Monohull or Multihull Sailboat?

[schoonerdog]

having been there and done that in hurricanes, I usually find small secluded holes where the entrance is 4 ft or so with a shallow bar covering the entrance. When I go in, I'm completely alone.

[venelin]

''IMA LI BYLGARI VAV FORUMA?'' If sombody talking Bulgarian language in this forum.for good reason.

[BigCat]

I don't see why this would be a monohull vs. multihull issue. Keeping your boat from hitting another boat is the responsiblity of any skipper, and keeping well clear of boats which anchored before you is also the responsibility of any skipper. I have seen monohulls offend in this regard, as well. Selfish and irresponsible people can buy either kind of boat, so the type of boat isn't the issue. I haven't sailed in the Caribbean, but it seems to me that it must be a good idea to avoid spending the hurricane season in places where harbors are few and crowded. As has been pointed out, multihulls can often use shallower anchoring spots than monohulls, so it think that issue balances out the question of space taken up. Even keel multihulls are usually somewhat shallower than monohulls of equivalent length. Multihulls may have more windage than monohulls, but less weight, and both are issues when boats are plunging in swells while at anchor. A boat properly prepared for a hurricane takes up little swinging room, no matter its type, because it will usually be in the center of a cat's cradle of anchors and lines.

[Strygaldwir]

Heck, I didn't realize what a pain it was to get into and out of a dinghy in a monohull. If you don't have a sugar scoop, it is something of an ordeal. In our cat, we just walk down the stairs of the transome and step into the dinghy! no muss, no fuss.

How about bringing the dinghy up at night. We just attach to the davits and haul it up. Wife on one hull, me on the other. Easy!

How about mounting the solar panels! Just spread them out accross the davits, or bimini, as many as you want! (okay, almost!)

How about having sundowners for 10, all sitting in the cockpit and actually, watching the sun go down!

Want ultimate spares! How about a spare engine, alternator, starter, water pump">raw water pump....etc!

But, if you love the sense of really sailing nothing like heeling and feeling the sense of sailing. A cat, just kind of gets you there. No muss, not much fuss!

[Palarran]

I'm really sold on cats and am chartering a 40' Lavizza in BVI's next month. But a couple of things are starting to nag on me about cats which are: 1) fit and finish, the only cat I've seen that had a really good look to it's constuction was the Sunreef. 2) Price - If you compare what you can buy a mono for compared to a cat they seem way overpriced. Bollman Yachts just had a 68' mono for sale in Sail Magizine. It sold for $550k and looked incredible (at least in the photos) see Bollman Yachts

So I guess I'm struggling with the price and quality vs the benefits of cats.

[Palarran]

Here's a other one that's asking for $600k and will sell for less.

Bollman Yachts

[BigCat]

That's this: Jutson Yacht Design - Power Catamarans, Performance Cruising and Racing Yachts Bollman Yachts[/quote]

[Tim Schaaf]

One reason that cats cost more is that they are much bigger, for the length, than mono's. Think 20 - 25 %. So your 65 foot monohull compares to a low to mid 50's foot cat. That helps bring the price comparison more into line, but yes, they are still pricey.

Cat's also flex more than monohulls, which can lead to odd stress cracks in the gelcoat, and in really bad cases, even structural cracks. Most, but not all, of the latter have been designed out of the modern production cats, but you need to be aware of that, even in the case of the most well known brands.

Cats do not "spill" wind in gusts as they do not heel. It is more like the wind hitting a vertical wall. Accordingly, most cats have much heavier rigs and sails than comparable monohulls. Again, this costs.

Apart from the above problems peculiar to cats, there is a wide range of quality in fit and finish, just as there is in anything else. You can get a splendid cat, or a beater, one that will hold up indefinitely, or one that seems to have a design life much shorter. Some manufacturers use much higher quality accesories and materials than others.

Additionally, many cats have lived a good period of their lives in the tropics, as charter boats or otherwise, since they are well suited to it. But that takes an inordinate toll on gelcoat and other things, so some seem to age faster than others.

Finally, anyone contemplating buying a cat needs to first figure out where it will be docked or moored, and secondly, where it can be hauled.

[imagine2frolic]

Getting hauled close to home may be ifffffyyyyyy

[schoonerdog]

"quality" is usually measured in completely different terms than a monohull. In a monohull "quality" is determined often by things like solid mahagony and teak, heavy and thickly laid glass, etc. No quality catamarans would have things like that. Quality for catamarans are measured in carbon fiber materials, kevlar reinforcements, epoxy construction, good core materials, etc which is actually more expensive than mahagony or teak and certainly more expensive than heavy fiberglass, aluminum or steel. I would say probably design specs for "quality" catamarans are at a much more rigorous level than monohulls as the stresses are far higher. The materials that go into expensive quality catamarans are at the leading edge of materials sciences, utilizing the same materials and techniques at the Boeing dreamliner and composite aircraft. It's an evolving design evolution too as catamarans are moving from crafts which were built to appeal to monohull buyers with lots of interior wood veneer to craft which blatantly show their carbon fiber roots like the gunboat. Look at Gunboat and AfricanCats as examples of two boats which are best of breed in materials and clearly aren't afraid to set themselves apart as a different kind of boat.

[ssullivan]

Man, I hate to add this to the raging debate, but as a new multihull owner, I have to.

For almost every single reason, cats are better than monos (I have lived on both now).

BUT... there are 2 reasons monos are better than multis:

1) Monos have a better motion at sea (not at anchor though!)

2) Cats are some of the ugliest boats to ever grace the water, from the outside looking in.

Yup... I am sitting here docked next to all the other broker boats, looking out of my huge and beautiful interior at the *exterior* of the other cats and I'm just sitting here going, "yuck!" They sure are ugly!

Now cat people, keep in mind I *am* a cat owner, so you can't jump all over me saying cats are better, because I agree they are. They just ain't pretty.

Put in "man terms", you can either marry a very nice wife who worships the ground you walk on and is kind to you every moment, but is lacking in the looks department. Or... you can marry the girl who is reasonable to put up with, doesn't yell at you too much, but is absolutely gorgeous. That's kind of how I see it.

Owning the cat is more like a "convenient" marriage than a marriage of passion. They just aren't sexy...

Well, I did see on that was kind of ok looking once. "Icon" of Hamble. But that's it.

[schoonerdog]

You see? To me cats are beautiful, I glance at a cat and I can tell if it's been made to go gracefully over the seas or just plow forward. A well designed catamaran is like looking at a Jaguar, sleek and purposeful. At an anchorage monohulls look to me like bathtubs sitting next to catamaran jet fighters. I'm not trying to slam them, it's just they don't really look that pretty to me. No winning the esthetics argument, it depends on what your eye has come to appreciate as beauty. I remember in Hawaii going on on a dolphin watching tour and from the distance I could barely see the catamaran we were going to use but even from the distance could tell she had exceptional lines. I was expecting some squared off two hulled tugboat. When I boarded her I found out that she was one of the fastest sailing boats in the 1960s which over the years had eventually ended up as a dolphin watcher.

Originally Posted by ssullivan

Man, I hate to add this to the raging debate, but as a new multihull owner, I have to.

For almost every single reason, cats are better than monos (I have lived on both now).

BUT... there are 2 reasons monos are better than multis:

1) Monos have a better motion at sea (not at anchor though!)

2) Cats are some of the ugliest boats to ever grace the water, from the outside looking in.

Yup... I am sitting here docked next to all the other broker boats, looking out of my huge and beautiful interior at the *exterior* of the other cats and I'm just sitting here going, "yuck!" They sure are ugly!

Now cat people, keep in mind I *am* a cat owner, so you can't jump all over me saying cats are better, because I agree they are. They just ain't pretty.

Put in "man terms", you can either marry a very nice wife who worships the ground you walk on and is kind to you every moment, but is lacking in the looks department. Or... you can marry the girl who is reasonable to put up with, doesn't yell at you too much, but is absolutely gorgeous. That's kind of how I see it.

Owning the cat is more like a "convenient" marriage than a marriage of passion. They just aren't sexy...

Well, I did see on that was kind of ok looking once. "Icon" of Hamble. But that's it.

[henryv]

It's best not to generalise when it comes to appearance. There are good looking monos and there are ugly monos. Similarily cats can be striking or strange looking. That said I have lost count of the number of people who have gone out of their way to come a tell me how much they love the look of my PDQ32. I never got this kind of attention on my Beneteau.

[Mike Banks]

The good thing about monos is they are often self-righting and if made of metal can be very strongly built. With a cat or tri you need someone with a floating crane to help you back on to the hulls--if you survive. It is unusual certainly for a cat to invert--but it certainly does happen.

There are so many advantages to multis in coastal sailing I would never be bothered with a mono unless perhaps a beachable bilge keeler.

Cyclone holes need to be accessible. Shallow water might be good to get into before a storm--but one needs deep water once inside. If the waves and cyclone surge build up and the bottom is close to the keel--you could be lifted and dropped until a glass or ply vessel is damaged. I like to make my way into sheletered water deep at LWS. The only place one is likely to find this is inside a river or preferably a deep inlet where logs are unlikely to crash into your hull when the floods begin.

[Steve Rust]

Of course it is in the eye of the beholder but to me a well designed and porportioned multihull is much more interesting and beautiful than a typical monohull. While I can appreciate a nice classic Herreshoff, an Alden schooner, or a Concordia 39, most of the monohulls being turned out these last 30 years or so excite me about as much as a Ford Taurus. If I felt the boat I was sailing was ugly and it was just some utilitarian choice it would take some of the joy out the whole experience. If you are all hung up on the old monohull "tradition" keep this in mind. The ancient peoples of the South Pacific were exploring and settling the vast Pacific in their catamarans 3000+ years ago when the Europeans were just getting their toes wet around the shores of the Med in their monohulls.