Which Is More Forgiving - Cruising Monohull or Cruising Multihull

[Inkwell]

I am wondering why you didn't up anchor and move to deeper water. Continuous hitting the keel /hull with the seabed seems to me to very dangerous and folly. It might only be sand, but the keel damage could be costly.

[Ocean Girl]

Thanks Jedi, that was a fantastic post...you could turn that into a Cruising World mag article! One thing for sure, you all here at CF have expanded my horizons on what constitutes a cruising (safely) boat.
Cheers,
Erika

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by Inkwell

I am wondering why you didn't up anchor and move to deeper water. Continuous hitting the keel /hull with the seabed seems to me to very dangerous and folly. It might only be sand, but the keel damage could be costly.

We were behind a reef and it was the middle of the night. There was no other option. Pulling up the anchor and trying to escape in the dark could have resulted in real disaster.

Thumping on the bottom wasn't fun, but in a Westsail 32 it was not a problem. The Westsail has an extremely strong hull. Plus it was a sandy bottom. If there were rocks on the seabed, the situation would have been much different.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Thanks Jedi, that was a fantastic post...you could turn that into a Cruising World mag article! One thing for sure, you all here at CF have expanded my horizons on what constitutes a cruising (safely) boat.

Thanks Erika! What I like so much is that I got others to post photo's too. It just gives these threads another dimension so I hope we all start doing that.

ciao!
Nick.

[bobfnbw]

Personally I would rather be on a big monohull any day.
IF I could afford one, I would most certainly be on a dashew designed sundeer or deerfoot. There is no question in my mind what nick said is truth.
BUT

I can not afford one. Not even close. Do not lose sight of the fact that putting a lot of your assets into a boat is not the best way to go. In fact less into the boat and more into the cruising kitty makes more sense to me. Then spending money or comforts like a good tender, sails, etc.
Sails for a 40 foot boat are a fraction of what it is for a 60 foot ketch.
Same for reriging. and everything else onboard. So while I would prefer to have a large powerful boat, in the end I compromise with a shorter less expensive boat.

Not ever having said on a large cruising cat, but has sailed many hobie cats, I can't escape from the fact that mono hulls lean for a good reason. And that is to disapate the energy of the wind. Even with full sails up, the boat will heal over and the wind energy will be released from the sails. On a cat, I guess it will skid to leeward, but if the energy is greater then the boat will trip on a wave and go over on its side. I would rather do this on a boat that is designed to come back from that than not. So I would think, and believe that a mono hull is more forgiving of a mistake than is a cat.

Bob

[schoonerdog]

I take a look at this from a bit different point of view. When we sailors die, and we do, it's usually do to one thing. We drown. We fall overboard and drown. The boat is usually just fine. If you go onto my boat and need to do something at the mast or with the boom, you're 12 feet from the edge of the boat. If you go onto the cabin top, your 2.5 feet above the rub rail, but again 12 feet from the edge of the boat. If I had to go to a friends Island Packet and do the same manuever in any sort of wind with waves splashing rolling the boat around, even with the sails down, and let go, there's a real good chance I could loose my balance and fall straight over the lifelines. If I'm adjusting something on the mast and I'm standing on a boat that's rolling 10 to 15 degrees, and I'm twice as close to the edge of the boat (any catamaran is going to heel far less than any monohull) then again, it's easier to go over the side. The same is true of the cockpit, the deck around my cockpit on all sides is 2.5 ft wide, while a friends monohull is 4". And what if you need to drop your foresail in a blow and go up to the bow? On my bow I'm on a platform thats 24 feet wide, I only need to worry about keeping away from the very front of the bow. On any monohull your standing on a pointed bow, not a square one. You can fall overboard port, starboard and forward. People keep thinking of risks during cruising that the boat is going to be the reason you're going to be hurt or killed while cruising. No. Most of the time, it's a question of simply loosing your balance. Really, what are the odds that you're going to be sitting in a storm at sea for some reason all of your sails up? Now, what are the odds that you are going to trip over something on deck in the dark? I'd say most of the people reading this will sail perfectly safely, a few of those who read this will die on a passage, and those that due die, all of them will be due to drowning because they fell overboard. Hardly anyone dies because their boat flipped or sank. We drown because our hand slipped and we were dragged to death attached to our jackline before anyone could get to us. Or we didn't really think there was a danger of falling overboard, went out on deck to do one little thing and end up making a very simple mistake and loosing our balance. These are the mistakes that happen every single day.

[SailFastTri]

Having sailed monohulls most of my life, and trimarans for the past 9 years, I would say ballasted monohulls are more "forgiving" of skipper mistakes in carrying too much sail. While it is much more difficult to knock down a multihull, all boats have limits and the ballasted mono will right itself after a knockdown (though it is much more likely to get knocked down in the first place). That is major. Multihulls should reef early, and reef for the gusts.

In all other respects I think multihulls are more forgiving for advantages cited by others in this thread.

One major safety and comfort factor is slippery decks in a heeled boat. Safe footing is less of an issue on a multihull, and I think cuts and bruises from falls are much less likely. I also suspect MOB is much less likely from a multihull but I don't know if anyone has statistics on that.