Family thinking of cruising, new to catamarans

[Talbot]

As you are new to cats, a few comments may help from the POV of my 25 year sailing and owning catamarans.

You make no comment about size/price area. Cats tend to be a bit more expensive than what people perceive as equivalent monohulls. With your size family especially if you want to be able to work, you will need at least a 40ft cat, 45 being better.

With cats there are three options : reasonable price, performance, and comfort. But you can only have two of those.

As you will be mainly short handed onboard, dagger boards may not be as good a choice as long low aspect ratio keels - there is less to consider when sailing, but it will impact performance.

Yanmar are great engines )I prefer them over volvos, but avoid SD50 saildrives like the plague. I think the SD60 are better.

Berthing cats can get expensive, so lying at anchor is a good solution, but more difficult with the ages of your sons. Still an occasional solution, so make sure that your anchor system is beefed up to allow some degree of mental comfort.

Vessel recommendations really need some guidance from you on size and budget.

[argonauta1]

My comment: get a bigger monohull. Cats are the darling of the charter operators but for long term, I vote for a mono anytime.

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by argonauta1

My comment: get a bigger monohull. Cats are the darling of the charter operators but for long term, I vote for a mono anytime.

If you are a serious sailor and the whole family are also serious sailors, and your plan is long distance serious sailing, even I as a dedicated cat lover would tend to agree.
However, a cat offers separate cabins for each child, and probably an en-suite for Mum and Dad, plus a separate office space. It also offers more comfortable living.
But you have to be certain that your choice of boat reflects the type of sailing you intend to do (and not just how many hulls she has!)

[dwightsusan]

From the owners/designers/builders of a 48' high performance cruising catamaran, first contemplated from Snowbird, UT, when our sons were 7 and 9. Sound familiar? The transition from cruising monohulls to a big cat can be an easy one. Minimal heel, a large cockpit for sheet management, a secure spot at the mast base for halyard management, a wide foredeck for headsail management, and widely spread engines for easy maneuverability. The only rub, and a small one, is when the catamaran is a high performance one, probably not a factor for you in your plans.

[dwightsusan]

Talbot "As you are new to cats, a few comments may help from the POV of my 25 year sailing and owning catamarans.
With cats there are three options : reasonable price, performance, and comfort. But you can only have two of those."

From the POV of the designer, builder, and owner operator of a 48'(+/-) very high performance cruising cat. If you mean a very reasonable price, high performance, and serious creature comfort, you can only have one of these.

[Stewie12]

Best buy The Thornless Path so get you to Puerto Rico and even then from the Dominican Republic you are boing to be going into strong winds and seas.

[rickwest]

In the 90s I had a 39ft monohull sailboat with lots of experience on her.
Lost her in 2000, divorce

In the 2000s I did Captain sailing cats on reef trips in the keys so I had a lot of day trip experience on cats

In 2015 bought a Lagoon 380 38ft in Martinique sailed her south then West to Panama 5 months later I crossed the Pacific. My experience, it is much much easier to sail and operate a Catamaran why....2 engines...sailing level at all times, can cook a 4 course meal running in 20kt wind astern in the Pacific.

I love monohulls the real sailboats but I would never go back to owning one.
I guess I am not a true salty sailor my boats currently in Malaysia.
Good luck on your future cruising.
Another point no more salt water over bow into my face, I had a full keel heavy monohull so she dove into the waves.
It all just comes down to what type of boat you like.
I found the transition so easy.

[RBCurtis]

My wife and I were in a similar situation and bought a 44' catamaran three years ago.

Still learning a lot, but one thing we learned was to add 5 knots to the predicted wind speed and then reef in advance for that situation. And the old saying is true, if you're thinking about reefing, do it.

Cats won't heel when overpowered ... be conservative.

[rickwest]

I agree about reefing early or when in doubt...rigging and sails can get stressed, monohulls warn you by heeling way over but a cat, if you are breaking speed records on your cat, the clouds are dark reef and any squall lines sighted drop your sails.

On my Lagoon 380 I had lines into my cockpit on my reef points, could reef from the cockpit anytime, using my winch.
All 380s have a lower mast on purpose less risk if sails are left up, many of them are chartered, to different levels of experience Captains

[SV Coronado]

If you're a good sailor, the transition should be easy. It's just learning the nuances. If you're sailing with a good captain, they should be able to show you some tips-n-tricks for sailing a cat that you may not know coming from a monohull.

Take the comments about insurance seriously. It's a real PIA nowadays. Even those of us who live full-time on our boats and sail offshore regularly struggle to get insured. The insurance companies don't seem to use reasonable logic in their decisions.

[sv Stella Maris]

My family of now (10) did just this. PM me if you want to speak further and get straight answers.

From monos, to 46' cat, now 60' cat. Began in Puerto Rico 2019...

In short: yes you can. Yes its more difficult with children than you can imagine. Yes it is more rewarding than can be described in words.

[merrydolphin]

As a US Sailing instructor that has certified hundreds of cruisers, and cruised tens of thousands of miles, I can say that there is a lot of good info in this string.

A. Hurricanes are a big issue. There is a glut of boats in the Virgins. When a storm is on track all even semi-decent places are very much spoken for. The Virgins in a hurricane can be a death trap. More protection in PR, but even they’re not easy. Every hurricane season, as it started to crank up, at the peak, I sailed to Trinidad. It’s south of the hurricane belt. Not an option for you….yet. But keep it in mind.
I have lost 2 homes to hurricanes, my world equipped cruising sailboat to Andrew, Miami, and a house to Florence, NC. There is (almost) no such thing as a “good” hurricane hole. I stay the heck away.

B. Insurance. Yeah deal with it in advance as much as you can. Not easy, nor cheap.

C. The Virgins other that hurricanes are a great place to start. Very user friendly and safe (barring hurricanes). You and family will love it there. And great snorkeling/ diving. ( worth getting Scuba certified there if not already). I am also a Scuba Instructor. Love diving there. Plenty to see for the time you are talking about. By then you will be ready to move on. The Caribbean just gets better as you head south. Lots to see and do.

D. Maneuvering in close quarters are always the most critical part of instruction. A mistake can cost you thousands very quickly. Mono or multi same problems.
If a multi is a must. I find that with good instruction and practice you will be amazed at how maneuverable a multi is with its twin engine and broad base of turning leverage. I use to captain a 70’ aluminum catamaran ferry/tour vessel. I could put that boat right where I wanted it despite its size and windage( it had a lot). A large mono unless it is spade rudder fin keel is not as maneuverable.

E. A suggestion on a nice 50+ foot mono is not a bad one. Everything he said makes sense. Especially! if cost is a consideration. Cheap Multi’s are not such a good idea. A good quality used mono a much better bet. Most decent worthy Multi’s are reaching towards a million or more, used! Do a lot of due diligence before buying cheap multi. A lot. Watch all the YouTube channels like Sailing Nahoa, Parlay Revival, sailing Delos. A lot of experience here.

Good luck, fair winds and happy cruising!!

[saratogamanta]

Dear Steamboat Fam,

5+ is the perfect age to take kids cruising and the best thing we ever did for us and our children. Having circled the Carib and East Coast USA for years and now are on the other side of the world in our second life I offer some thoughts.

IMHO 'Working' and cruising with a family rarely go together well; years of observation. Most people end up staying put in one place often for longer than the crew wants. Georgetown Bahamas would be most every family's vote if that were the case.

IMHO maintaining, moving and tending to your boat and family's needs is a full time job in itself. A very capable adaptable mate will be KEY here.

Also, it will take a full on 3-6 months to get the boat how you want it. Best one you'll find is one that has already cruised and SURVEYS well. Even 25 yo well maintained boats are fabulous and about as depreciated as they'll get.

How about cruising up and down the east coast? Our kids lived and breathed American History, Art Museums, Science Museums, Historical Sites, etc that coincided with their Calvert Homeschool in a box program. Getting a mooring ball in Sarasota is cheap or other places in FL for the winter. This gives you access to everything you want and need as your boat life matures and your contract winds down. RI and MA are absolutely spectacular in the summer and into October. Get a seasonal mooring in RI (Standish in Tiverton, Bristol, Newport, etc) or MA, Cuttyhunk, New Bedford, etc) for the work week and do weekend trips to the Vineyard or Cuttyhunk. Kids can take sailing lessons and race etc.

PR to St Martin is a hurricane magnet and one of the last places I would consider staying on a boat during Hurricane season; just saying. We have found we met very few cruisers and kid boats in this region even in the cruising season. Combo of lots of charter boats and liveaboards that never move.

[Jon Hacking]

First, Steamboat, welcome to CF. I hope we can help you achieve your goals.

As for transitioning from mono to multi, I think most of the high points have already been hit. As was pointed out, there's some good info in this thread.

The main point I'd add is that on a mono, you can usually tell stress on the boat by the angle of heel, & of course, that doesn't work on a multi. Therefore, your wind instruments are crucial. If you're asking yourself "do I need to reef?" the answer is almost always YES! Multis don't have the built-in "reefing" of a monohull heeling, so stresses can build up quickly.

We have insurance through a South African brokerage, RBS, but they only take customers with a South African "connection". Not sure exactly what this means, as we did it all by email, but we were in SA at the time, & a SA cruiser (& ex-insurance broker) recommended them to us. I can send you more contact info if you want.

Our introduction to cruising was crewing on a big Roberts 53 (mono) from Cape Town to the Caribbean in 1981. There we bought a small (well, 40') plywood Piver trimaran that we called home for 8 years, mostly in the Eastern Caribbean. After 12 years on land to raise kids, we moved onto our current 45' catamaran in 2001, when our kids were 12 & 15, & they did their high-school as we traveled across the Pacific & Indian oceans.

So we completely support your plan to go cruising with your family. As was pointed out above, cruising with your kids will bring you some fabulous (& probably unexpected) joys.

We provide a bunch of Cruising Information on our website, & down at the bottom of that page we talk a bit about cruising as a family, including a link to an article Sue wrote on Cruising with Teens. Most of our Cruising Info is for SE Asia, but on our Chart Downloads page, we provide some extremely detailed & accurate charts you can download for the Eastern Caribbean (& over 30 other countries).

Good luck!