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The Catamaran Company specializes in catamaran sales, charter, services and offers a one-stop destination for buyers, sellers, persons who desire sailing vacations, and owners. The company also offers a range of value added services including insurance, documentation, delivery, dockage, financing, and yacht placement options. The Catamaran Company has 15 licensed and experienced brokers.
The group began operations in 1989 as Catamaran Charters and Sales. The company has 2 main functions and businesses, namely operating catamaran charters out of their charter base in Tortola, BVI and the retail of new and used catamarans from their offices in Ft Lauderdale, FL.
Catamaran Charters Ltd. started with 3 bareboat and 1 crewed catamaran operating out of Village Key, Tortola, BVI. Today they operate around 30 bareboat and 15 crewed yachts out of their base in Nanny Cay, Tortola and are renowned as the largest catamaran center in the Caribbean where they provide facilities for catamaran repairs, dockage, guardinage, sales and marine equipment.
Catamaran Sales Inc. was the importer of the first Privilege 39 to the US and signed on as the exclusive representative of Jeantot Marine in the USA. Over the next decade they grew to become the largest Privilege dealer in the world, representing sales of 25% of all the new catamarans they built. The group was founded by and managed by Eric Paris Martel and was, and continues to be owned by Ron Esserman, a large new car dealer with 9 dealerships in Miami, Florida.
In 1996 a new management team was brought in, headed by Hugh Murray and Gisela Cuadros, the former President and Financial Director of Sunsail USA. The following year, the company name was changed to The Catamaran Company. Marianne Doux-Laplace was appointed manager of all charter operations, a position she retains to this day from her base in Tortola, BVI.
In 1998 The Catamaran Company became the dealer for Lagoon in Florida and the Southern states. Lagoon at that time was the second largest catamaran builder in the world with around 25 dealers throughout the world. Within 5 years Lagoon had grown to become the largest catamaran builder in the world and The Catamaran Company had grown to become its largest worldwide dealer.
In 1999 the company purchased the domain name www.catamarans.com. Following this purchase The Catamaran Company hired Jason Stevens to build a web team to develop the company’s websites. Since then Jason has expanded this department to a full time staff of 6 web tecchies and currently www.catamarans.com is the highest ranked catamaran website on the internet and has ranked # 1 in the top 3 search engines for the last 3 years.
In 2003 The Catamaran Company was announced to have become Lagoon’s largest worldwide dealer and it has just been announced that it has gained the award for 2007, winning the award for the fourth year in a row, the first company ever to achieve that. The Catamaran Company sells on average 25 new catamarans annually.
In 2004, The Catamaran Company embarked on a growth spurt with its acquisition of 2 Hulls Inc., their largest competitor in the used catamaran market in Florida. 2 Hulls were very specialized in used catamarans below 40 feet whereas The Catamaran Company tended to concentrate of larger cats over 40 feet so the acquisition gave The Catamaran Company a much broader coverage of the entire market. 2 Hulls also owned and operated www.2hulls.com which was the first and leading catamaran website since the mid 90’s. The Catamaran Company has continued to use and market this site and it currently ranks as the second highest rated catamaran website behind only www.catamarans.com.
In order to be able to handle the increased need for dockage, service and maintenance the company set up BH Marine. This division now controls 5 separate dockage locations throughout Ft Lauderdale with dockage for up to 25 catamarans. They also have a full time staff of 6, lead by the service manager Craig Allison.
In 2005, The Catamaran Company continued its expansion with the opening of Annapolis Catamaran Center and was appointed the Lagoon dealer for the Mid-Atlantic States. This office has 3 full time yacht sales brokers and 2 full time charter brokers.
Due to a large increase in the number of sales and the growth of its business in 2005 The Catamaran Company set up Details, Details to handle the paperwork side of all of the transactions. This division handles around 125 transactions annually and now employs 3 full time staff, led by Gaida Cabral.
In 2006 The Catamaran Company expanded it charter reservation department with reservation staff in Tortola, Annapolis, Ft Lauderdale and managed by Kimberley Lee remotely from Dubai.
The Catamaran Company is currently the world’s largest new catamaran dealer but is also the world’s largest retailer of used catamarans, achieving sales of over 100 used catamarans on an annualized basis over the last 3 years.
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