Blackwake is a 50 ft carbon catamaran built to race, not to idle by a beach bar. We sail the Keel Islands at up to 22 knots with groups who want spray, speed and a turn at the helm.
Carbon and foam core, launched 2019. Daggerboards up, she draws 4 ft 7 in, so we anchor where the monohulls cannot. Four cabins, crew berths in the bows.
Nine places you will steer, sit, eat, swim and sleep. Every group asks who gets which cabin and where the spray lands, so here it is, to the inch.
Bows at the top. Tap a number to walk to it. Dashed line is the boom, coral dot the mast.
Aft on each hull, outboard
Every guest who wants a go gets one, on a reach with Ren one step behind. Most people see 18 knots on the display in their first ten minutes and do not want to hand the wheel back.
You charter the whole boat, never a seat on it. The price below is the price, with a 30% deposit to hold the date and the rest due 30 days out.
$3,600for the boat, up to 12 guests
09:00 to 17:00, April to November
A full day across the Keel Sound and back, with the fastest leg saved for the run home under the gennaker.
$14,500for the boat, up to 8 guests
Friday 09:00 to Sunday 16:00, May to October
Port Keel to the outer islands and back, about 140 nautical miles, two nights at anchor, four cabins and a different anchorage each evening.
Ren walks you round the boat in ten minutes: where to sit, what not to touch, where the harnesses clip. Bags go below, phones go in the dry box.
Four of you on the halyard winch and the whole mainsail goes up in under two minutes. The engines go off and do not come back on until the marina.
The windward hull goes light, the log goes past 16 and the trampoline turns into a firehose. This is usually when someone starts laughing and cannot stop.
Fifteen minutes each for anyone who wants it, with Ren beside you calling the gusts. Guests who have never sailed regularly see 18 knots.
Lunch in the cockpit, a swim off the sterns, the paddleboard out. The water in the cay is about four metres deep and clear to the sand.
The big downwind sail goes up and the boat does what it was built for. The best speeds of the season, including the 22.4, have been set on this leg.
Lines on, sails flaked, a cold beer on the stern steps and a screenshot of the speed log for the group chat.
Ren crewed and then skippered multihulls in the Keel Islands Race from 2008, and won his class twice. In 2019 he found this boat in a yard in the south, stripped out the charter lounge a previous owner had fitted, and put the racing deck back.
He still sails every trip himself. Mia Sollis, first mate since 2021, runs the foredeck, the winches and most of the teaching. On the island run a cook joins, so the two of them can stay on deck.
Master licence, Lic. #000000 (sample). Figures are sample values for this concept.
A fast boat needs wind, and a safe skipper knows when there is too much of it. Here is exactly how we make the call, so nobody argues about it on the dock.
He reads the forecast for the Sound, not for the town, and tells you plainly whether we go, go with a reef in, or stay tied up.
You pick a new date in the next 12 months or take a full refund, your choice, within 48 hours. No credit notes, no fee.
Move the date free, or come anyway at 20% off for a swim-and-anchorage day. On a light day this boat still sails at wind speed, most boats cannot.
We booked it for my brother’s fortieth expecting a boat party. By eleven he was on the wheel at 19 knots and would not let anyone else have a turn.
Three days, three anchorages, and the Saturday reach to the outer islands is the fastest I have ever moved on water without an engine. The cook made bread on day two.
Ren moved us two days out because of a front and he was right, the Sound was white. We went the next weekend and got 20 knots and sunshine.
Summer weekends go first, often by March. Tell us the size of the group and how much sailing they have done, so we can plan the right day for them.
(555) 014-5050Berth C14, Port Keel Marina, Port Keel.
