The Leopard Family: How to Find Your Community

Meeting other Leopard owners on the water is always nice. Spending time over coffee or sundowners with a fellow Leopard owner lets you swap stories, share tips, and make new friends.

Such fun, beneficial meetups don’t have to be serendipitous. An extensive network of Leopard owners is out there, just waiting for you to connect with them.

Different Online Communities

The quickest way to get involved with the Leopard community is online. Facebook hosts the largest Leopard presence, but there are other online forums and communities where you can find fellow owners.

Facebook Groups

The Leopard Owners Facebook group has almost 8,000 members. These are current and past Leopard owners and aspiring owners with questions. The group is an excellent resource for questions about your Leopard, and you’ll find great tips on everything from keeping your engines humming to optimizing galley storage space. You’ll also find gear for sale, questions you might be able to answer, and loads of ideas for upgrades and ways to use your Leopard. There are group chats, too, where the topics often include upcoming events and meetups, like one held at the Annapolis Boat Show.

A similar, slightly more specialized Facebook group is Leopard Power Catamaran Owners, which has 1,600 members specifically interested in Leopard Powercats. Both Leopard Facebook groups are private, meaning you will have to join them and answer questions to get approved. But don’t worry, that also means they’re moderated. There are other more model-specific groups on Facebook, so look around to see if there’s one for your exact dream or current yacht model.

Other web resources

The Cruisers Forum has a sub-forum under “The Fleet” dedicated to Leopard Catamarans and others built by Robertson & Caine. This is another excellent resource, with much real-world input from other owners who are out using their boats. It’s a bit more technical than social, but plenty of other owners are there to talk with.

Years ago, another Leopard Owner’s Group began with Yahoo Groups. When that service ended, the LeopardCat message list migrated to Groups.io as the Leopard Catamaran Owners group. It’s smaller than the others but has a wealth of information about past and current Leopard models, owner ideas and feedback. The interface is older and tricky compared to other forums, but there are almost 1,000 members and 6,400 discussion topics dating back many years.

Finally, keep your eyes right here on this blog. We occasionally post updates and announcements about events, like the recent 2024 Leopard Owner Flotilla or appearances at boat shows where Leopard may host an event.

Real World Meetups

The most impromptu fun is just finding a sister or cousin ship in an anchorage. It happens more than you think, and it’s a great way to connect with other owners and maybe even do a little buddy boating. But there are plenty of other opportunities to connect with Leopard owners in the real world.

Since 2022, Leopard has sponsored an Owner Flotilla in the Bahamas. If you’re on our owner list, you should get an invite. And if you missed your invite, look for it next year. It’s five days of cruising in company, stopping for beach parties, expeditions, dinners on shore, and many fun events.

When you go to a boat show, stop by the Leopard booth. First, you’ll get a look at the newest yachts, which is always a treat. But Leopard also sponsors social events at many shows. These may be after-show cocktail hours or meet-and-greets for current and prospective owners during the show. You never know who you’ll meet. It’s not just the owners and sales team there. You might bump into anyone, from builders’ reps to the designer who drew your beautiful boat!

Finally, think about organizing local flotilla events in your home waters. Leopards are all over North America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the Caribbean, the South Pacific — almost every place the sea touches. Reach out to each other and reach out to us at Leopard. We might be able to help you pull together a memorable event!

Staying in Touch

Finding other owners is one thing; staying in regular touch is another. Social media makes this easy since adding other owners as friends and followers automatically keeps them in the loop about where you are and what you’re up to. A little time spent proactively planning your destinations can put owners together in the same anchorages.

If you haven’t made up boat cards for your Leopard, consider it. Global cruisers usually carry a small stack of business cards with a picture of the boat and their names and contact information. It’s a quick and easy way to exchange information and increase the chances you won’t just be ships that pass in the night. If you see a boat whose owners you want to meet and no one is on board, wrap your boat card in a baggie and leave it attached to one of their lifelines so the owners know you’re in the area and friendly.

As with most things, you can get as much out of the Leopard Community as you want. The more you put in, the more you’ll take away. With new friends, great ideas, and deep resources for answering questions, how can you go wrong?