THINKING OF BUYING A CATAMARAN FOR LIVEABOARD (Med/Aegean)

[pja666]

Hi folks,
I'm new to this site, so any and all advice/experience/anecdotes would be much appreciated!
My partner and I are in our early 50's and in the middle of gaining ICC certification with a view to abandoning the UK sometime in the next 3-5 years. During that 3-5 years we will be doing as much cruising on Cats as possible both to gain sailing/safety experience and to learn the realities of such a life aboard. Ultimately, we intend moving to a boat in the Med or Aegean, either buying here and sailing it down through the French canals, or buying in the area we want to sail in if that is more practical/cost effective.
What we could really use is some advice from experienced Liveaboard Cat cruising people on which Cat we should buy. We have a budget of up to £40k and are looking for something of about 28' - 35' on which we can install a permanent double bed of 4'6", ideally in one of the hulls although I've seen one online which has one permanently fixed in the forward part of the main cabin behind a bulkhead which the owner has clearly installed himself. I'm a carpenter and joiner so don't mind moving any non-structural bulkheads around, although I am not sure if such an arrangement would restrict the view to forward for whoever ids steering the boat. The vessel also needs to provide additional accommodation in one double and 2 singles for occasional visitors. We think something with wide hulls would be the way forward most likely as some we have seen are extremely narrow to say the least, and since we're looking for comfort rather than speed, we don't need that.
Anyone care to share their wisdom on such matters with us please?
Many thanks,

Paul (Bristol).

[claymore]

Hi and welcome.
You might be better posting your question on YBW.com as there is a live aboard forum there. The users of this site all- I think- are monohull sailors with the exception of a character called Matt but he's only around when he wants to borrow something!
Good luck.

[pja666]

Ah, thanks very much. Didn't realise that, I followed a link from a yachtbroker site!
Regards,
Paul.

[mm5aho]

the idea sounds nice, but you mentioned French Canals and Cat.
I was though the eastern part of the Canal du Midi a couple years back. I wonder about width restrictions?
If that's your route, check that out before committing. I remember some canals were not all that wide, and while plenty of wide motorboats and monohull yachts were there, a Cat could be tight.

[sahona]

The club nauticos (marinas) will charge you double for a cat...(or they were at the turn of the century)
Don't know about the Midi, but the main system from the channel to med takes peniches which a effin big, so shouldn't be a problem.