Bali 4.0 vs FP Lucia 40 Catamarans
By Catamaran Guru
After the Paris boat show, a Bali owner alerted me about a blog post by a Fountaine Pajot dealer criticizing the Bali 4.0. He was a little miffed and asked for our opinion. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t pay attention to these snipes, but the post was blatantly misleading and I felt compelled to respond. The dealer published predictably negative comments but in this case the dealer abandoned all reason and logic.
While the dealer’s blog post should not at all reflect badly on the Lucia 40, it should be noted that these comments demonstrate that dealers are often biased and find it hard to be objective about products that they do not sell. It is important to be impartial when presenting any brand of catamaran to a potential buyer. I have taken some excerpts of his blog post and posted our rebuttals below each comment:
Dealer: “…A solid deck all the way forward. Other catamaran designers and delivery captains must be scratching their heads…”
Catamaran Guru: Trampolines on modern designs have become smaller and smaller because with modern lightweight design, netting is not required for weight reduction up front anymore. The Bali has a very unique construction which allows them to create this flat open platform without any obstructions throughout the boat including on the aft deck. They achieved this by using box sections within the bridge deck. This allowed for the removal of the rear bulkhead structure. This opened up the living space while the solid foredeck further contributed to the stiffness of the boat. The foredeck is not just a flat piece of decking, but is actually part of the bow with box sections, which makes it very buoyant. An integrated bowsprit further strengthens the front
