I watched a guy nearly capsize right in front of us

[peter57]

Originally Posted by Sos

Skip Novak

Were you referring to this line, in the article?

Faster is easily understood, but it is justifiable to question the safety aspect. An offshore catamaran or trimaran can turn upside-down with a moment’s lack of concentration.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by peter57

Were you referring to this line, in the article?

Faster is easily understood, but it is justifiable to question the safety aspect. An offshore catamaran or trimaran can turn upside-down with a moment’s lack of concentration.

A perfect example of taking a line out of context.

The line came from a paragraph about racing high performance maxi cat's and tris.

And even then he stated that the multihulls were safer, but allowed that some might question this.

BTW, I don't agree with all he says. IMO he has completely the wrong idea about how performance cruising cats are sailed. They're not about "cruising at 25kts ". That's sailing like a racer.

The idea of a performance cruising cat is to be able to sail at good speeds when everyone else is motoring. Being able to sail at or close to (or faster than) windspeed in 5-8 kts of breeze.

https://youtu.be/ki6hws2_DL4

I know plenty of people with performance cruising cats. None of them sails at 25kts, nor would they want to.

[kev_rm]

That is a very beamy boat, Mr. My advanced degree didn't make me learn where center of gravity is.

Originally Posted by capn_billl

I have a righting arm of 24ft .

[smj]

[QUOTE=44'cruisingcat;3043350]
The idea of a performance cruising cat is to be able to sail at good speeds when everyone else is motoring. Being able to sail at or close to (or faster than) windspeed in 5-8 kts of breeze.QUOTE]


That’s my take on it as well

[Ken Fry]

Speaking as someone who has designed and built a couple multihulls, it seems to me to be good practice to make the rig strong enough to survive a capsize without dismasting. Ordinarily that will mean that one can fly a hull if one desires (or is careless) and conditions permit, unless the boat is seriously under-canvassed.

Put another way, good safety margins in rig design and structure to provide adequate margins for dealing with large waves means that by default the rig will be strong enough to fly a hull in some wind in the hands of someone who is careless or has high risk tolerance. For many heavy cruising cats, flying a hull requires "too much" sail area up.

Any prudent sailor should assume that his craft can be capsized, whether monohull, catamaran, trimaran or proa. Also good to assume that the boat can be pitchpoled. If you have spoken at length with your boat's designer and he clearly states that rig will blow off before a hull can be lifted, then perhaps you have a boat that cannot capsize. Personally I would not trust such a boat.

A lightly loaded Gemini can fly a hull. A Maine Cat 30 can fly a hull. A Gunboat can certainly fly a hull. So blanket statements about "cruising cats" being unable to fly a hull are unwise, because such statements can foster a false sense of security in the unwary or inexperienced.