Why Do Catamarans Motor Nearly 100%

[model 10]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

I think power cats are a great idea from a practical perspective (all kidding aside, many chartered boats never raise sails anyway), but the market demand is mostly for sail. May vary by venue, but there have been a few power vessels in the fleet in Belize and demand just has not been as good.

Oh no! You could start a sailboat/powerboat ego war.

[RTB]

I crewed for i2f from Green Cove Springs to Cartagena, Colombia. We burned between 200 and 300 gallons of diesel, and did an oil change on the Yanmars underway. But we got some sailing in when we could -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG9jo76qo3Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D56krmI7EKY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC4Kg3bDARg

A 46' cat is a nice way to get around.

Ralph

[gspeak]

OK I'll chime in even though I think this is a bit of a joke. Here in Oz where multihulls are numerous, apart from charter heaven at the Whitsundays, I find like ourselves, most everyone, monos & multis, SAIL most of the time.

Even our last trip to the Whitsundays last December we sailed for 700 NM in our slow cruising Lagoon 380 : ). We've still got 1/2 tanks full after returning (& topping up) from Hamilton Island 6 months ago. We have travelled another 500 NM locally since then. Makes our Yanmars extremely frugal ... Or maybe we sailed a lot, upwind & downwind!!!!

So I guess it depends on whether you live in trade wind country & whether you've got limited time on your hands & maybe how far there is between anchorages & the wind dies.

Like I said seems a stupid thread anyway on a global forum.

Here's a short vid of that trip to show just a bit of our sailing upwind & downwind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFostd60i40

Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Can anyone tell me about sailing experiences aboard a Sunreef 62? How do they sail? I'm not looking for high performance, I just don't want a brick.

I'm really more attracted to the additional real estate and the view from the living room while at anchor. Plus, it kinda looks like our boat with two hulls and a third story deck.

The Sunreef 114 Che is in my marina

http://www.sunreef-yachts.com/launch...f-114-che.html

It looks like the boom and decks are at about the same height as on the Lagoon 52 I saw a couple of weeks bac, but as it is more than double the length, it looks better proportioned


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Seadog54]

I have sailed with friends and charter companies aboard catamarans and do see many people motoring. This could be for a variety of reasons. In my experience catamarans do sail well and point much better than many would have us believe (FP's and Broadblue). I sail regularly at around eight knots and hardly seemed to be moving at all. We don't have much of an agenda and so are happy to sail everywhere we possibly can and do not get hung up about just 'bimbling' along at 3-5 knots! Try to focus on the gas money you're saving?! I guess its just down to people's own agenda.

[MIRELOS]

I sailed for 27 years on my Lord Nelson, a true blue water cutter. Sometimes I motored, sometimes I motor-sailed and sometimes I had glorious sails. I really depended on weather, destination and schedule. Now I sail on my Eleuthera 60 cat, I can hit double digits under sail most of the time but, sometimes i motor, sometimes I motor-sail and sometimes I have glorious sails and again it all depends on the afore mentioned factors.
So, your observations may just be way off, or perhaps biased. In any case I love sailing my cat more than any boat I have ever sailed and being up in years I have sailed a bundle of them.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by MIRELOS

I sailed for 27 years on my Lord Nelson, a true blue water cutter. Sometimes I motored, sometimes I motor-sailed and sometimes I had glorious sails. I really depended on weather, destination and schedule. Now I sail on my Eleuthera 60 cat, I can hit double digits under sail most of the time but, sometimes i motor, sometimes I motor-sail and sometimes I have glorious sails and again it all depends on the afore mentioned factors.
So, your observations may just be way off, or perhaps biased. In any case I love sailing my cat more than any boat I have ever sailed and being up in years I have sailed a bundle of them.

Our observations have been made here in the Mediterranean around Spain and now Italy, and are not biased, but accurate. We actually saw a Lagoon sailing yesterday... The first time in a couple of weeks. A very light wind day in our direction, so we had motorsailed for 13 hours to gain the extra 2 knots. In the Lagoons direction, they were probably sailing in 12 knots. Most mono hulls... The few that we saw, had sails up and were at least trying motor sail or sail.

Where are your observations being made? Seems to me there's quite a difference between countries and location regarding how much of a hurry Cat owners seem to be in.

Thanks for your post.

[Grateful]

Hmmm - just completed a 1900 mile delivery of our new to us Lavezzi 40 from St Maarten to the US Mississippi Gulf Coast, with about half of the Gulf of Mexico crossing dead to weather. Being a delivery, we were on a schedule. Nonetheless, about 1/2 of the 100 gallons of fuel we burned was just to keep the batteries charged, the rest was required to keep above our self imposed 4kt minimum speed. Pure sailing was, by and large, plenty fast on this trip.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Grateful

Hmmm - just completed a 1900 mile delivery of our new to us Lavezzi 40 from St Maarten to the US Mississippi Gulf Coast, with about half of the Gulf of Mexico crossing dead to weather. Being a delivery, we were on a schedule. Nonetheless, about 1/2 of the 100 gallons of fuel we burned was just to keep the batteries charged, the rest was required to keep above our self imposed 4kt minimum speed. Pure sailing was, by and large, plenty fast on this trip.

Congrats on the boat and the successful trip.

It looks like you either sail or motor depending on being a charter or if in a low or erratic wind area. Certainly I have been in places where its politic to give up on sailing and switch on the motor......... and all of the boats have the same idea.

Conversely, I have had perfect sailing weather where the sails are up and leaping ahead.

Hope you enjoy the boat.

[Bulawayo]

Originally Posted by weavis

Congrats on the boat and the successful trip.

It looks like you either sail or motor depending on being a charter or if in a low or erratic wind area. Certainly I have been in places where its politic to give up on sailing and switch on the motor......... and all of the boats have the same idea.

Conversely, I have had perfect sailing weather where the sails are up and leaping ahead.

Hope you enjoy the boat.

The issue of electrical power affects all boats, regardless of how many hulls they have. Fortunately, it can be solved via diesel generator, solar power or wind generator etc.
Having the wind blowing up your nostrils is not such fun.

[edmundsteele]

We have friends who sailed their cat across the Atlantic last year and for much of the down-wind passage didn’t use the main. The reason they gave was that the (following) seas were so high, they felt it was dangerous to leave the cockpit and they could more safely fly their Genoa with its roller furling. Before anyone comments on how this might not make sense, consider that some of us are no longer 23 years old and we are not as limber as we once were. My wife and I have been mono-hull sailors and although we have sailed aboard cats in light conditions, it was only a few months ago that we sailed aboard a cat in livelier seas. When I left the cockpit to help raise the main, I was immediately struck by the fact that there was almost nothing to hold on to! The lifelines were cable and “floppy”; the cockpit sloping away and both lacking handholds and out of reach; the shrouds that on a mono-hull are conveniently across from the mast, were inconveniently on the side of the cockpit. This means passing forwards beyond the “security” of the shroud and climbing up a curved, wet plastic ramp to approach the mast – sans handholds. If you make it this far, you are then faced with the mast climb to reach the sail cover etc. as discussed at the beginning of this thread. I can now appreciate why there would be a reluctance to fly the main for a short “jump” between anchorages. In my opinion, in-boom furling would make a huge difference and would make the sail deployment both easier and safer. Note that here I am describing the size of cat that is typically chartered.

[MIRELOS]

I picked up our cat at the factory in France and there were a lot of cats there and sailing.
Crossing the Atlantic we had the sails up 98% of the time, we only dropped the sails when there was no wind.Here in the states I see the cats with their sails up.
Why would you have a SAILBOAT, cat or mono if you are not going to sail....then get a motor boat

[Sail IC]

Fun thread giving many laughs. Never really thought about the subject but if the case I can think of the following

1, At low speed, friction between water and hull is the predominant drag proportional to area, and cats has larger wetted surface than en equivalent mono. Ie, a cat has worse SA/wetted area. So a cat require a slightly higher wind strength before it makes sense to sail.

2, Of all boats, a much higher percentage of cats are on charter than monos, and charters tends to motor more on average.

3, Given the cost, Cats are on average own by older people with on average less energy.

4, It takes more effort to hoist a fully batten main that a furling main.

However, I doubt that many people on this forum fall into the categories above. I put 118 hours on my engines since my last oilchange last Nov and I'm a full time cruiser and crossed an ocean in the meantime.

On the subject, kind of funny. a month ago in the BVI I overtook two monos going from JVD and Tortola, me sailing them motoring. We were sitting down just having coffee, a bit funny, so I have it a video but too large to upload.

I have a high performance dinghy background and don't think any boat with a cabin is exciting to sail. My last sailboat as I turned 50 was an 18 foot sportboat which a singlehanded from trapeze with 50 sqm of sail (main/jib/assy). Having said that, I'm somewhat impressed with the daily milage my condomaran gets. Its a great voyage vehicle propelled by sail.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Sail IC

Fun thread giving many laughs. Never really thought about the subject but if the case I can think of the following

1, At low speed, friction between water and hull is the predominant drag proportional to area, and cats has larger wetted surface than en equivalent mono. Ie, a cat has worse SA/wetted area. So a cat require a slightly higher wind strength before it makes sense to sail.

2, Of all boats, a much higher percentage of cats are on charter than monos, and charters tends to motor more on average.

3, Given the cost, Cats are on average own by older people with on average less energy.

4, It takes more effort to hoist a fully batten main that a furling main.

However, I doubt that many people on this forum fall into the categories above. I put 118 hours on my engines since my last oilchange last Nov and I'm a full time cruiser and crossed an ocean in the meantime.

On the subject, kind of funny. a month ago in the BVI I overtook two monos going from JVD and Tortola, me sailing them motoring. We were sitting down just having coffee, a bit funny, so I have it a video but too large to upload.

I have a high performance dinghy background and don't think any boat with a cabin is exciting to sail. My last sailboat as I turned 50 was an 18 foot sportboat which a singlehanded from trapeze with 50 sqm of sail (main/jib/assy). Having said that, I'm somewhat impressed with the daily milage my condomaran gets. Its a great voyage vehicle propelled by sail.

So to summarize:

Its easier to push a start button than put a sail up.

[Sail IC]

Originally Posted by weavis

So to summarize:

Its easier to push a start button than put a sail up.

Damn. A cat has two start buttons but a mono only one. Twice the effort.

I bought the wrong boat. What was I thinking.