Little background first. Been a
monohull owner and part time cruiser most of my life. Last 22 years of this in a
Morgan 46. My wife and I are usually the only crew. My experience includes about 10 trips
San Francisco to SoCal and back, 2 seasons on
west coast of
Mexico, a one way to
Tahiti and 3 weeks charters in Windwards and Leewards all on monos.
Considering selling the mono and cruising in a
catamaran so I am just educating myself now. Been looking at a lot of sites and designs on the web but haven't actually inspected any cats yet.
I am not too concerned about high performance sailing. I think it wouldn't be hard to pick up a
knot or two above what we are accustomed with the
Morgan. Looking mainly for comfort at
anchor and most points of sail, better areas for
solar panels and less
draft for more choices of anchorage locations. Capable of safe
offshore passages in the normal cruising season conditions of CA coast to
Caribbean. I am thinking 38 ft min for adequate
safety and space.
CONCERNS: I am confused about the location of the
helm on cats, w.r.t. visibility and protection from
weather. In my
center cockpit monohull we have a complete Acrilan enclosure with windows, which I consider almost mandatory. I guess one of the very few things that I am not tolerant of in sailing, is standing a night watch in a cold wind!
In a cat, is it reasonable to create a fully enclosed
helm area with good visibility under way? Any designs particularly lend themselves to this?
Second big issue is
power and drive configuration. Twin
outboard nice for tilting up to reduce drag and protection in shoal
water but I am very opposed to carrying large amount of gasoline. What are the options for
diesel inboard
power w.r.t. protection of running
gear (outdrive,
saildrive?)
Individual boats will have many variations of
rigging and
equipment and at this early stage I want only to concentrate on basics of design.
Many more issues to address but just concerning the above for now, are there suggestions from the members as to specific
catamaran models?
Price range $300K max used. I am willing to look most anywhere in the Americas or
Med.