How have you found the quality build? Been watching Travel Sketch who have had a tricky time sorting out their boat via Leopard/R&C and it’s put off the brand somewhat
Good question! As a fellow Leopard owner told me "Good boat, bad owner". Our boat was delivered a month or two after Trent’s, so it was built at the same time. We haven’t had any of the issues he has had. In fact, our build quality has been amazing. We have made one warranty claim since we left Florida and it was a piece of cake. $3,000 worth of work, reimbursed by Leopard promptly. We keep checking our windows, and other issues that we see from time to time in the forums, but so far we have not had any problems. If you dig a little deeper into Travel Sketch, you might see there are some holes in their stories. They made a stink about an NDA. I’m pretty sure if you are asking for corporate processes, you are going to have to sign an NDA. I had a warranty claim, I have a RU-vid channel, I did not have to sign an NDA. Likewise, they raised a big stink over how warranty is paid for. They KNEW how it worked. I asked about how warranty worked in my first meeting with Leopard, and it’s a simple process. You have a thing you need covered. You get a bid. Leopard reviews it. YOU pay for the work to get done. Leopard reimburses you. We had a few fiberglass fixes that needed to be done. I got a bid. I gave the estimate to Leopard. I had the work done. I sent a copy of the invoice to Leopard. They wired me my reimbursement. Travel Sketch is leaving out the other side of the story. It appears they want to create drama with the goal of building a RU-vid channel. Good luck to them. But at the end of the day, they could spend a little less time on manufacturing controversy and a little more time learning how to tell stories and edit video. One more thing. Ruby Rose promoted Trent’s video because they are promoting Seawind.
@@SailingSymphony Yep, channels that accept sponsorship from manufacturers (just about all of them now) are not trustworthy due to conflict of interest. At least in Ruby Rose case they have had a miserable time waiting for the boats to be built. Good Also on a personal level, i never follow childless couple sailing channels. Go extinct already.
Thank you. I found that reply extremely helpful. I watched travel sketches videos and as I'm about to buy a leopard myself, they scared the crap out of me. I for one, really appreciate a level headed response to what made me immensely nervous
It really is, and to be honest I did not know a thing about what we would need. Just Cats was really good about understanding how we were going to use the boat and suggesting what would work. I should have mentioned it in the video, if I ever have a question about any of this stuff, they are on it immediately. They've even remotely changed some settings. Great company, great folks.
Just seeing this video and thank you so much for sharing! While our Leopard is a little older than yours, your information applies to us all! Thanks so much!!
Love this video. Very very appreciative. We take deliver next summer of a Leopard 45 (original date I delayed 9 months) and deep in planning mode. I am more and more convinced the gas can go and switch to oven system like yours and induction the way to go. Big battery bank, solar, no genset, big alternators I hope works 🤷♂️
I will say keeping the gas burners has come in handy. Our inverter just bit the dust so we are back to using gas until we get it fixed. We kick on the generator to use the oven, so we could still use the induction, but it’s easy enough to use the gas for now. I’d consider having 2 smaller inverters, see if there was a way to rig that up so in a pinch you still have some redundancy :)
Hey, thanks for the video. We option our new Leopard 45 in 6 or so months and are already making the factory versus after market list. Super helpful. I hope to see you on the water in 2024 when we get our boat.
That's awesome! There's a bunch of resources out there when picking. Check the Leopard 45 Owners group on Facebook. And Lab Mariner did a decent video reviewing their options I think. Feel free to ping me on Facebook or Instagram I can give you my opinion as well. Quick tip, don't upgrade your anchor through Leopard, do it aftermarket :)
Great video and good to hear you are happy with the solar/battery set-up. We are aiming for more autonomy so we are installing 3200W of solar and 29kWH of lithium at 48V. No generator, but will have Integrel chargers as a back-up. Being able to run A/C at night off batteries alone is nice : )
We actually use it a decent amount! It's great for watching sunsets, but it does get a bit windy up there. Best spot to hang out in the evenings. We use the front cockpit in the afternoons, it has good shade and air.
I know, I feel like we've been very fortunate not running into any problems. I think if we keep on staying on top of maintenance we'll be good, and worst case as we run into problems hopefully we'll overcome them.
Enjoyed the video. Learning upgrades that fit your lifestyle helps have learned from others the Salt Enriched air does a number on electronics especially computers. Laptops were said to only last about a year. Wasn’t mentioned what they were but video editing might want to use a MacBook Pro. Apple has special designed fans that would be bringing in Salt Enriched air. There are some that use heat sinks instead which might be less effected. Electric power systems for off grid use is seeing hot developments with potentially big improvements. Full electric power is starting to be doable and expected to dominate in near future. Upgrading might be very costly but doing so eliminate using Diesel. If I were ordering a new boat, deciding on going full Electric is very tempting. Any thoughts?
Thanks! I think all-electric would be awesome, just not sure you could pull it off with this particular boat. I think we'll see purpose-built full electric cats become more feasible in the coming years, but my guess is that it is still a way out.
@@SailingSymphony Your comment makes sense. Recent announcements of improved battery capacity and solar output shows technology as a whole working system is on a big upswing. Upgrading from Diesel Power to Electric isn’t cheap. Even upgrading from earlier Electric to latest technology is costly. Looks like Tesla and others are getting out of Lithium and projected improvements are worth considering the upgrade. Typical creative evolvement can show enormous gains until reaching a plateau. Perhaps taking the plunge might be when reaching the plateau point. My preference is if I were ordering a new Cat, I’d go for complete Electric or Hybrid Diesel/Electric. New flexible Solar rolled sheets are more favorable then large panels and choices for other types expected. We could see a total top of a boat as one Solar Array. And maybe Sails made of Solar Arrays might show up. It’s my opinion that more development with controlling use of Solar produced electricity for charging and use is required. Development takes time and we aren’t there yet. I’m a retired development engineer who leans towards permanent solutions then quick fixes.
Absolutely! We anchored around the corner from there and spent a week running around. We did a pretty crazy uncharted hike that started in Deshais! We are still in Guadeloupe and have another 10 days here, so I am guessing the next 3 or 4 videos will cover our time here. It's one of our favorite places to visit yet!
Good afternoon, do you like the top cocktail deck? Is it something you use all the time? Or is it to hot? Would you do that again or go for more solar?
We use it a lot! Mostly in the evenings to watch the sunsets, there is always a good breeze up there. Definitely would get it again, the extra solar would be nice but I think there are other places we could squeeze in some wattage if we wanted to.
Good question, it's a favorite topic among cruisers to debate what's going to happen. My guess is we'll have to start paying the $200 a month plan at some point.
The induction cooktop is faster, don't have to turn on several switches to get it going. Gas also generates a bit more heat in the salon when cooking. We do still use it if we are cooking with more than one pot or pan. And it's very efficient, we used 2 small propane tanks over the course of the whole season last year when we were using the gas cooktop exclusively.
I'm curious if you had the option when having your boat built to have a water maker and solar added as part of the kit? You do have room for more solar if you wanted to go that route.
There was an option for water maker and it was the same model, but 1) it was less expensive to have Just Catamarans do it and 2) we could locate it under the port aft bed instead of eating up the massive storage space under port forward. For solar, the only factory option was 2 or 4 100W panels at $1,700 per panel. You can get a Renogy panel like that on Amazon for about $150 so the factory option wasn't a thing we considered. I heard Leopard is starting to offer better solar options, but I just looked on their site and now those panels are over $2,000. I'm guessing it's a thing they don't want to mess with :)
Hello guys We have been thinking of buying a leopard 45 but after finding some very bad reviews on boat I was wondering if you have had any issues with your cat or problems with warranty claims Cheers And happy sailing Bryan
I’d definitely reach out to different owners to get different perspectives, some of the videos I have seen are a bit sensational. We’ve been sailing with two other Leopard 45s for 2 seasons now and none of us have had any real problems that weren’t self-inflicted. If you want to talk about it message me on Facebook or Instagram and I can get on a call. It’s a fantastic boat and if I had to make the choice knowing what I know now, I’d definitely buy it again.
@@SailingSymphony Thank you very much for replying, I have looked at a lot at boats and set my goal on a Leopard 45 but was put of by a couple of very bad you tube sites. I appreciate your advise and may call on you in the future. Thanks again CHEERS
@@bryand8967 yeah I don’t think those videos tell the whole story. I think there have definitely been some problems for some people, but I think some of the dramatization is a little much. But maybe it’s a good argument for looking at used boats :) But we’ve had no real issues and warranty process was easy and quick for us when we had some gelcoat fixes after the first season.
Not sure! We are taking it year by year figuring out where we want to go. We know next year we'll be sailing from Grenada to the US, but after that it's anybody's guess.
We've been very happy going the Sonos route. Fusion was a $4,500 option back in 2020 and the two Sonos Moves we have cost around $800. I figure even if we somehow destroy 10 speakers we'd still be ahead! But seriously, the Move speakers work great because we can just take them to whatever part of the boat we want music in. Gets the same result (music where we want it) that Fusion would give with less wires and complexity. So for us, it ended up being a good move.
Definitely true. The only thing using AC regularly is Starlink. We use AC for our induction burner, and ice making. The BIG AC draw is if we use air conditioning. We may look at changing to DC for those, but the expense might not justify it. We use air conditioning sparingly, maybe once every couple or three weeks if that. But as we go further south and we get towards summer, I am guessing we'll be sucking down more power if we run into nights where there is no breeze.
The problem is not your solar panels but how long the batteries take to charge.There is a reason they don't use lithium batteries in gas vehicles. There is a solution lithium battery companies don't want you to know. That is using super capacitors banks to extend your lithium batteries life and the super capacitor bank charges in minutes. Meaning you can use the power of the panels and charge batteries. The super capacitors cycle so your batteries don't. Lithium batteries only have around 20000 cycles. Super capacitors have around a million cycles so they will last a life time. I had to add super capacitors to my cabin to power circular saw. Other wise I would only get 30 minutes of use. With super capacitors if the sun shines I can use circular saw.
We haven't run into an issue like this yet. For charging, each battery can take in 100 amps, and at full sun and no loss along the way we would see around 125 amps going into the batteries, so 42 into each. Likewise on discharge, max for each battery is 200 amps, so 600 total, and we watch when we are cooking to make sure we stay below about 200. If we go above that, we usually max out one of the 15 amp breakers, so we never hit a battery bottleneck. Post a link to some capacitor info though, I'd be interested in digging into it and learning more.
