How about some real negatives for catamarans. I can think
of several.

1. They are easily overloaded. It looks like you can put all
your crap on them, but looks are deceiving.. unless you plan
on sitting at the dock all of the time. Put your crap in storage
or sell it and go sailing.

2. You need to learn how to reef and do it! Typical example.
We're sailing on a Seawind 1000 in the bay. People are chatting,
eating lunch, having some champagne (really!). They put their
drinks down and use the head or whatever, and when they
return. The champagne glass is still where they put it. I'm driving,
tweaking the sails, giving some small lesson in this or that, not
really paying all that much attention to the wind or conditions.
Then, I notice that there are really a lot of white caps. Yikes,
the wind speed (true not apparent) is well over 30kts. In fact,
I'm seeing gusts to 35. We've got the fully battened main up
all the way! Time to reef... glad we did. The boat seemed to
be handling it well, but I'm glad I didn't wait. Sailing a cat
can be deceptive... you have to watch the conditions and
react early.

3. You have to know how to anchor and there are specific
differences between cats and monos. Cats require a bridle
to anchor or moor properly. Typically, the bridle should be
all set up and ready to go well before you need it, so you
don't have to fumble around.

4. You need to be more in tune with the environment when
sailing a cat. There is virtually no heel, so it's hard to tell
if the boat is sailing optimally. There is much less of a "groove,"
so you have to really get the feel of sailing them before you
can do it in a serious way.

5. Tacking can be more difficult if you're not used to it. Quick
tacks from a beam reach won't work well or at all. You need
to "sneak up on it," then turn decisively. Beginners tend to stall
the boat during tacks. You have to learn to let the boat do the
work and how to get out of irons. It's different on a cat vs. a
mono. Typical example... I was again on the SW1000 only
this time it was third or fourth time. We tacked and the boat
stalled in irons during the tack. We were doing well over 10 kts
until that moment. We just waited a few seconds, the boat started
to back, I eased the main and off we went on the new tack...
back to 10 kts in short order. In some respects it was a faster
turn than sneaking up on it and tacking, but it is a strange feeling
to have a boat stop, then shoot off like a rocket from a standing
start.

Other real ones?

"Jonathan Ganz" wrote in message
...

"Simple Simon" wrote in message
...
More downsides:

1) It won't go to weather worth a crap

Not true. They pretty much match monos. Not all monos, but you
don't need to point high most of the time anyway. You can go faster
slightly off the wind and get there first.

2) It's uglier than sin

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

3) If your built-in generator takes a crap you're out of commission

Why's that?

4) It'll capsize and stay capsized and it can and will sink

True, true, and false. Cat's don't sink.

5) It's a pain in the butt to anchor

Easy as pie. I've never had trouble. You can ground it to work on
it. You don't need a huge anchor, chrome or otherwise, to hold,
since the weight isn't that great.

6) Two motors equals twice the headaches

And half the worries. If one dies, you've got a backup. We were
in Belize with no wind one day, one engine was sounding strange,
so without missing a beat, we turned it off, pulled it up, had a look,
found the problem, put it back down, and started it. Never missed
beat. Also had one die on me in the Sauslito channel right in front
of a brig that was trying to dock.. lot's of traffic behind. It was still
easy to motor out of the way, then we futzed with it and started it
up again. I ended up docking without it anyway, since it kept dying.
Not a big deal.

7) It's a better motorboat than a sailboat

It's a better motorboat than a mono if you need it to be.

8) It's way way way too expensive for what you get

It's expensive... damn true.

9) Did I say it's uglier than sin?

No.

10) Real cruisers will laugh at you and won't want to be
anywhere near you in an anchorage. It's a case of
"Oops! there goes the neighborhood!"

BS. They appreciate the accomodations and usually have
a million questions about how it sails and handles.

S.Simon

"NH_/)_" wrote in message
...
papers on the trust are taking longer than expected.
So while we wait, I am grabbing all knowledge that I can
from this and other groups, sites and such, so when the funds
come in, we know what we want. and the cat right now is
lurking top choice.

Reasons
1 will flip ...but does not sink
2 more room
3 sails in shallow water
4 more stable on the water

Down side

1 Costs are high
the one we are looking at costs 300K
we only have 140K right now so we have to
wait for the trust to come available.

2 mooring can be more difficult--finding room


NH_/)_


"Bobsprit" wrote in message
...
Cats are looking to be a nice choice in the 38-40ft range

You still haven't bought a boat?
You probably never will.

RB