Dolphin 460

The Dolphin 460 is a performance cruising catamaran for serious sailors, designed to sail at least twenty percent faster than typical production catamarans. Under trade-wind conditions she will regularly average 200 to 230 miles a day. With her fine bows, high-bridge deck clearance, and dual dagger-boards she points high, runs fast, and will not slam or pound like charter designs. And she surfs, of course, like a Dolphin!

Many catamaran builders claim that their boats are fast, or point high, but you never back their claims with racing results. We are confident that a Dolphin 460 will regularly average between 8 and 11 knots while cruising in winds over 12 knots. One of our recent owners raced his Dolphin 460 (loaded with a generator and air conditioning, and every piece of cruising gear) from Clearwater, Florida, to Key West, and averaged 9 knots. He was first overall in the catamaran class. In a recent race in Brazil, one of our Dolphin 460’s average 11 knots for a solid 12 hours. Of course, while surfing, the Dolphin 460 often achieves speeds over 15 knots. But the true test of a performance cruising cat is her ability to sustain high average speeds, both upwind and reaching.

With her dual daggerboards, there is simply no question that a Dolphin 460 sails upwind and close reaches at considerably higher angles and speeds than similar size cruising cats with fixed keels.