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A Year Living Aboard a Catamaran: Dream or Reality?
A Year Living Aboard a Catamaran: Dream or Reality?
6.17.25
Living year-round on an Excess catamaran means changing your pace, rethinking your daily life, and learning to sail differently — guided by the wind and the people you meet.
Living Aboard a Catamaran: An Atypical Adventure
More Than a Move, a True Lifestyle Change
First, living aboard a catamaran for a year requires you to change your habits, your references, your relationship with space and time. You will go from a sedentary life to a life always in motion, guided by adventures, activities, and discoveries.
You will leave your neighborhood, your home and garden, to enter a new life: a life in contact with nature and the elements. Far from insignificant, moving onto a boat is a very big change!
At sea, the days are quite different than on land. Morning often begins at sunrise, at anchor, in the location chosen for spending the night. While each crew member might wake at his or her rhythm, perhaps with a dive from the catamaran or a yoga session on the deck, others might share breakfast with family around the table in the saloon...
Then everyone heads out for adventure, by hopping in a tender, on land – to enjoy the beach or to explore an island and the surrounding area. Then, it's time to set sail... before anchoring and meeting new people in another destination.
Does this inspire you to daydream? You're right: living aboard a catamaran for a year is truly a gateway to freedom!
The Advantages of Life Aboard a Catamaran
In constant motion, the catamaran is an autonomous, comfortable, enjoyable home, and always ready for adventure. It enables you to experience complete freedom and a way of life consistent with the aspirations of the crew.
Life aboard a catamaran is a return to the essential, for a simple life, nearly without attachments: you will enjoy a slower pace of life and live with more intensity. Living aboard a catamaran enables you to feel a closer connection with the ocean.
With family or close friends, you will experience unique moments: together, you will create powerful memories. Children will learn to observe and to adapt, and they will discover the world for themselves, developing their curiosity.
Of course, there are also inconveniences to living aboard a catamaran for a year:
As at home, there will be meal preparation, as well as sorting recyclables and waste management. But life aboard a catamaran requires perhaps a bit more organization: you must anticipate making provisions, manage power use and fresh water, plot the course and plan for stopovers... and your capacity to adapt will be key.
Also, in choosing to live aboard a catamaran, you will no longer be just a sailor: you will become a weather forecaster, mechanic, plumber, electrician... multiple skillsets will be indispensable to making the most of your life on board.
"Are the batteries charged enough?", "Is the anchorage safe?", "How will the weather evolve?" ... Life aboard a catamaran does not mean life without constraints. They are simply different!
Choosing a Catamaran to Live Aboard
To live aboard a catamaran, you must make the right choice: choose the boat that will become your home, your living space, your means of transportation… and, sometimes, your office. The stakes are much higher than if you only cruise several weeks a year. You will be moving on board, where you should feel at home and safe, 365 days a year.
Selecting a Model
Multiple catamaran models could suit your moving plans. To choose between the Excess 11, the Excess 13, and the Excess 14, you will be interested in the composition of the crew, their lifestyle, their needs, as well as their cruising plans.
Béatrice and Jean-Pierre, owners of an Excess catamaran for years, explain: “The shallow draft of our Excess 14 is perfectly suited to Polynesia, where we plan to cruise. It is ideal for crossing lagoons, even in shallow depths.”
To choose the right model, you will need to take multiple criteria into account:
Responsiveness of the catamaran
Performance
Safety on board
Ease of handling
Ease of maintenance…
The size of the catamaran will also be fundamental: in fact, living for a year aboard a catamaran that is too small could quickly become confining.
To live aboard as a couple, we advise that you choose a catamaran of at least 36 feet: in our range, theExcess 11– with a length of 38 feet and optimized living space – is a very comfortable solution. For Karine, who cruises together with Michel aboard this model, the catamaran “remains reasonable in its dimensions, while affording the feeling of spaciousness.”
To live as a family aboard a catamaran, or to live as a couple with additional space, you could turn to a larger model. Why not choose a catamaran with optimal comfort, like the Excess 13 or theExcess 14? Shared and private living areas aboard these models offer a well-balanced life on board, where each crewmember can make the most of the present moment!
Concerning livability, we advise you to opt for a well-considered configuration and volume of living space. A good interior layout will enable you to live comfortably for the duration: a practical, safe galley, spacious berths, a cockpit and saloon with an inviting atmosphere…
You must also have ease of movement, and sufficient storage space – for your personal affairs and for provisions. This is the case aboard Excesscatamarans: optimized catamarans designed to offer you the very best cruising experience!
The atmosphere on board should be synonymous with well-being, but also with safety and practicality, whether cruising or at anchor. According to Béatrice and Jean-Pierre, who live aboard an Excess 14, this model is “enjoyable to live aboard, with large, bright living areas.” Regarding the design, it was the bright interior of our catamarans, with large glass surfaces, that convinced Karine and Michel: “We have this sensation of being at once inside and outside that is truly super enjoyable. Bright, well-lit… We do not at all have the impression of being enclosed.”
Before living aboard a catamaran for the year, it could be interesting to ask yourself:
What items from your life on land do you want to bring with you to sea?
Is there indispensable equipment that you cannot go without?
In the case of the purchase of a new catamaran, you can configure your future home exactly the way would like it to be!
Beyond the model and its layout, equipment and appliances will further enable you to enhance your quality of life on board. These will offer you the possibility of traveling in comfort and with autonomy, and to always remain safe. With them, you will be free to accomplish your plans, without having to make stopovers too frequently.
Some practical equipment for living comfortably aboard a catamaran:
Batteries suited to meet your energy needs, in function with your habits and cruising plans.
Solar panels, a hydrogenator, and/or a wind turbine – to power the batteries for energy autonomy.
A watermaker – to make fresh drinking water from seawater and gain autonomy.
An efficienttender – one that is stable, motorized, and easy to handle on a daily basis to move easily to and from anchorages.
Internet connection – to consult weather reports, maintain contact with loved ones, or even work from a distance.
Electrical appliances: refrigerator, oven, induction burner, freezer, washing machine, coffee machine… or other appliances from home that you have identified as essential to your life aboard a catamaran.
The choice of onboard equipment comes down to the crew: each crewmember has his or her own needs! You must find the right balance of simplicity, technology, performance, safety, comfort, and entertainment.
After Casting Off: Daily Life Aboard a Catamaran
After deciding to live aboard a catamaran and selecting the perfect model, your experience will begin! You will quickly discover that your daily life aboard a boat is an adventure filled with anticipation and organization, and one which requires a certain adaptability.
Preparing for Cruising and Managing Resources
On land, it is easy to turn the lights on or off, as well as the faucet, and to step outside for a walk or a drive, no matter what the conditions may be. When you live aboard a catamaran, your lifestyle is different.
When traveling around the world, for example, you must prepare for the coming days in function with the weather conditions and cruising requirements. You must envision alternative itineraries and foresee stopovers. Numerous factors, such as the sea state, wind, tides, or currants, will determine your hours of departure and arrival, as well as crossings to make. This is non-negotiable to stay safe!
Then, whether passagemaking or at anchor, it will be indispensable to manage resources, like water, electricity, and food. You must learn to plan for your provisions: anticipate shopping trips, find fresh products, gas, water, and refuel… and these missions will prove more or less simple, according to your destinations!
Catamaran Maintenance for a Comfortable Life on Board
Aboard an Excess catamaran or a model from another brand, maintenance will also be an integral part of your daily life. Checking the rigging, the engine, and the hulls, maintenance of electrical equipment, or cleaning, for example, will be some of the small tasks that will punctuate your days. In addition to optimal function of your equipment, they will ensure your safety, comfort, and peace of mind on board. The essential, in short, is for you to make the most ofeach moment!
So, ready to step aboard and begin your new life?
Excess designs boats to assist you in carrying out your most fantastic plans: enabling you to escape your everyday life on land, and head for an adventure in which you feel truly alive!
By using the EXCESS catamaran configuration service, you acknowledge that you have read the general conditions of use below and agree to be bound by them.
No reference to this configurator shall have any contractual value or replace the information available from your exclusive Excess dealer. Although every care is taken to include accurate and up-to-date information, the prices and information in the configurator may contain tariffs, rates and information that are no longer in force at the time of use. Furthermore, the compatibility of the options and/or accessories selected must be approved by your exclusive Excess dealer.
The data and information contained on this site relate to catamarans marketed and approved in France. EXCESS catamarans are shown on the configurator for information only and may not correspond to the configured version. EXCESS reserves the right to make technical modifications at any time to the specifications and models of catamarans and accessories described and represented on the configurator. Data and information such as models, engines, equipment and colours are subject to change. Some data and information are indicative, subject to homologation. The catamaran versions marketed may differ from country to country, and some equipment may not be available (as standard, as an option or as an accessory).
The prices shown on the configurator are recommended prices, given for information only, and are subject to change without notice. They are taken from the price list in force on the date of the last update of the various pages of the configurator. They are expressed in euros exclusive of tax (HT) and, where applicable, inclusive of all taxes (TTC) including value added tax (VAT) at the rate in force in France, and exclude ancillary costs and services (preparation, delivery, etc.).
The total price indicated and the result of the configurator are given for information purposes only and do not constitute a contractual offer of products from EXCESS or the members of its network of exclusive dealers. Only your exclusive dealer can provide you with a contractual offer.
Errors or omissions may occur. The images shown are purely indicative and do not necessarily relate to the model you have chosen or the options you have selected. Due to technical limitations, the colours shown on this configurator may differ slightly from the actual colours. The photographs of the catamarans shown are indicative and non-contractual.
You can contact your nearest exclusive dealer to find out about the price and availability conditions (equipment and options) applied to your catamaran.
