New Sailor

[Paul Brogan]

This is 'meet and greet', so greetings! My wife and I are new sailors. I'm 52 and she is quite-a-bit-less. For some time, we've been retired in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa (I'm originally British and she is South African), but now we wish to start a new adventure.

We've already been visiting this forum for a while now, particularly to gauge opinion on the monohull/catamaran question. We've yet to decide.

We want to circumnavigate, taking our time, and our plan at the moment is Cape Town-St Helena-Ascension-Caribbean-Panama-Galapagos-etc. While opinion seems to favour cats, we still have questions regarding safety, especially in rough seas and the potential of capsizing. Hopefully, we'll get more answers as we read some of the excellent discussions in this forum, by people who've done it all.

Thanks again to a great site!

[skipmac]

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the forum. Since you have been visiting you already know there's plenty of discussion on the mono vs cat issue.

One point that I don't think that is mentioned much is the different motion of the two. Yes a cat does sail level which is very nice. On a long passage, sailing heeled over for days can get old. But due to the lighter weight and no keel a cat does tend to have a faster, some might say jerky, motion that I personally do not like.

Best suggestion I can make is try to get a ride in each and not just an easy day sail but on the ocean if possible.

Oh yes, cats cost a lot more. Big factor for me.

Good luck.

Skip

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Paul & bride.

[swagman]

G'Day and welcome also.
Nice to hear of the goals and good luck in making your decisions, choosing your yacht, and then putting the plans into action. No doubts the cat would give more space and a flat platform, but will cost double to park her up in any marina, and as you say is possibly a scarier ride in stronger winds.
But the reality is the route you defined will see you sub 10 knots windspeed most days..........and they do build some good cats in S Africa I hear.........
Decisions, decisions...........................enjoy
JOHN

[maxingout]

You can do your circumnavigation in a multihull or monohull safely. It doesn't matter so much how many hulls you have. What does matter is how you sail them.

I would happily circumnavigate in monohulls or multihulls. We ended up doing our trip in a catamaran because that is what made my wife feel the most comfortable as she does not like heeling.

People who are situationally aware do well sailing offshore. I am convinced that if you have a seaworthy vessel, it's usually not the yacht design that gets most sailors into difficulty. It the judgment of the sailors that usually is the weak link.

There is an element of luck, and people who are situationally aware seem to consistently have good luck irrespective of the number of hulls that they have.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Good to have you here and getting opinions. I second Maxingout said and the reason I don't have a cat is because of what Skipmac said. I've sailed on monos, cats and tris and just prefer the motion of monos.
regards,

[Paul Brogan]

I've got to say that the wife's comfort is the main sticking point in this debate, a problem that I've noticed is not uncommon in this forum. I enjoy the 'feel' of a monohull, as well as its forgiving nature. That said, I must still complete my catamaran conversion course, after which I may feel less doubtful about our ability to sail one as safely.