Do Multihullers Ever go Back?

[weavis]

Originally Posted by captain58sailin

What is important to me. For me it is the journey, then the destination. Like everyone else I want to be comfortable as possible during the journey, though I sometimes wonder if overcoming the hardships is part of what makes the journey special. It is a better story to tell when you have to overcome some challenges (see boaty's most recent adventure). I get the idea from reading a lot of the multi hull posts that the speed is paramount and short transit times are the goal, the extra space aboard is a plus. If that is your thing then good on you. For me, I prefer viewing the journey as important as the destination, sometimes more so, if it takes me a day or 2 longer to arrive that is okay. I'll be happy to wave as you jet on by me. I really don't care what anyone else thinks of my vessel choice.

When I read comments like, "its slow, only does 7 knots" it makes me smile. 7 knots is probably the high end of average for most sailers...... When I used to thrash my Seawych 19 downwind in a good blow, and I got 7 point something....... I felt I was flying.

If a small Cat get around 7 knots steady, I smile and am happy. If my Westerly Taurus got 7 knots and a gentle heel, I was in heaven. I might get there a bit behind some other boats....... but I get there with a big happy smile and have enjoyed the journey.

[dirkdig]

Yep and i will sell my car and go back to horse and wagon.
Never go back

[weavis]

Originally Posted by dirkdig

Yep and i will sell my car and go back to horse and wagon.
Never go back

Have you ANY idea what a horse costs to keep these days?!!

[dirkdig]

Good point, more or less that a cat?

[weavis]

Originally Posted by dirkdig

Good point, more or less that a cat?

MUCH more........... much .....
And not near as much fun.

[captain58sailin]

Horses sometimes will bite you.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Factor

Including customers?

It would seem that way... seeing as I'm posting and not sailing..
But... I figure folk who've been on here for a while are aware I'm a wind up merchant.. and I'd rather have a client with a sense of humour than one without one..
Make life so much easier..

[Polux]

Originally Posted by colemj

The Voyage 440 is a performance cat? I guess on par with those Deans! We certainly have a different idea of what constitutes "performance" in regard to catamarans. I'm not knocking the Voyage and do not consider our boat a performance design either.

44CC's boat, on the other hand, does sneak onto that side of the line.

And yes, I do have experience sailing Voyages (I think this type of disclaimer should be considered important on this thread!).

Mark

What is called a performance boat varies with the intention: Racing, cruising/racing or just cruising. The voyage catamarans are long range cruising cats and in that respect they are performance cats and that's what their shipyard considers them:

"VOYAGE yachts, manufacturers of multiple award winning sailing catamarans, boasts its product range as luxurious, stylish, elegant and as performance cruising vessels. "

Being performance or not, like on monohulls, will result of a comparison of their performance with the one that is the typical on the main market cats and by far the most sold cruising cats, voyage or otherwise are the Lagoon, Fountain-Pajot, Leopard type.

Those cats for a 44 ft size have typically about 12000kgof weight and a sail area of about 86m2.

The boat that on Voyage yachts substituted the 440 weights 9200kg and has 105m2 of sail area.

In what regards performance sail area is not all, finesse is also very important and if we compare the beam (and finesse) of the Voyage 440 and a Lagoon 440 (or any similar boat among the best selling in this size) we can see a huge difference (the Lagoon 440 is the beamier one).





Yes I think that comparing the Voyage catamarans performance with the typical mass production cruising cats, the ones that overwhelmingly dominate the market, the shipyard can justifiably call it a performance cruiser.

You seem to consider performance cats the only ones that are suitable for racing and are used for racing and cruising, but today when we talk a bout a performance cruiser (in market terms) it does not mean that it is suitable for racing but that is a lot more fast than the average main market cruising boats of the same size and certainly the Voyage yachts are. There are many performance monohull cruisers that are not intended or designed for racing as there are on the same category of performance cruisers many multihulls.

[geoleo]

IDID!! Im 76 and after I sold my refurbished WOODS 36 open bridgedeck Cat I thought this as it! However last Dec I had a "late Lfe" crisis and bought a Brewer 12.8 sloop/cutter mid cockpit -now Im happily refurbishing it! Cats are fun but costly for docks unless you own one.

[geoleo]

Originally Posted by weavis

What a lovely boat!
How does it perform under sail may I ask?

Sail?? are you kidding??

[weavis]

Originally Posted by markpierce

It's not a motorsailer. Let's say it's sail-assisted.

Yeah....... I forgot the on the end......
I do like the looks. It has everything I like in this type of design. I guess I just like sails with everything.......
I didnt know that stability could be improved by the sails... thats something new I learned.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by smj

You are discussing this one thread and I agree with what you say. But in general I believe in what I said is true. I think the majority of the people that switch from mono to multi think they're going to gain both speed and space. But like you said the majority buy the condo cats and get the space but realize no gain in performance.

The type of cats that are growing fast now are motor cats a type almost nonexistent some decades back. Now they represent a big market and many of the brands that have them started doing sailing cats or have now the two lines, with basically the same type of hulls.

That is a bit of an exclusive with cats (many of the brands that make sailing boats do also motor boats but they do planing boats), but I have heard dealers selling main market monohulls has motor boats (you don't need to sail, this is a very economic motor boat) and many coastal cruisers rarely sail them and use the engine most of the time.

Anyway in what regards sailing and cruising there are the ones that really enjoy sailing and cruising (and liking sailing implies they want an enjoyable and fun boat to sail, probably a fast one) and others to whom sailing is a mean for cruising and that is used mainly because it is less expensive then motoring. For those the important is to get there, not the fun while getting there and obviously the boat requirements will be different.

That's why I think that among the ones that enjoy sailing, for the fun of it, the similarities between monohull or multihull sailors will be a lot bigger than among any one of the to whom sailing is basically only a mean for cruising. The ones from whom sailing is a pleasure in itself will have performance cruisers and will always be a minority among cruisers.

Note that I am not making any evaluation between cruisers, regarding ones being less than others. All are cruisers and do what they want to do the way they like to do it and certainly that is the right way to each one.


We can see that among top racing offshore sailors they sail multihulls and monohulls alike and certainly they have pleasure sailing both types.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by georgetheleo

Sail?? are you kidding??

Steady on George, at 76 you need to not hit your head so much ....

[geoleo]

Its not all perfect on Cats! After going back to the darkside last Sept, wife and I took a Charter in Grenada on a Lagoon 42TPI. It was a nice boat but it sure rocked and rolled fiercely at anchor! In talking to the boats owner and Captain he said that it had previously hit a reef with one hull and he had to repair it and buy a new rudder. he said it drew 5ft when heeled at speed- This is 6 inches more than my Brewer 12.8 with board up! plus its not 23ft wide! Like any boat one must be ever vigilant about grounding.Sure the TPI is speedier(we hit 11kn once) but when going fast its bumpy too. (plus the heads are very small.)

[weavis]

Originally Posted by georgetheleo

Its not all perfect on Cats! After going back to the darkside last Sept, wife and I took a Charter in Grenada on a Lagoon 42TPI. It was a nice boat but it sure rocked and rolled fiercely at anchor! In talking to the boats owner and Captain he said that it had previously hit a reef with one hull and he had to repair it and buy a new rudder. he said it drew 5ft when heeled at speed- This is 6 inches more than my Brewer 12.8 with board up! plus its not 23ft wide! Like any boat one must be ever vigilant about grounding.Sure the TPI is speedier(we hit 11kn once) but when going fast its bumpy too. (plus the heads are very small.)

I would humbly suggest, that something had not been repaired properly. Ive been on lots of Cats, and if properly anchored, not too much dancing...
That is not to say if the vessel is moored in a chop it wont jig a bit.