A sailing cat without a mast - Blesphemy?

[k9medic]

I have been carefully eying sailing cats for the past year or so. They seem to offer the best of what I am looking for in my next boat - multiple cabins, large spacious saloon, shallow draft and plenty of room on deck. Here is the issue though...

I don't sail. Never have and while it remotely interests me, my wife wants no part of it say it's too slow and takes too much work. We currently cruise at around 8kts. so I would hope to get something similar by way of speed.

Our current motor yacht is great but the layout of a cat is just too hard to pass up.

My thoughts would be to buy a cat, remove the mast and just run on the engine(s). If I got the bug to sail I could put the mast back up.

Does this make a remote bit of sense?

[44'cruisingcat]

Sure. Most cats should be able to motor at around 8 knots.


But how about you just remove the mainsail and boom, and when the wind is in the right direction, you get to travel for free? Downwind or reaching, headsails on furlers are pretty effortless.


If you do remove the rig altogether, you'll still be paying for a fair bit of stuff you don't need, like the extra strength built into the mast beam, the chainplates, rear beam etc.


But I guess it does leave the option to re-rig and sell as a sailing boat open.

[chris5977]

Instead of butchering a sailboat why don't you buy a power cat?

http://www.leopardcatamarans.com/our.../Leopard-51-PC

Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[k9medic]

I'd love to buy a power cat but the prices are way out of my range. It looks like I could get into a nice sail cat for less than 200K.

On the sail side, could I see 8 kts under sail and do it single handed? My wife's job is to sit on the boat and look pretty.

[chris5977]

I see. But a sail cat and motor everywhere. It would be a waste of money to take the rig down. Just about any boat with a furling headsail is manageable by one person.

Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by k9medic

I'd love to buy a power cat but the prices are way out of my range. It looks like I could get into a nice sail cat for less than 200K.

On the sail side, could I see 8 kts under sail and do it single handed? My wife's job is to sit on the boat and look pretty.

Speed depends on which boat. Some are easily capable of hitting 8kn or more under sail off the wind. Others will struggle. On the other hand if you can hit 6.5kn under sail and want 8kn then you will use just a fraction of the power to increase speed a little bit.

Setting up a boat for single handed sailing is pretty much a given these days. Almost any non-racing cat is going to come set for single handed sailing. The biggest issue handeling a large cat in the docking. But since you are already used to handeling a 45' powerboat it won't be a huge step to a large cat.

All in all I think this is a pretty reasonable option for you. You mig want to take some sailing classes to learn how to handle the sailing gear, but while it takes a lifetime to learn everything learning enough to be safe will only take a few months.

The one issue i see is that cats are much more weight sensitive than monohulls. Depending on what type of gear you are used to carrying this maybe an issue.

[AZUS]

I would also look at the size of the fuel tanks, for your needs. Of course, it depends on where you will travel, but sailing cats that are built primarily for wind power may not have the fuel capacity that you would need for, say, a crossing.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by k9medic

I'd love to buy a power cat but the prices are way out of my range. It looks like I could get into a nice sail cat for less than 200K.

On the sail side, could I see 8 kts under sail and do it single handed? My wife's job is to sit on the boat and look pretty.

Should be able to cope upto 38ft okay once you've learnt the boat.. more experience you can upsize to the low 40's.. if you fancy the extra work.
I've had Cats do upto 19kts under sail.. drop below 5kts its time for one of the engines on to keep the averages up..

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by chris5977

Instead of butchering a sailboat why don't you buy a power cat?

Leopard 51 PC | Leopard Catamarans US

Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

That makes sense to me. Why pay for a bunch of stuff and then discard it?

[Xlantic]

Granted it is a monohull, but it looks weird.

[darylat8750]

I can't afford any newish power cat. But my biggest problem with them is the POWER. Goodness! A pair of 370HP engines? A pair of 4 cylinder John Deeres would be more than I would ever need in one of those. At least with a sail cat you get reasonable sized engines that with good props would push it against wind and waves and go as fast as I expect it to go.

[senormechanico]

I shudder at the thought of the motion of that mono in a seaway.
I experienced that feeling on the Lake Washington ship canal while tied to a dock, waiting for my LN35's mast to be stepped when the Seattle Harbor Patrol went screaming by.

No thanks !!

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Xlantic

Granted it is a monohull, but it looks weird.

And they roll like pigs in the smallest swell.. took a 37ftr down the Portuguese coast to Peniche with the mast lashed to the c/roof.. no wind.. and not a ripple.. the owner was terrified we'd lose the mast..

[Cheechako]

I would imagine you could order a power cat with low HP engines to use like a trawler. Generally... aren't power cats narrower than sailing cats?
At any rate I see no problem with your plan.... other than watch out for cats that are minimally powered.... some will barely turn thru the wind under power alone.... In heavy winds... with little speed going when you start...

[jaybird1111]

You'll probably be a whole lot happier with a power cat designed to be a power cat, from the way it will be laid out to the engines themselves.

When I was last in the BVI, I saw more than one Leopard power cat tooling around, I would expect there to be some boats coming out of charter fleets at fair prices. Take your time and see if you can't find something