sherwindu wrote:
Ian George wrote:

In general, apart
from the nut-swinging hard core racer, a multi will be reefed well
before a similar sized mono - simply because the multihull sailor
reefs to gust-speed, whereas the mono sailor will as a rule reef to
average wind speed and point-up or heel over to spill the gusts.

I think you are trying to give some credit to multi-hull sailors
over mono hull sailors where it doesn't exist. What you describe
is just plain good sailing technique, for any boat. However, as I
stated earlier, a boat heeling over is a much more positive
feedback than an increase of speed. A monohull will usually do a
gradual heeling or at least it is obvious that you may be in
trouble if your rail is in the water. A multihull, on the other
hand, will probably stay flat until the tipping force overcomes the
moment arm of the upwind pontoon, and the multi will go over rather
quickly. I'm curious what criteria a multi sailor uses to relate
boat speed to the amount of reefing required. Speed is not that
easy to judge, and a dangerous speed may be dependent on the
particular construction of the multi.



Not so much in a cruising multi; in a highly strung racing multi very close
attention needs to be paid to true -v- apparent wind, but as close atention
to velocity made good is also important when racing, usually there is close
attention being paid to that formula.

In a cruising cat or tri, it is usually sufficient to be aware of apparent
wind when running off the wind, where one could be doing 15 knots or better,
running off a 25knot breeze, in the apparent calm of a mild 10kt apparent
wind in the cockpit. Trousers can be ruptured when turning to head back up
and the wind turns into 30 - 40kts apparent... drogue time, hopefully you
aren't out of sea room.


Ah, that is my point. All of the issues you have raised in this
thread - bad design, poor seamanship, inappropriate precaution, poor
construction - all apply equally to both types of craft. They can't
possibly be used to argue a case for one type over the other.

My issue is not so much preventing the initial roll over, but what
happens to the boat once that happens. Not that it is exactly
pertinent to multihulls, but the news today talked about two women
rowing their boat across the Atlantic and having it flip over.
Luckily, they had an EPIRB, called for help, and luckily their was
a Tall Ship in the vicinity that picked them up rather quickly as
they clung to their overturned hull.

Rolling a modern, well-found cruising multi is very, very hard to do. That
was all I was trying to point out. Older (up to th '70s) solid deck tris and
cats were somewhat more prone to this, due to the action of green water on a
solid expanse of deck. Some coastal cats and tri's I see with close weave
tramp mesh bother me too, although the chances are that the tramps would be
ripped from their saddles before the boat would roll. but really, the OP
wasn't talking about these boats.

Frankly taking to the Ocean in a rowboat isn't even halfway sane.


Offshore to me is 200miles.

I don't know if that is enough of a cushion if the seaworthyness of
any boat is in question.

If the seaworthiness of the boat or for that matter the competence of the
people aboard it is in question, I am perfectly happy to watch it leave from
the dock, and have done.

Ian