Solaris 42 Sail Catamarans For Sale

The Solaris 42 was the boat Solaris Marine was founded on. Terry Compton designed it, and it was built in Southampton in ketch and sloop versions from the mid-1970s into the late 1980s; later boats, often finished to the owner’s own interior plan, were sometimes sold as the Solaris Sunset. Compton believed people fill a big boat up with gear, so he designed for weight: the accommodation came first and the hulls were drawn around it. The result is a centre-cockpit cruiser with four double cabins on the bridge deck, two forward and two aft of the saloon. The galley and heads are down in the hulls, and there is a pilot berth under the chart table. Aft of the mizzen sits a large sun deck, and the foredeck between the bows was slatted teak rather than trampoline.

Period reviewers called it the most palatial catamaran they had been aboard, citing its teak joinery and twin Mercedes diesels. It was under-canvassed and happier under power in light airs, but it sailed better than its weight suggested. One owner surfed down five-metre seas at 18 knots and handed the helm to the autopilot. Its low-aspect keels let it take the ground, and every hull was built to Lloyd’s +100A1.

The American Catamaran Company’s US version was lighter, with Yanmar saildrives, a 150% roller-furling genoa and moulded steps in each transom. Buyers could add a soft or hard bimini, or a fibreglass pilot house.