Tim wrote:
On Apr 2, 4:13 pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Fri, 2 Apr 2010 14:28:48 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch

wrote:
Something I noticed on this leg of my cruise is the radical diff tween
the wakes of mono and catamaran hulls for power boats. The monos have
huge wakes while the cats have very small wakes. This should give
better fuel economy. Does it?
It absolutely does. The less water you push aside the better from
the standpoint of efficiency. One of the big cruising trends we are
seeing this year is the increase in multi-hull sailboats. There are
hundreds of them just here in Martinique and it looks like they will
be in the majority sooner or later.

Waht about harsh side winds? Can you flip one?

Doubtful where you'll be boating. If winds get 30-50 knots while you're
out on the river, the bimini will probably rip before it can lift a
toon. If it's too windy for the bimini, take it down.
Wind will push you much more than a keeled boat, but one of the fuel
advantages of the pontoons is not pushing water aside.
Wind can work for you, or against you more in a pontoon boat than a
deeper keeled boat.

Jim - Likes to talk about boats when not hammering libs.