Tartan Yachts to Build Catamarans and Powerboats
The Ohio-based builder of cruising sailboats has proven that you can teach an old dog new tricks—if the dog is smart and the tricks make complete sense.
October 19, 2014
Tartan has been building top-quality monohull sailboats for nearly 50 years. Faced with a changing boating demographic, the company is adapting, via a two-pronged approach.
Tartan Yachts is venturing into the catamaran market with its new SC44 motorsailer.
Tartan Cats
The first comes in the form of a partnership with multihull design firm Morrelli & Melvin and budding catamaran developer Indikon Boat Works. By leveraging the company's expertise in advanced composite construction and its established dealer and service network, the idea is to build and market catamarans to the existing stable of Tartan owners, as well as potential new customers. Two hulls provide a more stable platform, greater protection from the elements, and a faster way to get where you want to go than traditional monohull sailboats.
The new cats will come in two flavors: the SC44 and PC44. The SC44 is a 44-foot motorsailer with a short keel and a tall, carbon-fiber rig. With wide decks, interior and exterior helm stations, and electric dinghy davits, there will be no roughing it. These cats will be fast under power with twin Volvo Penta D3 170-horsepower diesels, so outrunning a storm means rolling up the sails and heading for shelter at 15 knots.
Expect swift performance of up to 20 knots with Tartan's new PC44 power cat.
The PC44 power cat changes out keels for elongated skegs along hulls that are angled upward in the aft sections. The powercat will have a choice of twin 170-, 200-, or 220-horsepower engines with joystick control. Removing sailing hardware, reshaping the bottoms slightly, and switching from feathering to fixed props increases speeds to upwards of 20 knots. Both motorsail and power versions will have two or three cabins and two heads, shallow drafts, excellent fuel efficiency, and a displacement of between 20,000 and 22,000 pounds.
Legacy by Tartan
The second new initiative is for anyone not quite comfortable with two hulls, but still wishing to transition out of sail into something a bit faster and easier to maneuver. Legacy by Tartan is a line of cruising powerboats with “Downeast” styling. A 32-footer is already out, and Mark Ellis is set to draw the lines of a new 356. The boats will enjoy the same quality construction and signature joinery of the Tartan brand with great performance, to boot.
Tartan's Legacy 32 provides the company with an option for its sailboat owners who want to switch to power.
With a premium line of powerboats, Tartan offers existing owners and potential new customers a reason to keep boating longer. Kudos to the company for its forward-thinking strategy, which will hopefully keep sailors on the water later in life.
For more information, visit Tartan Yachts Catamarans, or Legacy by Tartan.
