As an owner of a bareboat in what is called the ‘Dream Easy Program’, I am allowed 6 weeks of almost free sailing in any one of DYC’s bases around the world on an ‘equivalent’ boat to mine. Equivalent means same age, length and fit-out such as AC etc. I my case that baseline is a 2019, 44′ catamaran with air-conditioning and watermarker.
It gets a little ambiguous when a) there isn’t an equivalent boat at the base at all or if there is, it’s booked out b) there is an equivalent boat available, but it’s not in the same ‘contract’ category, aka ‘Dream Easy’. The last one is a bit of kicker, because I didn’t know about that clause in my contract and it really limits the boats /locations available to get your owners weeks booked.
Even though I booked this trip well over 8 months in advance, with all the world’s COVID restrictions in place, all that was left was the Bali 4.1. SV ‘Traviata’ apparently is no longer in the relevant contract category, so it was off the table for our two-week sojourn.
Now, I could be excused to think that ‘Namaste’ is the Queensland translation for “Wet & Wild”. After a week of champagne sailing, a cyclonic weather system (Cyclone Niran) approached the fringes of the Whitsunday Islands in the far northwest of Australia and brought with it a lot of wind and rain. Nothing unusual for this time of the year but it certainly puts a dampener on recreational sailing.
‘Namaste’ presented itself nicely at the dock in Airlie Beach. However, the absence of air-conditioning at this time of the year was immediately evident as we sat through what can only be described as a drawn out boat and area brief.
It made me wish I could just duck over to SV ‘Senatra’ in the next pen. We hired this Bali 4.3 2 years ago and it looked nicely chilled with its AC humming.
Client briefing and handover
I am all for a detailed brief. It protects the operator, the boat owners and me, the hirer, from messing things up. But after 4 rentals at the same base, I feel a shortened version might have been more appropriate. Do I really need to demonstrate again how to hoist the sail or pick up a mooring?
The focus should have been on pointing out the peculiars of this particular yacht, aka reefing or anchor system, where the gas shut-off valve is hiding and that the auto helm is not linked to the nav display. Follow that by a quick rundown on any changes to local conditions or regulation and done – 1 hour tops. Let’s have a beer. DYC’s Thailand base has a bottle of Vodka and a Coke in the fridge for your arrival. That’s what I call a “Owners Welcome Pack”.
As a return customer, especially an owner with a yacht in their fleet, I would expect the staff to have been fully briefed on my sailing history and previous experience at that base. It’s just good customer service, makes me feel valued and safes a lot of time for all involved.
I will shameless self-promote the benefits of the ‘Sailsense System’ at this point in time as all the check-in, briefings boat familiarisation and background checks etc could have been concluded online, before I even got there.
Plenty of room at the Inn...
Once we got going after the first night in the marina, the Bali 4.1 provided a good platform for leisurely family cruising. There is loads of room and outdoor sun baking areas.
You can choose from the ‘Upper Deck’ with forward or upwards views, the “Front of House” lounge and sundeck with pretty sun umbrellas and coffee tables or the “Rear Retreat” that joins the saloon.
The upwards opening barndoor at the back opens the saloon to the elements… then it’s just one big back deck…. until wind gusts drive the rain into the saloon or the waves slapping under the hull splash saltwater into the cabin via the drain slots. Note to customers: close barndoor when sailing in choppy conditions and don’t forget the sun umbrellas from the champagne sunset last night. It doesn’t say so in the operations manual, so gratefully, some common sense is still assumed.
A very interesting item I did find in the manual (apart from a certificate that my gas stove is compliant with Queensland state law and has been recently inspected) was this little gem…. The reference of the depth sounder to the waterline and keel setup. That was a first and I really appreciated it. The rest of the manual was actually very well thought about as well.
Catana Bali 4.1 specifications at a glance...
800 litres of fresh water in a single tank, 400ltr of diesel (good for approx 40hrs of motoring on the 2 X 29kw Yanmars), 272 ltr 240V domestic fridge/freezer, stove and oven but most importantly, a very well working BBQ on the rear deck that’s not afraid of wind or rain.
Talking about the fridge; it’s huge and ideal for a large crowed. But it sucks about as much energy as a bunch of thirsty crew suck beers in the topics. With no generator on board it was necessary to run an engine for at least 3 hrs a day to keep up with the energy demand. Given the area and all anchorages being in close proximity, it equated to excessive engine use for a sailing guy like myself. Thankfully DYC have recognized the issue and are planning to install additional solar panels very shortly.
Finally, there is a large, brand new tender for 8 people but only a miserly 6hp two-stroke to make it move…. slowly. A proper sized engine that allows you to plane with at least 2 people is in my opinion a minimum required safety standard that should be observed.
How does the Bali 4.1 sail ...
The Bali 4.1 has the boom for the mainsail extremely high up above the cabin roof and you have to climb two steps up the mast to reach it. There are two single reefing lines for the 1st and 2nd reef, all operable from the helm station, which unfortunately is lacking a 3rd winch, or a proper wind indicator for that matter. That’s downstairs in the cabin, together with a repeater plotter and the VHF, which in turn has a detachable controller for the bridge – but I only discovered that one at the end of the trip (see my point about the boat brief)
The self tacking jib has the relevant markings for the 3 reefing points and once you have a play with the setup, jib and mains balance quite nicely.
Don’t expect upwind performance, that’s simply wasn’t in the design criteria.
We had to beat upwind of sorts at some point for a few hours. 2nd reef in all sails, 25kts at an angle of 60deg off the starboard bow. Without at least one engine at 1500 rpm we barely made 4kts. Switch on the engine and we could reduce the angle to 50deg and made 7.5kts.
Going the other way however was fun. 2 reefs in the sails, 25kts on a broad reach and we got 8 kts plus tide. Design criteria met.
The boat’s suitability for champaign, downwind sailing versus heavier weather ops was obvious in more than one aspect.
Heavy rain cause water ingress through the steering station into the starboard aft cabin. Maybe not so much a design fault though, but why do you always tend to find out about these things in the middle of the night? It made me feel better to find out a few days later that we weren’t the only ones with that issue – customers on a Nautitech 46 from Whitsunday Escape suffered the same fate.
We didn’t really hit any heavy swell, yet a mild thump made the ceiling panel in the galley come down. Thankfully it could easily be clipped back into place … until the next thump.
Whilst we didn’t notice much slapping under the bridge deck, large amounts of water came up through the drain slots behind the barndoor as mentioned earlier. It didn’t linger but seems odd that it happened in that direction.
The lack of a third winch doesn’t really help when you want to reef the jib. You just can’t release the sheets and furl at the same time.
Some other minor items / defects I noticed was the starboard rear saloon window not locking in the ‘close’ position, which is really where you want it when underway in heavy rain, the barn door only having one locking bolt and the front locker’s gas struts are unable to hold it open, an essential feature when operating the anchor.
Having said all the above, at no point in time did the Bali 4.1 feel unsafe in the blustery conditions, under sail or motor. As a matter of fact, it motors extremely well in all conditions.
The manual displaying the yacht operating license limits the yacht’s use to ‘wave heights not exceeding 4m or windforce not exceeding 7 Beaufort (34kts). We may have reached the windspeed limit on this trip but definitely not the wave height limit.
This trip was as much of a family reunion and a deserved holiday after a year of no travel. We had to go back and forth to the marina to pick up and drop off various parties over a number of days.
Let it be said that the crew at DYC has been extremely accommodating and supportive every time we came into port.
I pointed out the blocked toilet water inlet and busted roller bearing of the jib and a staff member attended to it immediately during our turnaround. All fixed before we even went out again.
We discussed sailing and mooring recommendations with the operations manager in view of the approaching bad weather. By now my sailing resume must have filtered through the system because a mutual level of respect was evident and I appreciated the professionalism displayed.
Handing back the boat at the end of the charter...
Boats break, have leaks, faults and stuff falls apart. That’s just the way it is with anything that floats. So I tend to provided a detailed list of issues / defects. Some might say its excessively detailed and some might even be uncomfortable providing all this information – or just can’t be bothered.
Yet an owner always looks much closer at defects than your average renter. I figure it assists with fault finding and improving reliability. Turns out my efforts were greatly appreciated by the staff for that exact reason.
In their words: “We can’t see every small issue on a turn-around. Unless you sail the boat for a period of time and in a variety of conditions, you just don’t know about issues creeping up. Customer feedback is very important in that regard.”
As it turned out, the cyclone decided to move away and run out of puff, the sunshine returned and our holiday came to an end. Great trip yet again in the Whitsunday Islands.
Did the Catana Bali 4.1 proof to be a good catamaran for charter? Overall, for the location, I think it did great job. What you need is space and comfort combined with ease of use and safety. All those boxes were ticked for sure.
Now I am looking forward to sailing on ‘NoShoes’ in Croatia in August … one can only hope – it feels like a distant dream sometimes!
Hallo Captain, you welcome
Hope to see you soon. She’s looking good 😊
Bali has a great concept of open space with its innovative “garage door construction”. I was last autumn on this boat in Greece, Ionic Island, love it. Thank you for your report. Uwe
Hi Uwe,
Glad you enjoyed reading my article. How was your trip in Greece and whom did you rent through?
Great article. Very thorough review
I don’t understand your comment about up wind performance, I am in the process of buying a bali 4.0 and I had 6 to 10 kmots of wind and was doing 4 to 6 knots at 50 degrees. I got to 40 degrees and was doing 3.6 knots with 6 knots of wind. Perhaps your sails where tired.
Hi Chris,
I don’t pretend to be a sailing expert or an ace sail trimmer. Sailes where defiantly not the best, but to achieve what you said you did, you are beating some of the higher performance cats out there on a Bali. Sounds like you are on to a winner there …. and you found the boat you are looking for. Keen to come for a sail, maybe I just did it wrong.