Old Nick ) writes:

- they load a mast very high in a puff, because they are not
supposed to heel more than a very small amount. IIRC (and it's been a
while) and extra 20% (?) or more needs to be added to the mast/stay
strain for a multi over a mono.

good point. a mulithull behaves more like the solid ground mentioned in an
earlier post than like a boat. what you usually see for boats is a graph
of righting moment against angle of heel. at some point there is a
maxiumum righting moment.

imagine the cross section of a catamaran. one hull has to be lifted out of
the water at some distance from the sail, making for quite a bit
of leverage for the sail to overcome. as soon as the raised hull leaves the
water it loses all bouyancy and becomes a dead weight for the sail to lift
at the end of the lever. teh fulcrum is teh hull which is still in the water.

If I remember correctly, according to TF Jones catamarans don't heel more
than 5 deg or so. they still roll with the swells so they don't stay flat,
but they don't heel much at all. I'd guess it's almost like being on a raft.



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