The reason lighter cats are safer?

[Alistair242]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I will pass on some words from Lowell North (founder of North Sails), who did a circumnavigation on a Tayana 55, but who also spent a lot of time on his son Danny's 40 ft cat. He said that based on the weather he encountered, he would choose a cat next time, a minimum of 40 ft for bridge deck clearance. I carried a drogue and a parachute anchor on my circumnavigation, and used neither. OTOH, neither Lowell nor I sailed around in hurricane season looking for trouble, or in high latitudes during the winter. It was never his or my goal to sail around Cape Horn.

If you obsess with safety, you end up with a crab crusher steel monohull which you have to motor to weather. A cat demands more seamanship if you put the sails up, and a light cat demands a bit more. Any cat can be flipped if you press it hard enough, and its easier to flip lighter ones, but my choice would be based on which is more of a joy to sail.

So true. Not to mention that most modern performance cats are built with resin infused foam core grid systems or other strong, light and buoyant material making them extremely strong, fast and virtually unsinkable.