On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 07:08:42 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:


Now, Xan's a feisty little girl and often does things that shouldn't be
possible, but we've passed too many cats over the years to think much of
their overall sailing abilities.

Jere's right. Waterline length is obviously an important component of
overall speed, but it's only part of the puzzle. Angle of heel,
ballast ratio, rigging and pure seamanship all play a part. In
informal "throw-down" sprints in the fall and spring when the wind's
up on Lake Ontario, I regularly smoke much larger boats in 20 knots or
so. My boat's 33 feet and 32 years old and about 9,800 lbs. in the
slings. I've beaten C&C 35s, Hughes 38s and memorably, a Goderich 40
cutter ketch speed over ground.

Why? Because I know generally how to get the best out of my boat; I
have hank-on sails and a huge J measurement that allow me to point
pretty high, and a tiller that allows me to steer with my knees while
I trim sails. I also don't have a lot of heavy stuff on board, because
I like fast cruising even though I don't club race my own boat.

Now, all these flashy racing moves were done on a reach to a haul. My
IOR-stype high-aspect main is not very helpful on a run by the same
logic.

I think catamarans are great and that there's going to be considerable
refinement of them as long-term cruising boats in the coming years.
But I suspect they are fundamentally a different type of sailing
experience than that of monohull sailing in that the "tweaks"
available to catamaran sailors are fewer than to me. Sure, when
conditions are right they go like stink and OVERALL are bound to be
faster. So's a Star dinghy. But I can see where a '70s monohull
production cruiser like Jere's boat (and I know the type well as I
nearly bought one) can "beat" bigger boats that aren't, for whatever
reason, sailing to their full potential.

R.