Outrunning the storm

[cat man do]

Again, I have been lucky enough not to get to bad a touch up in the ocean, but the extra speed has worked on countless ocassions in coastal work, not necesarilly in outrunning the storm as such, but certainly letting us get safely tucked away somwhere before it hit's.

The slower boat's sailing the same waters more often than not cop a bit of a flogging for there tardiness.

Dave

[yotphix]

I think that in practical terms what Catman is talking about is what is meant by being fast enough to get away from bad weather. Get in get home get done before it gets there. Some friends of mine with a very slow 28ft. steel cruising monohull on passage from fiji to New Zealand left in a window with some faster boats. The faster boats all got in before a nasty system which pushed my friends the wrong way for 3 days before finally letting them go to begin their southing anew. Yes the faster boats "beat" the storm in this example and probably countless others. No guarantee of anything but faster just means less exposure period.

[SkiprJohn]

sneuman,

See the thread Hurricane Maximum CPA. They are closing in on how to calculate the avoidance of large storms.

Kind Regards,

JohnL

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by sneuman

By "outrunning" I didn't mean to imply necessarily a specific storm tactic (i.e., running before the storm), but more generally the ability to quickly skirt the path of an approaching system at sea.

The reason I ask is that the ability to do this is often touted as a great strength of catamarans.

I just wondered how often it actually happens.

In an account I read about "The Race" in 2000/01, Club Med sat on the leading edge of a huge Southern Ocean low all the way round the Antarctic, enjoying relatively smooth conditions. This was exactly the scenario the big cat designers had envisaged - using the breeze from the approaching low to stay out of the really rough weather.

[Joli]

Originally Posted by sneuman

By "outrunning" I didn't mean to imply necessarily a specific storm tactic (i.e., running before the storm), but more generally the ability to quickly skirt the path of an approaching system at sea.

The reason I ask is that the ability to do this is often touted as a great strength of catamarans.

I just wondered how often it actually happens.

There was an interesting article recently written by Beth and Evan from Hawk describing the size of boat required to make 200 miles per day. I want to say their research indicated you need a mono over 60 foot and a multi in the 52-55 foot range to make those miles consistantly.

Bottom line, they felt it was quite difficult to average 8.333 knots day in and day out without waterline.

[44'cruisingcat]

Yes, because at times there is no wind. However we were discussing outrunning a storm weren't we? There's usually a little breeze associated with them I think.

[Joli]

Originally Posted by sneuman

There's much discussion here and elsewhere of fast boats outrunning bad weather. I believe it happens, but I wonder how often.

I'd be interested to hear from those who have successfully "outrun" a storm, either in a fast (cat) or a slow keel boat. Likewise, I'd be interested to hear from those who tried to do so, but failed.

Please provide specific weather conditions, forecasts, weather or not you were using Navtext, etc. and the specifics of your boat.

http://www.bethandevans.com/200mile.htm

Basicly they are saying without waterline it's tough to get out of the way of storms. Tough to make 200 mile days.

[Tropic Cat]

Beth now sails a 47' aluminum boat. I saw her a couple of weeks ago at the SSCA annual meeting and got the impression, during her presentation, that she missed the 37' Shannon.

Rick in Florida

[yotphix]

Is it just me or does it seem as though some people (and I think the OP) are talking about getting out of the way of storms before they hit, while others are talking about running before them or reaching across the leading edge of them quickly enough to evade the meat of them (a much less likely event)?

[dana-tenacity]

hardly ever

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Joli

There was an interesting article recently written by Beth and Evan from Hawk describing the size of boat required to make 200 miles per day. I want to say their research indicated you need a mono over 60 foot and a multi in the 52-55 foot range to make those miles consistantly.

Bottom line, they felt it was quite difficult to average 8.333 knots day in and day out without waterline.

Waterline may be essential for a keelboat to go fast. Less so for a multihull though. With them it's more about power to weight. keep them light, and you can make good daily averages, even in light weather. There is an article in Multihull World #75 where a couple are cruising a 38' Dick Newick tri. They average 8-10 kts on passage.

If you load a multi up though, it wont perform much better than a monohull.

[sneuman]

I finally got a chance to read the article you're referring to. It does acknowledge that waterline is less an issue with multis, but it still indicated that sustained 200-mile-day runs were nearly impossible for anything less than a 55' multi with a race load (not cruising load).

I think their conclusion was basically (and not surprisingly) that cats have some advantage over monos when it comes to sustaining speed, but not nearly as much as many cat owners imagine. And, it's questionable whether the speed advantages would really be enough to reliably put one out of harm's way.

[yotphix]

Let's pose that question. Cruising cat sailors, what daily mileages do you regularly turn on multiday passages, with cruising loads (however you want to define that)? This info would help we hull challenged folk to understand the real difference.

[Charlie]

I can add some heresay that maybe some of the Kiwi's can help fill in. There was a storm called "The Queen's Storm" between NZ and I think Fiji. There were a number of boats that got caught in it and I believe three boats that were sunk but there were also a couple of boats that made it over the top of the storm by staying on a line with a certain milibar. One of the boats that made it over the top was a Racer/cruiser named "Heart of Gold" a Schumacher 50. It was my feeling that more important than speed was a combination of luck and seamanship. If people had both they were able to get over the storm those that had niether were sunk.

Here is a link to the Queesn's Birthday Storm analysis:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cachem9SSgbWgcQJ:www.setsail.com/products/pdfs/qbs.pdf+queen%27s+birthday+storm&hl=en&gl=us&ct=cl nk&cd=1

[cat man do]

If people had both they were able to get over the storm those that had niether were sunk.




Here is possibly a better report on the same storm.

http://www.bluesuit.co.nz/1994.htm

This is a report from the ship that did most of the rescuing, and as you will see there were a few who weren't sunk.

Dave