Inland & ICW · Ponce Inlet
Arabella is a 50-foot cold-molded catamaran carrying up to 48 guests on the Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna waterway. Social swim-and-sail and sunset cruises need 14 passengers to sail; private charters do not. Her 64-foot mast takes her to 15 knots with the wind behind.
Arabella is built the old way for a charter catamaran: cold-molded mahogany and cedar, 50 feet by 28, about ten tons, with a 64-foot mast that the operator says will push her to 15 knots under sail and a diesel that holds seven when the wind quits. She is Coast Guard certified for 48 passengers and three crew, and carries a full head and a galley, so a group can cater its own event aboard. Deck and trampoline space is the thing the company claims over every other boat on this water.
The scheduled sails are a daytime Swim and Sail and an evening Sunset Cruise, both of which need 14 passengers booked before the boat goes, so the operator’s own advice is to look at the calendar and pick a slot that already has seats reserved. Private charters carry no minimum, and the calendar also carries a celebration-of-life sail, the Fourth of July fireworks, the holiday boat parade and a New Year’s Eve cruise. The sailing runs the Intracoastal between Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna, with the open Atlantic an option when conditions suit. Arabella has moved berths to Down the Hatch on Front St, and parking is the dirt lot across from the restaurant rather than the boat yard.
