Maricat 4.3m – The all Australian Designed “Off the Beach” Catamaran. The Maricat is an Australian designed catamaran. The boat was originally designed by Alan Mayer as a 14 footer in the mid '70s in conjunction with Claude McCullock. Claude had a “build your own boat” factory, Sea Mac Boats, where Alan produced the prototype.
About 100 or so of the original 14 footers were built before some major modifications were undertaken to produce the now-famous Maricat 4.3m. The name came from Claude's wife ‘Mari'. The original boat plans are now held by the National Maritime Museum and form part of Australia 's marine architectural history.
For a number of years, the boats were manufactured in Haberfield NSW by J & S Fibreglass (Jeff Simmonds) until the company's demise in 1982. The manufacturing rights were then taken over sometime later by Mariglass (Richard Ward) who remained in the Haberfield factory until the mid-nineties. The manufacturing rights now belong to Ross Guinea who is located in Brisbane at Brisbane Catamaran Centre.
To date some 3500 or so Maricats have been sold, many to people just looking for an easy boat to rig and sail. It certainly is:
- A boat to take on the family holiday.
- A boat just to muck around on.
- A boat to go out on Saturday and race around the buoys at the local sailing club.
- A boat to take out into the surf on Sunday with the family.
A great number of boats were sold to the hire fleets where many people experienced the thrill of catamaran sailing for the first time only to return home from the annual holiday and seek out the manufacturer to buy a boat. Today if you wander around any suburban streets and look in the back yard you're most likely to find a Maricat.
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