Ocean Crossing around the world are best in Monohull or Catamaran???

[boom23]

Another cat vs mono thread...

We've had both, Lagoon 450 (now sold), Beneteau 49 and now planning on an Amel 50.

My wife and I crossed the Pacific and cruised for seasons with the 450. Safe and stable boat. Reef early and you'll have almost no problems. On anchor the 450 was perfect! In really rough oceans (40+ kts) she was safe but LOUD and with jerky movement. Nothing that you couldn't deal with.

The monohull rolls more, heels but is smoother through the waves. On anchor, you have less room and more draft.

Both types of.boat can be safe and fun and have different areas of strength and weakness. You need to try them both and see what's important to you.

Good luck on your quest. Cruising is amazing fun!

[CatNewBee]

Well, I guess it is a matter of personal preference.

One point not mentioned yet is the availability of redundancy in a cat.
You have most thing twice on board:

two engines, two fuel-tanks, two water tanks, two rudder, 2 holding tanks, more fridge/freezer capacity...

Also a lot more space e.g. for solar panel arrays. you can install aft of a 40ft
cat easily 1600+ Wp of solar.

This adds to safety and off-grid livability a lot.

And you can go to shallow waters (4ft) and also beach a cat on the keels easily for small repairs during low-tide.

[Suijin]

The simple answer is that a poorly prepared and handled mono is more dangerous than a well prepared cat, and the inverse. It’s all about knowing your boat, preparing and equipping I properly based on its qualities, and handling it well.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Sickest.

I think you're right about one thing - you "don't know what to buy." But I, and many others, might find ourselves in the same predicament.

[CatNewBee]

I've made my decision for a cat already.

Most of the time you live in te boat than sailing a passage. Livability is better in cat's, also the WAF is higher.

But again - this is a personal decision / preference.

1.) Make a list of pros and cons for each mono and cat,
2.) make a decision how relevant / likely this points are from (1...10)
3.) weight the points by an importance factor for you (1...10) and multiply with Points from 2.)
4.) and add the results for Mono and Multi.

Nobody else can make this decision for you.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by double u

"...Finally, most cats will accelerate with the gust, which depowers the rig...." yeah sure, with the wind forward of the beam...sure

You obviously have the experience of voyaging on both, so your input is invaluable. However, with the wind forward of the beam the boat still accelerates in a gust - at least ours does. YMMV But even if not, with the wind forward of the beam you can easily depower in a gust to feather the sails. I think the more dangerous sector for a gust hitting a cat is behind the beam.

Of course, this quick action is dependent on being in the cockpit and aware of what’s going on. That’s another pro or con for cats - watch keeping from inside the cabin is generally very convenient as it’s on the same level as the cockpit. Pro for comfort, but con for environmental awareness and the ability to react quickly in an emergency.

[CatNewBee]

Yea, that's true, too much comfort in the saloon of a cat could be an issue.

But: you can get the best out of it: before a night watch just reef conservatively the main and even reduce the jib, so you float easy and convenient and can lay back, read and keep an eye on the radar / AIS on a lonely passage.

So a gust will not be such a big issue and next morning set full sails / para-sailor and enjoy downwind-sailing. Maybe you will need 2 or 3 days longer on a passage, but you will arrive happy and relaxed to the next tropic paradise.

[double u]

thx for the compliments fxykty!
I have the impression that on a lot of productioncats with their 3-point rigg feathering the main on a beam reach is not fully possible.
to avoid a misunderstanding: a cat can be the perfect boat for a rtw on the tradewindroute! it will just be quite expensive, much more so than a monohull!
& even though our cat was just a wharram (albeit with a quite efficient & goodsized cutterrig) I still remember clearly, that our "alertness" & "ready-for-immediate-action-level" was much higher on it than on the 2 subsequent voyages on the mono (we were quite ready for action at all times on the mono too, on the cat we were "at battle stations" practically all the time when at sea. I am aware that the comparison of a 34' Wharram to a 37' aluminium finkeeler is not quite fair & not representative for other cats & of course even we managed to "mature" somewhat (& relax a little bit) with increasing experience, but as a "cat-of-our-choosing" would have a much higher performance potential than a Wharram we'd still be at battle-stations most of the time so the boat can't "get away from us".
I'm sure fxykty you'll agree that the Outremer 55 depending on the circumstances, needs a very alert & agile crew & can be demanding if sailed to anywhere near it's potential. Just looked at some ads: awesome boat! but the follow-up-costs sure won't be for the fainthearted (80m²main, marinacosts for 16 x 7,2m...)

[double u]

"before a night watch just reef conservatively the main and even reduce the jib, so you float easy and convenient and can lay back,"
good recipe on a broad reach, beating north in the Red Sea not so much...

[CatNewBee]

The red sea is a different beast, not only because of the wind, same for the golf of Aden, also sailing the roaring 40's, Cape of Good Hope in South Africa or the Cape Hoorn / Magellan Street this are regions you would stay alert all the time at the battle station...

I was talking about water sailing">blue water sailing along the bare foot routes using the trade winds on long Atlantic / Pacific passages.

[double u]

even on the barefoot route you have to decide: cape of good hope or red sea. in 86 with the cat it was a comparatively easy choice: cogh with real storms, not "just" gales, freak waves & what not we opted for the rs (& had a comparatively easy trip). 2nd time around it was the RS again - altogether different from first time & a real tribulation (& 3rd time it was RS again for family reasons
& if you want to spend a second season in the SP: the NZ trip & back can be a challenge too...
maybe one way to formulate my mono preference is: the mono tells you in no uncertain terms how much sail to carry, can upwind be pushed to its max without undue risk & is fairly lenient in it's punishment if you carry too much. with a cat this is not nearly as clear: upwind with too little sail progress will be really slow, the point when it is a little too much can be missed much more easily & the punishment can be severe.
no evidence, not even anecdotal: the closest we came to capsizing our wharram was at the very end of our rtw on a beam reach, all working sails, relatively short, steep beam seas (fetch? African coast was just in sight, I don't recall how far, wind was offshore), not nearly of a height to make me reduce sail as we were going quite well (for a Wharram), & then one wave was a little steeper...the boat seemed to teeter, under deck stuff was thrown around that hadn't moved in6 years & 35000 or so miles (& worst of all the lady was roused from her sleep).
from this experience I have concluded that not only waveheight & -steepness counts: if a rotational impulse around the longitudinal axis of the boat is strong enough it will impart so much rotational energa to the boat that it will capsize even though the "static" waveheight & -steepness is not enough to do so (anyone disbelieving: you can tip a chair over by slowly pushing is past it's no-return point, but you can also give it a short sharp shove & it will topple too.)

[CatNewBee]

Maybe I am wrong, but most lost (production - not race) catamarans at sea happened to be by running on ground and not by capsizing.

I don't say, it could not happen, there are some incidents.

Also monohulls get lost / are abandoned frequently due to rudder issues, broken rigg and they also can capsize, but more often stand up after that. The ocean is dangerous for all kind of vessels.

[Olddave]

I’ve owned both. Generally I would say that the cat requires better seamanship to be successful. By the time you are half way around you should be pretty right, but the learning curve will have been steep. Even things like the extra windage of a cat requires more fore thought when anchoring.
The cat will probably be more scary in heavy conditions but not necessarily more dangerous. I would buy a mono about 45 feet and put the other $150K towards cruising costs. Bags the aft cabin.
Dave

[double u]

"The ocean is dangerous for all kind of vessels."
I couldn't agree more with you!
& with you Olddave! concise assessment! on the cat had the music playing for the first time & lounging on deck under sail after 1/2 way around!

[BlackHeron]

I would say that before anyone started plopping down big money on your own boat and making plans for circumnavigating or even doing any real long-term coastal cruising one should get a little bit of experience as crew on someone else's boat -multiple boats of different designs and types, in fact.

This is the best way to learn the types of skills necessary to eventually undertake such an adventure safely by yourself and in the process you'll most likely answer your original question once you sail in each type of boat. Until you do you don't even know what you like or dislike about either design. Nobody here is really going to be able to tell you this -only what they themselves like or dislike about them, and everyone has a slightly different opinion. Sometimes it is a wildly different opinion.

But my short answer is that I'm not going to head back out into open water again on any cat unless I'm getting paid the big bucks to do it. I'd do it for money if I needed the cash, but I wouldn't do it for the "fun" again since there was damn little of that involved based on my experiences. Give me a monohull any day. The extra room just isn't worth it, and the extra initial and long-term operating costs are quite off-putting as well.