Are "Performance Cruising Catamarans" safe?

[Lee Jerry]

Originally Posted by Lee Jerry

I asked about this earlier, maybe twice, without any response.

Is it fair to say that there have been a handful, say 6-ish, of cruising cat (Lagoon, Leopard, etc.) events in the past two decades?

Is it fair to say that there have been a handful of performance cruising cat (Gunboat, Outremer, etc.) events in the past HALF decade?

So the latter occurs at a rate 4x the former? Or 3x? Or 2x?

I don't know, I'm asking...

We'll try this one more time. Maybe the third times the charm.

Anyone have any comments? Do we agree or disagree?

[JustMurph]

Originally Posted by Lee Jerry

We'll try this one more time. Maybe the third times the charm.

Anyone have any comments? Do we agree or disagree?

Of course, if you push the performance boat hard, particularly racing, you have a higher chance of capsizing. That's where a large proportion of those numbers are made up. If you're conservative and reef down, there is no issue.

Originally Posted by Joli

The problem is always the same, an unexpected change in the weather. We have occasionally missed changes on multi day passages. The worst was 15 knots to 50 knots in 30 seconds, at night, in the trades, watching the stars. None of us saw it coming, knocked us down. One more caught us that evening, couldn't see it on radar, stars twinkling above us. It was very odd.

Cruising conservatively in 15, plenty of us in performance cats will already have a reef in. You can make the same argument for wind going from 25-60. The condo cat owner who is used to running full sail at 25 with a decent safety margin is also going to be in trouble.

[Joli]

Originally Posted by JustMurph

Of course, if you push the performance boat hard, particularly racing, you have a higher chance of capsizing. That's where a large proportion of those numbers are made up. If you're conservative and reef down, there is no issue.



Cruising conservatively in 15, plenty of us in performance cats will already have a reef in. You can make the same argument for wind going from 25-60. The condo cat owner who is used to running full sail at 25 with a decent safety margin is also going to be in trouble.

Yep, 15 true at 120 true pulling it to 10 apparant and 80 apparant . Then ya get whacked.

[boatman61]

Thing that annoyed me about sailing fast was I kept overtaking the wind..

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Thing that annoyed me about sailing fast was I kept overtaking the wind..

I didn’t realize you sailed one of the Americas Cup “boats”

[boatman61]

No.. just a Tiki 21 at 11kts on a broad reach, the jib would start bluffing at 9, I'd sheet in and damn if it didn't start bluffing again at 11kts with no more sheeting in possible.

Really used to piss me of on the sail back to Poole Harbour from Old Harry... Stop go, Stop go..
Got 16kts out of a Tiki 26 coming back from Cherbourg, gusting F7 with full sail..