What are the Pro and Cons to a catamaran

Originally Posted by greenelephant

Also I wish to have a boat capable of supporting 2-3 tons of utilities/supplies. Could a catamran handle this?

Thank you

Gawd mate.......... that is the total displacement of a 2-4 person Cat! Go for a slender hull mono and add a bit to the length to achieve the speed required. If you load that with all your collections of poststamps, anvils, beer coasters and early steam engines, you can still move the boat a bit. But a Cat you will sink.

And, no, in principle there is no difference in seakeeping abilities, it all depends for what the boat was designed. But there is a huge difference in comfort. The cat is extremely uncomfortable and tiring in heavy sea conditions until he has come to the position he was designed for: stable floating upside down.

Regards
Richard

[Alik]

Originally Posted by apex1

But there is a huge difference in comfort. The cat is extremely uncomfortable and tiring in heavy sea conditions until he has come to the position he was designed for: stable floating upside down.

This is not exactly true, motions/accelrations on cats are more comfortable compared with monohull of same length, excerpt beam wave condition.

Slamming comfort on cat - from my experience displacement cats are fully operational and comfortable once bridgedeck vertical clearance is bigger than half of significant wave height. If wave is higher, slamming of bridgedeck at head seas can be an issue.

Planning cats - are always softer underway compared with monos.

Originally Posted by Alik

This is not exactly true, motions/accelrations on cats are more comfortable compared with monohull of same length, excerpt beam wave condition.
.

I am very uncomfortable with a cats motion even in not so severe conditions, due to the "harder" and more uneven accelerations, but that is of course a very personal view.

[Richard Woods]

I only just saw this thread.

Many catamarans sail from Europe across the Atlantic, that is how the vast majority of Caribbean charter cats get there. I have made 4 Atlantic crossings by catamaran and one by monohull.

In one post you say 0.5T stores, in another 2-3T. Quite a difference.

I suggest you contact the UK multihull brokers. Like Multihull Centre, Multihull World, Multihull International. All will be happy to give you advice and maybe even a few test sails. If you are serious then a weeks charter on a catamaran would give you plenty of food for thought.

Also maybe contact Jim Durden at Topcat cruising school as he is one of the few people who teach sailing in cruising catamarans.

As you have already found there are many people who are dead set against multihulls even though they have never sailed one. So be careful about who you believe.

I guess you could also look at my website....

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

[Milan]

Originally Posted by greenelephant

... What are the Pro and Cons to a catamaran ...

On the positive side, cats don’t heel, don’t sink and have a lot of deck space.

On the negative side they are expensive for the amount of interior room and payload they can carry. As for the speed advantage, passage making is very different from racing or day-sailing. Despite their abilities to reach exciting speeds, in the cruising context, with typical mom and dad small crews – they are heavily loaded and have to be sailed conservatively, reefed in advance, sailed quite far below their theoretical abilities most of the time. Correspondingly, average speed on over the ocean passages would not be much higher than on the monohulls.

If question is how to get most payload, most interior space and maybe even the best passageging speed for the amount of money that you have, answer will most probably be a monohull.

[FAST FRED]

Boats are like belly buttons , some are innies , some outies.

ALL multihulls are outies , they will sit on and follow the surface shape of the water. This can be very uncomfortable , particularly at speed.

Many cruising monohulls are innies , they are effected by the water surface , but don't follow it instantly. This means some waves will come aboard , a structural hassle , solved thousands of years ago.

When the cat becomes so heavily loaded that waves come aboard "lightweight" construction must be superbly engineered and constructed to survive.BIG $$$$

FF

[gonzo]

Heavily loading a multihull is like advocating removing the ballast in a monohull. Either one leads to disaster.

[rwatson]

The 'need for speed' should be quantified too. Is it the thrill of sailing fast you want, or the ability to get to a port quickly despite the weather condtions ?

Rolling around at sea in either very calm or very rough conditions is not everyones ideal. With a decent motor in the right hull, you can largely ignore the roulette of weather conditions and get where you are going.

When the winds are favourable, you can enjoy the experience. No sailing boat is fun in high winds for long.

A recent story in the Australian Multihull World Magazine, (a Louisiades Rally from the Australian East Cost to a Pacific island), 26 yachts started, 11 retired in 20 to 25 knot winds. The retirees were about 50% Monohulls and Cats. Sailing isnt always fun. With a decent motor, you can power through the weather without the thrashing sails and flogging ropes.

But when the Cats got to the island, they had more room and floated flatter at anchor. This is why they are so popular - a few home comforts can be so important.