The Cons of Owning a Catamaran

[Cotemar]

Notpopeye,

Your the OP here so, you really have to keep this thread on track.
The Cons of Owning a Catamaran. Keep it real and get your facts before the thread gets shut off.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Highland Fling

Well i have done about everything you can do with a Dart 18 flipped to windward leeward and pitch-poled it a few times BUT i was thinking of cruising cats first generation home built plywood cruising cats then the odd R McD cat Iroquois Cherokee and Apache - way back then masthead floats became the norm

How do you flip a beach cat "to windward"? I gotta learn that trick, it must raise some eyebrows.

[Sand crab]

The stability coeffecient was devised by James Wharram and determines the the ability of the cat to resist capsizing for a given wind speed.
It's on page 102 of Tarjans book and covered here by John Shttleworth.
Multihull Design Considerations for Seaworthiness

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Mr B

How many cruising cats, Race, And I dont mean up the bay for a few miles.

They also dont stop for sundowners or a visit to that nice beach for a couple of weeks,

Ever heard of the Brisbane to Gladstone
Darwin to Ambon
Kings Cup Regatta to name a few.

No shortage of cruising cats and tri's in those races.

[whatsupdoc]

Originally Posted by minaret

Since we are discussing the cons of multihulls only in this thread, only one side can logically be on the defensive. You can call me offensive if you like, but you certainly won't be the first to do so!
And you'll note that I made no posts here until AFTER 8 pages of smarmy multihuller posts about how the only con to a cat is that your sausages dont roll off the grill! If you guys were trying to be honest and forthright about it in here we wouldn't have to step in and apply a dose of reality.

Too address this question properly, you would have to break it all down to exactly which multihull design you would want to talk about, (pro and con) all experienced reasonable sailors know you can compare an open 60 monohull to 60 foot ferro-cement design, but they both are completely different boats, in every single aspect of the build, design, function, fit out, maintenance, etc etc.

To vaguely throw generalized comments about a cat a tri or a mono, is like comparing a Lamborghini to a tractor, even if its the same builder.

[Sand crab]

Cruising cats are in all the races. Just like cruising monos.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Ever heard of the Brisbane to Gladstone
Darwin to Ambon
Kings Cup Regatta to name a few.

No shortage of cruising cats and tri's in those races.

Regarding kings cup...

Here are the results. Draw your own conclusions. Hard to figure out the boat types as I couldnt find an entrants list. Someone with more time than I could run all the averages and analyze the thre IRC classes against the multihull classes and see which groups on average are fastest on the water.

My eyeballing of it says there are a lot of faster monos than multis even if you throw out IRC 0.

I am of course talking uncorrected times.

http://www.kingscup.com/index.cfm?ntid=1223

So in terms of the narrow argument about "speed" it would be interesting to talk real race results vs. anectodal passage passing. To be honest I didn't include the cruising class in my scan. Maybe if I get some time I'll run som stats and see if I can dig up an entrants list.

[Sand crab]

I notice that a lot of race results don't include the exact type of boat by brand name or whatever. Also in the overall category they don't say what class the boats where in. Then you go to go back and dig. Sorry for thread drift.

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

Regarding kings cup...

Here are the results. Draw your own conclusions. Hard to figure out the boat types as I couldnt find an entrants list. Someone with more time than I could run all the averages and analyze the thre IRC classes against the multihull classes and see which groups on average are fastest on the water.

My eyeballing of it says there are a lot of faster monos than multis even if you throw out IRC 0.

I am of course talking uncorrected times.

http://www.kingscup.com/index.cfm?ntid=1223

So in terms of the narrow argument about "speed" it would be interesting to talk real race results vs. anectodal passage passing. To be honest I didn't include the cruising class in my scan. Maybe if I get some time I'll run som stats and see if I can dig up an entrants list.

It got back to where I jumped into this thread, saying something like "if I wanted comfortable and fast, short handed, passage speed it would be a mono for me".

So, since it has come full circle, I guess thanks to Ex-Calif, I can get off this train.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

I notice that a lot of race results don't include the exact type of boat by brand name or whatever. Also in the overall category they don't say what class the boats where in. Then you go to go back and dig. Sorry for thread drift.

Yeah thread drift is what we be about. If I get time to analyze the results more I'll start a new thread.

I have some friends in the neighborhood. It baffles me there is no comprehensive entrants list with boat types. I'll see if I can get one from the kings cup folks.

BTW - my next boat is gonna be a multi so I have no interest in multi bashing. I also have a limited interest in speed as a deciding factor for a boat. When I step on my boat I am already there.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

Regarding kings cup...

Here are the results. Draw your own conclusions.

My eyeballing of it says there are a lot of faster monos than multis even if you throw out IRC 0.

A random pick here (Race 2) shows cruising multi times as
1st place) 41 fter Sidewinder 01:08:01

9th place) 38ft Andaman Cabriolet "Nina" 01:48:50

25th Phuket Kings Cup Regatta

Considerably larger Cruising monos in race 2 has

1st place) 54ft Hanse Odin Aquacraft Asia 04:09:56


2rd place) Bavaria 49 Linda 04:29:19

and several what I assume are DNF's
25th Phuket Kings Cup Regatta

[44'cruisingcat]

The 2011 Darwin-Ambon race was won by a homebuilt, owner designed 50 foot cruising cat crewed by a family as part of their circumnavigation.

They beat a fully crewed 60 foot racing monohull. They also set a faster time than ANY monohull ever has. (Although they didn't match the multihull record.)

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

The 2011 Darwin-Ambon race was won by a homebuilt, owner designed 50 foot cruising cat crewed by a family as part of their circumnavigation.

They beat a fully crewed 60 foot racing monohull. They also set a faster time than ANY monohull ever has. (Although they didn't match the multihull record.)

Vs





And the cat beat it you say?
By almost 7 hours as well?

[44'cruisingcat]

Yep.
Race Results 2011 | Darwin to Ambon Yacht Race & Rally

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

It's the "Multihull sailboats" part of the forum. I just wonder why so many monohull sailors find it neccessary to spend so much time here telling us how much better their boats are.

As far as I've seen, the reverse - multi sailors going into the monohull section and saying mono's are unseaworthy, poorly built "mcmansions" - happens very rarely if ever.

Who is REALLY being defensive?

My Dragonfly gets pounded by most Corsairs (we are pretty equal in speed to a well sailed F27 or F28) but when it comes to a raftup, everybody's on our boat. "Lookee here! They've got pressure water and refrigeration, ICE CUBES ! Watermaker! HEAT !
It's all relative.
I visit other boats (monos and cats) and see "STORAGE SPACE !, GUEST SPACE !"
It brings back the old saying,
"You can have Speed, Comfort and Low Cost, pic TWO."

It's all a compromise.