Reasons to stay "Monohull"

[captain58sailin]

Jadam79, as has been offered here, it is much on personal preference. I grew up on monos, and being old school, I prefer them. My Mother, a long distance sailing, life long captain quantified it like this "The way a catamaran loves the water is different than a mono-hull." Most vessels will preform well if operated within their limitations, all vessels have limitations of some sort. Get on as many different vessels as possible to learn what you don't like as well as what you do. Being mechanically minded, you will quickly determine which vessel builder is producing a vessel to your quality standard. Nothing can replace first hand experience.

[LeeV]

We love our 36' trimaran - a creature of a completely different nature - and have had a cat and monos, and loved them all.

15 yrs ago I chartered a FP Athena 38 cat in the BVI and was immersed in a sea of monos; 2 years ago we went and it was a completely different story.

We miss the roominess of monos and cats, but we don't live aboard and so we are careful and diligent about what we carry when out for more than overnight, e.g. for our 5 week honeymoon this July. OTOH, we like the 18" draft with boards up, and 10 to occasional 15 knots of performance, even when cruising.

If we were going to live aboard or spend periods of time, I'd look for a used, light, good performing cat; the draft, room and performance provide so much flexibility.

Bottom line: don't listen to any of us. Get out there on one of everything and see what works best for you. Oh, and have wife/partner, kids etc... with you. Their opinions could make or break your ultimate satisfaction.

[mindsofman]

From a delivery guy who does more miles in a year on a multitude of boats,,,Mono's and Cat's, than most people
In a life time...I prefer Mono's.
Over all they are more comfortable and easier to single hand...
Only drawback if you want one is the draft on larger boats but even that is overcome with centreboards.
BUT, family boats and guys that want to continue sailing and not lose wife or girl friend,,,,Cats are the answer.

[robert sailor]

Personally I think the decision is very heavily influenced by money $$$$$$ if your cruising grounds are in the tropics. Let's face it cats in the 40 ft plus size are like small apartments and you can put 15 people on them and hardly notice where everyone is. Your choice should really be do I want this 45 ft Cat or this 60 ft mono hull. There are only a few long term cruisers that can make this choice cause they have the money. If you are looking for a reason to feel good about your 45 ft mono it won't be comparing it to a cat or convincing yourself that you like the sailing characteristics of your mono better. Lately I have come to really like some cats but for us it's probably a little late in life to make a change and I like not having to stab the bank account for a half million dollars plus our current mono to own the ones we like. Now if we were sailing higher latitudes for a variety of reasons including heat I'd stick with our mono.

[out42]

May as well join in.
The only person who can answer the OP's question is the OP. After he (they?) have tried a few of each type, they will get a feel for what is right for them. Having owned 4 monos and 5 multis, you like what you like and often one kind of boat suits your purpose much better than another, unsurprisingly.

I wouldn't be put off by stories of capsize and structural failings in multis. Capsizes in cruising multis over 40 feet are vanishingly rare, although they do happen, and you can sit on your very large liferaft for a long time. Also not all Monos stay afloat after rolling either, and keel failures are well-documented. From either of those there is really no way back.

Structural failings in modern cats also occur, but when they do it is news as they are mostly very well-designed, or certainly so in the last 15-20 years. In my opinion on single-handing it is easier to reef a large cat which isn't heeling than to try reefing a heeling, bucking, mono but then others have a different view.

So, OP, you could go either way. Enjoy choosing!

[Jadam79]

Originally Posted by captain58sailin

Jadam79, as has been offered here, it is much on personal preference. I grew up on monos, and being old school, I prefer them. My Mother, a long distance sailing, life long captain quantified it like this "The way a catamaran loves the water is different than a mono-hull." Most vessels will preform well if operated within their limitations, all vessels have limitations of some sort. Get on as many different vessels as possible to learn what you don't like as well as what you do. Being mechanically minded, you will quickly determine which vessel builder is producing a vessel to your quality standard. Nothing can replace first hand experience.

I appreciate your acknowledgment of my mechanical abilities (shows your read all my words, which means a lot). I also thank you and others for your insight. I truly read all the words written with an unbiased view. I believe no matter what I eventually purchase there will be no reason I will not be able to conduct most, if not all of the repairs/upgrades myself. For example, one of the things we do here is design and build from the steel truck to out the door, diesel over hydraulic or diesel conventional underground transport vehicles. I hope this experience will serve me well in my future life and possibly be of assistance to others.

[singlespeed]

Having owned both types, depending on your budget and where you are using the boat, either can make sense. Confined waterways or spending a lot of time at docks, you want a mono. Ease of liveaboard, handsdown to the cat. Unless its blowing more than 20 knots and the seas are over 6 feet, we use the ungimballed stove.

As to the upwind performance, my long keeled cruising cat goes to weather as well as a long keeled cruising mono. Can't touch the deep spade keeled monos, but I've got a lot more anchoring areas available to me.

[jdaltonpe]

Personal Experience
At 38 yrs old I read everything I could about blue water sailing and purchased a tough, traditional 33' double ender as my first boat then took it around the world on a tight budget. I made lots of mistakes but the boat took good care of me, brought me home safely and gave me the best 4 years of my life so far.
At 59 years I am now living on my second boat and preparing for another tour du monde. It is an older, well built, foam core Cross trimaran. There are many reasons why I chose the tri including comfort, sailing qualities, safety, etc. but the primary reason is the fact that the tri is lighter than water and will remain floating in any situation as opposed to a ballasted monohull who's natural state of rest is on the bottom.

[Valmika]

I have owned both and now I am back to a monohull. I like te roominess and motion of a cat at anchor but thhe jerkiness in even a moderate swell just gets irratating. I much prefer the motion of a monhull while sailing. As far as speed and other comparisons watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVsXZwM1tr8

[DMCantor]

The main advantage of cats is more bedrooms. In all our years of sailing monohulls, we have never felt we had too few bedrooms. So this "advantage" isn't very important. We like the feedback that we get from our boat as it heels in stronger winds. Easy to decide when a reef is prudent. And the motion in a confused seaway is way more predictable and comfortable on a monohull than on a cat.

[seasick]

To my mind, it really depends on your cruising aspirations. I often sail alone and so I require a vessel that is forgiving if I happen to sleep through the approach of a squall.

The whole stable one, stable two position has me a bit vexed.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

I've read that thread. I was talking in market terms and averages.

There is always the special case or the exception but looking from the larger scale, it's true.

For comparison, I'm sure you can find people who have switched to traditional wood boat construction but looking at it from a market point of view no one is expecting a shift back to wood boats.

Regarding market trends what you see on the med is mostly an increase of charter cats (they can take more people and in the end become less expensive) and motor cats. The last ones not regarding charter.

There is also a small overall cat increase but I don't think it has nothing to do with the ones that have sailed small sportive cats since most of those are not performance cruisers but condo cats. The owners I have talked with are not very experienced sailors but retired couples with little sailing experience that chose cats because they have more space and because the wife is more comfortable with boats that don't heel. Curiously the wives seem to associate heel with danger.

Of course I know also very experienced sailors with cats but those don't seem to be increasing. You can see the reflex of what I am saying on the trends regarding new cats, most of them featuring more and more interior space, more windage and less sail-ability and also on the huge increase on the offer of motor cats, the ones that are basically condo cats without a mast.

If you go to the biggest boat show you will have an idea of the market and the proportion to the monohull market. Hundreds of cruising monohulls there and half a dozen multihulls, 3 or 4 cats and none of them a true performance cruising cat.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by Mark Killam

I have owned both and now I am back to a monohull. I like te roominess and motion of a cat at anchor but thhe jerkiness in even a moderate swell just gets irratating. I much prefer the motion of a monhull while sailing. As far as speed and other comparisons watch this video:

To be fair that regards upwind performance and it is amazing that a Amel, that is not a very good boat upwind, was faster but downwind the Amel, that is quite an heavy boat, would not stand a chance.

Between those two boats considering all points of sail on average the Barramundi is a much faster boat than the Amel. Even in light wind upwind I have doubts that the Barramundi, that is a performance cat (even if not a cruiser racer), would not be able to beat the Amel, that is not a fast monohull.

[onavegador]

For me to answer the question is easy: if I only have time for short distance sailing like an afternoon, evening or weekend: I sail a monohull because she asks not much time to prepare for sailing and the maintenance is not expensive when 30 to35 LOA feet in mind. Sailing on a good designed monohull is a pleasure, sitting at helm you feel her movement in the back and you like the heeling.

For long distance sailing and/or living a board my choice is a good designed multihull, a compromise of sailing ability and living comfort. Often sailing single handed and a budget in mind I was content with LOA of 40 to 43 feet.

On what is my experience based:
30 years mononhull sailing 40K Miles on lakes,sea and several trans atlantics west and east going

15 years multihull sailing during two circumnavigations and several trans atlantics west and east going

[Sandero]

It occurred to me reading this thread that virtually all people who sail learn and begin sailing mono hulls. You can't do much "inside" a small cat I suppose either... And you don't experience the wind etc. as much in a small learning starter cat I suppose. Caveat... I don't boo about cats or small ones.

So it seems that people for the most part being sailing monos which come in all manner of sizes and styles.. cruisers, racers... and so on... and at some point decide that a cat offers something that they don't have on a mono... which I suppose is a large real estate flat sailing boat... suited to more on board and a more "land lubber style" living... no heeling... fiddles, hand holds and so on.

I sort of like life on a bit of a tilt... and so everything associated with this a sort of romantic nautical "cozy"appeal that seems lacking in these modern big cats... which I always associate with booze cruise day charters... The "look" does nothing for me as well.

Obviously I know nothing about nor understand the allure of a catamaran... and at this stage of life I don't see going there.