Why do you guys like monohulls so much?

[Pelagic]

Just to stir the pot.
Some people like Cats
Some people like Dogs

[double u]

Originally Posted by smj

Does this look like a motor home?
Attachment 226393
So many different types and designs of catamarans and monohulls.

come on smj! Don't stoop to this kind of polemic!
(while this topic goes WAY beyond rationale, let's at least keep up pretensions & try to find rational arguments for our (purely?) emotional choices.)

[Lost Horizons]

Originally Posted by smj

Does this look like a motor home?

Actually, it does. A double-wide kind.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by tdunlap

I'll just have to disagree, politely. Have you tried heaving to or lying a hull in 45 to 50 knots wind in a cat. Have you seen the seas such winds create offshore?

Yes, I have.

I have laid a hull for 24 hours between NZ and Fiji when steering failed due to the employment of a "professional" before leaving. 45-50 knots with 6m seas. After many hours fixing it I was very tired so my wife insisted I went to bed..... after having a nice hot shower. Yes, the boat was pushed sideways by breaking waves even forcing past a seal in one of the side portholes, there was no water in the cockpit. I confess to having to sit down in the shower.

On another trip I have continued "sailing" in 57 knots with 8m breaking seas..... under auto-pilot we had sustained boat speeds, not surfing, in excess of 20 knots for several hours. Of the monos on the same trip one was laid flat and dismasted one broke a boom and the others arrived in a bedraggled state.

13m cat.

[double u]

I quote myself from different threads:

so to spell it out for the unwillig:
be so kind as to compare boats of
THE SAME AGE
THE SAME STANDARD OF UPKEEP
THE SAME EQUIPMENT
& so on...


"downgraded to a monohull": we did - & never looked back!
remember the 2 limiting parameters: $$$$ & payload! no multihull is going to win!

...looked how much the "average 40-50' cat" costs compared to a mono?
sure enough a 50' cat is an ideal cruising boat (some of them...) - but $$$$$

(btw: 1 rtw 34'Wharram, 2&1/3rtw monos (aluminium & GRP)

[smj]

Originally Posted by double u

I quote myself from different threads:

so to spell it out for the unwillig:
be so kind as to compare boats of
THE SAME AGE
THE SAME STANDARD OF UPKEEP
THE SAME EQUIPMENT
& so on...


"downgraded to a monohull": we did - & never looked back!
remember the 2 limiting parameters: $$$$ & payload! no multihull is going to win!

...looked how much the "average 40-50' cat" costs compared to a mono?
sure enough a 50' cat is an ideal cruising boat (some of them...) - but $$$$$

(btw: 1 rtw 34'Wharram, 2&1/3rtw monos (aluminium & GRP)

The point is there are no comparisons, all different animals.

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Plus you need those giant wheels because they require a lot more force to turn the rudder.

Big wheels on sailing boats are not required to overcome rudder effort. Properly designed boats have balanced rudders that require little effort to control/turn. Large wheels enable the helmsman on a monohull to helm from both sides of the cockpit with a clear view down both sides of the vessel.

Not really an issue on a cat, the helmsman on a cat is not exactly spoiled for choice. But the small wheels endemic to cats also speak to balanced rudders.

[outbound_308]

I thought that some monos had big wheels to be easily reached from either coaming.

Swan
Centurien etc.

[outbound_308]

Another one to just "stir the pot" why is a cored hull considered a bad thing for a blue water mono hull but perfectly fine for a cat?

[DeValency]

Originally Posted by outbound_308

Another one to just "stir the pot" why is a cored hull considered a bad thing for a blue water mono hull but perfectly fine for a cat?

Considered by dinosaurs I guess.

There are poorly built boats and great built boats - regardless the hull’s core.
Many of the global best Water boats">blue water boats have cored hull and zero osmosis, even after 30-40 years of full top notch service.

[SarahBrkWlms]

For me personally, I have been dreaming of a Catamaran...
BUT... I live in New England so there aren't many used multihulls for sale here, and it wasn't in our budget to travel down south to buy a cat and pay someone to help us get it back up here. So we're "practicing" on a monohull for the next couple years. If the lifestyle works for us maybe we'll trade up to a cat. So yah, I'd love to have a 45' catamaran... Hopefully sometimes in the future! Just my experience!

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Morph

Hmm, Ok couple of corrections there. Firstly, the cat had 4 crew, the owner, his wife and two friends--by the look of them they were not in the "pro crew" category... mostly being over 60 and really in need of those pilates classes...
Second the boat is no more pricey than an Outremer and thirdly, where did you get your information about the crew of the Volvo?--my understanding was that it was a pretty good crew.... I am ready to stand corrected...


I have no idea of whether they intend to sail in the Southern ocean, however a transatlantic is not a bad start. Plenty of cats do go around the Souther ocean and surprisingly... they all seem to make it--even those out and out racing cats and tris that race around the world in 40-50 days, their course, also, including the Southern Ocean.


Like the boat you like, I like my type of boat, you like yours. But please don't make statements with nothing behind them!

Morph, I have no argument with you, you are right I don't have real knowledge about these two boats. I'm mostly guessing from the little bit of clues I can find. But the cat Hallucine, which beat the Volvo 65 SiSi was a fairly new boat sailed by Régis Guillemot an experienced racer, cousin of the French round the world sailor Marc Guillemot, and a three-times Route du Rhum competitor and my impression is that Yves Pellisson and Pierre Louis Delarue were long time sailing friends from Martinique and of course Veronique Le Gall must have plenty of experience being Régis' wife. The boat was as absolutely as light as it could be made or sailed, an obsession of Régis'

SiSi, the VO65, on the other hand was the older Vestas 11th Hour Racing, veteran of two Volvo 'round the world races operated by an organization offering crew positions to interested persons. People can sign on for a day or a short race, or an ocean crossing. I'm not saying that they are amateurs but it's not the same kind of program that Régis is running.

Hallucine sailed with main and spinnaker until the last few miles, so it was reaching race, a cat's best point of sail

And my final point: We know the Volvo65 can make it through the souther ocean. But I have my doubts about the TS5.

Of course none of us should be surprised that the cat was first to finish but I don't think it says too much about the superiority of cats vs monohulls. As for choosing a boat for cruising, that ARC win of the TS5 doesn't prove much, in my opinion.

[Old fella]

Well, I’ve had 1 cat and 1 tri, and 11 mono,s, and loved them all. Hell if it floats I’ll love. Now retired, wife and I have gone way back to a little compass h28, for ease of matainance /work ( I’m lazy ) for cruising up and down the coast of northland NZ, and we love it too. It’s slow as the second coming, and because I’m not a sailors a**hole I can’t get into too much trouble. We don’t have to worry about rough seas in NZ it’s always a mill pond.

[smj]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Morph, I have no argument with you, you are right I don't have real knowledge about these two boats. I'm mostly guessing from the little bit of clues I can find. But the cat Hallucine, which beat the Volvo 65 SiSi was a fairly new boat sailed by Régis Guillemot an experienced racer, cousin of the French round the world sailor Marc Guillemot, and a three-times Route du Rhum competitor and my impression is that Yves Pellisson and Pierre Louis Delarue were long time sailing friends from Martinique and of course Veronique Le Gall must have plenty of experience being Régis' wife. The boat was as absolutely as light as it could be made or sailed, an obsession of Régis'

SiSi, the VO65, on the other hand was the older Vestas 11th Hour Racing, veteran of two Volvo 'round the world races operated by an organization offering crew positions to interested persons. People can sign on for a day or a short race, or an ocean crossing. I'm not saying that they are amateurs but it's not the same kind of program that Régis is running.

Hallucine sailed with main and spinnaker until the last few miles, so it was reaching race, a cat's best point of sail

And my final point: We know the Volvo65 can make it through the souther ocean. But I have my doubts about the TS5.

Of course none of us should be surprised that the cat was first to finish but I don't think it says too much about the superiority of cats vs monohulls. As for choosing a boat for cruising, that ARC win of the TS5 doesn't prove much, in my opinion.

If you want to cross the Atlantic at an average speed of 12.5kts. while eating well and doing Pilates, then the TS5 speaks volumes. I mean, they were the first boat in?

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by outbound_308

I thought that some monos had big wheels to be easily reached from either coaming.

Swan
Centurien etc.

that's right...although twin wheels are better. large single wheels have all sorts of issues for eg clearance underdeck & moving through the cockpit

cheers,