Hi

I have read a fair amount of hype about the sailing performance of the
Gemini 34Mc Catamaran.

Anybody around sails one, does it live to the expectation?

Bye

* stormtactic wrote, On 6/16/2007 9:30 AM:
Hi

I have read a fair amount of hype about the sailing performance of the
Gemini 34Mc Catamaran.

Anybody around sails one, does it live to the expectation?

I don't know much about that particular cat; we bought a PDQ after
rejecting the Gemini on "mediocre construction" grounds. It really
isn't that bad, but we want to go a bit upscale on this boat.

I can say that cat performance is highly dependent on loading. Our
boat easily lived up to the "more than half the wind speed"
expectation, including easily doing 12 knots in a 20-22 knot breeze
when it was new. But now with 8 year of accumulated crap, its been a
while since we've been much over 10 knots.

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:10:39 -0400, Jeff wrote:

* stormtactic wrote, On 6/16/2007 9:30 AM:
Hi

I have read a fair amount of hype about the sailing performance of the
Gemini 34Mc Catamaran.

Anybody around sails one, does it live to the expectation?

I don't know much about that particular cat; we bought a PDQ after
rejecting the Gemini on "mediocre construction" grounds. It really
isn't that bad, but we want to go a bit upscale on this boat.

I can say that cat performance is highly dependent on loading. Our
boat easily lived up to the "more than half the wind speed"
expectation, including easily doing 12 knots in a 20-22 knot breeze
when it was new. But now with 8 year of accumulated crap, its been a
while since we've been much over 10 knots.

One thing good about overloading a tri, I guess - you can't unless you
want to sleep in the cockpit!
I've given some thought to the space/overloading qualities of a cat,
and while really liking that space from the livability/openess view,
it does seem that many owners really slow them down when cruising.
I have thought that the cat storage capacity is best utilized for what
I see as cruising "essentials" - fuel, batteries, genset, watermaker,
just adequate food/beer reefer, etc, and keep sailing speed up within
those constraints. Of course all that is very easy for me to say,
having no cruising experience.
I sometimes see in cruising logs that some cruisers carry lots of
weighty canned food, book libraries and other seemingly unecessary
or lighter-weight-substitutable items which add quite a bit of weight.
I haven't seen a "cruising light" site that covers this type of
logistical planning for cruising cats. Not that it isn't out there
somewhere.
Given your cat experience, what are your views on this, and what
have you learned?
I know junk piles up - all I have to do is glance around my basement
or garage. I have dealt with this, and know the solution to fixing it
and preventing it.
But how is it different on a boat?
Thanks,

--Vic

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 09:54:57 -0500, Vic Smith wrote:

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:10:39 -0400, Jeff wrote:

* stormtactic wrote, On 6/16/2007 9:30 AM:
Hi

I have read a fair amount of hype about the sailing performance of the
Gemini 34Mc Catamaran.

Anybody around sails one, does it live to the expectation?

I don't know much about that particular cat; we bought a PDQ after
rejecting the Gemini on "mediocre construction" grounds. It really
isn't that bad, but we want to go a bit upscale on this boat.

I can say that cat performance is highly dependent on loading. Our boat
easily lived up to the "more than half the wind speed" expectation,
including easily doing 12 knots in a 20-22 knot breeze when it was new.
But now with 8 year of accumulated crap, its been a while since we've
been much over 10 knots.

One thing good about overloading a tri, I guess - you can't unless you
want to sleep in the cockpit!
I've given some thought to the space/overloading qualities of a cat, and
while really liking that space from the livability/openess view, it does
seem that many owners really slow them down when cruising. I have
thought that the cat storage capacity is best utilized for what I see as
cruising "essentials" - fuel, batteries, genset, watermaker, just
adequate food/beer reefer, etc, and keep sailing speed up within those
constraints. Of course all that is very easy for me to say, having no
cruising experience.
I sometimes see in cruising logs that some cruisers carry lots of
weighty canned food, book libraries and other seemingly unecessary or
lighter-weight-substitutable items which add quite a bit of weight. I
haven't seen a "cruising light" site that covers this type of logistical
planning for cruising cats. Not that it isn't out there somewhere.
Given your cat experience, what are your views on this, and what have
you learned?
I know junk piles up - all I have to do is glance around my basement or
garage. I have dealt with this, and know the solution to fixing it and
preventing it.
But how is it different on a boat?

It's not!

A few years ago one of the magazines (Sail?) did a sailing comparison of
the Gemini and a similar-sized/priced mono. IIRC, the cat was faster
downwind, but slower upwind and wouldn't point as high, and was less
satisfying to sail because of a dull helm.

Lighter, performance-oriented multis certainly do not suffer from this,
but they don't have the same cruising amenities either.

Otherwise the Gemini seemed like a good alternative to the mono,
depending on what the owner was looking for.

Matt O.

"stormtactic" wrote in message
...
Hi

I have read a fair amount of hype about the sailing performance of the
Gemini 34Mc Catamaran.

Anybody around sails one, does it live to the expectation?

Bye

Yes, and yes.

Sails at half wind speed (up to a limit), points to 35deg but I usually drop
off to 40-45 for higher VMG.

Most people who knock the sailing performance do so on the basis of their
first, and probably only, test sail - did you get the best out of your boat
first time out? Construction quality is good, it is finish that most people
criticize - you get what you pay for.

Cheers.

* Vic Smith wrote, On 6/16/2007 10:54 AM:
I can say that cat performance is highly dependent on loading. Our
boat easily lived up to the "more than half the wind speed"
expectation, including easily doing 12 knots in a 20-22 knot breeze
when it was new. But now with 8 year of accumulated crap, its been a
while since we've been much over 10 knots.

One thing good about overloading a tri, I guess - you can't unless you
want to sleep in the cockpit!
I've given some thought to the space/overloading qualities of a cat,
and while really liking that space from the livability/openess view,
it does seem that many owners really slow them down when cruising.

The problem is that a 36 for cat like mine has the weight carrying
capability of a a 36 foot mono (or maybe even a tad smaller) but it
has the space of a 45-50 footer. It isn't so much that the cat get
easily overloaded, its that it is easy to overload a cat!


I have thought that the cat storage capacity is best utilized for what
I see as cruising "essentials" - fuel, batteries, genset, watermaker,
just adequate food/beer reefer, etc, and keep sailing speed up within
those constraints. Of course all that is very easy for me to say,
having no cruising experience.
I sometimes see in cruising logs that some cruisers carry lots of
weighty canned food, book libraries and other seemingly unecessary
or lighter-weight-substitutable items which add quite a bit of weight.

"Unnecessary" is in the eye of the beholder. Every cat owner
understands the issue, its that most aren't that concerned if they
don't have the sparkling performance of a new, unloaded boat.

When I cruise I do about 50 miles a day. I'll be do about 7.5-8 knots,
so that's about 6.5 hours. If I could lighten the boat and maybe
average an extra knot, I'd get in maybe 45 minutes quicker - certainly
nice, but usually not a huge advantage. However, when I got there I
wouldn't have my kayak to play on. And maybe I wouldn't have the
fixin's for a nice meal, or the tools to correct a problem, or the
water to take a shower.

The truth is even weighted down with loads of crap, I'm still faster
than most monohulls, so its isn't really a problem.

I haven't seen a "cruising light" site that covers this type of
logistical planning for cruising cats. Not that it isn't out there
somewhere.

Odd, I've never seen it either! There is mention of the issue at
times, and cat owners don't go out of their way to make the boat
heavy. A good example is ground tackle. Heavy displacement boaters
will often say "weight is great" and you'll see twin CQR's on all
chain rodes. A cat is more likely to have a high tech setup, such as
a Delta with a modest length of chain and a Fortress as a second
anchor. Saving a few hundred pounds, especially in the bows,is
important for a cat. BTW, both anchoring approaches work well - I
ditched the CQR/all chain when I had a heavy boat boat because I felt
it led to worse anchoring, not better, but that's a different thread.

Given your cat experience, what are your views on this, and what
have you learned?
I know junk piles up - all I have to do is glance around my basement
or garage. I have dealt with this, and know the solution to fixing it
and preventing it.
But how is it different on a boat?

No difference at all. If there is a locker, it will get filled!