They don’t call it the Cape of Storms for nothing. I’d arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, with some of my fellow nautical journalists–Chris Dixon of Power & Motoryacht and Passagemaker’s Jeff Moser—to check out Robertson & Caine’s manufacturing facilities and drive the Leopard 40 PC, the company’s latest power catamaran. But as it would turn out, the weather gods would not cooperate during our five-day visit.
On our first day, which started out sunny, our hosts gave us a tour of the production plants while the 40 PC was being commissioned at a Cape Town marina.
Robertson & Caine was founded in 1991 to build custom racing yachts and production cruisers and quickly made its mark when Broomstick, a 70-foot Maxi, won the 1993 Cape to Rio International Yacht Race, and Orion Express, a Fast 42, impressed international racing enthusiasts on the world circuit. The international exposure drew the attention of The Moorings, which in 1994 entered into an agreement with R&C to have them manufacture sailing catamarans for its global charter fleet. Since then, the South African yard has built more than 2,500 cats. It now exclusively builds catamarans, both sail and power, which are sold to The Moorings and to private owners under the Leopard brand. Leopard was created in 2000 after people kept asking how they could own a R&C charter cat privately.
The Moorings liked that R&C
