BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

wrote:
So why do people buy cruising catamarans if monohulls in
the same price range are just as spacious and can go just
as fast ?

I would dispute that claim, sort of. Certainly in the used monohull
market there are bargains to be had, but there are very few cruising
boat that can keep up with a modern cat. Also, most buyers decide
what kind of boat they would prefer rather independent of the price.
Of course, cats tend to be pricey, partly because of engineering
issues, so you might find a large monohull that does fit your
criteria. In our case, the same money would have bought a 42 foot
Hunter or Catalina, neither of which are remotely close to the size
and speed of our boat.

Its hard to do a dollar for dollar comparison, but there are very few
cruising monohulls that can keep up with a cat, even one thats a bit
smaller. And its hard to find any mono that is "spacious" in the same
way as a cat.

One aspect you're ignoring is that the cat will have a much smaller
rig than an equally fast cruising monohull. My 36 foot cat is fairly
fast with only 540 feet of white sail. A mono of similar speed and
size would be 45 feet or more, and might have twice the sail to deal
with. And many cats will do 9 or 10 knots all day in a breeze,
without a spinnaker. While some racing boat will do that, it would
usually require a chute.

1. Shallower draft
That's a real good reason. When folks talk about how mono's outpoint
cats they often pick racing boats with a 7 foot keel.

2. They can be parked on the beach
That's not done as often as one might think. However, I have anchored
in water shallow enough to walk ashore.

3. They don't sink as easily
Its pretty hard to find cases of more than a handful of cats sinking.
There are a number of other safety features, such as a huge
foredeck, a small rig, no heeling, etc.

4. They don't roll like monohulls
Well, they roll like cats, which is a different thing. However, if
you're talking about rolling in anchorages, its rare that my cat is
anything other than rock steady in a protected anchorage. Often, I'll
see neighboring monohulls rolling because we got waked.

5. ???
I find the ride far more relaxing than monohulls, though I'll admit
there are differing opinions on this point. After 8 hours of sailing
a mono my legs are usually getting a bit "rubbery" but after sailing
all day on a cat I'm ready to boogie.

Twin engines are a plus, so is fast efficient powering.

I've come to love the deck layout, with a huge trampoline forward,
twin swim platforms and a nice spot for a dinghy in davits. If the
cockpit is enclosed (many modern cats have a hardtop) it becomes a
large pilothouse. We leave a lot of gear outside, and take a lot of
meals in the cockpit.

The large deck space means lots of hatches - we have 8 large opening
hatches on deck, plus 8 more side hatches. This is a huge amount of
ventilation, and A/C is not needed at anchor.

"Bryan" wrote:

We raced our Schock 35 for many years and often there
was a multihull fleet sailing the same course. F-28 Corsair
Trimarans and others of the same ilk. We were very rarely
beaten around the course by those multihulls.. I would
tend to agree that in general a large monohull will be as
fast if not faster than a cruising cat.