August 29, 2026
The Bali 5.2: Six Cabins, Six Heads, One Open Deck
The Bali 5.2 offers three to six cabins with a private head for every one, up to sixteen berths, 1,241 sq ft of usable deck and a 48-volt li…
Read the articleBali Catamarans: Everything You Need To Know
On most cruising catamarans the best view is netting you cross carefully rather than sit on. Bali builds the other way: rigid foredecks and doors where others have walkways, sailing catamarans from 39'7" to 73'11". Here is our expert assessment of the brand.
— Tony Smith
Founder, Minted Yachts
Bali asks you to give something up, and the owners who are happiest with these boats are the ones who worked out early that they did not want it anyway.
What you give up is the trampoline and the walk-around foredeck. What you get back is a moulded platform you can put a table on, a saloon that opens into the cockpit through one up-and-over door, and interior volume a conventionally laid-out boat of the same length cannot reach. At anchor, which is where cruising catamarans spend most of their lives, that changes the whole day. There is somewhere to be forward, somewhere aft, and on most of the range somewhere above.
The buyers who come away unconvinced are usually the ones who wanted a performance cat and had not said so out loud. These are substantial boats carrying a lot of accommodation, and the sailing is the means to the anchorage rather than the point of the exercise. Better to settle that with yourself at the brochure stage than after the survey.
Two things I would check before you commit. Beam first: Bali runs wide for length, and a 4.6 at 25'1" or a 5.8 at 29'8" is a conversation with your marina and your yard before it is a conversation about the boat. Travel-lift width catches people out later than slip width does. Second, get observed performance under sail and under power, at your own load and in your own conditions, in writing at sea trial. That is the number you will actually plan around.
Where the range earns its money is the middle. A 4.4 or a 4.6 gives you the full Bali architecture - the foredeck door, the flybridge, a head for every cabin - on a boat two people can still own and run without hiring anyone. Above that you are buying crew space and charter capacity, which is a business decision as much as a boating one.
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Photo credit Bali Catamarans.
Twin helms set aft at deck level, a coachroof-level boom, and 710 sq ft of usable deck on a rigid foredeck.
A flybridge on a 40-footer, 757 sq ft of usable deck, and three or four cabins that each get their own head.
A door from the saloon straight onto the foredeck, 852 sq ft of usable deck, and a flybridge above it.
An Open Space that seats 15, 946 sq ft of usable deck, and 1,614 sq ft of upwind sail above it.
A rigid foredeck instead of a trampoline, a tilting aft door, and 1,026 sq ft of usable deck on 47 feet.
Three to six en-suite cabins, a 48-volt lithium system and 1,241 sq ft of usable deck on 53'10".
A hardtopped rooftop terrace, up to six en-suite cabins, and 1,501 sq ft of usable deck on 57'11".
Bali's flagship: 2,476 sq ft of usable deck, an owner's hull, and crew quarters with their own mess.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I choose the right size Bali?
Start with beam and draft, because those are the two numbers your marina and your cruising ground impose on you. The current range runs from 39'7" to 73'11" overall, with beams from 21'2" to 33'10" and drafts from 3'7" to 6'1".
Then work up to cabin count: two heads across two to four cabins on the Catsmart, a private head for every cabin in most layouts from the Catspace up, and crew accommodation from the 5.2. The step that changes the boat most is the 4.2, the smallest model with a door from the saloon straight onto the foredeck.
Who builds Bali catamarans, and where?
Bali is the cruising brand of Catana Group, the French catamaran builder whose home port is Canet-en-Roussillon on the Mediterranean coast. The group launched Bali in 2014 under then-CEO Olivier Poncin, and the boats are engineered by Catana's own research and innovation department.
Production is in France, with the larger hulls built near La Rochelle. The yard keeps a demonstration fleet at Canet-en-Roussillon year-round, which is worth knowing if you want to see more than one model in a single trip.
Do all Bali catamarans have a flybridge?
The Catsmart is the exception: it puts both helms aft at deck level and drops the boom to coachroof height to match. The Catspace, 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 5.2 and 5.8 all carry one, and on the 5.8 it opens out into a full rooftop terrace under a wide hardtop.
On the Catsmart that aft-helm arrangement keeps whoever is sailing in the cockpit with everyone else rather than up a ladder, which is part of what makes the boat straightforward for two people to handle and dock.
Who draws Bali's hulls and interiors?
Xavier Faÿ across most of the range, with Lasta Design Studio on the Catspace and Briand Yacht Design on the 7.0 flagship. Interiors throughout are by Piaton Berco.
The concept work comes from Catana Group's research and innovation department, which had spent years on high-performance catamarans before Bali existed. Olivier Poncin conceived the original Bali idea in 2014.
What makes a Bali catamaran different from other cruising catamarans?
Two things, and they are on every boat in the range. The foredeck is a rigid moulded platform instead of netting, so the bow is a place to sit rather than a walkway to the anchor. And the aft door is a tilt-and-turn panel that lifts at the touch of a button, merging saloon and cockpit into one room on one level.
Everything else follows from those two decisions - the flybridges, the layouts, and the usable-deck figures Bali quotes for each model.
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