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First Xquisite Yachts X5 Sail Sold In The U.S. By Catamaran Guru

Catamaran Guru sold the very first Xquisite X5 Sail catamaran (hull #2) into the U.S. during the Annapolis Boat Show. The new owners could not be happier with their choice. After a test sail and thorough inspection of the boat ourselves, we have to agree with them. This boat is special. The new owners’ boat will go into a business program to reduce the cost of yacht ownership, so stay tuned for details on how to charter “Cattitude” in Fort Lauderdale soon!

South African boat builders produce about 30 percent of all the cruising multihulls in the world. But unlike Robertson and Caine (Leopard), which will build more than 150 boats this year, there are several “boutique” boat builders like Knysna Yachts, St Francis, Tag, etc. that will produce only about 5 to 12 boats per year each. Tim Murphy of Cruising World Magazine appropriately calls them the “Artisan Cats of South Africa”.

These are mostly family businesses, owned and run by experienced sailors and cruisers. One such company is Xquisite Yachts, owned by Tamas and Sara, experienced charter skippers at xta-sea.com and the owners of one of the forerunners of the new X5 Sail. They are not only passionate about sailing but you can totally feel their enthusiasm for their new model catamaran, the X5 Sail, when you talk to them. They have implemented everything that they have learned in charter and cruising and designed every system, the interior, the fittings and furniture, sail plan and cockpit to the finest detail to make life aboard a pleasure.

The new X5 Sail (50ft) was unveiled in the U.S. for the first time at the Annapolis Boat Show. It’s a catamaran that stands out from the rest by its very distinctive targa arch that swoops across the entire cockpit and the four slanted windows in the side of the hulls. This cat was designed for comfort and easy sail handling, including two headsails, electric winches, and davits.

The X5 performs extremely well mainly because of the lightweight construction – a high-density foam core and vacuum infused epoxy resin. It is fitted with twin 80HP Yanmar engines and equipped with generator, air-conditioning, water maker, washing machine and digital switching as standard.

The following results were from several different tests by builders and owner, Tamas Hamor, sailing with the standard sails of full main and reacher at 70 AWA:
5 knots SOG @ 7-8 knots TWS | 7 knots SOG @ 10 knots TWS | 10 knots SOG @ 18 knots TWS | 12 knots SOG @ 22 knots TWS

X5 Sail Has Impressive Equipment List

Xquisite yachts clients — Proud new owners of X5 Sail, hull #2

One of the more impressive things about the X5 is that it comes with an extensive standard-equipment list that includes such pricey items as a generator, watermaker, air conditioning, electric winches and washer/dryer. Even though it is not inexpensive, it still is a very reasonable $1.2M that compares to prices for other deluxe cruising cats of this size and type like the Privilege 50.

The X5 Sail also comes standard with a really cool iPad brain that controls and monitors all the systems including the distributed power network. The iPad also gathers maintenance and operating data for the onboard systems, which is uploaded to the builder every time it is connected to the Internet.

Clever Innovations On The X5 Sail

The interior finishes are “exquisite” and luxurious. It is immediately evident upon entering the boat that everything is very well finished and very high quality. Although the furniture looks like luxuriously heavy wood, it actually is very light, as everything is foam-cored to reduce weight, including the galley and bathroom worktops.

The boat is quiet inside and the floorboards do not creak like most production boats do. The X5 has more storage space than any other cat that I have seen and has clever storage ideas like the massive telescoping drawer-within-a-drawer in the galley. The standup fridges are fantastic, tucked in a corner against the bulkhead, so it does not seem obnoxious.

Wet bar in the cockpit of this xquisite x5 catamaran — Wet bar in the cockpit

The standard 900-watt solar panels on the coach roof are installed in recessed mounts and can be tilted to “follow the sun”. That Bimini over the semi-raised helm, is one of the best-designed biminis I’ve seen on a cat. It has a hard windshield, an extremely sturdy frame, and the fully battened canvas top slides completely away so that the helm station is open to the coachroof and sails. It’s genius.

The passion of the builders and designers of the Xquisite X5 Sail are very evident in this yacht and has many clever and very practical innovations.

Xquisite’s X5 Specifications & Details