Cat Versus Mono - Single Handling

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

It really depends on how the boat is set up. I sailed a 40ft racing mono that needed 6 people minimum to sail. Other even bigger boats can be easily single handed.


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Yes, its all about set up, its not a cat vs mono question.

Its not about size either (up to a point), a Hobie 16 is more of a handful to single hand in a good breeze than most mid size cruising cats (but does not require an "expert" as posted, good basic skills will do).

I'm assisting with a Lagoon 38 right now that is very well set up for single handing. All lines led to helm (except topping lift), single line reefing on main, roller furling jib, couldn't be much easier. Good visibility from helm so single hand docking is easy too, esp given that at 38' you dont have huge expanses of deck between you and the dock.

Inexperienced husband and wife just sailed it from Martinique to Grenada with me along to provide assistance and peace of mind. I spent most of the time napping in the cockpit, only providing occasional assistance and guidance. Tough gig.

Size does come into play in bigger cats. The L38's bigger brother, the Lagoon 50, is also easy to single handed with some exceptions. All lines are led to the fly bridge cockpit and electric winches are standard (needed for the loads on a big cat, would definately need crew, and porperly sized winches, without them), so single handed sailing is easy. The fly bridge is great for visibility when docking, but makes it nearly impractical to dock single handed (can be done, but certainly not conveniently). All thats need is one crew though to handle lines.

[Dulcesuenos]

We were on a endeavour cat that had nearly full sail and was hit with a 50 knot gust on a road reach. The cat rounded up into the wind just as a mono would have And never flew a hull. A cats biggest dated is pitch poling if in huge seas and stuffing a bow. Pretty certain in huge seas a monos biggest concern is preventing broaching and rolling. Here a cat excells way over the mono if single handing coastal cruising etc really doesn't matter.
And by the way somewhere around d 38 n 38 w we were passed a few days ago by a large cruising performance cat that was hitting 20-22 knots in 25 knots of wind and 7-9' seas. They eventually settled into around 16.5 knot speed until out of ais range.

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