Nautitech 46 Open Review, Specs and Used Buying Guide

The Nautitech 46 Open and the case for helming from the stern

Most 45-foot production catamarans built since 2015 put the skipper on a flybridge, a few feet above everyone else. The Nautitech 46 Open does the opposite. Its two wheels sit at the aft corners of the cockpit, close to the water, where the helmsman can see the sail trim, feel the hulls load up in a gust and talk to the crew without shouting up a ladder. For a certain kind of sailor, the kind who came to catamarans from a monohull and misses the tiller, that single decision is the reason to buy this boat.

Nautitech, the Rochefort yard on the Charente river that has been part of the Bavaria group since the mid 2010s, launched the 46 Open in 2016 with naval architecture from Marc Lombard. A sister Fly version with a raised helm followed for buyers who wanted the conventional layout. In 2019 the Open was refreshed with a slightly larger mainsail (76 square meters against 74) and revised styling, and it was still listed alongside the new 44 Open in 2022 before Nautitech made the larger 48 Open its flagship.

That makes the 46 Open a used-market boat today, priced much closer to the volume charter cats than to the daggerboard performance boats it often keeps up with.

Lombard's slim hulls and what 10.8 tonnes buys you

The numbers explain the character. The light ship displacement is 10,800 kg (23,810 lb) on a 13.71 meter waterline, which works out to a displacement to length ratio of about 117. A Lagoon 46 is roughly 15.8 tonnes on a similar length. The Nautitech carries about 114 square meters of upwind sail on a rig with a 22.9 meter air draft, giving a sail area to displacement ratio near 24. Those are performance cruiser figures, not charter cat figures.

Lombard drew narrow, fine-entry hulls with a modest amount of flare above the waterline and tall freeboard forward. The bows cut into a short sea instead of slapping it, and the bridgedeck clearance is generous for the class. The price of that efficiency is volume. The hulls are visibly slimmer than a Bali or Leopard of the same length, so cabins are narrower at floor level and storage is tighter.

Construction is resin-infused fiberglass over Divinycell foam core, with solid laminate in high-load areas. Infusion gives a better resin to glass ratio than the hand-laid boats of the 2000s, which is part of how Nautitech kept weight down without exotic materials.

• Displacement to length ratio about 117, very light for a production cruiser
• Sail area to displacement ratio about 24
• Fixed shoal keels, 1.45 m (4 ft 9 in) draft
• Bridgedeck clearance well above the class average

Living with twin aft helms and a rigid bimini

Each helm station has its own winch package, and all the lines lead aft so the boat can be reefed without going forward. In practice, most couples work the main from one side and use the leeward station as a vantage point for docking. Visibility over the opposite bow is the known weakness. From the starboard wheel you cannot see the port bow clearly when coming alongside, which is why many owners fit bow cameras or bring a crew member forward in a tight marina.

Exposure is the other trade-off. An aft helm is wetter and more open than a flybridge under a hardtop, and a helmsman on a long upwind leg in the trade winds will get spray.

Where the layout pays back is at anchor and under way with family. There is no ladder between the helm and the cockpit table, so the person steering is part of the conversation, and the boom is low enough to reach from the coachroof for flaking and covering the main.

One floor from transom to galley

Open the sliding doors and the saloon and cockpit become one long room on a single level, and on the 2019 New 46 Open tested by Giornale della Vela the galley sits just inside the doors to starboard where it can serve both. Descriptions of the earlier boats place a U-shaped galley forward, so check which arrangement a given boat has. The full-glass deckhouse wraps around to the stern, so the interior is bright, and the forward saloon windows give the navigation area a view over the bows.

The interior finish is a step above the charter cats of the same era, with lighter wood tones and tidier joinery. It is not Outremer level carpentry, but it has generally aged well.

Three cabin owner's hull or four cabin charter layout

The three cabin version gives an entire hull, more than 30 feet of it and on the port side according to published layout descriptions, to the owner, with an island-style bunk aft, a desk and settee amidships, large hull windows and a big head and shower forward. The other hull carries two en suite doubles that share a shower stall. In the four cabin layout each hull mirrors the other with two doubles, and on some boats the heads are split so toilets and showers are separate compartments.

Small forepeak cabins with a single berth exist on some hulls, which is how berth counts climb toward ten. They are useful for children or a delivery crew, not for adult guests on a week-long cruise.

If you are buying to cruise as a couple, hold out for the owner's version. Four cabin boats from charter fleets are cheaper, but the owner's hull is the feature that makes a 46-foot cat feel like a home rather than a floating hotel.

Sailing performance in real test conditions

Published trials give a consistent picture. Katamarans.com expects low and even mid teens off the wind in decent conditions, and SAIL reports the delivery crew of the sister 46 Fly briefly saw 16 knots. In very light air off Cannes, around 5 to 8 knots of breeze, the boat made about 4 knots at 50 to 55 degrees to the wind and accelerated to 6 or 7 knots as soon as the sheets were eased. The designer's polars show around 15 knots of boat speed in 25 knots of true wind at 110 degrees.

Upwind it is good for a fixed-keel cat but no match for a daggerboard boat. The self-tacking jib makes short tacking easy, but in under 10 knots of wind a code zero or gennaker is what transforms the boat, and listings without one should be priced accordingly. Reaching in 15 to 20 knots is where the light hulls show their advantage over heavier flybridge cats.

Volvo saildrives, tankage and motoring range

Standard power is twin 40 hp Volvo Penta diesels with saildrives, with a 55 hp option offered on the 46 platform for a modest premium. In calm water one engine at 2,200 rpm gives just over 6 knots and both engines push the boat close to 8 knots. SAIL's trial of the Fly version with the optional 55 hp engines recorded 8.1 knots at 2,300 rpm and 9 knots at full throttle (2,700 rpm), which is effectively the hull's displacement speed under power.

Tankage is 600 liters (159 gallons) of diesel and the same of fresh water. At 7 knots on one engine, fuel burn is low enough to give several hundred miles of range, but the water tanks are modest for a family boat and a watermaker should be considered essential for anyone leaving the US East Coast.

The engine rooms sit under the aft cabins. Access is reasonable for impeller and filter work, but saildrive seal replacement requires a haul-out, and that service interval (typically every seven years on Volvo drives) is something to confirm on any boat built before 2019.

What a Nautitech 46 Open costs to keep

Plan on roughly $35,000 to $65,000 a year for a privately cruised boat, excluding depreciation. The big variables are where you keep it and how much you sail. At 24 ft 9 in of beam the boat needs a catamaran slip or end tie, which in Florida and the Chesapeake often costs 1.5 to 2 times a monohull berth of the same length. Insurance for a 2016 to 2020 cat in the Caribbean hurricane belt has risen sharply and typically runs 1.5 to 2.5 percent of hull value.

Mechanical costs are modest because the systems are simple: two small diesels, saildrives, a fixed rig and fixed keels. Sails are the main capital item. A square-top main and self-tacking jib last about eight to ten seasons of private cruising and far less in charter use. The 75-foot air draft also means the standard rig will not pass under the 65-foot fixed bridges of the Intracoastal Waterway, so East Coast owners go outside or look for the shorter mast option offered on the 46 platform.

Nautitech 46 Open versus the 46 Fly

The Fly shares the hulls and interior but moves the helm to a raised station with three electric winches clustered around the wheel and a small lounge on the upper deck. It is the better choice for owners who want a higher sightline when docking, more weather protection and a social space up top. It is also heavier aloft, and the boom is high enough that flaking the main requires mast steps.

The Open is the purer sailing boat and, in our view, the more distinctive purchase. Fly hulls are a little easier to resell in charter-heavy markets, while the Open tends to appeal to owners who sail more than they entertain.