Cats Can't Sail to Windward....

[44'cruisingcat]

But sometimes we do....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34qgJRprAlE

and before anyone starts, yes, we wouldn't be doing so well in 50 knots, and 10 metre waves...

[senormechanico]

You had good conditions for sure. Looks like it was a nice ride.

Do you have a leech line on the main?
At 0:07 the main's leech was flapping pretty hard.

[monte]

Looks good 44. Is that 9.5kn STW at 30 degrees AWA, with 20kn AWS? And only one dagger board?

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

You had good conditions for sure. Looks like it was a nice ride.

Do you have a leech line on the main?
At 0:07 the main's leech was flapping pretty hard.

Yeah, I need to tighten the top leach line a little. Sails are pretty tired, close to 25,000 nm on them now.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by monte

Looks good 44. Is that 9.5kn STW at 30 degrees AWA, with 20kn AWS? And only one dagger board?

About 27' AWA. SOG was around 9 knots.

We only have one daggerboard. It's a big one though, only using about 1/2 of it in that video.

No real leeway worries at 9 knots. At lower speeds we'd use more board.

[jaybird1111]

I didn't note the rest of the data, I guess it was blowing 10-15 that day, but my 23 year old Catana's track:

[arsenelupiga]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

But sometimes we do....


and before anyone starts, yes, we wouldn't be doing so well in 50 knots, and 10 metre waves...

9.5 kn in 12 kn true and 47.5 deg true

WOW !!

hope some devotee to "properly set monohul outsails any cat to windward in speed and angle" comes along so we learn something new about weakness of cats.

[BlueBuddha]

44, what kind of cat is this? Very impressive.


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[cruiz9]

Who said cats can't sail to windward haha, 9knts in 10-12 TWS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA1Ta03VQXA

By the way, she is currently for sale,sadly.

[amytom]

Impressive numbers for sure.

I noticed your leeward shroud was pretty loose. Is that by design?


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[jaybird1111]

At the recent Dauphin Island Race,

18-25 winds, probably 1-meter high bay chop, sailing to apparent of 30-35 degrees, if I recall (wife is helm, I wasn't looking), single reef main, full jib. We were pointing with (in some cases, higher than) the sport boat monohulls, at 9kts boatspeed with the occasional 10. We finished behind the beach catamarans but right amongst the sport boats (who had an earlier start.) I'm sure her tacks at DI were closer than the above picture, in which there was just me trimming the sails

[monte]

Sephina (L400) also holds her own to windward. Far from a performance cat but enough to get her and us where we're going. Obviously currents plays a pretty major role upwind to SOG and tacking angles. Below we had 1-2kn against us. Occasionally angles look more like 120 degrees in less wind and more current. I guess cruising cats get a bad wrap sometimes because often charter cats are motoring upwind to get to the next beach bar, but from what I've seen charter monos tend to do the same just as often.

[basenay]

Wind and no waves. Perfect for going to windward in any boat but especially a catamaran.
As a former catamaran owner who missed this point on a repeat test sail I was talked into by salesperson for the "newly redesigned catamaran". Got my deposit back after previous test sail on same cat in 3-5 ' square Tampa Bay waves that caused terrible pounding and lots of leeway. Bought after second test sail and for next 3 years tried to convince myself I hadn't made a mistake. Went back to monohull 19 years ago and never regretted decision. I know I bought wrong catamaran as others never pound to windward!

[chiefcoxswain]

Lock Crowther catamarans have been going to windward for 40years, have a google.

[monte]

Originally Posted by BlueBuddha

44, what kind of cat is this? Very impressive.


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BB, it's a Oram44C, built by the OP. Nice cats and at around 6T, nice to sail! Bob Oram is an Australian designer and spent his career designing fast, relatively easy to build cats. Home built cats are pretty popular in Aus, with fast, light and designed for home builds from designers such as Crowther, Schionning, Oram, Grainger and many more leading the way over the past 30 years.