Do Multihullers Ever go Back?

[Mr B]

Check out Orange 3, It did hold the world record for RTW sailing boats,

54 days I think it was,

[Rohan]

Originally Posted by captain58sailin

Which leads one to wonder, why didn't polynesians discover north america?

That is a hell of a question. Amazingly, the ancient Polynesians did sail from Tahiti as far as Hawaii (2626 miles away!), so they theoretically could have reached California (2467 miles from Hawaii).

But two things probably stopped them. The wind direction makes it very difficult to sail from Hawaii to California, and maybe their catamarans couldn't carry enough weight in supplies!

[captain58sailin]

And maybe they did via Japan, and found it wasn't as good as Hawaii, came home and never spoke of it again.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by weavis

...
For what I want now, I would like a Catamaran.
HOWEVER...... I would not turn down this if I could afford it....AND I would be very happy. I dont see it as going back..... I see it as sailing what I want to sail...

Only it would have to be this boat or Im sticking to my Cat...

That just shows how different are the reasons that lead some to prefer multihulls. In your case it was not obviously speed

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Polux

That just shows how different are the reasons that lead some to prefer multihulls. In your case it was not obviously speed

Speed is not high on my requirements, anything over 7 knots is ok in my book for the max size of sailing/live aboard vessel I want. 34ft.

Edit: Ps.. thanks for posting this.. I got to see the video again.....

[IdoraKeeper]

Its okay to tease about monos and multies cause its just beauty in the eye of the beholder and we all know it. It would however require a psychiatrist to untangle anchor threads.....the maximum troll.

[weavis]

Sigh
I watched it twice..

[donradcliffe]

With all the promotion of multi's that goes on, why is the number of multi's in my harbor less than 3% of the monos? The percentage of multi's who sail instead of being dock queens is even less. Maybe the sailors here know something that the armchair promoters on this forum don't.

The multi promotors like Factor constantly push multi speed as an advantage, but it just ain't true for cruising. The big mainsail which gives you speed on daysails has to be taken down on downwind passages for safety and chafe, leaving you with a tiny jib. I ran the numbers for the Leopord mentioned earlier in this thread which managed to sail from Cape Town to Sydney without capsizing. They bragged about surfs to 18 knots, but didn't mention that their overall average was less than 5. That's promotion versus reality.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

With all the promotion of multi's that goes on, why is the number of multi's in my harbor less than 3% of the monos?

SNIP

Cost.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

With all the promotion of multi's that goes on, why is the number of multi's in my harbor less than 3% of the monos? The percentage of multi's who sail instead of being dock queens is even less. Maybe the sailors here know something that the armchair promoters on this forum don't.

The multi promotors like Factor constantly push multi speed as an advantage, but it just ain't true for cruising. The big mainsail which gives you speed on daysails has to be taken down on downwind passages for safety and chafe, leaving you with a tiny jib. I ran the numbers for the Leopord mentioned earlier in this thread which managed to sail from Cape Town to Sydney without capsizing. They bragged about surfs to 18 knots, but didn't mention that their overall average was less than 5. That's promotion versus reality.

Yes, all the real know-everything, seen-everything sailors are in Santa Cruz.

Go to Florida or France or Australia and see if that <3% holds up. The West coast doesn't have many catamaran dealers or delivery options that other places have. Did you even consider availability as a reason? Or, as tomfl points out, price?

We sail continually down wind with our main up for long stretches of time with no problem. It is both safe and without chafe.

How much experience with catamarans do you have? Knowing this could help us evaluate how much you know what you are talking about.

Mark

[weavis]

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by colemj

Yes, all the real know-everything, seen-everything sailors are in Santa Cruz.

Go to Florida or France or Australia and see if that <3% holds up. The West coast doesn't have many catamaran dealers or delivery options that other places have. Did you even consider availability as a reason? Or, as tomfl points out, price?

We sail continually down wind with our main up for long stretches of time with no problem. It is both safe and without chafe.

How much experience with catamarans do you have? Knowing this could help us evaluate how much you know what you are talking about.

Mark

I'm not sure why there are so few in Santa Cruz. I'm not sure it is price, as we are near Silicon Valley. Maybe the lack of a travelift wide enough is a factor. Maybe its the fact that a typical daysail can involve 15-25k winds and 6-10 ft waves, and no one wants to go lurching and slamming up the coast.

I'll admit that I don't have offshore experience in cats, but the recent threads by the professional cat delivery captains have been eye-openers-- Every one of them talks about sailing with the mainsail down. I also see the yearly progress of cats in the ARC, and comparing their actual daily runs with their speed potential, I have to believe that most of them were sailing with no main or a really deep reef, even on fully-crewed boats.

My last Atlantic downwind crossing followed the ARC and I used two 125% masthead genoas on a single furler and no mainsail--it was a very safe sailplan, which could be easily managed by one person from the cockpit during nighttime squalls, but powerful enough that I averaged 7.5 knots. I look at the cats with their small jibs, and realize that a similar sailplan is going to be really under-powered. Maybe someone has come up with a good solution for short-handed cruisers, but I haven't heard one one yet...

So Mark, how much offshore experience do you have with your cat?? Trans-Atlantic?? Trans-Pacific?? Trans-Indian??

Off-topic, If you want to talk about speed thrills, my latest borrowed sailboat goes over 20k upwind and over 40k off the wind, and costs $3k. Can anyone guess what it is?? Hint--it has one hull

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

With all the promotion of multi's that goes on, why is the number of multi's in my harbor less than 3% of the monos? The percentage of multi's who sail instead of being dock queens is even less. Maybe the sailors here know something that the armchair promoters on this forum don't.

The multi promotors like Factor constantly push multi speed as an advantage, but it just ain't true for cruising. The big mainsail which gives you speed on daysails has to be taken down on downwind passages for safety and chafe, leaving you with a tiny jib. I ran the numbers for the Leopord mentioned earlier in this thread which managed to sail from Cape Town to Sydney without capsizing. They bragged about surfs to 18 knots, but didn't mention that their overall average was less than 5. That's promotion versus reality.

Yeah.. I was not impressed by the figures.. 7.500 miles in 55days.. I did 2,500 in 10days on a Lagoon.. and everyone goes on about how hot the Leopard is.. compared to the above a Lagoon goes like **** of a shovel..

[tomfl]

I have to wonder just how many folks, mono or multi, go for extended blue water cruises, less yet blue water cruises in the Southern Ocean.

I am a classic gentleman sailor. I can leave Key Largo and get to Bimini with ease in the daylight as long as I wait for the right weather window. It is easy for me to make that passage averaging ten knots, as long as I wait for the right weather window. Same for the rest of the passages in the Bahamas, all day light, as long as I wait for the right weather window. I know plenty of monohull guys that can't match that speed.

This is why I doubt I would go back.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I'm not sure why there are so few in Santa Cruz. I'm not sure it is price, as we are near Silicon Valley. Maybe the lack of a travelift wide enough is a factor. Maybe its the fact that a typical daysail can involve 15-25k winds and 6-10 ft waves, and no one wants to go lurching and slamming up the coast.

I'll admit that I don't have offshore experience in cats, but the recent threads by the professional cat delivery captains have been eye-openers-- Every one of them talks about sailing with the mainsail down. I also see the yearly progress of cats in the ARC, and comparing their actual daily runs with their speed potential, I have to believe that most of them were sailing with no main or a really deep reef, even on fully-crewed boats.

My last Atlantic downwind crossing followed the ARC and I used two 125% masthead genoas on a single furler and no mainsail--it was a very safe sailplan, which could be easily managed by one person from the cockpit during nighttime squalls, but powerful enough that I averaged 7.5 knots. I look at the cats with their small jibs, and realize that a similar sailplan is going to be really under-powered. Maybe someone has come up with a good solution for short-handed cruisers, but I haven't heard one one yet...

So Mark, how much offshore experience do you have with your cat?? Trans-Atlantic?? Trans-Pacific?? Trans-Indian??

Just up and down the US East coast and around the entire Bahamas and Caribe. Most passages 1-4 days. Six days at most. Been sailing it like this full time for 6 years, and 5 years weekend/short cruise before that.

The job of a delivery skipper of a new catamaran is to get the boat to the owners with a minimum of wear. They are given cheap sails to do this with. Also, the charter boats they deliver often don't have good main handling gear.

If one can make 6-7kts on a small headsail and life is easy, then what do you have against them doing so? Our last 3-day passage had us reaching in 15kt of wind averaging 8-9kts with a reef in the main. Why should we press it harder just because we have more potential in it? We have a code zero for lighter winds, and many catamarans have a screecher genoa that works well by itself if wanted.

Yes, I am sure the reason there are not many multihulls in Santa Cruz is because of the fierce sailing conditions there. That is why multi's are so popular in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Biscay - mild, easy conditions to sail in. You also won't find multis in the Caribbean's 15-25kt winds and 6-10' waves.

BTW, a quick glance at Santa Cruz's average wind speeds shows me that one really has to pick their days carefully to be in 15-25kt winds.

Mark