Why do you guys like monohulls so much?

[CassidyNZ]

I sail a monohull because I have historically sailed mono hulls. That started when multis were rare, cats almost non existent. I now sail a mono because it’s what I can (barely) afford.

If I were to be lucky enough to come into great wealth (the Lotto scenario), I would buy a big cat because:

- most of my passage making is downwind or at least off the wind (by choice) when cats perform really well. I once had a big cat pass me at the start of a Fiji passage. He came over the horizon mid-morning and disappeared over the opposite horizon by late afternoon. Met him in Fiji, he got there in 4 days, I thought I was doing OK taking seven. And being on a reach (following sea) all the way there means no waves banging into the bridge or other downs many people refer to.

- when in the islands, the cats on anchor have great living space that a mono just can’t emulate. If we want dinner around a table, it’s down below. With a large cat, it’s up on deck where we definitely prefer to be.

- shallow draft and the ability to beach if necessary - not much further to say about that.

- my boat lives on a mooring at home so no downside to space/cost required. I have two large cats moored as neighbors and I often sit sipping a cold beer, looking at these boats and one in particular just looks very competent and very fast. Is that really true? Probably.

Yes, if I could afford it, after decades of monos my next boat would be a big cat. Dream on.

[Exctyengr]

In my case, I'm an old guy, and a bit of a traditionalist.

[gonesail]

I've been boating for 50 years now. all in monohulls .. power and sail. for me the catamaran life comes at a price I can't afford for many reasons. I have always like the sailing characteristics of monohulls .. and find them pleasing to the eye and very functional .. both on deck and below.

[salfarina]

I agree with Jim Cate and I imagine most other monohull sailors do also. Nonetheless, cats are great and have fulfilled a market that clearly existed long before cats were popularized.

[conchaway]

Cutting through all the Barbra Streisand, here's the truth: Although most "sailors" today crawl around in "safe water", when you are in a "rage sea", here's the difference-- In a mono hull, If you are battened down, and get "knocked down", you will come up (lead keel, etc.). If you get knocked down in a catamaran, you will go upside down, stay down, and probably drown like a rat. Simple physics. It's happened many times before. Hurry and read this before the politically correct censors delete it. They will probably bar me from the site, but the truth is the truth.

[smj]

Never mind

[smj]

Never mind

[wizoc]

Simple at least IMO monos are sailing cats arent.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by conchaway

Cutting through all the Barbra Streisand, here's the truth: Although most "sailors" today crawl around in "safe water", when you are in a "rage sea", here's the difference-- In a mono hull, If you are battened down, and get "knocked down", you will come up (lead keel, etc.). If you get knocked down in a catamaran, you will go upside down, stay down, and probably drown like a rat. Simple physics. It's happened many times before. Hurry and read this before the politically correct censors delete it. They will probably bar me from the site, but the truth is the truth.

Sorry, not the “truth”. But keep believing it if that makes you happy.

(Some) Cats react very differently to gusts and seas than monohulls: rather then heeling or rolling to spill the energy, they slide sideways and squirt forwards to absorb the energy. Sailing beam to breaking seas is fine (up to force 9 in open waters in our experience), as the cat easily absorbs the wind and seas through dynamic movement. And we can sail well with very little sail area up, often making our sail plan 30-40 knot gust-proof. As an external real world example, refer to the reports about the 1994 Queen’s Birthday Storm: the cats, even the abandoned one, performed better than most of the monohulls. https://pangolin.co.nz/queens-birthday-storm/

You have to hold on of course, and there are occasional loud bridgedeck strikes or breaking water over the cabin, but it’s a quite different motion, relatively level (allowing for the angle on the swells) and arguably more comfortable than a radically heeling mono in the same conditions. And perfectly safe. Note, I’m not referring to storm conditions. In that case, I’d be running with/across the seas and deploying our JSD when running is no longer safe.

As a side note, we have never (in our admittedly relatively small 3.5 year coastal and short passages history with our cat) felt the need to heave to for rest, cooking, going to the head, or any of the other reasons given by mono sailors. Slowing down by easing, reefing, or removing the full batten main instantly calms everything down.

Our cat is exhilarating to sail when powered up (depending on our angle to the wind, that starts at 7-8 knots true wind speed), especially in seas when she starts to dance. Our cat stays on top of the water, so it’s more like a jitterbug than a waltz, and you either get used to that kind of motion or you don’t. Just as with a mono you get used to living at 10-25 degrees of heel and associate a certain heel and motion with a certain speed.

With our cat, it’s the sound of the wake that’s the clearest indication of speed, but in flatter water there’s very little to distinguish 12 knots boat speed from 5 knots boat speed. In seas there’s a clear difference in comfort and movement between average speeds in the teens and average 8-9 knots. Unlike the common misconception, cats do indicate when they’re over-pressed and it’s not just a numbers game. However, the signs are much more subtle than for a mono - leeward hull pressure, rigging tension, feel of the rudders, water and structure sounds, windward hull ventilation, etc.

I cruised and raced monohulls extensively in my younger years and absolutely remember the type of boat movements and of living life on a heeled platform with no flat surface except for gimbals. And occasionally when we’re power reaching or close hauled in the cat I wish for that steady heel and chugging through, not over, the seas. But my first time on a 40 foot offshore racing cat with an open bridgedeck and 20 knots of tradewinds and seas was a revelation. Upwind like a bucking bronco at twice the speed of the equivalent-sized IOR and IMS boats I raced, and downwind like a scalded cat at speeds I’d only ever gone in a car previously. Wow.

So years later when my wife and I were looking for a live aboard cruising boat, and sailing on a wide variety of monohulls and a few charter cats, we quickly decided on a performance-oriented cruising cat. Almost as much pure sailing fun as an equivalent performance-oriented cruising monohull, without the heel. To remove the ‘almost’ in the previous sentence, I’m adding a separate steering circuit and tillers - fingertip control in all conditions will be awesome.

Sure, it costs more to buy (though I would argue that for our older performance-oriented cat the difference with roughly equivalent accommodation/carrying capacity and speed capable monohulls there’s not much difference in price), marginally if any more to maintain (two engines and drivetrains yes, but everything else the same and generally smaller than the equivalent-length mono), leaving marina berthing and hauling as the largest cost differences. But hauling doesn’t happen very often and marina berths can be avoided or found cheaper, so I’d call that a wash as well.

YMMV

[billgewater]

A rarely quoted advantage of catamarans is that although expensive to have lifted for servicing, they can be freely beached in many places (not withstanding anti-fouling rules etc.). Fanny Bay in Darwin (on the international cruising circuit) is often littered with beached cruising cats. undergoing servicing. Due to the local 7 m spring tides, it is easy to arrange a time during the neaps when the water does not actually even reach the beached boat.
Some places have a trailer arrangement that lifts cats by going under the bridge deck and lifting from there. The trailer used is much much cheaper than the usual slipway or straddle lift as it uses the normal small craft boat ramp. Western Australia has a few of these I believe.
They can also have a better chance of getting into some lagoons and coastal rivers. Around Mauritius due to its topography, (as an e.g.) there are zillions of cats and barely a mono-hull cruising boat to be seen.

It is also (usually) easier to capitalize on PV panels on a catamaran which may make life more pleasant on board.
But even so, it's a personal thing as cats. are generally very much more expensive to buy and keep plus the sailing experience is relatively boring.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

My opinion:

It's because monohulls offer a different sailing experience than cats, and some of us like it better.

Jim

+1

And some of us like the cat sailing experience better.

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

...The fiscal realities are that cats tend to be more expensive to buy, maintain, store, and equip than monohulls. For some sailors, the cost differential is important.

Jim

Generally true that a catamaran will be more expensive and beyond the reach of some. As are many monohulls. But there are some caveats:

The one-off purchase price can be recouped at sale by the same cat premium. But it does need more money up front.

Maintenance is not much different. Sure, two engines and drivetrains, but the rest is the same. And rigging, gear and other equipment is often smaller than equivalent-sized monos.

Store - maybe. There are usually options to expensive berthing fees, and haul outs don’t take place very often.

Equip I don’t think so, once you’ve done the initial purchase. Ongoing equipment upgrades is the same for either mono or cat, other than engines/drivetrains.

[Training Wheels]

I feel so left out, as I have a tri [emoji23]

[markpierce]

Here (west coast), monohulls out-number multihulls by at least 30 to one. They just do for the multiple reasons as previously posted.

[oldcal46skipper]

Noah's ark was a monohull.

[Kd9truck]

Why don’t they let cats or tri,s in offshore races like Newport to Bermuda? Are there any circumnavigation races for Cats?
I enjoy the lean and the deliberate sawing motion of a monohull cutting though waves
I enjoy feeling the weather on the helm.
I try not to be caught out in bad weather but I know when I drop sail and head to weather I can make passage.
That is one of the top complaints from the guy who has one in my mooring field, the motors are useless against weather if you need to make passage against it.

I’ll keep dragging my knuckles