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sherwindu
 
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Default Reply to "j" ganz Why do people buy cruising catamarans ?

ganz wrote:

predictable in the general sense. Sounds like bad planning.

Most of them are predictable. This one started as a disturbance over
Cuba, which turned quickly into a hurricane. We were stuck in Key
West
with unfavorable winds for over two weeks. We contacted the U.S.
Weather Bureau, who told us it was safe to depart. Maybe we should
have gone to a higher authority?

OK. What do you do if your multihull does flip over? I hear about
crawling into one of the watertight compartments, but I wonder about
the practicality of this, and where do you go from there?


Fair enough question. You have food, water, dry clothes, batteries.
You have access to the topside (bottom of boat) through hatches built
for that purpose. You have an Eprib, which you use. You have filed a
sail plan with friends, so they'll know when to start putting out the
alarm. While you wait for rescue, you relax because you're not in a
washing machine going round and round.


Do you really think you will be comfortable floating in the middle of
the ocean with monstrous wave slamming you?

You're in a stable (though
upside down) boat.. actually more stable than right side up. You're
fine.


Yes, in an idealized sequence of events, maybe.

You don't need to crawl into a watertight compartment, because those
compartments are sealed. You just stay in the inverted living area.


That sounds cozy.

Please describe your offshore, extreme weather sailing on a mono
that causes you to have these views!


You can find some of them in my recent posts to this thread. I
have no first
hand
experience sailing multihulls, but am basing my thoughts on how
sailboat
behave,