Row&Sail - the company behind the XCAT catamaran

One man, one passion,
one vision: how it all began…

It was while he was doing a sailing course in 2001 on the beautiful lake of Mondsee in Austria that Jochum Bierma - the dedicated product developer and founder of Row&Sail - discovered his passion for sailing.

He had the vision of a catamaran that is dismantled quickly and easily and can be transported using a normal car without a trailer. This catamaran must also offer enhanced safety and bring together several types of water sports into one product. 

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This vision turned into the XCAT - the result
of enthusiasm and innovative strength

From a vision to a product that has since fired the enthusiasm of water sport fans all over the world. Sailing, rowing or stand-up paddling - the XCAT is the perfect, multifunctional platform for numerous water sports that you can simply enjoy because it is quickly assembled and easy to transport. Simply unload from the car roof rack. Assemble in a few minutes without tools. And then start enjoying your favourite sport - no tedious inflation required.

As previously mentioned - unlike many other catamarans that are easy to transport (HappyCat, SmartCat, MiniCAT, Ducky, etc.) - the XCAT features solid hulls that are filled with an unsinkable foam core. A catamaran with solid hulls has advantages over an inflatable catamaran, not just in terms of water line (the long and stable water line of the XCAT is extremely favourable thanks to the solid hulls and lets you sail even when there is not a lot of wind), but also in terms of weight. The material of inflatable catamarans is actually quite heavy and in order to achieve a reasonably favourable water line the pockets need to have a relatively large diameter. This means a lot of material and as a result a lot of weight.

XCAT – the result of real enthusiasm and innovative strength

Industrial series production:
Guarantee for consistently high quality.

The XCAT is manufactured in industrial series production. As a consequence, we can ensure that the quality level remains high.

The unsinkable hulls filled with EPP foam are made using production machinery that we designed especially for this purpose. This industrial manufacturing process for hulls in expanded polypropylene is currently unique worldwide.

RowVista®: forwards rowing system with hand-controlled oar blade feathering

Our founder Jochum Bierma is passionate about rowing - which is why it was clear from the beginning that the XCAT must be capable of being a proper rowing boat.

Having developed RowMOTION® - the classic rowing system for the XCAT - a meeting with a highly experienced rowing athlete triggered the next step - an innovative forwards rowing system. The requirements of professional rowers were defined in detail during numerous discussions with the rowing sport insider to gain a foothold in the rowing sport industry.

The professional rower revealed a challenge that none of the 250 patented forward rowing systems developed over the past 100 years had been able to solve satisfactorily: despite the forwards rowing configuration, feathering of the oar blade must be controllable by hand using the oar handle.

Hand-controlled feathering – that's unique to RowVista®

We combined this important information with the dedication we had already used in designing the XCAT and created RowMotion Pro – the forwards rowing system for the XCAT. We have since developed RowMotion Pro to become the current RowVista® forwards rowing system – the first and only forwards rowing system that allows you to feather the oar blade by hand. Technically straightforward and durable with sealed ball bearings, RowVista® is a smooth running rowing system that gives you perfect control over feathering with stops at the limits of blade rotation.

No more "catching a crab" or blisters

Experienced rowers know what "catching a crab" means. RowVista® puts an end to crab catching and also to most of the blisters on your hands that occur with traditional rowing systems as a result of rotating the oar blade, (the sleeves on the oars or sculls have a large diameter and are more sluggish to rotate as a result!), because the oar handle section and blade oar section rotate on axles with ball bearings. Race scullers and recreational rowers can effortlessly rotate the oar blade upwards using their little finger and forefinger. The weight of the offset big-blades allows the oar to rotate into the water stroke position more or less of its own accord.

Further to:

Quick and without tools
Transport on your car roof rack

The complete sailing version of the XCAT is fully assembled in less than 12 minutes - no tools required: just slot in and click together. Its light weight (no part weighs more than 17.5 kg!) makes the XCAT boat when flexibility matters - one person can load and transport an XCAT on their own using a standard car, so all your options are open!

Why not see for yourself?

Made in Austria - the Row&Sail boatyard

At Row&Sail we spend every day working enthusiastically on developing innovations at our boat yard in Lichtenberg near Linz / Austria. We always put new products through their paces to optimise them before they are launched on the market to be absolutely sure that they will exceed the expectations of our most demanding customers and fans.

Werbeagentur Moremedia, Linz