Fassmer Tender Catamarans- Stuff Done Wrong

Another page on Stuff Done Wrong. These Fassmer catamaran lifeboat/tenders are amazingly bad, in my firsthand opinion.  They were clearly designed by someone who had no experience in catamarans. And the contract must have been huge as there are so many.
Notice in the picture that with only a few passengers, the bridgedeck is already underwater.  It really is a catamaran.  As a lifeboat,it would be OK. You are lucky to be alive. As a tender, I doubt if it could be worse for the job. A tender’s job is to ferry the elderly and infirm from the cruise ship to the shore. Half the passengers had difficulty walking on dry land anyway. The Fass has an ugly combination of pitch and heave inducing features. The bow overhang shortens the waterline, allowing more pitch. (It kind of looks like what a monohull designer thinks a catamaran should be looking like.)   Aft, the draft is cut away for the prop, and that makes pitch worse. The low bridgedeck gets lifted by almost any wave, and the elderly really have to hang on. I was on one in only half meter waves and it was tilting up to 20 degrees, provoking moans from the passengers.
It is only 36.5’ (11.15m) long but weighs 26,455 lbs (12,000 kg). 300 hp gives 10 knots if you are lucky. Even within the envelope requirements, a real catamaran designer could have done so much better.

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One thought on “Fassmer Tender Catamarans- Stuff Done Wrong”

  1. The name tender is misleading. It should be “kidney transplant”. I experienced a ride in St. Lucia (ZA=South Africa) about 2 month ago. The boat is made to penetrate and ride surf and slide about 30 yards on the beach under a heavy Ti O with Mo(SO4)2 coating. The name of one of the boats is Damn Ass which is very appropriate.

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