Mono vs Cat - Wanting Opinions

[RTB]

I believe smj gave some useful info.

I DO think a cat would make you happy though. 60-75% of your time at anchor and living space.... That's kind of a no-brainer.

Much could depend on your cruising grounds though. You mentioned the Caribbean. That can get pretty rough! So can the Great Bahama Bank, for that matter. Here is a video between the Windward Passage and South America. You may experience 0 knots of wind and have to motor, and later 50 knots during a squall....

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

[Kettlewell]

For what you're planning on doing I bet you would have more fun in the Gemini. As you mention you like the shallow draft and not worrying about going aground. The Morgan would be a better cargo ship, meaning that if you want to carry around a lot of stuff it would be a better boat for that. A lot of Geminis I see are way overloaded, and they perform much better with less load. If kept reasonably light it would sail better than the Morgan. I used to own a 32-foot cat and my wife and I took her offshore to Bermuda, down the Caribbean, etc. and it was tons of fun, but it did slam offshore in rough conditions and our boat had a lot more clearance than a Gemini. I would say it is not usually a huge issue, but can be uncomfortable in offshore heavy weather. The Morgan's are getting pretty old at this point and will likely require more work to get them into shape. I switched back to a 38-foot mono to get the cargo carrying capacity for full-time family living aboard, but for 3-4 months at a time I would prefer smaller and shallow draft. May switch back at some point.