ZOË - Simpson 1201 Bluewater Catamaran for Sale

The Boat

Nine years of home

Zoë is a Simpson 1201 design, built in 1989 by the renowned Henze boatyard in Germany, a yard that is still building today. She is constructed in wood and epoxy, with cedar strip-planked hulls and a plywood deck: light, strong and beautifully quiet under way.

For almost nine years she has been the home of our family of six. She is a reliable, strong and fast boat, easy to handle even single-handed and forgiving on a long passage. Her sleek hulls slip through the water and make miles feel effortless.

We keep her constantly in the very best shape, maintaining and improving her professionally, without pause.

She is the boat that taught our children the ocean.

The Voyage

From the Aegean to the South Pacific

Twenty thousand nautical miles under the keel, and the finest cruising ground we have ever found waiting at the end of them.

Zoë under full sail with the family on deck near the Gambier Islands

We sailed Zoë from Greece across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Honduras and Guatemala to the San Blas, and on across the Pacific to French Polynesia.

French Polynesia is, for us, the best sailing ground in the world, and friends who have sailed everywhere say the same. We love it more than Europe, more than the Lesser Antilles, more than San Blas, more even than the Bahamas. This is where the voyage arrived.

Zoë is, as people keep telling us, a real beauty - slender lines, pure white, with laser-cut stainless steel surrounds to her windows. None of it is by accident. The pure white is deliberate, dropping her surface temperature noticeably under a tropical sun.

The stainless window surrounds are not only handsome; they protect the window bedding, and it took us a few iterations to get it exactly right. We tried to make everything pretty, but on Zoë form always follows function.

We would dearly love to keep her. She is reliable, strong and fast, and she has never let us down. But our four children are growing quickly, and Zoë, with her lovely slim hulls, has simply become too small for us. And by chance we found a bigger catamaran in Tahiti, just as old and so just as solidly built.

The Refit

Rebuilt to cross oceans

We spent years in shipyards around the world bringing Zoë up to true bluewater standard.

Over several years and several yards, the whole deck and cockpit were stripped and re-glassed, and we built a hardtop and a new platform at the transom.

In Saint-Martin we hauled out to fair the hulls and renew the antifouling, and built a pair of sugarscoops for easy boarding and swimming. And, because of a longer waterline, this made Zoë even faster.

In Guatemala we rebuilt both rudders from scratch after finding pitting corrosion in the stainless rudder shafts, replacing them with the best duplex stainless we could source from the US: Aquamet 22, so the new shafts will hopefully last forever. We rebuilt the mast base in solid teak and stepped the mast again alongside a barge in the Rio Dulce. We rebuilt the engine controls. We overhauled the whole hydraulic steering system.

On the passage from the Rio Dulce to the San Blas we hit a floating tree trunk. The damage to the starboard bow was small, a good sign of how solidly she is built. We hauled out quickly at Linton Bay Marina, Panama, and repaired and refaired the bow. While she was ashore we fitted a keel cooler for the freezer.

We do all of this work ourselves, professionally and thoroughly. It takes longer, but the end result is worth it, and nothing here is cosmetic. Every part of it was done to go to sea, and much was tested straight away on the Pacific crossing.

As we write, Zoë is hauled out once more, this time a planned stop to lay on a fresh coat of antifouling, so she goes to her next owner freshly painted below the waterline.

Zoë hauled out and moved through the boatyard on the travel lift

Saint-Martin · 2024 · haul-out, fairing and sugarscoops

Close view of the faired hull below the waterline

Laying out the sugarscoop shape on the transom

Rio Dulce, Guatemala · 2024 · mast, rudders and systems

Stepping the mast alongside a barge in the Rio Dulce

A newly rebuilt rudder beside the old one

Linton Bay Marina, Panama · 2024 · quick haul-out and repair

Zoë lifted out on the travel lift at Linton Bay Marina

The small damage to the starboard bow from a floating tree trunk

The new keel cooler fitted for the freezer

San Blas, Panama · 2025 · washing machine installed

The new plywood base for the washing machine epoxied in place

The new washing machine installed aboard

Gambier, French Polynesia · 2026 · rig work, also done ourselves

Working the foredeck rigging at anchor below green hills

Pulled up the mast to do our own rig work

The Detail

Full specifications

Everything aboard, listed in full. Dates show when equipment was last renewed or added.

01 Dimensions

Length overall 42 ft
Beam 21 ft
Draft 3.3 ft
Air draft 52 ft
Dry weight 7.4 t

02 Accommodation

Double cabins 3
Berths 2 × 4 ft 7 in, 1 × 4 ft 11 in
Single berth 1
Heads 1 electric

03 Sails

Mainsail 506 sqft heavy Hydranet
Genoa 377 sqft heavy Hydranet
Gennaker 840 sqft on bowsprit furler
Spinnaker 1,292 sqft
Spinnaker 1,184 sqft
Main and genoa both heavy Hydranet, in very good condition. The gennaker's lightweight UV strip is due for replacement; the material for the repair is already aboard.

04 Rigging

Main shrouds Replaced 2026
Standing rigging From 2016
Mast base Rebuilt in teak, 2024

05 Engines

Engines 2 × 54 hp Bowman diesel
Type Marinised Ford
Drives Saildrive
Propellers Brunton Autoprop, self-pitching
Controls Rebuilt 2024
Original engines, rebuilt and repainted in 2019 and 2022, well maintained throughout. Oversized for a boat of this size, with power to spare, and the Brunton Autoprops self-pitch for top efficiency under sail and full torque when it is needed. She comes with a deep spares kit, down to a complete spare saildrive.

06 Steering

System Hynautic hydraulic
Overhaul Whole system, 2024
A spare hydraulic pump for the autopilot is kept aboard.

07 Electronics

Instruments Garmin
Chartplotter Garmin
Autopilot Garmin Reactor 40 hydraulic
Radar Garmin
AIS Simrad
VHF Icom
Starlink Fixed antenna, 12 V
Autopilot, wind sensor, log and depth sounder, main instruments and the VHF were replaced in 2025 before our Pacific crossing. All instruments are optimised for interoperability and fully functional.
The fixed Starlink antenna runs on 12 V, converted from mains to draw less power off the batteries.

08 Electrics & power

Solar 2000 W total
Panels All rigid, latest fitted 2026
Batteries 800 Ah LiFePO4
Inverter / charger Victron 3000 W / 120 A
AC voltage 230 V
Switch panel Philippi
Winston cells wired as two banks for redundancy. Solar spread across transom, bimini and deck for intake at any point of sail. Battery and Victron system all 2022; the Philippi switch panel is cleanly wired.

09 Galley & appliances

Fridge 250 L water-cooled
Freezer 63 L, keel-cooled
Washing machine 5 kg (2025)
Cooking Portable induction cooktop
Heating Webasto propane
Two-burner gas stove and oven aboard for redundancy.

10 Water maker

Unit Seawater Pro (2022)
Power 12 V off the solar
Output 70 L per hour
The pump was replaced in 2025 before the big crossing; the old pump is kept aboard as a spare.

11 Tanks & storage

Diesel 2 × 180 L
Water 300 L
Holding tank ~80 L
The starboard tank was converted to storage (our "beer bilge") and can be returned to a tank at any time. With the water maker there is little need to carry water, and the bimini is rigged to catch rain efficiently.
In all Zoë has 114 lockers, bilge spaces and cubbies - surprisingly ample storage.

12 Construction

Hulls 3 cm cedar strip / epoxy
Deck Plywood, re-glassed
Keels Long, sacrificial
Rudders Protected by skegs
Through-hulls TruDesign composite
The 3 cm cedar hulls give genuine impact security, and the long keels give great stability under sail. The keels are sacrificial and the rudders are protected by skegs, so a grounding is taken by parts designed to absorb it.
Deck and cockpit fully re-glassed. Custom hardtop, new transom platform and sugarscoops.
The through-hulls are TruDesign composite, so there is nothing below the waterline to corrode.

13 Tender

Dinghy 2.9 m aluminium RIB
Outboard 15 hp Yamaha two-stroke
The RIB is tired and due for replacement. The Yamaha is old by choice - we picked the oldest two-stroke we could find for its reliability - but in good health, and powerful enough to get all six of us plus the groceries up and planing.

14 Ground tackle

Primary anchor 38 kg Bügel
Chain 90 m × 10 mm
Secondary anchor Dela-type stainless
Windlass Lofrans 1000 W (2022)
The 38 kg Bügel has never once failed us. The stainless plate anchor holds well in seaweed. The 90 m of 10 mm chain is due for replacement in the near future; the windlass was rebuilt in 2022.