Stress and Wear on Rigging

[Islander1]

Talking boats: Interesting conversation yesterday with a Rigger who use to work for the renowned Harry Spencer in "Cowes Isle of Wight", really nice shy bloke and few know more about rigging.
Harry, a one off has since passed on but his guy's still fly globally for various projects ie, rigging the Bounty in NZ and big boys for the Rich & Famous. His work shop has numerous machines that will test equipment through it's breaking/failure point, Blocks, Winches, Swages, Noresmans, Staylocks you name it .
As I am considering switching to a Sailing Catamaran for our next boat, I was asking him about the rigging differences between ocean going Multi & Mono Hulls.
He said “Although they are out there you don’t see many “Older Cats” around because the stresses are so great on the Rig & Hulls, consequently their longevity is generally inferior to your average Monohull…
We got into it where he was stating instances of Cats breaking up etc. I am by no means put off, in any event I will look very hard & long at the pro’s and cons for the various designs and construction.

I have noticed how some used Cats are advertised for big bucks and quite surprised at the number of Fountaine Pajot’s there are on the market all over the place that don't seem to be moving. Maybe they asking/expecting too much?


shop.spencerrigging.co.uk/about.php

Architectural and Commercial Rigging Spencer MBE/

[David_Old_Jersey]

Mods, can I suggest that this thread be moved to the Multihull section.........so OP can have all manner of abuse thrown at him to even dare suggest that Multihulls are less than 100% perfect

Will also have to factor in some whining

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Mods, can I suggest that this thread be moved to the Multihull section.........so OP can have all manner of abuse thrown at him to even dare suggest that Multihulls are less than 100% perfect

Will also have to factor in some whining

[Islander1]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Hahah, love it, excellent postings..ye be waitng for the sh1t to hit the fan.

[boatman61]

But a factual one none the less....
Many early Prouts etc suffered mast beam compression problems from overtensioning because of the way the rig was set up...
Thats why the A Frame is so good... also the Wharram technique of taking the rig to the outside hull...

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Well, OP doesn't state anything that isn't blindingly obvious......when you think about it.

Just like Osmosis, folks happy to swap information about other people's boats, just not own......(well, not until sold ).

Doesn't affect me of course, as don't have $500k to spend on a floating IKEA cabinet (no matter how many hulls)........but just for the record, not anti-multi at all - indeed would love a ginourmous aluminium Tri (but will never happen, money and practicality ) or a 21 Tiki Cat (somewhere warm - better odds on that ).

But what I am anti is folk getting away with selling pigs ears as silk purses to the unknowing - unless I am in on the deal On CF over the years the only things that have not been claimed (and defended Craig Smith style ) for Multihulls is a cure for the common cold and adding 3" to yer todger.........but that's probably simply a matter of time

[Sand crab]

I did a Yachtworld search on multihulls built from 1975 to 1985 and came up with 80 hits.
1975 (Sail) Multi-Hull Boats For Sale
Some are tris and some are duplicate listings but that is still a good argument that older multis can last if built well. Remember that quite a few of the early ones were home built by novices using poor material choices and bad building practices. Most of those have met the chainsaw by now so we are left with the good ones rather production or home built. I agree that cats have engineering challenges but these are easily overcome by proper construction and these boats are a testament to that. BOB

[Sand crab]

Just for fun I also did a multihull search for the years 1950 to 1974 and came up with 22 hits of which 12 are cats. I posted a link but it is not working and tried to edit it twice so I give up but you can do ithe search yourself.
Not bad considering the extremely low numbers of cats built in the early days and these are only the boats for sale, not the ones still floating and in use. An oldie could be a goodie. BOB

[sneuman]

duh, all criticism of multihulls is the obvious work of monohull trolls.

Multis are perfect!

[perchance]

How come no one has started a thread about ferro cement multi hulls? Just thought I'd give the pot a quick stir.

[Sand crab]

Originally Posted by perchance

How come no one has started a thread about ferro cement multi hulls? Just thought I'd give the pot a quick stir.

I want to add anchors and guns.

[Johnathon123]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

I want to add anchors and guns.

Surely the size of your anchor will determine the stress applied to the hull of your Multi resulting in an instant need for a gun to fend of those evil salvage crews in their mono's!

[Olorin]

On the serious side, I have been told by serious riggers that my catamaran's standing rigging should be replaced after 7 years because of the increased strain caused by its lack of heeling.

[Sand crab]

Why the hell would a mono guy even want to salvage a multi. Multis suck, the mast and rigging cause catastrophic failure and sink the whole boat, they ride flat so you don't even get the thrill of sleeping at 45 degrees, they got way to much space so all you do is clean, clean, clean, the salon has way to much sun and ventilation instead of that nice dark cavey feel that monos have. Oh, crap, I think I stirred the pot again.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by perchance

How come no one has started a thread about ferro cement multi hulls? Just thought I'd give the pot a quick stir.