Chris Newport wrote:
On Friday 22 October 2004 1:58 am in uk.rec.sailing jspeer wrote:


Of course you could go with a catamaran, but I've never been
comfortable offshore in a boat that is as stable upside-down as
right-side up:-)


Oh dear - that old chestnut again.

Cruising cats do not get blown down.
Racing multihulls use the inherent stability of multihulls
to crowd on more sail, so they can have problems, but
cruising cats are more sensibly designed.

Several Prouts and several Wharrams have circumnavigated.

James Wharram has written an excellent paper on this, you
need to keep the centre of effort low and use sensible
amounts of sail. He also advocates sails with calibrated
strenth which will shred before tipping the boat in the
case of the sudden storm that tends to blow up out of
nowhere in the southern ocean while people are asleep B-).

Taking something like a Hobie offshore is, of course, a
rather bad idea - but you knew that already.

While a catamaran has a better chance than a monohull of out-running extreme
weather, it's not the wind you have to worry about - it's the waves!

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOKQL26WD_index_0.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...gue_waves.html

It looks like rogue waves are a lot more common than most of us have
believed.

While I'd be happy to sail a cat on coastal routes, I'd prefer a monohull
for ocean passages. Rolling a monohull is not uncommon (I know someone who's
done it). Successfully rolling a catamaran would, I imagine, be far less
common!

Pleasant dreams.

"jspeer" wrote in message
...
Of course you could go with a catamaran, but I've never been comfortable
offshore in a boat that is as stable upside-down as right-side up:-)

Jim

less chance of it sinking ? - unless you hole both hulls

david

"Jason Keats" wrote in message
...

While a catamaran has a better chance than a monohull of out-running
extreme
weather, it's not the wind you have to worry about - it's the waves!

agree - one can always let some sheet out, reef the sails + other options
to allow for the wind, but what o you do for a 30 mt wave - i remember on my
second sydney to hobart (monohull) the wave height was incredibly scary -
surfing is no problem and a lot of fun, but race boats were and still are
constructed very lightly, coming down the other side with a huge thump
hoping the rigging and the boat would stay together thats scary

enjoyed ur links

david

In article , OzOne wrote:
On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 11:37:05 +1000, "david"
scribbled thusly:


"jspeer" wrote in message
...
Of course you could go with a catamaran, but I've never been comfortable
offshore in a boat that is as stable upside-down as right-side up:-)

Jim

less chance of it sinking ? - unless you hole both hulls

david

and add a great big lump of lead!

And, actually, a cat is more stable upside down, which is good in that
you won't be in a washing machine with all sorts of things flying
around. The bad news is that it's near impossible to right on your
own. But, at least you'll be alive, relatively dry, and relatively
comfortable.

--
Jonathan Ganz (j gan z @ $ail no w.c=o=m)
http://www.sailnow.com
"If there's no wind, row."