Berman Launches Balance 421 Catamaran

Phil Berman, longtime sailor, owner and founder of The Multihull Company, has launched his own line of catamarans aimed at the performance sailing market. Dubbed the Balance 421, Berman has teamed with Kiwi catamaran master designer Roger Hill in the redesign of one of Roger’s well-proven hull designs to produce the first in a full range of Balance Catamarans.

“I am calling it Balance Catamarans because our team of designers, engineers and builders are hard focused on achieving a perfect harmony between comfort at anchor and safety and performance underway,” said Berman. “At Balance Catamarans we will not produce charter cats or racing cats but rather blue-water voyagers of uncompromising quality. We know that the demands of the sea have not changed since the days of the early Polynesian catamaran explorers and that ultimately our boats must be designed and built to cope with the worst weather nature can deliver.”

The boats will be marketed and sold exclusively by The Multihull Company around the globe.

Hill and Berman painstakingly analyzed every aspect of the Hill design down to the tiniest detail, test-sailed a protype in Australia, then refined the design again and again to achieve the perfect balance between performance and comfort. Then, they turned to a seasoned composite builder they both knew and respected – Lee Zinxiang.  Zinxiang, while managing production for ArrowCat Marine in China, successfully built over 50 Hill-designed power catamarans at his composite engineering factory in Juhai, China. The team was rounded out by the addition of Micah Zimmerman who has founded a range of companies in China over the past 15 years, including ArrowCat Marine.

Hill has been drawing boats for just over 34 years. Starting out his working life as an Architectural draughtsman and then being asked to join the office of Bruce Farr in Auckland. After these initial projects Hill tackled an interesting variety of work including mono hull and catamarans, power and sail, steel, alloy, wood, and composite construction.

“I am certain you will agree that the Balance 421 is the most harmonious and carefully thought out live-aboard voyaging catamaran to come to market in years,” said Berman.

The Balance 421 will be available early in 2013. A Balance 451 is already in the tooling stage and will be launched in the spring of 2013.

Pre-show orders are now being accepted. Please contact The Multihull Company via telephone, 215-508-2704 or visit their website for further information.

Story courtesy of The Multihull Company.

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