Performance of Catanas

[mamo]

I decided to buy second hand Catana 435 after I read lots of things here but I cant find anything about its performance, polar diagram ex..
Can you help me about my decision and their performance?

[mamo]

I have just find this page and it doesnt look any difference from other catamarans like Lagoon and FP series.. except the price

[2Hulls]

mamo - do you mean a 431? Which one?

Of cource I'm biased but these boats are in a different league than Lagoons and FPs in that they are not primarily charter boats. More comparable to Privilege (of the French production builders) in overall quality. If you believe the claims of some other builders, these boats are not the fastest - but will deliver solid mid-teens kts as sustainable, steady state top end speeds and better performance than non-board boats to weather - and do it all very safely. Solid, safe world cruisers.

Dave

[mamo]

Dave,

I read so many messege of yours..and very happy about responding some catana owners here.. but I cant find any polar diagram or performans data except below:
Garabes

and its performance looks like others?

[mamo]

CATANA 431

[2Hulls]

Originally Posted by mamo

but I cant find any polar diagram or performans data except below:
Garabes

and its performance looks like others?

Mamo - I have not sailed a 431 so I have no first hand info comparable to actual polar diagrams. I suggest you inquire on the Catana Owners Group yahoo forum at CatanaCats : Catana Catamaran Owners & wanta be's . There are active 431 owners who will respond to your questions. You might have to allow several days because most are out voyaging.

The performance reported on Garabes seems a little low to what I would expect, but I notice from the pictures on that site that that boat is sitting pretty low in the water. Just an observation.

Dave

[mamo]

Dave - Do you have polar of your catana 471 like the fastcat vs. wind speed and boat weight?

[2Hulls]

I do not have a polar - but I'm collecting data for one. As for weight, I'll report back after this Friday assuming the load cells on the travel lift are working.

Are you considering S/V Pacific Bliss?

Dave

[Joli]

Originally Posted by mamo

I decided to buy second hand Catana 435 after I read lots of things here but I cant find anything about its performance, polar diagram ex..
Can you help me about my decision and their performance?

You might try the manufacturer or a better bet would be the designer if it is not an in house design. The makers are reluctant to post polars with true and apparrant wind speed and angles with half load or full load. Why would a maker ever want to publish an upwind VMG's of 3.5 knots in 20 knots of breeze? The speed moniker is tarnished when sailors see that.

Fastcat seems to be the exception but even those polars do not seem fully explained to me. It looks like the Fastcat 435 has an upwind VMG of 8 knots when empty and 6.5 when loaded for cruising. The Catana 431 is probably somwhere between the fully loaded Fastcat and the Privlage 445 that has a VMG of 3.75 upwind in 20 knots. Good news though, cats are in their element when the twa is 135 degrees, just keep reaching?

Also, US Sailing may have the polars if any were measured to race?

[mamo]

Fastcat looks very popular at this forum but I dont think that is really much faster than Catanas

[Nordic cat]

There is a lot of marketing B****** involved with selling boats, especially cats and tris.

May I suggest starting with the basics, looking at stuff like the SA/D ratio. If you can't find the displacement, then ask for the CE displacement, this is something that should be on the CE certificate, and should be representative of a loaded boat.

My impression is that some of the newer Catanas are way heavier than earlier versions, but the "performance" sticker has just followed along?

regards

Alan

[catty]

Joli I've tried googling for catamaran polars and haven't had much luck. The Catana one I located had no wind speed mentioned but from the data points it must have been cyclonic. I see Bob Oram talks of supplying polars with his plans but I couldn't locate them on his web site. I may have been guilty of having a "boys Look". Can you point me in the right direction, it will be interesting to compare them to what we see occurring in the mixed fleet racing.

[David M]

Originally Posted by mamo

Fastcat looks very popular at this forum but I dont think that is really much faster than Catanas

Wait till Gideon gets wind of this! ...no pun intended.

I am curious to see the Catana polars for all of their boats since Catana is on my short list. In fact, I am going to email them and ask for them for a copy. I will let you know if Catana gives me a response.

[Tnflakbait]

Originally Posted by Nordic cat

My impression is that some of the newer Catanas are way heavier than earlier versions, but the "performance" sticker has just followed along?

regards

Alan

I'll second that. Older Catana's were a bit more minimal and fast. There was a new Catana 52 that did the transpac this last year and it looked a bit like a dog. It was massivly overbuilt. It was like a giant house boat thing that could sail. To all their own.

Generally I am a fan of Catanas as opposed to their competition.

[Tnflakbait]

I have polars for my boat I could scan if you want to see some catamaran polars. Let me know.

Originally Posted by catty

Joli I've tried googling for catamaran polars and haven't had much luck. The Catana one I located had no wind speed mentioned but from the data points it must have been cyclonic. I see Bob Oram talks of supplying polars with his plans but I couldn't locate them on his web site. I may have been guilty of having a "boys Look". Can you point me in the right direction, it will be interesting to compare them to what we see occurring in the mixed fleet racing.