Mahe 36: Sailing

[Cotemar]

This is not for the faint of heart.
This guy is crossing a sand bar into a harbor.

YouTube - WILD RIDE

[Wayward Wind]

Originally Posted by Jan Iversen

Dear fellow sailors

It has been a pleasure for me to read this forum, thank you all. I hope one day to be sailing the Mahe 36 too as it appears to be a wonderful boat. I have sailed my 10.3 m Simpson designed catamaran for quite some years. My thought was to contribute to this forum with my hard learned lessons on beaching a cat.

Regards Jan

Jan

Thank you for your tips on careening a cat. I have wanted to beach WW for a while, but am still working up the courage to do it.

I was in Port Dickson, Malaysia, recently and note that the sand flats there seem ideal for careening a cat. The sand is firm, clean and flat. On the down side, I counted 14 ships in the horizon.

Please send my regards to Leong Hun. She told me you built and sailed your 34ft cat from Denmark to Singapore.

JohnC

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi all,
A week ago we met a brand new Lagoon 400 under sail. Equipped with a square top sail, just like us.
As you know one yacht is pleasure sailing, two yachts is a regatta. I could not keep myself from a speed comparison, so we tacked in the Lagoon's track, and followed them.
Well, we were very heavy; maybe 150 liters of water. 6 people with stuff on board, still some beer and wine left, lots of food for our big summer trip, full Diesel....
But still, it was no match; we sailed both faster and higher.
The Lagoon tried to sail faster by dropping some height; this did not work.
Wind speed was some 12 knots. Waves not too high, maybe half a metre.

Of course I do not know whether they were doing their best. But I guess so, that is what you do when you see a Cat following you in an area where you do not see many.

[Wayward Wind]

Here is a picture of Wayward Wind surfing down a 10-12 ft wave on our way from Sydney Harbour to Pittwater in a Southerly last weekend. On our return, we had to face these waves and the Southerly. A few times, the backwash splashed over the top of the transom steps. On such a short trip of 15nm, I enjoyed the experience, and my confidence in the Mahe 36 and respect for it continues to grow.
JohnC

[speciald@ocens.]

U S Sailing will provide an "official number" for about $25.

[Serendipity129]

Hi guys, I was hoping someone has a set of Polar's for my Mahe.

I have only been able to get the 20kn wind strength polar from my dealer. I have inquired again with the factory and the 20kn is the only one they have apparently. Not sure how you build/design a yacht without complete polars, but....

I need a polar for each knot of wind strength so I can set up MaxSea TimeZero Routing module properly.

I'd also appreciate polar's from anything close in design / performance, I could manipulate these to closely match the Mahe.

cheers

scott

[Cotemar]

Scott,

Here is the 20Kt. Polar Diagram for a FP Mahe 36.

PDF file attached also.

[MKB53]

Is this polar 20Kt? I assume it is as it is showing 10Kts at 100deg.

[Serendipity129]

thanks Cotemar, this is the 20kn polar.
I have written to the architects asking for all polars, if I get a positive response I'll post all.
I would have thought they would ned them to build the boat but factory not cooperative at all.

cheers

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

One thing about these polars. They are at 20 knots true wind. And thus only relevant for aft-wind situations, when you look at the reefing recommendations. Or for racing, when you care less about sails stretching.
Close-hauled at 20 knots true wind you'll have over 25 knots of apparant wind, way over the maximum for unreefed sailing.
I reef close-hauled at 15-18 knots true wind, depending on waves and wind variability.

[MKB53]

Hi Jef

Question on the polars - I assume the wind angle is TRUE?

I asked the importers whether the reefing recommendations were true or apparent and was told they were True wind. That was then qualified for downwind!! I think the logic was that if you have to round up at 20Kt apparent you are suddenly faced with 30Kts.

Having sailed in a range of conditions over the last 4 years windward I reef at 20 True in flatter waters and 18 or so if rougher. She really loads up over 20! I find little drop in boat speed at these levels and a much easier action. If I reef at 15 she "stops"!

Downwind I do go on apparent wind.

With the gennaker they clearly say 15Kt Apparent in the manual. My sailmaker says the gennaker cloth is good for 25Kts so I assume this limit is due to Rig/Prodder concerns. I never go over 15 apparent! It gets hard to furl apart from anything else.

At the end of the day I guess we assess sea conditions and do the thing that feels right. Going by the book blindly can lead to problems!

Cheers
Martin

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Martin,
Good remark, true or appararent wind angle.... Makes me doubt. I don't know.
Regarding whether reefing recommendation are for apparent or true wind: I seem to remember that when talking to Fountaine Pajot, they remarked that the reefing recommendation is for apparent wind.
We reef at 15-18 knots close-hauled. However we have a non-standard sail: Hydranet which is a woven dacron / dyneema mix, triradial cut and square top. This sail gives the same push with one reef as the standard sail without a reef. An extra reason for early reefing.
At beam winds we reef later, since the sail will have less tension by being rounder.
Yes, and as you remark, it all come to circuumstances, for instance bad weather theatening, and variability of the wind, and so on.

[vayacondios]

I have been curious what others experiences have been sailing with extreme conditions in the Mahe. We recently crossed the Gulf of Carpenteria, which due to it's natual attributes is like a big sloshing bathtub. It's a three day trip, and we left with a good forecast however with wind against tide, we had 3 to 4 meter seas on the port quarter.

We are fairly new to catamaran sailing so it was quite terrifying, to be hurtling through the night in pitch black in these kinds of seas. We did not have too much sail up, and the wind was only 20 to 25 knots. It seemed that we got tossed quite a bit, and once we put one engine on slow ahead, seemed to track better with the auto pilot. My concern/question is what kind of conditions have other Mahe owners experienced. Since I only have my own experience, I don't know if I was just worrying for no reason. Perhaps others have experienced worse and would say that is nothing. (Which would be a comfort!) I have read multihull seasmenship and understand you don't want to roll or pitch pole, but how much can these Mahe's really take?
I think 3 to 4 meter seas dead downwind could be worse or would it be better. What would be a strategy if you didn't want pitch pole or roll? Would it be safer to go down wind with a drogue? How will I know when a drogue would be a good idea?

Unfortunately we have to go back across the Gulf of Carpenteria later this year. That leaves me awake at night, and maybe some advise or a better understanding of what my 2010 Mahe can handle would help.
Rozzie
Vaya con Dios (Currently in Darwin Australia)

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi Rozzie,
We do not (yet) have a series drogue. We have not yet required one. Strongest wind at sea was a continuous 44-45 knots. (In 15,000 nm / 4 years). At that moment we used a bit of jib, wind direction around 130-140 degrees, and we did around 9 knots.
I spoke on the phone to a delivery skipper who sailed a new Mahe from France to the UK. He experienced a force 10. The ship did 11 knots without sails. He appreciated the mahe very much then......
A drogue is required to prevent too high speed when surfing off waves, as far as I know. I feel 11 knots it not dangerous, so you might require a drogue (I think a series drogue is best) above force 10.
And in most cases, you will only meet a force 11 during long crossings; with nowadays weather prediction the chance of experiencing a force 11 or more during short crossings is not very large.

I would recommend you to never sail at right angles to high&steep or breaking waves. You don't want the impact of breakers on the high vertical sides of your hull. In those situations it's better to sail at 110 degrees to the waves or larger. Or, if it must be, at 70 degrees to the waves.

Sailing straight downwind in strong winds is OK. In moderately strong wind you can use the mainsail, with a preventer, in really strong wind just use your jib. You might have to steer by hand, but our Furuno autopilot is working quite well also in high seas.

Important point of any catamaran is to develop the feeling when to reef, since a multihull gives less warning than a monohull when to reef.

Good luck on your sail back, and just wait for a quiet spell.

[vayacondios]

Thanks Jef & Marin,
That's great to know. I had a feeling that our worries were mostly due to our lack of experience. We are very conserative sailing, reef early and often. I have not tried sailing with the jib alone. Im going to try that and see how that works. Seems like it would be ideal, rather than having to turn into big seas to reef the main.
I am mindboggled when I think about Force 10 and 11 sailing. Not my cup of tea, but nice to have confidence in our Mahe with the right handling knowledge and skill we can become better sailors.
Good Stuff, thanks!
Rozzie