25 Years of Development
The first Atlantic Cat was launched in 1985, and the concept has been steadily developed and refined in the 30 years since. They are the most popular of my designs, and for good reason. They are powerful sailing boats that are easy to handle, durable, and with great cruising accommodations in a unique layout.
What sets them apart from all the other catamarans is the midship cockpit, aft pilothouse configuration. The advantage to this is clear; you can see where you are going, both from the sailing cockpit and the inside steering station in the pilothouse.
All Atlantic Cats have a fully functioning midship sailing cockpit, with wheel, engine controls and sailing controls within easy reach of the helmsman. This is in marked contrast to other cruising cats, even the ones with Atlantic Cat inspired cockpits such as Gunboat™.
The Atlantic Cats are also among the fastest, if not THE fastest cruising catamarans available.
A number of Atlantic cats are in production, or are available on a custom-build basis. These include the A47MastFoil, A57, A48, A42. All of the Atlantic Cats are built in modern high strength epoxy/glass/carbon composites - materials that are far superior to the mainstream production catamarans. This ensures ruggedness, long life and low maintenance costs.
"Chris White's design is brilliant. Unlike all other catamaran designs I know of, Chris's Atlantic cats feature a waist-high cockpit forward of the pilot house and right behind the mast that you walk into from the pilot house through a full-size door. Catalyst's pilot house is the perfect complement to its forward cockpit. Now that I've been living in it for a while, I can say it is the best "room" I've ever owned, a combination of living room, study, office, observation perch, and (its designed functions) inside steering station and navigation station." – From Sib Reppert aboard "Catalyst" in the S. Atlantic, June 2001
"Just a brief thank you note to you and the whole crew at Bongers. I am absolutely delighted with Traveling Light; I'm sure there is no boat that could have made our trip (from South Africa to the Caribbean) easier or safer. The feeling of confidence which one has even when banging along at 12 kts. has to be experienced to be believed. Tim says he will never be able to sail a monohull again."
– From Randall Griepp, April 2002