Cat vs mono of +/- similar size sailing to wind: here's my two cents, based on about 5 days of tacking between
Panama and the
Galapagos.
We left Las Perlas together with the
Jeanneau 43. Her
captain was an experienced sailor who loved to hand steer and fine tune his
sails. Just a couple on board the
Jeanneau, when we had stocked on everything for the five of us (believing that
food,
diesel, etc would be twice as expensive in
French Polynesia - which turned out to be a big mistake,
food is way better and about the same
price in FP if you don't indulge in wine,
beer, and imported French cheese). We left with 1800 liters of
water (including 600 liters of
drinking water in 5-liter bottles), 850 liters of
diesel + gasoline, enough
cooking gas for 5 months, about 300 kgs of dry foods and cans, 300 cans of
beer, 40 bottles of wine, etc. In 4 years we have never been as heavy as during that crossing.
Typically, you tack the first 2/3 or 3/4 of the way to the
Galapagos, as the wind comes from the SW, exactly where you want to go. We assumed that the Jeanneau would be faster and would point much better than us in these conditions, especially as it was a model with a deep
keel. We left the Gulf of
Panama with about 15 knots, and the wind rose to 30-35 knots in the next few days. We said goodbye, trusting that they would arrive to the Galapagos at least a day before us.
The Jeanneau 43 would indeed point 5-10 degrees better than us, but we were faster. As a result, we stayed within
radio contact (15-20 NM) for 5 days. As we approached the coast of
Ecuador, the wind started to calm down a bit and to come a bit more from the SSW, then more and more South as we were approaching the Galapagos. As the difference in speed between us became greater, we
lost radio contact but kept in touch through
satellite phone. On day 7 we were already 100 NM ahead of them. We arrived in Isabella after 8 days, they arrived 30 hours after us.
Sailing against the wind (between 15 and 35 knots) our full-to-the-brim
Lagoon 440 managed to keep up for 5 days with a +/- similar size
monohull.
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