My brother owns a Leopard 44 that we have sailed a lot and we just bought a Leopard 40 and sailed one for the first time yesterday. In November we chartered a Helia in the USVI. Nothing is really wrong with the Helia and to be honest we weren’t able to sail her as much as we would have wanted, but I prefer the Leopard. The extra door to the bow is really a game changer for keeping the cabin cool and I love the easy access to the bow. I love how the Leopard sails as well, except into the wind which is an issue for most Cats. On the Helia we really didn’t like the head in the owners cabin. It is locked in a closet all on its own and got really hot and smelly. The Leopard has the toilet in with the shower and sink which opens it up quite a bit. We liked the skylight on the Helia but it did make the cabin heat up. I also didn’t like the instrument set up on the Helia. The GPS/chart plotter was on the far left and really hard to see if you were sitting on the captain’s bench. All in all, both are nice boats, just liked the Leopard better.

Sue
s/v Ripple
Leopard 42

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