perspex has three heavy duty dogs to hold it shut, and up-close it looks more like a great big hatch than a cabin door. Given the risk of taking water over the bows, this safe construction is a big comfort. The cockpit itself has raised edges to keep water out and oversized drains to quickly drain anything that comes in during heavy weather sailing.

Raised Navigation Center

One of the must-have features for the Leopard owner I spoke with was the raised navigation center on the starboard side of the boat. The visibility from up there was near total. At first, it felt a little isolated. But looking around, it’s clear a lot of thought went into setting this workspace up for easy and comfortable handling the boat from one place.

All the sail controls lead back to clutch blocks in the navigation center. One crew member can handle almost all the cat’s functions from a single seat. A hard dodger over the space and removable isinglass panels guaranteed good comfort in almost all conditions.

Standing at the helm on the starboard side, I could see the bow on the port hull, with a good 360-degree view around the boat. My preference would always be to dock on a starboard tie-up with this layout, but if I had to come on for a port tie-up, the visibility is good enough to keep me from touching the dock before I intend to.

The only line handling that requires a little help is furling the headsail, since the furling line needs to be hauled in as you tension the sheets. But with practice, even that could be a one-person job.

Living Space

The living spaces on the Leopard 44 are well thought out for groups of adults or for family cruising. With three distinct areas to “hang out” – the aft covered cockpit, the front cockpit, and the saloon – there are plenty of places to both gather for meals and drinks, or to separate for boat schooling and work. Open the cabin doors and you’ve got an enormous open-air living room, close them and you’ve got separate spaces for different activities. Either of the tables in the saloon or aft cockpit will seat six to eight people.

In the hulls, the owner’s side has good sleeping and storage space, a comfortable standing shower, storage, a desk/workspace, and a day couch. On the boat I toured, the owners didn’t use the couch much; they were thinking of ways to turn the space into storage, with additional padded sleeping space on top if needed.

It’s hard to picture feeling crowded on this boat, even with six adults or a family with several children.

The Leopard 44 is designed to sail, and reports very good numbers on most points of sail. While most cruising cat like this don’t point into the wind like monohulls, they make up for it with better sailing speeds a little more off the wind.

The standard dual twenty-nine horsepower standard engines carry it along on an easy 6-7 knots, the optional thirty-nine horsepower upgrade has no problem cruising at eight knots. The larger engines are a better choice for passage making and blue water cruising, where you may want the extra punch for waves and chop.

This boat is a solid mid-sized cat for family cruising and is easy to sail with a couple.

• Tags Catamaran Reviews

By BJ Porter

Owner of Hallberg Rassy 53; world explorer.

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Antares 44GS Catamaran Review

The Antares 44GS Catamaran is billed as the perfect liveaboard. There is no doubt that the Antares is a beautiful boat, and hundreds of Antares 44 catamarans have sailed the globe. However, what will we really think of the Antares 44GS ?

We are also continuing to collect Catamaran review scores, so feel free to vote here: https://www.chicagostreet.com/rubyrose/

When we come to make the final video of the worlds best Catamaran, we will be using your votes not ours.

The equipment we use: Panasonic Lumix G85 https://amzn.to/2FsC2Kc Go Pro Hero 7 Black https://amzn.to/2SRTWtF DJI Mavic Pro 2 https://amzn.to/2D6nZbs DJI Spark https://amzn.to/2VQIal3 Manfrotto Pixie https://amzn.to/2RJbCud Manfrotto Smooth head tripod https://amzn.to/2snTJCQ DJI Osmo 2 https://amzn.to/2D7e9Go Lowepro Passport 3 https://amzn.to/2FnGef8

All this equipment has been tried and tested in the field and we love it! If you’re interested in purchasing any of these items, please consider using the links provided above. Thankyou!

Cheers, Nick & Terysa

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Classified: France '44 review

Cause chaos for the nazis in an xcom-like campaign behind enemy lines., our verdict.

A suspenseful yet forgiving turn-based tactics game that lets you play a part in shaping history.

PC Gamer's got your back Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.

What is it? An XCOM-like tactics game set in the days leading up to the D-Day landings in 1944. Release date March 5, 2024 Expect to pay $35/£35 Developer Absolutely Games Publisher Team17 Reviewed on RTX 3070, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, 16GB RAM Steam Deck TBA Link Official site

For me, the best battles in turn-based tactics games are the ones where the momentum can shift on one perfectly (or disastrously) executed turn; those pivotal moments where you harness the abilities that you maybe forgot even existed when things were going smoothly, but suddenly justify their existence in one audacious sequence of manoeuvres that imbue the orderly grid-based combat with the cinematic splendour of backs-to-the-wall movies like The Dirty Dozen or Saving Private Ryan.

Here's a case in point in Absolutely Games' World War 2 XCOM-like Classified: France '44. My merry band of spec-ops resistance fighter archetypes—the French woman with a beret, the bourbon-loving American, the 'chin up, cheerio' Brit, you get the picture—have just planted several demolition charges on a German U-Boat, and are now pinned down by the Gestapo reinforcements arriving on the scene. One of our own is down, while another two have had their morale shattered under a fusillade of gunfire, and are due to miss their turns trembling helplessly in the "broken" state.

My solitary available soldier that turn, our all-American hero Cassidy, issues a rallying cry, which recovers enough morale for my two broken fighters to get back into the fight. One of those, Lili 'Wolf' Pierry, shouts to our fallen ally to "Quit Messing About," which revives him from across the battlefield, before she leaps over a barrier and unleashes a volatile shotgun blast that downs not only a German officer, but the medic standing next to him. Next, our freshly revived soldier Alami uses his limited AP to set up overwatch with his machine gun, bolstered by a skill that means his overwatch doesn't break after shooting just one enemy. Come the Nazis' next turn, two more of their number will fall to Alami's gunfire, completely turning the tide of battle.

Classified is a refreshingly forgiving game for the genre, giving you ample opportunities to shift the momentum both within battle and in the wider campaign, where you have 50 days to cause as much disruption to Third Reich operations in northern France before the D-Day landings in Normandy. There is no permadeath here, presumably because each of your recruits is a preset character whose stories the devs wanted to tell (more on that later). Each soldier pretty much has two lives in battle, as losing all their health the first time puts them into "recovering" mode, where enemies kindly ignore them for three turns after which they can re-enter the fray; certain skills that revive fallen allies and restore morale apply to all units irrespective of where they are on the battlefield; and levelling up is swift, letting you quite easily specialise in two or more of the four skill branches that each class possesses.

On normal difficulty, the campaign feels tense but never overwhelming, nor does it reach that dreaded point where you realise some 20 hours in that you're utterly screwed and have condemned Europe to Nazi occupation (which isn't, I imagine, an easy burden on the conscience). The campaign sees you capturing regions for the French resistance, each of which is inhabited by one of three factions that you build loyalty with to gain access to better, rarer weapons and equipment in their respective shops. You do this using an all-purpose in-game currency simply called "supplies", which can also be used to cure wounds, retrain troops, and earn FFI points—which disrupt enemy operations—between missions. 

The factions are a cool concept, but lack a bit of dynamism. There's some cutscene chatter about how France is split between these squabbling factions, but that doesn't really manifest in the game. Siding with one faction doesn't lose you favour with another, and there are no special events or characters that better acquaint you with the Gaullists, Rebels or Criminals. The factions are really just loyalty bars that fill up as you help each of them out. Occasionally you'll have a choice of missions where you need to choose whether to aid one faction or another, or to save one potential recruit or another, but none of this fleshes out or branches the narrative, which feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.

As you build up resistance strength through your derring-do missions—which span the gamut of spec-ops shenanigans we've seen in WWII movies over the years, from stealing documents to sinking U-Boats, to taking out officers and fending off waves of enemies while holed up in a countryside manor—the enemy will increase their strength. Gestapo officers, who move around as little pawns on the map, reinforce enemies in a given area and launch reprisals against regions you've captured, forcing you to repair those regions using soldiers you don't plan on using in your next mission. 

A bit like with the faction system, it's a cool idea with a somewhat lightweight implementation, as these Gestapo units are fairly easy to subdue using FFI points, and they can't actively retake territory you've already captured. The intensity ramps up steadily in the campaign, but not quite enough to offer the same dramatic momentum shifts as in the battles themselves.

Morale of the story

Drop down to half-morale, and you become suppressed; lose all your morale and you become broken, forcing that soldier to skip a turn.

Down on the battlefield itself however, things feel great. It's not a perfect simulation by any means—expect to see a few bullets magically passing through walls right before your eyes, in defiance of the game's absence of destructible scenery—but the tactical gunplay is a blast.

Your movement and actions are all bundled into one pool of action points, and beyond your health you also have a morale bar. Drop down to half-morale, and you become suppressed; lose all your morale and you become broken, forcing that soldier to skip a turn. It works both ways, and there's a good thrill to running out of ammo with your primary weapon, switching out to your pistol, and firing at the enemy with 0% chance of hitting them, just to chip away at their morale, or to try and blow up a nearby truck or barrel. It feels like every shot counts, even if it doesn't do direct damage, which means no AP gets wasted and the combat has a satisfyingly scrappy quality you might expect in a real shootout.

I appreciate the inclusion of a stealth system as well. You can insta-kill unaware enemies with a knife, and there are dedicated stealth missions which are best accomplished by you going unnoticed, as well as Ambush missions where if you successfully carry out a certain number of stealth kills, you'll gain an extra turn to ambush your enemies as soon as they become aware. While in stealth mode, you see enemy vision cones and where they're going to move next, giving missions a nice puzzle-game layer before all hell breaks loose. The robust skill tree even allowed me to build one of my soldiers into something of a beret-wearing ninja, delivering critical-damage knife attacks and regaining AP after each successful kill.

An issue with the stealth and the pace of battles in general, however, is the stodginess of the movement and animations. Your troops move slowly , and there's an inelegant pause as they switch animations between moving around and diving into and over cover. A movement speed option (like you have with enemies) and better-flowing animations would've helped the quieter parts of missions feel a bit less protracted. 

It ticks all the boxes on the battlefield itself, and toys with some neat mechanics and ideas that the studio can hopefully build upon in its next outing.

While the focus is very much on ballsy battlefield exploits and the campaign, I always appreciate XCOM-likes that take the time to build a bit of a relationship between the soldiers. XCOM 2 had the bonding mechanic, where you could increase cohesion between soldiers by sending them out on missions together, while Marvel's Midnight Suns went pretty deep on building interpersonal relationships between missions. Classified is lacking in this area, and while you can trigger a conversation between two soldiers, it's more about little bickerings over French/American/British cultural norms like tea vs. coffee than character-building. 

In fairness, some of the chats are pretty interesting, as you hear about the Moroccan Alami's concerns over French occupation after the war, or how butter has somehow become a more valuable commodity than meat in these troubled times. It makes for some neat history trivia, but doesn't add up to the meaningful characterisation you'd have hoped for with a fixed cast of characters like this.

But it's also the case that Absolutely Games doesn't have the resources of Firaxis (who made both Midnight Suns and XCOM), and this is a commendable debut effort from the new studio. It ticks all the boxes on the battlefield itself, and toys with some neat mechanics and ideas that the studio can hopefully build upon in its next outing. Contrary to being the hardcore game that its severe historical setting might have suggested, Classified: France '44 has a lot of thoughtful, forgiving touches that push you along through the momentous historical events that you become part of shaping, ratcheting things up as you approach the fateful Normandy landings. It may even be a bit on the easy side by default, but hey, it wouldn't be a true XCOM-like if it didn't have an Ironman Mode for all you tactics veterans out there.

Robert is a freelance writer and chronic game tinkerer who spends many hours modding games then not playing them, and hiding behind doors with a shotgun in Hunt: Showdown. Wishes to spend his dying moments on Earth scrolling through his games library on a TV-friendly frontend that unifies all PC game launchers.

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