<snip> ...Hauling a boat is hopefully not a regular occurrence. I can also report back on any problems (if the forum is interested) we have with access to suitable travel lifts on our trip North if we need one at any stage. Jonah. www.jonah-art.com Jonah, Congratulations on selecting a power catamaran that pleases you! Nevermind if it doesn't please one or another of us listees, we each must all make our own choices, and so must you. On a much less emphatic note, don't minimize the ability of our power catamarans to dry on a sand bar (with a little help from a friendly tide table) for a cheap and dirty haul out. By dirty I particularly mean your shoes, when you set foot on the muck. Consider disposable shoes. Heck, sailboats and sailing ships used to do this all the time, and called it 'careening,' and as monohulls they had to do it twice to cover both halves of the hull. I have safely beached my PDQ several times with no notable downside, apart from being careful to not suck sand into the seawater cooling intakes. Instead of powering off your selected sandbar and risk damaging your seawater cooling pumps, set a kedging anchor in the right position to haul yourself off without starting the engines, or plan the tides carefully to give yourself plenty of time and water depth to subsequently float off at the very highest tide point. Don't forget to include a little margin accounting for Murphy's Law. My PDQ, with a beam of 16' 10" fits in the Travel Lift at my favorite yard here in Portland by only two inches. Because of the dock structure the Travel Lift extends over the water on, they diminished the beam of their lift to suit the dock. The lift operator quipped (on our last lift there) that if we slapped another coat of paint on the boat it would definitely not fit. I have another commercial option nearby, a lift with a twenty foot beam. I am slightly less impressed with their offerings for a DIY boater, but may use them whenever beaching will not do the trick. I am, at this present time, checking my tide tables for a shot at drying my bottom to accommodate upgrading the worn out packing in both stuffing boxes, without anxiety about flooding a hull. I need to check zincs as well. Cheers, Gary Bell