In 2014 we bought a 38’, 1160 Seawind catamaran. This is an Australian catamaran built in Vietnam. After sailing Mokimak for 8 years around the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, Seawind introduced a new 45’ catamaran, a Seawind 1370.
We are boat #11 and Enso is just about to be launched.
Breezy, Simon her Dutch partner and I flew to Vietnam to help work on and inspect the last 2 weeks of her build. Enso will be sea trialed in Vietnam and then sailed to Thailand where we will sail around SE Asia for the next couple of years.
We visited the factory in December 2023 to make some final decisions and visit Thailand. We are bringing a lot of equipment from the states but we have to outfit all of the normal household supplies, sheets, dishes, appliances, provisions, etc from Vietnam or Thailand. Deciding what to take and what we can purchase there has been a constant question.
There is a +14 hour difference between Eugene and Vietnam so it is often tomorrow here and yesterday there. We arrived around midnight on Sunday June 23 and went to visit the factory the next day. The boat is in the final stages of completion. The final electronics are being installed, the mast needs to be raised and the sails hanked on. It is whirlwind of activity with the final cleaning being done, quality control people going over the entire boat and checking the instruments, running the engines, the water pumps, the windlass, the solar and on and on.
Over the last 8 years boats have made a huge leap in complexity, from the instruments to more sophistication in the systems onboard. Think, RV, airplane, house that you put in a corrosive environment and has to be strong enough to manage huge waves and 40 to 50+ mph winds.
Every morning we leave early, call Grab (Uber in Vietnam) and join the traffic circus of thousands of motor scooters weaving through and against the traffic. It is very much like fish in a stream, cutting across lanes, splitting lanes, occasionally going the other direction in your lane. Everyone gets along and is pretty mellow in the chaos. We arrive at the factory gate, it’s 85-90 degrees and humid. The air smells of fiberglass resin. We walk up to the row of 1370’s in different stages of the build. Ours is last in line. There are a dozen people cleaning her, fixing small blemishes and installing instruments.
The typical ocean going catamaran has many systems. Navigation instruments, depth, wind, radar, sonar and mast cameras. Dedicated heater, AC, water maker, fresh and salt water systems, waste systems, galley appliances, communications gear, auto pilots, 2 diesel engines, fuel polishing, monitoring equipment, digital switching for electric and on and on. Everything needs to be checked, programmed, verified it is installed correctly and test run. My list runs to over 130 check items, Seawind’s is 14 pages long. We have been here 2 weeks watching, helping and installing things that we brought.
Finally the boat is moved out of the building and the crane comes to install the mast. Seawind builds their own masts from blank extrusions. This allows customization and quantity control. It takes 2 full days to raise the mast, rigging and sails.
Finally the boat is close to launch. Seawind will sea trial the boat to check systems under sail, bring the boat back to the factory for final checks and then a crew takes her for the 5 day trip to Pattaya Thailand where we will pick her up.
Jon
Enso sail 
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