boatgeek wrote:



*Speed. Our St Francis will do around 8 knots in 11 knots of wind, at
15 knots of wind we break into double digits.

No arguement there, multis go faster because they are not displacment
hulls.

*Stability. I don't see it actually from a comfort point of view as
much as safety. If the boat doesn't rotate 45 degrees because of
fluke wind shift it means my wife and son don't get thrown around like
rag dolls.

Strong winds do not suddenly shift like that. You can get that in light
airs
and then such an effect is minimal on the boat. Of course, an
accidental
jig could cause some problems, but we won't address that.





*Positive bouyancy.

This could be incorporated into a monohull, if it was a high
priority objective.

. I can stop and launch a
dingy to assist another boat in just 3 or 4 minutes.

I tow my dinghy behind the boat, so launching is not an issue.



*large wide decks.

A possible advantage.



*Shallow draft.

This is a definite advantage for places like the Bahamas.

*Good visibility from inside.

Monohulls have windows, don't they?




*twin short keels. It allows us to "walk" off a beach and easily
kedge ourselves back into the water should we drag onto the shore (ok,
not too proud to admit that). But imagine having dragged anchor in the
middle of the night. In a monohull you'd be woken up by the fact they
you are lying completely on your side with waves threatening to wash
into your cockpit and down the companionway.

On the contrary, you get woken up when your keel starts bumping on the
bottom, and you don't go over, you just sit where you are, aground. You

are in an anchorage where despite strong winds, you should not get
big waves.



*Most catamaran thru hulls are above the waterline. I've seen too
many monohulls sink because a hose fitting for their sinks came loose
during the night. I've also had my hose fittings also come loose on
my galley sink drain, and had to tighten them again. That's it. No
water rushing in, no panics.

This kind of design is not peculiar to multihulls. My monohull has all
it's thru hulls below the water line.

Many monohulls have a dozen or more thru
hulls. I have less than half of their below water thru hulls, and
were a thru hull to come loose, it's not as low in the water because
the water intakes don't have to be extra low to compensate for heeling.

Monohulls do not require more thru hulls than multihulls.


*Capsizing - Some believe that the monohull ability to heel to dump a
gust of wind gives them an advantage because the catamaran can't heel.
True, cat's don't heel. We accelerate.

There is a limit to how fast your catamaran will go. I have seen
pictures
of catamarans with one hull lifted out of the water. A strong enough
wind is going to blow it over.

All else aside, a catamaran has two basic STABLE configurations, upright

and upside down. A monohull has only one STABLE configuration, upright.

That's the way catamarans
have the same "pressure valve" for dumping unexpected gusts, we can't
heel, therefore the force is directed into motion forward. That's the
safety valve.

When your upwind hull comes out of the water, there goes your safety
valve.
Wave action can contribute to this problem. I can judge this problem
easily
on a monohull by the amount of heel. On a catamaran, you have to be a
very
good judge of speed, or otherwise you will have little warning, except
for the
upwind hull coming up, and by then, it may be too late.

I've been in the gulf stream in November, in large
waves and trade winds down in the caribbean, I go fast.

I think you have been very lucky up to now.

While going
fast I can take my time and reef the sails without worrying about
falling over the rails. I think the reason this keeps coming up is
that every serious cruiser in a monohull has had a knock down and that
fear is very present in their minds.

The serious monohull sailors keep their sail plan under control by
reefing,
heaving to, or going bare pole, so most of them don't experience knock
downs.

I've been in the same wind gusts
on a monohull and a catamaran. The monohull was knocked down and then
righted itself, the catamaran just went faster. We do tend to
compensate for this by sailing more by the numbers than a monohull
would (reef at 20 knots, reef again at 30 knots, even if it feels
completely under control).

I hope this helps some who are looking at catamarans. Almost every
reason I have isn't due to convenience, it's due to safety.

I agree that multihulls are great for speed and shallow draft. When it
comes
to safety, I completely dissagree. I would not try any remote offshore
cruising
with a catamaran.

The previous postings about losing the mast are not the
prevalent case. More often, the mast is mostly intact, and sailing can
resume.

Sherwin D.



Cheers,

Doug and Cindy and Zach
St Francis 44
Annapolis, MD