Catamarans in 50kt winds

[aglbrown]

Nothing wrong with a good cat. We delivered a Simonis 57- SV Quest to the Carribean in 92 see: Crewed Sailing Catamaran QUEST - Simonis 57 - 4 Cabins - Tortola - British Virgin Islands - Boatbookings.com
and survived mountainous seas 76 kn gusts and 50 kn for 5 days off the Cape west coast en route. Not pleasant, minor damage but she sat firm and no hint of capsizing.
Have a copy of the synoptic charts for the period as a nostalgic reminder.

[out42]

Linda
I don't think worries about the ultimate storm should skew your thinking. I also don't think that there is a way of dispassionately assessing the difference in ultimate conditions. 50 kts is not even close to ultimate for modern cats or monos.

My personal experience has been 2 days in 45 kts and mast-height waves in a trailer-sailer trimaran which coped magnificently (much better than us). We ran towing warps.
The other one was loss of both engines and rudders in a different 45kt storm in a 43' cat. The cat simply turned broadside and waited for the conditions to ease, as did we!

As previous posters have said, designs have raced ahead, and I don't think 50kts of wind should come close to pushing you to a choice. It's the other 99.5% (maybe even 100%) of the time you need to think about.

[mycatalina33]

SV Delos just did 3-4 interviews with Cat owners asking the same questions. It is insightful. You will find them on their YouTube channel

[tiopirata]

I have been sailing for 53 years now, professionally for 46 years on and off. I have done hundreds of thousands of ocean miles and coastal miles in most types of sailing vessels, more then 200,000 in catamarans alone. Also monos, proas, tris,. As a generalisation those sailboats that have best handled extreme conditions have been cats and proas, with tris also featuring well. Monos just get crankier as the conditions worsen. As I said, this is a generalisation but I would never again consider ownership of a conventional ballasted monohull, there is no plus side except perhaps price if we are only considering stock boats. The very best boats I have ever put to sea in have all been one offs, mono and multi, and the worst have generally been from the major manufacturers. The latter have also been the most expensive to maintain.
My 2c worth.

[jenders]

https://www.amazon.com/Capsized-True.../dp/0060179619

I am not posting this link to be snotty. And I admit freely that I am totally and irredeemably biased. Good luck, fair winds in whatever you do.

[lindabarzini]

Very good observations. I do like the idea that most catamarans are positively bouyant.

Why are light cats safter than heavy cats?

How do you rate Privilege 435, Lagoon 410, Leopard 43, St. Francis 44 mkII, and Catana 411?

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by jenders

https://www.amazon.com/Capsized-True.../dp/0060179619

I am not posting this link to be snotty.

Then why? Not for relevance. For a start that was a trimaran. And one could equally post a link to Steven Callahan's "Adrift" where he barely survived being in a liferaft for 76 days after his boat sank in fairly benign weather conditions.

These days with effective EPIRBS neither situation should happen again. And it's worth noting that after 117 days in the upturned tri, the crew were in very good health (so good some authorities doubted their story) whereas Steve Callahan was on the brink of death.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by lindabarzini

Very good observations. I do like the idea that most catamarans are positively bouyant.

Why are light cats safter than heavy cats?

How do you rate Privilege 435, Lagoon 410, Leopard 43, St. Francis 44 mkII, and Catana 411?

Not sure why you are thinking light cats are safer than heavy cats. You may be confused about cats that are overloaded as opposed to cats that are not overloaded.

Earlier I posted a link to a video about sailing a cat in heavy weather with a discussion about heavy cats as opposed to light cats. Here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnBve75x04o

[Bulawayo]

That is a big sea - the camera always makes it look smaller tho' - in what looks like a Leopard 39? (and which is actually 37'6").
The crew seem comfortable enough as well - Saffers by the sound of them - running before the weather dragging warps - anything on the end?

Originally Posted by catabroker

Nice video, plenty of wind, southern ocean, 37' cat

[Bulawayo]

I was also unsure of the relevance. However, I took it to mean that the multihull enabled the crew to survive their ordeal. I now appreciate that this was not the intent but the positive message is still there. Im not so sure that all boats that have rolled/pitchpoled have enabled their crew thus, or even stayed afloat.

Originally Posted by jenders

https://www.amazon.com/Capsized-True.../dp/0060179619

I am not posting this link to be snotty. And I admit freely that I am totally and irredeemably biased. Good luck, fair winds in whatever you do.

[Bulawayo]

They all have their good points and negatives. Personally I favour the Privilege, an excellent all round boat.

Originally Posted by lindabarzini

Very good observations. I do like the idea that most catamarans are positively bouyant.

Why are light cats safter than heavy cats?

How do you rate Privilege 435, Lagoon 410, Leopard 43, St. Francis 44 mkII, and Catana 411?

[Bulawayo]

Now your penultimate paragraph is how I often view comments!!

Originally Posted by Kenomac

We seem to run into 50 knots plus here in the Med on a semi regular basis, no matter how well we plan.

Her Concerns are very real, but not so much for folks who rarely venture out beyond the local breakwater I'm guessing.

Leopard catamarans are all delivered to their buyers by delivery crews. I haven't heard of them going down on a regular basis, so they must be quite seaworthy.

Here's an ongoing threat about the accuracy of weather forecasts. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...st-170328.html

Another phenom I have trouble understanding, is people new to sailing and without a boat, making recommendations on sailing tactics and vessel type to other people without experience and without a boat. Curious?

But this is the internet.

[Cadence]

If you want to compare multi to mono, look at a tri and the geometry of going turtle.

[darylat8750]

Some time ago I read a lot about the Fastnet race. One thing noted was that all the boats that were rolled were under a certain size. I think the break was around 42ft. They said that there were several reasons postulated for that. One was that most of the larger boats were fast enough so they missed the worst of the weather. Another was that even though several larger boats were in the hard part of the storm that it appeared that the added stability of the larger boats made them more able to resist being rolled.

[smj]

During the 1979 Fastnet disaster 2 Prout cats were shadowing the fleet, not allowed to enter. Both were fine with one skipper calling it merely "ghastly weather for sailing


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