Light weight cruising catamaran

[Ndavies]

Lightweight and cruising don't go together in the same sentence!

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by Ndavies

Lightweight and cruising don't go together in the same sentence!

Only if you you go cheap. Speed / Comfort / Cost - choose any 2 from 3.

[tiopirata]

I have over 400,000 sea miles under my keels these last 55 years of sailing the world, and I have been engineer, rigger, designer and builder of boats in that time. I can attest that light weight is definitely safer, faster and just as seakindly as heavy weight
I can also tell you that one off vessels are frequently far superior to stock vessels. I will never own a ballasted vessel again also. For another poster here to state "lightweight and cruising don't go together" is simply ignorant in my opinion.
I can build, and have built, 60' multis that weigh less than most 30' monos and which have proven to be excellent, comfortable and low maintainence ocean cruisers with very long life span. It should be noted that some of these vessels have also proved to be much cheaper to build, own and maintain then many much smaller ballasted monos. To cruise extensively you need a vessel capacity of crew weight plus one tonne, or less. This can be achieved in vessels that may weigh less than 2 tonnes and can still provide great comfort in trying conditions.

[Yotiheff]

Ironic to read all these posts on the seaworthiness of “Lightweight Cats”. All yachts, but especially multihulls are less seaworthy when carrying too much weight. Weight= slow= stress= stupid. Designers are tempted or coerced into giving clients more displacement, but they generally don’t go sailing with them The currently popular trend of grossly overweight multihulls (and monos) with very little ability to sail and a huge thirst for fuel? How are they justified on any basis? Someone had the money?

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by tiopirata

I have over 400,000 sea miles under my keels these last 55 years of sailing the world, and I have been engineer, rigger, designer and builder of boats in that time. I can attest that light weight is definitely safer, faster and just as seakindly as heavy weight
I can also tell you that one off vessels are frequently far superior to stock vessels. I will never own a ballasted vessel again also. For another poster here to state "lightweight and cruising don't go together" is simply ignorant in my opinion.
I can build, and have built, 60' multis that weigh less than most 30' monos and which have proven to be excellent, comfortable and low maintainence ocean cruisers with very long life span. It should be noted that some of these vessels have also proved to be much cheaper to build, own and maintain then many much smaller ballasted monos. To cruise extensively you need a vessel capacity of crew weight plus one tonne, or less. This can be achieved in vessels that may weigh less than 2 tonnes and can still provide great comfort in trying conditions.

In certain conditions I notice a significantly more comfortable ride or anchor, when I have an extra 300kg on board. I remember motoring from Gozo to mainland Malta. Filled up with fuel and water and the movement was much softer more dampened if you will. More comfortable.

It's not always the case, but in some situations weight helps. Weight (down low) also increases the the static and dynamic stability of catamarans.

Originally Posted by Yotiheff

Ironic to read all these posts on the seaworthiness of “Lightweight Cats”. All yachts, but especially multihulls are less seaworthy when carrying too much weight. Weight= slow= stress= stupid. Designers are tempted or coerced into giving clients more displacement, but they generally don’t go sailing with them The currently popular trend of grossly overweight multihulls (and monos) with very little ability to sail and a huge thirst for fuel? How are they justified on any basis? Someone had the money?

Every thing that can carry any weight is less worthy when carrying "too much" weight. The only thing "too much" weight means, is more than the designed payload.

[Yotiheff]

[QUOTE=mikedefieslife;3203370]In certain conditions I notice a significantly more comfortable ride or anchor, when I have an extra 300kg on board. I remember motoring from Gozo to mainland Malta. Filled up with fuel and water and the movement was much softer more dampened if you will. More comfortable.

It's not always the case, but in some situations weight helps. Weight (down low) also increases the the static and dynamic stability of catamarans.




Every thing that can carry any weight is less worthy when carrying "too much" eightweight. The only thing "too much" weight means, is more than the designed payload.[/QUOTE

Didn’t I suggest it was too much to design a vessel to carry too much weight?

[markiobe]

We have a similar set of requirements and looked at everything we could find, quickly discounting the condomarans and were probably going to have either a Schionning or Grainger built professionally when we stumbled across Asia Catamarans who build Stealth power and sailing catamarans.

Small semi custom operation based in Phuket who build very cleverly designed boats of epoxy/carbon, shockingly light. I come from a dinghy racing background and some of the build decisions seem pretty obvious but no one else seems to do them, but they clearly contribute to strength/lightness.

They have over 20 built already and are mostly coastal cruiser racers but ours will be a 44ft sailer for blue water cruising. We’re having a bike garage built (We plan to bike virtually every day when at anchor and do triathlons etc) in the space where one of the aft cabins would normally be and customising some other stuff.

They have been a delight to work with so far and I’m comfortable that it’s not a one off, so less risk, and their resale value seems really good. Prices are extremely competitive too. If you want to chat directly about our experience so far let me know

[clakiep]

After 5 years of building in 1989 I launched my 44' catamaran MANTA in the water in Joinville/Brasil. Empty weight 2.5 tons, floating at CWL with 3.6 tons, deep parabolic V shaped hulls, wood/epoxi build, 130 gal. of freshwater and 40 gal. of fuel. It sailed very well with little sail area, speccially to windward with no keels or daggerboards.

Longest passages were up to 5 days with crew of 3 to 6. Payload restriction was only felt when staying over holidays in areas with lots of other boats. Beeing one of the first seagoing catamarans in Brasil at the time, it attracted lots of attention, everyone wanted to come on board to see it. I had to impose a strict rule : coming on board only with bear or some other booth in hand, otherwise in short time all our supplies were gone and we had to head back to the next village for bunker.

Of course the boat was otherwise quite frugally equiped, the haed just a covered hole in the bridgedeck belly in the bathroom, no fridge, generator, windlass,etc...

Capt. Claus - ocean tramp of the eighties