Four Winns TH36 Boat Review

The first power cat from a legacy builder lures monohull devotees seeking more space.

I’ve had some great cruising experiences on power catamarans. Those trips introduced me to beautiful islands and were always aboard chartered boats—vessels that averaged 45 to 50 feet in length and stretched as wide as 21 feet. The beam felt tremendous to me, so much that I was relieved to give the helm over to my husband when we got into a sticky docking situation. He had the better boat-handling skills in the relationship, so the decision made sense. The truth is, those twin-hulled cruisers were intimidating and quite unlike the 32-foot monohull we had back home. And yet the big cats were exceptional for all the space and comfort they provided.

I remembered those trips when I boarded the Four Winns TH36 in Fort Lauderdale last fall. This boat, I thought, is a more approachable power cat, a platform that could encourage any person with a monohull dependency to venture over to the helm and try something new.

With an LOA of 38 feet, 5 inches and a beam of 14 feet, 7 inches, the TH36 slides into a category of manageable-size cruiser for many skippers. And because it’s equipped with standard features like a joystick at the helm, it might also appeal to boating newbies who are fine-tuning maneuvering skills.

The TH36 is the first catamaran from Four Winns and one of a modest fleet of new production cats that have throttled onto the U.S. scene in recent years as consumer demand increases for boats with more usable space for everything from entertaining and overnighting to water sports and gunkholing. The generous beam creates more room abovedeck, whether you’re spending a weekend with the family or planning a big day on the water for a large group of people. The TH36 can accommodate up to a dozen passengers.

There were eight of us on the bow of the Four Winns, where it was drawing attention from dock walkers at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. It was a crowd, and yet we were all able to stretch our legs onto the deck, which was surrounded by a U-shaped lounge. There was plenty of room because that broad beam carries all the way forward on a cat. Yet even with 16 feet on the sole, I was able to walk up to the bow pulpit to check out the organized anchor arrangement.

While standing there, a guy on the boat docked beside the Four Winns proffered a thumbs up and called, “Cool boat.” I assumed he was talking about the lines, which had also caught my eye. The TH36 doesn’t look like some of those square, stout cats. I’d venture to say it has curves and some sex appeal. That comes from Garroni, the Italian design studio responsible for the boat’s exterior and interior styling. Garroni is also behind the look and feel of other brands built by the parent company of Four Winns, Groupe Beneteau. Those brands include Jeanneau and Prestige.

From the bow, there’s a good view of one of the boat’s nicest features: the wide and clear walkway that runs aft to the stern and ends at the tip of a passerelle at the transom. The deck is one level, so no one will lose their footing when making haste to get from one end of the boat to the other. That direct route might not be doable in bad weather, if the crew is huddled under the hardtop with enclosures in place. In that situation, the person on line-and-fender duty can use the side decks to move around the boat. Those side decks, by the way, give the Four Winns a competitive advantage as not every power cat in this size range has them.

In the cockpit is another benefit of the boat’s generous beam. A pair of lounges, one to port and the other to starboard, create two separate, roomy social zones, with plenty of deck space between them. The setup gets more interesting, though: The lounges are built on tracks, so you can push them together to create a single seating/dining area, or just a giant sunbed. And, when the lounges are combined, side decks in the cockpit are cleared, offering easy access to a boarding gate on the starboard side.

Topside, the TH36 is a well-appointed bowrider for day trips. But let’s talk about nights on the hook. This cat also has agreeable accommodations. There’s a nice stateroom in each hull. They are identical for the most part—each contains a double berth and head with big stall shower enclosed by glass—and quite private. On a monohull of the same size, you might run the risk of offending close friends when you ask them to sleep in a space without a solid door, or in a berth that’s steps away from clutter in the galley. This arrangement is just more civilized.

Martin Meyer, the product manager for Four Winns, was at the helm when I stepped up to check out the slim dash. “That’s a trend,” he said, “to make the console thin yet inclusive. You no longer need a big part that eats up a lot of space.” The dash has two 16-inch Garmin displays, Mercury’s VesselView and controls for everything from lighting and wipers to windlass control. To port are the throttles plus joystick for the pair of 350-horsepower Mercury Verado outboards. With that power, the boat should top out near 33 knots and cruise around 22, with a range of about 230 nautical miles.

“The people I talk with who are driving monohulls are interested in cats not only for the wider deck, but also for the ride,” he said. “They have some reservations because they’re not familiar with the handling characteristics, but the learning curve is about five seconds. Cats lean outward in a turn, and that takes some getting used to, but once on plane they run flat.”

Meyer said Four Winns has plans to build this model in Tunisia, where the company has a factory large enough to allow for more volume. The builder wants to expand this line. “Our parent company bought Four Winns in 2014 and today it has one of the biggest development budgets in the group. This is a great brand with a lot of heritage, and it’s important to continue to build on that.”

I asked him if this cat might be something I can find in a bareboat charter fleet in the future. He didn’t say no.

Four Winns TH36 Specifications:

LOA: 38’5”
Beam: 14’7”
Draft: 3’2”
Displ.: 15,955 lb.
Fuel: 244 gal.
Water: 50 gal.
Power: 2/300-hp Mercury V8 XL
Cruise Speed: 21.4 knots
Top Speed: 32.2 knots

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This article originally appeared in the April 2024 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.

Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/boats/four-winns-th36-boat-review