Who's Who: Tamas Hamor

“We want to make our catamarans more energy self-sufficient.”

Xquisite is a young brand that has built up a loyal customer base in just ten years. Its catamarans, both sailing and motor, have all received excellent reviews in the international boating press. This success is no accident, as Tamas Hamor, the brand’s CEO, explained to us at the traditional owners’ gathering in the Bahamas.

Tamas Hamor at the Owners’ Meeting in Grand Bahama in November 2024.

Built in Aveiro in Portugal, the Xquisite 60 Power #1 will be based in the Bahamas.

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Published 01/08/2025

By Dominic Salander

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Issue: 203

Published: oct. / nov. 2025

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Multihulls World: What is your background, and what led you to become involved in the world of catamarans?
Tamas Hamor: My background is long and quite unique. I was born and raised in Budapest, then moved to Spain when I was 20. I started out doing various jobs, working for a construction company and even opening a bar. That’s also where I started sailing, and I bought a boat that I would sometimes take to Ibiza on weekends. When the 2008 crisis hit, Spain was hit hard and the economy was devastated. So I decided to leave Spain on my boat with more or less no plan other than to sail wherever the wind took me. To make a living, I started doing day charters, but I really wanted to sail around the world. That took me to Cape Verde, for example, where I stayed for several months. Due to its strategic location for blue water cruising, it’s a place where you meet lots of interesting people. That’s how I met a lady crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a catamaran. She owned a Privilège 49 and was looking for a crew. I liked the idea, so we set sail for the Caribbean. Unfortunately, the story didn’t end very well, as the catamaran sank in Tobago. I then spent a few months in Costa Rica until I met a woman who wanted to swim across the Atlantic and was looking for a support boat. I accepted and we did it with a Leopard 42 that served as a base for the crew. Over the next 10 years, she made several swims of this kind in different parts of the world, but remained completely anonymous, and each time I skippered the support boat. I also chartered the Leopard 42 for 11 years. I then changed boats and bought a Dean 5000 (50 feet) built in South Africa. The idea was to explore the most remote places on the planet, such as the Orinoco River, Panama, and the South Pacific. At the end, I stopped in more than 90 countries.

MW: How did you go from being a sailor to a multihull builder?
TH: Actually, when I sold the Leopard 42 to buy the Dean in 2011, the brand went bankrupt. I finally reached an agreement with them and moved to South Africa in 2012 to finish my catamaran in the factory. The hull and structures were already built, so all that was left to do was finish the interior and install the systems. During this experience, I really learned a lot about multihull construction and even improved things that weren’t originally planned for the Dean.
Once the catamaran was finished, I sailed it, crossed the Atlantic again as a support boat for the swimmer, and did a few trips around the Atlantic.

MW: When did you decide to create your own brand?
TH: During this whole process, I met Sara, my wife, and after a while, we decided to have a child. That also meant a change in lifestyle to something more stable so we could raise our son. As the Dean brand had gone bankrupt, I decided to create my own brand, inspired by the Dean 5000. In the end, I kept some of the design, the hull and a few bulkheads, but everything else was changed and it became the X5. We reached an ...

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