Catana 90 Review, the One-Off Flagship and What It Costs

Catana's one-of-one: how the 90 footer came to exist

Most people searching for Catana are looking at the yard's 40 to 70 foot daggerboard cats, so it surprises many to learn that the French builder once launched a 90 footer. The Catana 90 was a one-off, built in 2008 at Catana's yard in Canet-en-Roussillon for an owner who had already circumnavigated on a Catana 582. He used that experience to specify almost every detail, and the result, named Orion, is described by her current broker as the largest, most comfortable and best-performing cruising catamaran the yard has built. No second hull followed.

Catana itself dates back about four decades and built its name on fast, light bluewater cats with daggerboards and slender inverted bows. Olivier Poncin bought the brand in 2003 and later created the much larger Bali line, so the Catana 90 belongs to the period when Catana was still a pure performance-cruising yard. Today the Catana Group employs more than 1,300 people across sites in France, Tunisia and Portugal, and builds the Catana Ocean Class models alongside Bali.

Because there is only one boat, this page is effectively a profile of Orion. If you are searching for a Catana 90 for sale, she is the only candidate, and she has been on the market in the Caribbean in 2026.

A 126 foot carbon spar on a boat run by a family

Orion carries a 126 ft carbon mast, recently repainted black, with a carbon canoe-style boom. The standing rigging is Kevlar from Fabrica Workshop in Spain, terminated on titanium chainplates. A custom Evolution Sails square-top membrane mainsail of 257.5 square meters and a 60 square meter staysail with carbon battens were fitted in December 2022, and a 304 square meter Code 5 furling gennaker sets from the bowsprit. The yankee runs on a Reckmann hydraulic furler and the staysail on a Facnor furler, both on a longeron integrated into the composite forward crossbeam.

The deck is fully hydraulic. A Harken system drives eight hydraulic winches and a hydraulic mainsheet, with Harken 980 self-tailers on halyards and reef lines, a Harken 1111 for the loaded headsails, and Harken 70s for the tender, daggerboards and traveler. The main halyard winches can be operated from both helms and have thermal monitoring and emergency stops, with a hydraulic kill switch on the centerline and at each helm.

Her broker describes sailing in gusts of 35 to 36 knots with two reefs and the staysail, and says she points to 32 or 33 degrees with the boards down. The carbon wheels are linked to the rudders by Dyneema cable, and the current owner sails her with his two sons, which tells you how well the controls are led.

Watertight engine rooms, 10 kW of solar and two generators

One detail sets this boat apart from most big charter cats: the engines and generators sit in separate watertight compartments away from the cabins, not under the beds. Propulsion is a pair of Perkins Sabre diesels, listed at 210 hp each (the walkthrough video quotes 215 hp), and each carries a second alternator feeding the house bank. Fuel is held in two 1,700 liter tanks, about 898 gallons in total.

The energy system was rebuilt for long stays off the grid. A 1,800 Ah, 24 volt lithium bank installed in 2024 replaced AGM batteries and saved more than 1,000 kg. Over 10,000 watts of solar sits on the cockpit hardtop, the coachroof and a custom carbon array over the davits, controlled by 25 Victron MPPT regulators. Four Mastervolt inverters provide 16 kW of AC power, and there are new Kohler 13.5 kW and Northern Lights 26.5 kW generators, the latter also driving the hydraulic pump.

Water comes from two Sea Recovery watermakers feeding two 700 liter tanks, and Webasto chillers rated at 40,000 BTU per hull serve eight air handlers. In 2022 a separate bilge system added ten pumps across four extra watertight compartments, a typical upgrade from an owner who had seen what can go wrong offshore.

Eight foot ceilings and a layout built for a family sabbatical

Inside, headroom reaches about 8 feet. The saloon has a large L-shaped or U-shaped lounge with leather cushions, a flat screen with Bose surround sound and a lockable wine store. The lower nav station carries the vessel monitoring system, B&G Hydra 3000 instruments, Victron displays, communications and fire monitoring, with an electrically adjustable leather helm chair added in 2022. Finishes include French cherry details, Alcantara ceilings, hardwood floors and foam-cored cabinetry with real wood veneers.

The starboard hull holds the owner's stateroom aft with a walk-around king berth, a desk and one of the largest showers you will find on a yacht, plus a forward king cabin and a three-berth bunk room. To port are a convertible twin or king guest cabin, captain's quarters forward with a Pullman berth and another three-berth bunk room. Every cabin has its own desk, a nod to the family's remote schooling. In total there are three en suite cabins, two further WCs and two dedicated showers.

The galley is equipped to a professional standard with Corian counters, a Gaggenau five-burner cooktop, Bosch oven, a 2024 Bosch microwave, a dishwasher and dual Frigonautica refrigeration, plus two deep freezers under the cockpit sole.

The 2022 to 2024 refit and why it matters to a buyer

Her current owners took Orion back to France, where she was built, for a comprehensive refit and then kept upgrading. The documented list includes the mast painted and serviced, new Kevlar shrouds, new mainsail and staysail, six new deck hatches, new watermaker membranes, a new tender with a Yamaha outboard, Dyneema halyards and Marlow sheets, a Facnor top swivel, hydraulic furlers serviced in Germany, Starlink, a mast camera, updated sensors and 33 USB charging ports.

For a buyer, that history is the main value proposition. On a 2008 yacht of this complexity, sails, rigging, batteries and hydraulics are the big six-figure items, and many have been replaced recently. The risk lies in what was not replaced, so the survey needs to be planned around the hydraulic system, the daggerboard trunks and the original structure rather than the cosmetics.

Running costs of a 90 foot one-off

A 90 by 38 ft catamaran is a superyacht in marina terms. Expect to pay megayacht dockage rates by the foot, and in many Caribbean and Mediterranean harbors there are only a handful of berths that will take a 38 ft beam. Haul-outs require a large travelift or a shipyard with a syncrolift, which limits where routine work can be done.

Our estimate is roughly $180,000 to $400,000 a year excluding depreciation, depending on whether you employ a full-time captain and engineer, how much you cruise and where you keep the boat. The owner-operator model the current family uses keeps payroll down, but a buyer new to this size should budget for at least a professional captain during the first season. Hydraulic servicing, membrane sails, generator hours and insurance for a one-off composite yacht are the recurring big lines.

Who should consider the only Catana 90

Orion suits a very particular buyer: an experienced sailor or a family planning long-range, short-handed cruising at a scale few private yachts attempt, who values daggerboard performance and energy independence over a charter-style flybridge. She also suits someone who would rather inherit a well-documented refit than commission a new 80 footer from Sunreef or a carbon Gunboat at many times the price.

She is a poor fit for anyone who wants easy resale, standardized parts support or a boat a charter company could manage. With no sister ships, every spare and every answer comes from the yard, the previous owners or specialist suppliers, and that is the price of owning something unique.