Leopard 44 Used Buying Guide, the Leopard Catamaran That Started the Forward Cockpit

The Leopard catamaran that gave the line its front porch

Every modern Leopard catamaran has a forward cockpit reached through a door in the front of the saloon. The boat that introduced the idea to the range was the Leopard 44, launched in 2011. It was the latest collaboration between Cape Town builder Robertson and Caine and the American design team of Gino Morrelli and Pete Melvin, and it went into Sunsail's charter fleet as the Sunsail 444 at the same time as it was sold to private owners.

The judges loved it. Cruising World named the Leopard 44 both Import Boat of the Year and Best Cruising Multihull in its 2012 contest, with judge Ed Sherman saying the quality of the build surpassed every cat they inspected that year and that its stainless steel work was the best in the fleet. They also noted a sailaway price of $449,000, hundreds of thousands less than competing cats of similar size.

Production ran until 2016, when Robertson and Caine replaced it with the Leopard 45, a Simonis Voogd design. That change of designer explains why the 44 sails a little differently from the more volume-focused Leopards that followed.

Assembly-line building with charter-grade details

Robertson and Caine builds on an industrial scale, with each boat moving along an assembly line in a large plant in Cape Town. The Leopard 44's hull is vacuum-bagged E-glass over balsa core with vinylester resin and an isophthalic gelcoat to resist osmosis. A fiberglass liner that forms the floors and much of the furniture is bonded to the hull before the deck goes on. Hard chines and topsides that flare just above the waterline add interior volume without widening the waterline.

Because Robertson and Caine builds for The Moorings and Sunsail, durability under charter use drives many details. Each bow has a crash box behind a watertight bulkhead, the engine rooms are insulated from the cabins, and even the air conditioning units sit in sound insulation. The engines face backward, well aft in each hull, with the saildrives forward of them, which reduces noise in the aft cabins.

A raised helm pod where you can reef in one place

The helm is a raised station to starboard, reached by steps from the aft cockpit and sheltered by a hard dodger at bimini level, with an overhead port to watch the mainsail. All halyards and sheets come back through Spinlock clutches to three Lewmar winches at the wheel. Judge Beth Leonard said you could reef the boat standing in one place, and the 360 degree view from the pod is excellent for docking.

SAIL's test boat flew a square-top main and a 120 percent genoa and made 7.5 knots in 12 knots of wind at 65 degrees apparent; it tacked easily and accelerated quickly. Cruising World, sailing closehauled in 13 knots and open-water waves, made 6.5 knots and tacked through about 110 degrees. Early boats had no traveler, which made leech tension hard to control; SAIL was told that would be fixed on later hulls, so check what the boat you are viewing has.

Multihulls World lists a 74 square meter (797 sq ft) mainsail with either a 44 square meter jib or 47 square meter genoa, and a 130 square meter gennaker for off-wind work.

29 or 39 horsepower: which engines to look for

Standard power was a pair of 29 hp Yanmar diesels on saildrives (SAIL quoted them as 30 hp). Cruising World motored at a little better than 6 knots at 2,600 rpm with these and gained only about half a knot more at 3,200 rpm. Many owners ordered the optional 39 hp Yanmar 3JH5E with SD60 saildrives, which pushed SAIL's test boat to 8 knots at 2,800 rpm.

On a 27,880 lb catamaran with a lot of windage, the bigger engines are worth seeking out, especially if you plan to motor into the trades or punch through Caribbean passages. Tankage is generous for the size, with about 700 liters (185 gallons) of fuel and 780 liters (206 gallons) of water, so range under power is not the constraint it is on many 42 footers.

The owner's study and the Sunsail 444 layout

In the three-cabin owner's version, the whole starboard hull belongs to the owners: a queen berth aft, a hanging locker, a small study with a settee, desk and chair amidships, and a large head with separate shower forward, with space for a washer and dryer. Judges called it a place where you could slip away to your own little world.

The port hull is identical in both versions: a queen berth forward, another aft as large as the owner's, and a shared head and shower between them, plus a child's berth in the bow. In the four-cabin Sunsail 444 layout, the starboard hull mirrors the port side.

Upstairs, the L-shaped galley sits in the aft port corner of the saloon with drawer fridge and freezer and Corian counters, the nav desk and electrical panel are aft to starboard, and a dinette for five or six is forward. The interior uses low-maintenance cherry laminates and a maple laminate sole, practical rather than luxurious.

How the forward cockpit works at anchor

The forward cockpit sits in a well in the bridgedeck, sheltered by the solid hardtop that sweeps forward from the coachroof. It seats two on an L-shaped settee or four at a fold-down table, with deck lockers on either side and trampolines ahead. Curtains drop around both cockpits for bad weather.

Its value is in the trades. With the heavy watertight door open, breeze flows straight through the saloon, and you can have breakfast forward in the morning shade and dinner aft at sunset. The aft cockpit seats eight at a dinette and has a seatback that hinges to face either way. Hinged davit arms lowered by winches in the cockpit ceiling hold the dinghy well clear of the transoms.

Reading the Leopard 44 market in 2026

Most Leopard 44s came through charter, so the used market is a mix of ex-Sunsail four-cabin boats and owner's versions. The cleanest boats, like the duty-paid, never-chartered 2011 owner's version recently listed at $420,000 in Puerto Rico, carry lithium, solar, a watermaker and new sails. Ex-charter boats with original systems sit nearer $330,000. The spread between a tired boat and a refitted one is often larger than the asking prices suggest, because sails, rigging, saildrives and batteries can easily cost $60,000 to $100,000 together.

Expect annual costs of roughly $30,000 to $60,000 in the US for a catamaran slip, insurance, two saildrive services, antifouling and routine maintenance. Compared with the larger Leopard 45 that replaced it, the 44 is cheaper to buy and slightly nimbler under sail, but has less interior volume and an older interior style.