Why do you guys like monohulls so much?

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by river251

Every time I notice it, there are twice as many people reading the monohulls forum as reading the multihulls forum. I am really curious about this. Cats have what everyone wants, supposedly....no rolling (youtubers Kevin Boothby and Patrick Lane constantly talk about how tiring and unpleasant this is), things stay put, relatively more room. A non-tilted, non-rolling, roomy lifestyle. So what is the attraction of monohulls?

It can't just be cost or that everyone is waiting til they have enough money saved to sell their mono and get a cat. There are good older cats available for not that much more than decent older monos. Or am I wrong, it's the cost?

Two years of reading threads and watching videos and I still don't get it.

Thanks.

I don't think you can generalise over what type and style someone wants.

Each individual is influenced by their experiences at sea, their budget, their partner, their location, thier friends boat and the fate of finding a boat that screams.. "Buy Me!"

Four years after retiring from 20 years working at sea on all manner of power and sailing ships, in all kinds of weather, I decided to get a boat to keep in Puerto Galera where I was a part owner of a dive resort.

Had no idea at first what I wanted and initially looked at multihulls as the desire to liveaboard again was getting stronger.

My budget was flexible, so no issue there, and qno partner then to influence my choice..

Location, was another factor.
Living in a Typhoon zone with poorly charted waters, poor weather warnings (then) and no rescue services meant I should finder something very tough, with a strong keel and protected rudder and the ability to carry enough spares and tools to be self sufficient.

Loved all the space and ergonomics of a multi, but the feeling of sitting on top of the water, instead of deep with a good foot in the water, went against my conditioning as a deep sea mariner. So after looking at a few I stopped looking at volume, and thought more about tonnage.

To compensated for loss of multihull space, I decided to go longer and with a spacious pilothouse for inside accommodation above deck.
So a 38-40 ft cat for 2 became a 55-65 ft pilothouse with a split rig

Fate was finding a rare Corten Steel, strongly built Dutch schooner 62ft in Phuket, that had everything I wanted in a boat to liveaboard in Asia.

16 years later, I have never once regretted my choice.

[Martkimwat]

The ability to claw off a lee shore is a big reason a mono is the boat of choice for me. Even if a cat can sail faster, it's not much use if you can't make much headway windwards, particularly if your engine is U/s, and if your embayed, you aint gonna get far sailing a cat especially if there is a strong sea running into the bay as well. You will be struggling in a mono even but you will have a chance to get off an embayed lee shore, no chance in a cat. Comparing the fast racing cats to normal cruising cats is just pipe dreaming, they are as chalk and cheese, may as well compare a racing foiling mono to a cruising mono, it's just as absurd.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Martkimwat

The ability to claw off a lee shore is a big reason a mono is the boat of choice for me. Even if a cat can sail faster, it's not much use if you can't make much headway windwards, particularly if your engine is U/s, and if your embayed, you aint gonna get far sailing a cat especially if there is a strong sea running into the bay as well. You will be struggling in a mono even but you will have a chance to get off an embayed lee shore, no chance in a cat. Comparing the fast racing cats to normal cruising cats is just pipe dreaming, they are as chalk and cheese, may as well compare a racing foiling mono to a cruising mono, it's just as absurd.

Formosa ketch? J120? Which mono are we talking about?

No different than the people you are criticizing here. You’re choosing to only consider performance oriented monos that can point for your case.

Put the boards down and you can do the same on a good sailing cat

[NevilleCat]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Formosa ketch? J120? Which mono are we talking about?

A Tradewind 33 apparently...kinda like a smaller Endurance 35 with a waterline of about 25 foot. That's the kind of windward witch you want when the wind switches and the surf comes rolling into your anchorage.

[smj]

Originally Posted by wingssail

SMJ, I just want to pointout that in the Queen's Birthday storm in 1994 35 boats were caught. 9 were disabled or lost, of which 7 were monohulls, two were catamarans. I know of one other catamaran which was in that storm and survived. I'm not sure how many of the other 25 boats were monohulls and how many were catamarans, but I think that a majority of the monohulled boats survivied. As far as I know 2 of the three catamarans did not.



Of the monohulls which were lost most were rolled (not all) and none of those were sunk. All the crew of those boats were taken off their boats, after being rolled or pitchpolled, before the boats sunk, if they did sink. Some were found floating later.



Some very good friends of ours were rolled in thier 36ft Herreshoff ketch in that storm. The boat survivied and they continued the voyage to Tonga. Other friends of ours withstood the storm in thier full keeled cruising boat without significant damage.



We, ourselves, encountered a similar storm in the same waters six years later, and this storm I wrote about in a story titled "Nightmare Off New Zealand". The monohulls and the multihull boats fared equally considering that, as in the Queen's Birthday storm, that there were far fewer multihulls out there.



So I just want to say that it is not fair to use the Queen's Birthday storm as an example of how multihull boats do better in storms than monohulls. As for percentage of survivors? I think the evidence is neutral.

1 of the 3 catamarans did not survive, it was intentionally scuttled by the ship that rescued the crew. One monohull was lost with crew, never seen again.

http://www.multihulldynamics.com/new...p?articleID=11

[Yihang]

Originally Posted by Martkimwat

The ability to claw off a lee shore is a big reason a mono is the boat of choice for me. Even if a cat can sail faster, it's not much use if you can't make much headway windwards, particularly if your engine is U/s, and if your embayed, you aint gonna get far sailing a cat especially if there is a strong sea running into the bay as well. You will be struggling in a mono even but you will have a chance to get off an embayed lee shore, no chance in a cat. Comparing the fast racing cats to normal cruising cats is just pipe dreaming, they are as chalk and cheese, may as well compare a racing foiling mono to a cruising mono, it's just as absurd.

The same argument is used against electric motors, because diesels are needed to 'claw off' a lee shore. A lot of things would have gone wrong if you had to claw off a lee shore with sails.....

I use to buy into all this so I convinced myself I needed to get a contessa 26. Then I started sailing....

[Charles S]

Originally Posted by Jammer

1. Higher overall cost profile
   1. Used market is much tighter
   2. New prices are higher due to cost of manufacture
   3. Because of the wide beam, there are fewer low-cost choices for slips and haulout
   4. Cost of maintaining two engines and saildrives
2. In practice, upwind performance is slightly worse
   1. When comparing performance cruiser monos, to performance cruiser cats, as typically outfittted.
   2. Adds to the risk posed by lee shores
3. They aren't as seaworthy.
   1. Odds of hitting something or catching a line are doubled by the twin hulls.
   2. They are more highly engineered, and engineering failures are occurring at greater rates than with monos
      1. Inversions due to undiscovered holes in the stability envelope
      2. Emergency hatch leaks
      3. Structural failures
   3. They are more susceptible to serious damage when a collision does occur
      1. By example, e.g. the family that hit a fish trap in the Med
      2. Due to reliance on saildrives (in nearly all cases), with attendant line-trap and collision risks.
   4. Generally not able to motor on one engine, therefore, twice the risk of a problems from engine failure.
4. There is some slamming on the waves in heavy seas.
   1. Due to the bridge deck hitting the water.
   2. Alarming to the uninitiated. Undermines the advantage of being friendly to non-sailors
5. Limited weight carrying ability
   1. Limits tankage
   2. Limits ability to carry dive gear and compressors
   3. Leads to tradeoffs regarding emergency equipment and spares
   4. Undermines some of the benefit of the extra space
6. Wider beam limits where they can go in some cases
   1. Some notable, historic inland rivers and canals
      1. Broads bridges
      2. Canal du midi
   2. Reduced availability of slips particularly in the USA

Please add:
- try a cat in a beam sea for some torture!
- cats are just so ugly. Who wants an ugly boat?
- cats are more stable upside down!

[Nick16]

I don’t know about others but to me monohull looks like a boat and multihulls looks like a pontoon, hey, don’t shoot, it’s just a opinion

[abarrow]

Originally Posted by Charles S

Please add:
- try a cat in a beam sea for some torture!
- cats are just so ugly. Who wants an ugly boat?
- cats are more stable upside down!

The other one for me is accommodation below deck. You are either bunking in a long narrow tube, or climbing up into a space that's 18 inches high. Sure, you have a big salon with a nice sliding glass door, but I prefer the warmth of a monohull salon.

Then there's the slamming. How do you possibly voyage on a boat that is making so much noise?

[argonauta1]

Much of it has to do with what one first became acquainted with. Hobies to bigger cats; lasers to keel boats/monohulls. But . . . take a look around at the bluewater cruiser fleet and why is it mostly keel boat? I'm a circumnavigator of a 44 foot keel boat so am probably prejudiced but I it is my preference as is the case with most bluewater sailors because a keel boat is infinitely more stable than a multihull. As well, inadvertent overpowering of a multihull can happen more easily leading to sudden dismasting. A keelboat is subject to a knockdown but that is extreme stuff. We never encountered a stability issue in ten years and had only one running rig breakage and two rig component failures none of which proved to be a show stopper. If I had it to do again I'd choose the keelboat.

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by river251

Every time I notice it, there are twice as many people reading the monohulls forum as reading the multihulls forum. I am really curious about this. Cats have what everyone wants, supposedly....no rolling (youtubers Kevin Boothby and Patrick Lane constantly talk about how tiring and unpleasant this is), things stay put, relatively more room. A non-tilted, non-rolling, roomy lifestyle. So what is the attraction of monohulls?

It can't just be cost or that everyone is waiting til they have enough money saved to sell their mono and get a cat. There are good older cats available for not that much more than decent older monos. Or am I wrong, it's the cost?

Two years of reading threads and watching videos and I still don't get it.

Thanks.

Where I am its simple economic factors. Cost and availability

On the great lakes there really aren't many cats around. Couple that with very few places that can accomodate the beam of a Cat both from a slippage perspective AND a hauling perspective. So monos still rule the day...

[ElVikingo]

I like that if I flip in bad weather I will roll back over, hopefully. If a cat flips it probably won’t come back over. I think a lot of folks probably feel this way. Plus, I have always liked the cozy feeling I get from my mono hull. Just the way I grew up sailing. It is easy to single hand and my 50 seems like I am sailing any other sloop I grew up with.

[wibi]

Here in Nirthern Europe cats represent only a fraction of the sailing fleet. Limited space in ports - let alone in locks or say the NOK channel in Germany. The choppy short waves on the North Sea or the Baltic give z monohull a bit of a better sea state behaviour as well.

[Fbfisher]

Originally Posted by river251

Every time I notice it, there are twice as many people reading the monohulls forum as reading the multihulls forum.

Because there are many times more monohulls on the planet than cats? Could the answer to your question be that simple? I think so.

[Yihang]

Originally Posted by wibi

Here in Nirthern Europe cats represent only a fraction of the sailing fleet. Limited space in ports - let alone in locks or say the NOK channel in Germany. The choppy short waves on the North Sea or the Baltic give z monohull a bit of a better sea state behaviour as well.

Yeh, for those parts a nice Sirius 35DS that is small and easy to dock is probably the ticket. Moody 41ds will probably be popular there as well. Nice catamaran like saloon and cockpit in monohull.

I wonder if Hallberg Rassy will ever start making catamarans......They probably have the money for the RnD.