Why do you guys like monohulls so much?

[Siberian Sea]

Guess everyone has their own style and what they view as nice hull lines, that said I just don’t like the looks of most cats especially the Lagoons. To me the design is more oriented towards comfort in the anchorage then offshore safety with all those huge forward window and even sliding glass doors in the back. No graceful lines as all just a big box on the water. So like a said, some folks are going to love the looks of a big boxy cat with picture windows others like me like a more traditional style. I suppose it’s what make our world more colorful. But damn..... sliding glass doors on a sailboat?

[Knotical]

Originally Posted by fxykty

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

Nice write up based on personal experience.

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by conchaway

If you get knocked down in a catamaran, you will go upside down, stay down, and probably drown like a rat.

BING BING BING - CONGRATULATIONS
You are the 1,000th member to post this. This last winter I made a special video just for you. I hope you enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1QYBGn7wG4

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by fxykty

And rigging, gear and other equipment is often smaller than equivalent-sized monos.

Isn’t it also true that, given the resistance to heeling (monohulls shed a lot of wind effort when they heel) that the rig on a cat often comes under considerably more concentrated (squall) load?

There is a commonly held belief that insurance companies have started insisting on standing rig being replaced every 10 years and an equally common belief that this started because of rig failures amongst cats and is now being devolved to all ocean-going sailboats.

It may seem like I dreamed that but it has often been discussed in my sailing circles.

[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

[Clivevon]

This question baffles me. Like comparing apples with oranges-both fruits, but different. Some people like motor boats. Some like sailing catamarans, some like sailing monohulls. They are All different types of boats. People make different choices. What is the issue?

[wingssail]

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. 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

Exactly, Mr Cate.

To me the sailing experience is what I love about sailing. Carving to windward through the ocean's waves, watching the tell tales, and feeling the boat, the sea, the wind, with my hand on the helm, my body and my mind at one with the boat.

Or surfing off the wind, each wave and we slide ahead.

Yeah, I don't steer all the time, but the windvane does pretty well and we can feel the same motion, the same exhileration.

So with my monohull I can live aboard, cruise the world, and race successfully and I can take everything I own with me.

And when I need a sailing fix I can leave the marina and sheet the sails in and feel the breeze and spray on my face, and I am sailing.

To me the catamaran thing is like owning a small house which moves. It is convenient but it isn't sailing.

Still, I might be amenable to a larger performance catamaran. One which will go fast, go to weather, and will carry me and everything I own and still perform. It looks about mid 50 ft. It looks about 10 times as much money as my boat cost and is worth. And that's not talking about ongoing costs.

If I was a millionaire, maybe, but as a middle class boat owner, couldn't imagine it.

And I am still, even at that size for a catamarn, not positive it would do what I can do with my present boat.

[Training Wheels]

Originally Posted by 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’ll keep dragging my knuckles

Because they would finish way before the monos.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by oldcal46skipper

Noah's ark was a monohull.

The "ark" was a barge
.
It had no means of self propulsion.

[smj]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Exactly, Mr Cate.



To me the sailing experience is what I love about sailing. Carving to windward through the ocean's waves, watching the tell tales, and feeling the boat, the sea, the wind, with my hand on the helm, my body and my mind at one with the boat.



Or surfing off the wind, each wave and we slide ahead.



Yeah, I don't steer all the time, but the windvane does pretty well and we can feel the same motion, the same exhileration.



So with my monohull I can live aboard, cruise the world, and race successfully and I can take everything I own with me.



And when I need a sailing fix I can leave the marina and sheet the sails in and feel the breeze and spray on my face, and I am sailing.



To me the catamaran thing is like owning a small house which moves. It is convenient but it isn't sailing.



Still, I might be amenable to a larger performance catamaran. One which will go fast, go to weather, and will carry me and everything I own and still perform. It looks about mid 50 ft. It looks about 10 times as much money as my boat cost and is worth. And that's not talking about ongoing costs.



If I was a millionaire, maybe, but as a middle class boat owner, couldn't imagine it.



And I am still, even at that size for a catamarn, not positive it would do what I can do with my present boat.

So we were sailing in 12-15 kts of wind yesterday doing 10-13.5 kts and passed a monohull motor sailing. I’m guessing we were enjoying the sailing aspect more than he?
Point is, there are many different types of monohulls and many different types of Multihulls. There are also many different opinions on what you need or feel you need on board to cruise.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Training Wheels

Because they would finish way before the monos.

Not exactly

Who was the winner of the transpac?
And yes there were multi hulls in the race .

[PaintedKite]

All the cats are basically too big for us. There really aren't any high quality ones below 38ft.

It's just my wife & me aboard. We have a late model 37' monohull that's perfect for us. We just don't need all that space, and aren't willing to pay for something we don't need.

Also, we LOVE, love, love the feeling of sailing a monohull. That's what sailing is all about for us: that wonderful feeling of a monohull under wind power. Nothing better. Cats just don't feel the same.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by 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

They do let cats sail in many races these days, and in some places the cats outnumber the monohulls. Thailand is one of those places. Here we found this catamaran competitor in Ao Chalong.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by wingssail

They do let cats sail in many races these days, and in some places the cats outnumber the monohulls. Thailand is one of those places. Here we found this catamaran competitor in Ao Chalong.

You just had to be that guy.

I’d post the picture of the monohull that sunk off NZ last year after getting hit by a wave.
https://nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic...ectid=12276484

But the boat is 1000m deep - along with all their belongings and almost at the cost of their lives. Cat wins!!!!

[Lazy1]

Can't afford a modern cat and have watched Zingaro