Catamaran Cruising

[mdgale]

My past boating experience has been predominantly in mono-hull power boats and a couple of 3 day coastal sailing trips in a 45' mono-hull yacht (Cavalier 45).

I have just completed my first offshore trip - Auckland, New Zealand to Savusavu, Fiji - crewed on a Lagoon 380 catamaran - travelled over 1200 nautical miles in varied (but generally good) conditions - following winds ranged from 7 to 25 knots - sea state ranged from smooth to 4.5 metre swells - trip took 10 days, including a 24 hour stopover at North Minerva Reef.

I was amazed by the impact & noise caused by waves hitting (a) the bridge deck and (b) the hulls. My cabin was the forward port one and while attempting to sleep off watch, at times it sounded (and felt) as if the boat was being smashed to pieces!!!

This was very surprising and quite difficult to get used to - is this normal for catamarans when blue water cruising offshore?

I would be grateful for any advice and comments as I will be looking to purchase a passage-maker in the next few years for offshore cruising -the choice between mono or catamaran is a tough one ...

[Sabbatical II]

Let me say at the outset, I am not very experienced with cats having only been involved with 1 delivery several years ago from Sydney to Mackay. I was just as amazed as you with the degree of wave impact noise. I am told its all to do with bridge deck clearance and the particular cats that both you and I travelled on obviously musn't have had enough of it. From memory it was not an issue with following seas which is what we all like to find anyway.

[gspeak]

As owners of a L380 we can honestly say .... you get used to it. On the 380 it seems that the most sound comes from a sea angle that throws the occasional wave into the angled chamfer that accommodates the step down into the hulls.

As I said both my wife & I don't take any notice any more. Some new comers comment on the noise. I actually hear & take note of different low level noises more nowadays, like a different sound from a motor or a saildrive that has me wondering.

The L380 is super strong & I haven't heard of any "breaking up" from wave action & there have been some 700 built with many, many travelling the oceans of the world.

Dave
Seabreeze L380 #241

[mdgale]

Originally Posted by gspeak

As owners of a L380 we can honestly say .... you get used to it. On the 380 it seems that the most sound comes from a sea angle that throws the occasional wave into the angled chamfer that accommodates the step down into the hulls.

As I said both my wife & I don't take any notice any more. Some new comers comment on the noise. I actually hear & take note of different low level noises more nowadays, like a different sound from a motor or a saildrive that has me wondering.

The L380 is super strong & I haven't heard of any "breaking up" from wave action & there have been some 700 built with many, many travelling the oceans of the world.

Dave
Seabreeze L380 #241

Hi Dave - thanks for that - comforting to know it is a "cat/Lagoon thing" and not an issue with the particular boat - Rgds Michael

[Talbot]

On the Privilege 37, the forward cabin is on the bridgedeck rather than in the hull, furthermore, the bed is built up from that bridgedeck. She also has a good clearance under the bridgedeck and the design of the central nacelle tends to cut into any major wave that will affect the bridgedeck. This nacelle is a rope and miscelaneous storage, and helps prevent noise transference to the cabin.

Thus noise in that forward cabin is acceptable. The hull length demands that the engines are located under the rear berths, but are pretty well noise insulated against constant noise. start and stop noises (such as water heating eberspacher) are more obtrusive.

[Sea Frog]

Sinse a birth of my youngest son, I have been using earplugs to be sble to sleep at night no matter what I got so much used to it that I sllep with earplugs even now when nights are almost always quiet. Tonight we had a huge thunderstorm, my wife said that the thunder was loud as hell, and she could not sleep... Guess what? I did not even notice. Those yellow foam cylindrical plugs from 3M/EAR are really comfy and insulate great!

I always carry a set with me wherever I go, it saved me many times in noicy environment of boats, planes etc. This is a cheap trick that can really make a difference.

In my cat I will be liberally using sound insulation by Mascoat, too

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by Sea Frog

Sinse a birth of my youngest son, I have been using earplugs to be sble to sleep at night no matter what I got so much used to it that I sllep with earplugs even now when nights are almost always quiet. Tonight we had a huge thunderstorm, my wife said that the thunder was loud as hell, and she could not sleep... Guess what? I did not even notice. Those yellow foam cylindrical plugs from 3M/EAR are really comfy and insulate great!

I always carry a set with me wherever I go, it saved me many times in noicy environment of boats, planes etc. This is a cheap trick that can really make a difference.

In my cat I will be liberally using sound insulation by Mascoat, too

I would be worried to sleep on my boat if I didn't have the ability to be woken up by wave, wind, thunder noises. I guess in a marina that would be fine, but never at anchor or passage.

[Factor]

What I don't understand is why anyone thinks that it is logical to extrapolate from one model of one brand to all models of all designs.

I have sailed some pigs (Mono and Multi) and some Gems (mono and Multi)

An IOR designed mono is possibly the most dangerous boat I can think of, doesn't make all monos bad??

[dirkdig]

Sounds tell you everything almost.

I might hear thousands of noises over a weeks passage and then 1 different noise will wake me and 99.9% of the time sure enough something has happened or needs attention.
Your boat will tell you through sound.

[gspeak]

Just to confirm my original response was directly addressing the OP's question about the sounds & noise of a catamaran (L380). It had nothing to do with the sailability of the L380.

It had everything to do with the sounds, which was the original question. I have sailed & been aboard a few other cats (larger & smaller) & I would say that all have a very different sound tolerance to our past experience with monos.

We have enough experience now with our boat to know that the sailing performance including the bridge deck clearance is comparable, if not better than, other production cats of a similar size.

Dave
Seabreeze L380 #241

[dirkdig]

Love the sound of our cat slicing through the water and waves, especially the humming when we are doing 12+ knots

[gspeak]

Originally Posted by dirkdig

Love the sound of our cat slicing through the water and waves, especially the humming when we are doing 12+ knots

Well said. You can even tell the speed pretty accurately by the "sounds". The hum at 8knots is different to the 10 knot swishing.

Dave
Seabreeze L380 #241

[dirkdig]

Speed by sound, i love it.

Very true though

[valhalla360]

I guess I wonder, how many people sleep in the V-berth of a mono on a rough crossing? Why would you expect to do it on a catamaran?

Also, were the waves from a different direction from the wind? We have gemini with a low brige deck that pounds if we try to motor directly into a short steep chop but going with the wind & waves, we've never had pounding in any conditions (no offshore experience)

[monte]

yeah forward berth is the worst place to be. The 380 tends to pivot around the helm so the further away from there, the more the motion. I think most of the noise isn't from waves on the bridgedeck, its from waves slapping the sides of the hulls. They are large and slab like and remain vertical, unlike mono's where the hull is usually at a 45 degree angle. The larger vertical fibreglass amplifies the sounds like a drum. We haven't found it to be a problem, but I've never tried to sleep in the foreward cabin in bad conditions either.