440: Questions about sailing Lagoon 440 upwind

[Sid at SailAway]

Low Country, our catamaran boat show is this weekend where we should have about a dozen cats to board and inspect. We'll be doing demos as well and the 440 is one of the demo boats. You're more than welcome to come check it out if you like. The new Annapolis Spring boat show is happening the same weekend so you can take advantage of that as well while your here. PM me for more details if you like.....Smooth Seas.....Sid

[jmpilot]

On our 440 the best AWA to weather in small seas is 42 degrees without loss of VMG. With seas over 2meters AWA must be increased to about 50.

Remember, people who beat up the lack of a cats windward performance often overlook the only thing that matters, VMG. After all, what do you care if your AWA is 50 and your mono friends is 40 if you VMG is better, which it often is.

[dougdaniel]

I took a peek at the polar plots then did a little vector algebra on the data that I eyeballed off the chart. You might find my results interesting:

With a true wind 50 degrees off the bow, the apparent wind angle varied from 35 deg with a true wind speed of 8 kts up to 39 degrees at 25 kts. The velocity made good (VMG) into the wind went from 2.2 at 8kts of wind to 5.0 kts at 25 kts wind.

What I found very interesting was at 60 degrees the VMG was HIGHER at every true wind speed from 8 to 25 kts. The VMG went from 2.3 to 5.2. The apparent wind angle varied from 43 degree up to 47 as the wind picked up.

I am inclined to think that the L440 would move to windward significantly faster than most 44 ft mono hull cruisers even if it cannot point as high. I don't have any data to work with, though.

Doug Daniel

Originally Posted by barnakiel

WHAT?

Someone somewhere published something, have a peek:

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/att...boats-p440.gif

Cheers,
b.