Jeffreys Bay News

The St Francis Bay area is set to become a major hub in the international boat building industy with Nexus Catamarans announcing the launch of their first product, a 58 foot adventure cruising catamaran, called the Nexus 600 in Port St Francis, South Africa.

The Nexus about to be launched at Port St Francis. The new Cat is remarkable for the luxurious finishes and is suitable for all ocean condions

Based in the Sea Vista industrial area in St Francis, Nexus began production on the catamaran in 2007 with a full time team of seventeen artisans and workers, all locally employed from the surrounding area in St Francis. Owned by directors Mark Paarman , a former Springbok surfer and John Henrick, Nexus was conceived by Mark following a surf trip to Indonesia in 2002 when he observed the inadequate facilities available with existing surf charters. On his return home, he initiated plans to develop a state of the art, luxury catamaran that would not only appeal to adventure sports enthusiasts such as keen surfers, deep sea fishermen and scuba divers to name a few, but importantly would also provide all the necessary onboard facilities to ensure a high standard of living when sailing around the world.

After joining forces with keen fishermen and fellow squid boat operator, John Henrick, Nexus Catamarans was born in 2005 and legendary surfer and boat builder Jonathan Paarman was secured as the Head Designer along with General Manager Roger Paarman who has ensured this seven year project has come to fruition. With a collective marine and boat building knowledge of over 30 years, Nexus’s management team expects to continue building low volume, high quality and exceptionally innovative catamarans to order.

The Nexus crew: From L-R: Johnny Paarman, Roger Paarman, John Henrick and Marky Paarman. The Paarman family is regarded as surfing royalty in South Africa while Henrick is an extreme fisherman of note.

Some of the key innovations of the Nexus 600 include the following:

Currently designed with four cabins, a total sleeping capacity of nine passengers and carrying capacity of six tons, the option does exist to extend the cabin space to five cabins if necessary, thus increasing the sleeping capacity to twelve passengers overall. The shower and water closets are contained in separate areas, which is highly unique for standard catamarans and specific attention has been paid to improving interior air flow and ventilation which has a unique advantage when sailing in tropical and humid areas. This is in addition to the on-board air conditioning

Importantly she has been designed for South African waters which are considered to be amongst the harshest in the world and can be sailed by both engine power achieving a cruising speed of between 10-12 knots, and under sail with a cruising speed of 20 knots expected.

The Nexus afloat in Port St Francis and former Spingbok surfer Marky Paarman's dream becomes reality

One of the key innovative features of the Nexus 600 is the location of the girders inside the boat and not outside as usually practiced, thus dramatically improving on efficiency and performance. In keeping with innovation, a  great deal of attention was also paid to improving the structural integrity of the boat with the Nexus 600 being a 98% composite, epoxy boat and the use of wood been reserved mainly  for shelving and doors.

The excellent visibility from inside the saloon, allowing passengers to have panoramic ocean views even when seated is also a key feature along with the vastly upgraded cabin spaciousness (hull width of 2.2m) and headroom allowing passengers to walk unobstructed through the catamaran. Attention has also been paid to significantly increasing the headroom space in both the saloon and cockpit, adding significant value to passenger comfort and ease.

Naturally the Nexus 600 boasts the onboard inclusion of all modern facilities and appliances such as a washing machine, tumble dryer, microwave, deep freeze, DVD monitor, data cabling, etc. And of course being an adventure catamaran, provision has been made for the storage of scuba tanks, surfboards, wetsuits, bicycles, fishing rods and kayaks.

And last but not least, the Nexus 600 has an astounding carrying capacity of 2600 litres of diesel,   enabling its occupants to travel for extended periods of time. This particular feature alone is expected to hold enormous appeal to potential buyers and interested parties!

The Nexus 600 is currently in Cape Town having her mast fitted and is expected back in Port St Francis within the next two weeks where she’ll be moored for most of December. So if you haven’t already seen this magnificent boat, treat yourself to a day at the Port where you’ll be able to view one of the most spectacular and innovative catamarans ever produced in South Africa.

Nexus Catamarans can be contacted via Roger Paarman on 042 294 0321 or on 083 252 6548 or visit the website www.nexuscatamarans.com for a full specifications list.