Why do you guys like monohulls so much?

[upstateny]

Originally Posted by Lost Horizons

Actually, it does. A double-wide kind.

yup definitely a double-wide

[Junk Viking]

I have a mono mainly because my needs are too small for a cat, and I try to keep things economical and simple.
My 34' mono has 2 db. cabins, deck saloon, separate shower and heads at a fraction of the cost of an entry cat with a usable nacelle.
A cat would fit better if we were a family with kids!

However . .
Even though I had 2 close calls on a 44' cat out of 2 years cruising, I'd gladly sail a smaller cat if I needed the space.
Especially if I could convert it to sails that are easy to reef alone when the wind kicks up.

Say a reasonably priced de-masted Lagoon 38 where I'd put an unstayed alu mast up front in each hull and make it double junk rig.

It would give me the fast reefing + easy balancing + "self steering" down wind I'm used to.
It would probably also make the boat rather difficult to sell

I'm funny that way

Also; this discussion reminds me of discussions in the audiophile community, where many just get stuck on one side of the fence for no reason.
It's all good if you like your choice and it fits your bill

[Mr B]

My Cat is 14 feet wide, It has crossed the Pacific, The Tasman sea and now lives in Bass Strait, Between the Tasman and Southern Ocean,
I single handed it from Fiji to Australia, Where I bought it,
I have it out in winds well in excess of 40 knots and huge seas, I dont know how huge as it was at night and I couldnt see them, ,
I never felt unsafe on it, Even tho I was worried that the mast might snap off it,

I am about to see another Gemini, 105MC for the first time as its coming from SA to my Marina in Victoria,
It lives in the Spencer Gulf of SA, Port Lincoln,
Which is the northern part of the Southern Ocean,
So I would assume that Gemini would have sailed in the Southern Ocean at some point,
Port Lincoln is on the edge of the Southern Ocean,

I bought a Cat because a mono wont do what I want a boat to do, or go where I want to go in it,
It has exactly the same upkeep as a Mono,
Same Sails, Same single Motor,
It sit flat and level all the time,
But I can park it on a beach with the Tide out,
I can clean the hulls and anti foul it on a beach,
With out the need to crane it out of the water,
It has three bedrooms in it with a Queen sized main bed,
I can stand up straight in it, PO was 6.4 and stood up straight in it,
My cock pit is fully enclosed,
I dont get wet or cold,
I have an Autopilot so I can enjoy the voyage,
I dont have to steer it,
I sit or lay on the hammock out the back above the transom,
Which is always Flat and Level no matter how high the waves are,
The ride is always comfortable,

I used a protractor for the Degrees, and found I sit at about 10 to 15 degrees off the wave line. Approx,
So I maintain between 5 and 10 knots no matter how strong the wind is,
Using about a foot of Genoa to maintain headway,
I never sail up wind as it is too rough on my boat,
Breaking things is expensive,
Im a Cruiser, So Im never in a hurry to get any where,
I just installed a 12 volt. 90 litre freezer,
Which will give me approximately 6 weeks at sea for frozen food,

I will have 3 sections of my voyage around OZ that will be approx 6 weeks at sea, Even tho I am coastal cruising,

You buy a boat for your specific needs, Which I did,

Cheers Brian,

[Freyfrey]

There a some things I really like about cats , but the actual sailing I’m a mono fan ( beneteau 42s7)

[chrisr]

we have owned a string of monos and several cats, and are now full time live-aboard on our 12m cat

earlier today the owner & i were discussing the merits of monos v cats

we decided that for 'travel-ability' we prefer the monos, but for 'live-ability', the cats have it hands down.

as we usually travel for a few days and then spend weeks (or even months) pretty stationary, cats are what suits us best

others may see it differently but 'vive la difference'

cheers,

[Simi 60]

We have owned, built and cruised both monos and cats and after many years of it came to the conclusion that load carrying ability, space and comfort was a biggy for us especially if we were cruising full time and never using marinas.

A multi was our first choice but multihulls hate weight and to get one that can carry all the niceties that we take for granted yet still actually perform would have been something in the 60ft plus size and a silly amount of money and many years more work and selling off all other assets to do it.

Bought a powered mono vessel instead for a very small fraction of that catamarans cost, didnt have to sell anything to do it and have been out here for near 5 years living the dream.
A very comfortable dream.

[JamesPNW]

Originally Posted by double u

...& may I ask the breadth of your sailing experience, monos & multis, dear Sir?

It is silly for people to make blanket statement without facts or evidence. There are as many Cats crossing blue oceans as mono. And there are many Cats sailing in the roaring 40s and facing severe storms.

[double u]

...this thread is not about monos vs multis at all, it is about justifying our choices of boats...
greetings from "affirmative bias! (& I include myself!)

[Jim Cate]

[QUOTE]There are as many Cats crossing blue oceans as mono.[/QUOTE

Don't be silly. There are surely some number of cats doing trans ocean voyages, but there are as surely far more monohulls doing this...

If you spent much time in distant anchorages you would know this to be true.

Jim

[Boatfreak]

I just wanted to dispel some of the myths that have been promulgated here.

First of all my credentials in this:
35 years of dinghy racing, followed by 7 years of a Beneteau First 305 mono then seduced to a catamaran which we owned for 17 years and replaced with a bigger ( Summer ) Liveaboard cat. No Oceans crossed, longest passage 40 hours.

The OP asked why monohull owners were so attached to their boats, well I can’t comment on that but I can say why I changed to a Cat and what may surprise most people here is because of the cost of running the Beneteau. At that time ( 20 years ago) my wife wanted to start a family, which would have mean a halving of our family income. The fin keel Beneteau needed a deepwater mooring but drying moorings were available at about 1/7th of the cost. So we clearly needed a boat which could take the ground. I agreed to the change but said it had to be a boat which sailed properly like the Beneteau. People in our club tend to have Westerly Konsorts and Moody 31s, great boats I’m sure but hardly stellar performers. The other issue was that whilst my wife loves sailing, she also gets seasick. On a crossing of the English channel she needed to helm all the way, 16 hours, which was exhausting for her. Although many here have the opposite opinion, we wondered if the cat would be better. Our friends had one, so we cadged a weekend on it and it lived up to our hopes. Not only was the motion better for her, but also the panoramic windows in the salon meant that she could sit inside the boat and still see the horizon and the boat was so much faster, that 16 hours became 12 or less.
So we bought a 1988 Fountaine Pajot Maldives 32 and I can honestly say it was cheap to run, our annual fixed costs amounted to £1200, including insurance, joint sailing club membership, mooring, lift in/out and storage ashore. Beat that!. We paid more than to lift out the next boat for its survey. But of course without daggerboards it wouldn’t point. Well actually that’s not true either, one day in the Solent we came across a friend in his brand new Bavaria 36 and both outpointed and dramatically outsailed him. Afterwards we asked him why he didn’t luff us, he said he couldn’t sail any higher and I know he can sail because when we raced dinghies together he beat me 9 times out of 10. So this is a boat that sits on a drying mooring, doesn’t make my wife seasick, will outpoint and outsail any mono that calls itself a cruiser, average over 9 knots on a 10 hour passage and has two double cabins and two singles and the saloon of a 45 footer. What’s not to like? Well OK it’s not really an ocean cruiser but neither is a J112E, headroom is a little restricted in the Saloon and to get the performance it has an outboard which is great in flat water but struggles a bit in a big sea and strong winds. All boats are a compromise. Oh and to the person who said you can’t bring a cat through the Canal du Midi, wrong again I’m afraid as I did it in this boat, albeit with only 4 inches beam to spare. The assertion is just so wrong, first of all many monos won’t get through because their draft is too great, secondly of those with relatively shallow draft who can get through, many struggle to moor against the canal sides because they have too much draft too close to their extreme beam to enable the crew to get off safely to moor. So whilst many mono pass through the canal every year the experience can be less enjoyable for them. With less than 3ft draft we had no problem.

The other thing I have read here is that Leopards, Lagoon and FP don’t sail well. Well to some extent that’s true but clearly my Maldives did. The problem is, all people who don’t know cats lump all cats together. I can’t speak for Lagoons and Leopards as I don’t know them but as for FP, it’s more subtle than that. Up until 2010 FP produced boats intended for owners, they didn’t sail as well as Outremers or Catanas but were at least as good as your run of the mill mid displacement cruisers like Beneteau, Jeanneau , Hanse etc. After 2010 they seem to have designed solely for the charter market. Hopefully I can demonstrate this with a bar chart I have prepared showing the sail area / displacement and displacement/length ratios of their 40ft models since 1988. After 2010 the displacement increases from around 5.5 tonnes to around 9.3 tonnes with no real increase in sail area. It’s no wonder they won’t go.
It’s an unfortunate fact that catamaran production has become totally polarised between high performance ( now comfortable but eye wateringly expensive) and condomarans which hardly sail. It doesn’t have to be this way, there is a continuum whereby comfortable cruising cats with reasonable sailing performance could be designed at a reasonable price, but presumably the builders don’t think it is economically viable. If I wanted to upgrade from my 2003 Athena to a post 2010 boat which sails I will need something like four times the money. This is something which at my age is simply not going to happen.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by CassidyNZ

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.

So full keel boats with barn door rudders aren't "properly designed boats"?

[valhalla360]

[QUOTE=Jim Cate;3268095]

There are as many Cats crossing blue oceans as mono.[/QUOTE

Don't be silly. There are surely some number of cats doing trans ocean voyages, but there are as surely far more monohulls doing this...

If you spent much time in distant anchorages you would know this to be true.

Jim

I suspect he meant as a percentage of boats.

Sure more monos have made ocean crossings but if there are 10 times as many monos and they made 5 times as many ocean crossing relative to cats...cats are making more crossings per boat.

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

So full keel boats with barn door rudders aren't "properly designed boats"?

A barn door rudder as you name it can still be balanced. It’s about the pivot centre not the size/shape.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by CassidyNZ

A barn door rudder as you name it can still be balanced. It’s about the pivot centre not the size/shape.

Sure they can but most of your traditional full keel boats (the stereotypical BLUE WATER BOAT)...uses a rudder hung at the leading edge which based on your comment means it's not a proper design.

So if cats aren't a proper blue water boat and full keel boats aren't a proper blue water boat and fin keels aren't proper because bolt on keels fall off...it's getting to a situation where pretty much no boat qualifies.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by CassidyNZ

A barn door rudder as you name it can still be balanced. It’s about the pivot centre not the size/shape.

Actually not correct i have owned several withthe proverbial barn door rudder and it is not a center pivot .
The islander bahama 24
As well as the Columbia 29. ( mine is a defender model)
As well as the spencer 42 I used to own