Catana 50 Oxygen gets major refit in Thailand during circumnavigation

Oxygen is the kind of Catana 50 that makes the case for hard maintenance, not just hard miles. After nearly three-quarters of a circumnavigation, Isa and Guy paused in Thailand for about a month of yard work, and the refit was substantial enough to erase the marks of 10 years of intensive sailing and leave the boat looking brand new again.

The work was supervised by Bruno and his team, and it hit the places cruisers know age first: centerboards and teak sugar scoops. That matters on a Catana because daggerboards are not just a brand detail, they are part of the boat’s identity. CATANA has treated daggerboards as a visual and technical signature for more than 40 years, and on newer models the system is electric-assist with PTFE bearings for precise operation. On a Catana 50, that kind of hardware is not decoration. It is central to how the boat handles and how much confidence it gives back on long passages.

The platform itself is no small cruiser. Multihulls World lists the Catana 50 at 15.23 meters overall, with a 7.94-meter beam and a displacement of 14.40 tonnes. Put that under the strain of years offshore and the logic of a major refit gets obvious fast. The Oyster-like temptation to keep pushing until something fails is the wrong lesson here. Oxygen showed the better one: stop where the yard can do the job properly, refresh the wear points that matter, and keep the boat structurally and operationally honest.

Thailand also made sense as a cruising stop, not just a work stop. The crew headed west along the coast as the northeast monsoon was fading, a useful reminder that timing in the Andaman Sea is part seamanship and part scheduling. The Thai Meteorological Department said the southwest monsoon was prevailing over the Andaman Sea in early June, while sailing guides usually place the calmer, drier northeast monsoon season on the Andaman coast from roughly November through April. That seasonal window is what lets a refit slot turn into a cruising leg instead of a weather fight.

The route afterward kept the focus on quieter anchorages. Ko Phayam stood out because it still feels removed from mass tourism, with no cars and no large hotel complexes, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand places it in Ranong Province, Thailand’s northernmost Andaman province, about a 12-mile boat ride from Ranong Town. From there, Phang Nga Bay offered the opposite of rough edge: sheltered water, limestone scenery and room to slow down. That is the real value of a stop like Oxygen’s, because the best long-range catamarans are not only the ones that cross oceans cleanly, but the ones that know when a month in the yard is what keeps the next crossing possible.