Noxoma is a name we created together back in 2008, when we started dating. We were originally brainstorming a name for Bruse’s idea about importing sake to Norway, and landed on Noxoma as a good name for the trading company. The company was established and URLs acquired, but the business never happened.
Both of us really liked the name, therefore we quickly picked it up when we started researching names for our boat.
The meaning of Noxoma is;
- Nox = Night in Latin
- Oma = Mother in Sanskrit
You will see a woman in our logo to illustrate “mother”, and stars to illustrate “night”. We are sure that she will continue to carry us safely through both day and night!
How did we end up with a catamaran?
We spent quite some time researching which boat would be the best vessel to carry us safely and comfortably on our journey. We started dreaming about this adventure 13 years before signing the contract, and Bruse has planned this more or less since he was a child.
As many, we started out thinking we were going for a monohull, as neither of us have had much experience with catamarans. We visited several boat shows in Norway, and decided that if we were to go for a monohull, it had to be quite large – ideally a 54-57 feet boat. But still, at that size, they all had fairly low head space, and we are both tall.
Our curiosity about larger cats quickly evolved. Living above sea level when cooking, eating, etc – and having a lot of privacy when having guests on board, were all important reasons. Also, living life tilted to one side when you are cruising year round, did not seem as appealing to us any longer.
The cats on display at the Norwegian boat shows were never bigger than 44 feet. We knew we had to go bigger, but we never found larger cats on display in our region, which was quite frustrating. We ended up doing most of our research online, and when we were getting ready to start travelling to boat shows internationally and actually view the boats, Covid-19 hit…
All boat shows were cancelled, and stayed cancelled for quite some time. When we were able to travel in Europe once again, Bruse got the chance to visit the Leopard office in St. Raphael in France, where they had a Leopard 50 at display. Carine was not able to go due to her job and travel restrictions in a crucial time for the company she was heading up.
We had already decided that if Bruse felt that this was the boat, he would sign the contract while he was there. It turned out that this was definitely our boat, and we both agreed we would take this chance. Bruse signed the contract without Carine ever being on the boat. Four months later, we were both able to see the boat live at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September 2021. And we both agreed we had made the right decision!
About the boat
We chose The Leopard 50 catamaran for several reasons, the most important ones being:
- Renowned South African boat builder: The boat builder behind the Leopard brand is Robertson and Caine. They are the third largest boat builder of catamarans in the world, and the largest on the southern hemisphere. We liked the South African tradition and way of building catamarans as well. For us, coming from far up north, starting our journey from South Africa certainly also makes this journey adventurous from day one.
- Height to ceiling: We are both quite tall, and it was particularly important that Bruse (196 cm / 6’5”) was able to stand normally in the cabins and showers. He can stand tall in all main areas, and in most of the cabins. There are a couple of areas in the cabins where there are lower beams, but all in all, we are very happy with the ceiling height.
- Window design: Most catamarans can quickly become clunky and not as elegant in their design as monohulls. One of the reasons, is that they have vertical windows surrounding the lounge area. With the new look of the Leopard, the windows in the lounge area are fairly slanted, it seems. The windows are in fact vertical, but the tilted dark stained glass on the sides of the forward facing outdoor lounge area, makes the windows appear slanted. This, in combination with the cabin window designs, makes the overall look of the boat fierce and sleek – and not clunky at all.
- Delivery date: Due to Covid-19, many boats were seriously delayed. When we signed the contract in April 2021, we got a delivery date just 14 months later. If we had signed a couple of months later, the delivery time moved up to 24 months.
Noxoma was delivered to us in Cape Town, South Africa on July 14, 2022.