Old, Solid, Slow but Reliable Cats - Which Would You Choose ?

[Factor]

At the risk of being immodest, Here is our XL under sail.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Factor
I thought that Ramtha - a simpson also survived the storm? ...

Originally Posted by Tropic Cat

Yes, but with damage,

Not entirely true

The crew of Ramtha had set their parachute anchor several days BEFORE the storm to fix their steering.
The steering was not damaged by the storm.

Multihull Dynamics, Inc. - News Article

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by Factor

At the risk of being immodest, Here is our XL under sail.

I think you will have to get used to the adulation with a cat like yours. In an anchorage, for every fellow cruiser that musters up and says "Hi, nice boat", there will probably be 25 that felt they shouldn't bother you but wanted to comment. I have a car that attracts attention and I know every time I fuel, it will take 10~15 minutes longer.

[downunder]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

I think you will have to get used to the adulation with a cat like yours. In an anchorage, for every fellow cruiser that musters up and says "Hi, nice boat", there will probably be 25 that felt they shouldn't bother you but wanted to comment. I have a car that attracts attention and I know every time I fuel, it will take 10~15 minutes longer.

In Australia and particually the whitsundays Seawinds are as common as and part of the scenery. In States maybee.

[Factor]

Yep - true, but I still like it.

Do you have something a little rarer, I am always interested in some of the more esoteric boats.

[downunder]

Originally Posted by Factor

Yep - true, but I still like it.

Do you have something a little rarer, I am always interested in some of the more esoteric boats.

Factor my comment was more for our friends on the other side of the Pacific.

You have a great vessel in the water at the moment whilst I am still planning and landbound. I do like the FreeFlow 46/40. Have you seen the build recently - just been painted at Commera and about to hit the water.

[JusDreaming]

Originally Posted by Factor

At the risk of being immodest, Here is our XL under sail.

more risk of being immodest

[Factor]

Originally Posted by downunder

F....I do like the FreeFlow 46/40. Have you seen the build recently - just been painted at Commera and about to hit the water.

No but I plan to drop in and have a look soon, I know Nathan from his days at Lightwave.

[downunder]

Vessel looks like it will be great in the water, a fantastic liveaboard - the internal layout on this one is owner specific but allows for many options.

Cheers

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by smj

We regreted selling our Seawind 1000 so much that we just bought another one! Let the fun begin

Heh!

Cool.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by harlie

The “Good Cat – Bad Cat” write up is just a blatant advertisement for FP,(...)

Maybe. But it does raise some points like get the clearance large or else you have bought a mono ;-). I read it and I think there are many non FP cats that fit the picture - Privileges, Catanas, Outremers to name only some of the more popular ones.

I think everybody should chose a boat that is up to the job and, as much as possible, best for the job at hand. Some cats are great for the everglades, other are great for offshore voyages.

I think catamarans went thru a rapid development over last 30 years or so and it is silly to claim the development was in fact a deterioration.

The authors of that article wrote it from a specific perspective and I think they presented facts as they are.

Why do you say it is a blatant advertisement?

b.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by JusDreaming

more risk of being immodest

Fantastic. The day I win lotto I joint the club.

I like the woodwork inside too - way ahead of their era and way ahead of their competition.

Cheers,
b.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

......Why do you say it is a blatant advertisement? b.

I can see where Harlie is coming from. I wouldn't say a blatant advertisement, and there is much good that can be gained from that article, but personally - I would recommend Chris Whites, The Cruising Multihull as a starting point.

There are clearly some advertorial points eg the only photos of "good" cats are of FP's and commentary on Good cats uses FP for demonstration purposes - e.g. Item 5 with the discussion on the FP salina. Not that there is anything wrong with that its not like he is hiding the fact that he is an FP agent, but never the less its advertorial.

Some comment is simply misplaced - eg

Are the berths spanning the bridge deck? - Why

as if this is ipso facto a bad thing. Some of the fastest and bestest boats I have been on, e.g. Attitude - A schionning G Force (see photo attached)


has the berths spanning the bridgedeck. It almost as if the author has looked at the features of an FP and cosntructed a reasonable argument to support each one. For Example I refer to the discussion on dagger boards, which seems to suggest they are a bad thing, my boat doen't have them , but I have sailed enough to know that they are not a bad thing, not necessarilly necessary for what I need to do and the cruising I do but they are certainly not a bad thing.

Performance figures - the author references doing nearly 90 miles in 6 hours on an FP 35 . That may or may not have occurred, but if it did, it certainly is not what you could expect day after day.

Then of course there are the issues that are not discussed, e.g. anchor handling. Having a chain rode disappear up under the middle of the boat is not what I would think is appropriate, indeed as I have said in the past, that and a lack of visibility are deal breakers for me.

In summary, a good starter article for people, but not the gospel, plenty of good points but be careful that you seek alternative views as well.

To be clear, I am not picking on FPs - plenty of them out there, I have sailed plenty of them and have even written positive boat test reviews on them.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Factor

I can see where Harlie is coming from. (...)

OK, now having read your comments I can see the point.

I started reading at the front page and I did read the fine print too, so I knew it was written by FP dealers. To me the points and the examples did not come as a surprise nor as an advertisement. Would we expect the designer of Windpilot to use Monitor as example, or the Pardeys to fill their books with pictures of Bavarias?

You were lucky to be on a good Schionning. I happened to sail a definitely different Schionning. Cannot comment on the design, perhaps it was good, perhaps it was all boatbuilder's fault. But as I know boat builders, they built boats to some sort of plans ... and most often stick to them.

I am in a place where there are a couple of Outremers sailing by each year. They are pretty fantastic - the newest ones. Perhaps a bit too racy, but then again, we only live once.

One of the things that I noticed are becoming common are spreaderless masts. Fantastic - simple and elegant in one.

Cheers,
b.

[harlie]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

(...) I read it and I think there are many non FP cats that fit the picture - Privileges, Catanas, Outremers to name only some of the more popular ones.

(...)

Privileges are "Bad Cats" - many have the owner stateroom over the tunnel.
Catana - "Bad Cat" - twin helms.
Not familiar with Outremer so can't really comment. But I will quote the website "The Outremer 49 is a fast cruising catamaran and is equipped with twin daggerboards that..." Oh dear - Daggerboards - "Bad Cat"! Anyone on this boat is likely to suffer greatly!

Personally the Catana is among my list of fav production boats, and for me the exposed helms are a problem, about the only feature of them that I don't like. But like many things in life there’s a compromise – I can see some advantages in the helms there as well.

My point is that the article just blatantly picks design features that FP don't have and wrote about that feature as being impossible to live with, and we all know that quite a few of the points are not correct - over tunnel berths, dagger boards to start with.

An article just looses credibility when it has an obvious motive other then educating the reader on the topic of discussion. So After reading comments here and re-reading the article I standby my opinion – Blatant advertising. There are many fine examples of cats with features talked about in that advertisment.