Carermaran?

[Guest]

My wife and I are planning a 4 year cruise, all of our boating experiance is on motorboats buy we have decided to do this trip under sail. Has any one got any exoeriance of cats. We want to cross both the Atlantic and the Pacific, require good accomodation, will have occassional visitors and think a cat offers the best solution all around. We envisage spending circa £150,000 on a boat are in no hurry and are looking for a stable platform on which to live and travel. Any advice appreciated.
Ronan Kavanagh

 

[snowleopard]

one hull good, two hulls better

i have crossed the atlantic on one, two and three hulls. my latest boat is a 40ft cat which we cruised to the caribbean and back last year. obviously i'm biased but the following are the key pros and cons for warm-water voyaging.

pro:
lots of space for living and lounging
shallow draft for secluded anchorages
speed
great visibility from saloon
lack of roll makes rolly anchorages tolerable
fantastic manoeverability (with twin engines)

con:
weight is critical
marinas abroad usually charge double
motion uncomfortable to windward

 

[rickwat]

You'll find the Prout range of cats have done the voyages you envisage many times over and whilst agreeing about having to bear off the wind more than a good monohull they are less beamy than most cats and so give scope for negotiation in marinas - eg Prout 37ft, 15.25ft beam or 16.25ft on the later Elite, Prout 39ft,18.5ft beam from memory. If you follow the "Buying a boat" link you can get a good idea of what is available for any make.

 

[tcm]

I haven't sailed cats, i have sailed monos.

I mentioned cats to a friednd - she said she's crossed oceans on monos, and once on cat, but she didn't like it - the motion is not at all the same. She strongly advised that one had a decent trip out on a cat in some open sea before even renting one for two weekes, let alone buying, to see if the motion is acceptable. sounds sensible to me.

 

[steveh]

If you are used to motorboats then the motion of a cat will be similar. You will more than likely find that the motion of a monohull is rather different and even the heeling as offputting. Give it a go - I changed from monos to a catamaran and would find it very hard to go back!

 

[ecudc]

Try posting this on shuttlebutt. It's more widely read and you'll get lots of opinions on cats. I believe (but am by no means an expert) there are some safety issues on cats because, for example, they wont recover from a 90 degree knock down, I've heared other stuff as well but would rather leave it to someone who knows more about them than me.

 

[davidbains]

Re: Catamaran?

Ronan, you will be in good company if you choose a cat especially for a tradewind circumnavigation involving very little windward work. However you should start reading
multihull mags such as Multihull International, the american Multihulls Magazine, and the
aussie Multihull World. This will give you a feel for multi cruising and the ads will indicate
what you can expect for your money, which will provide a seaworthy 40fter secondhand.
You should also charter a cat for some weeks in the Med or perhaps the Virgins. Many
charter firms such as the Moorings now have large cat fleets. But don't go for the max
accommodation when you buy, a smaller bridgedeck cabin and greater clearance gives
a more seaworthy boat with less slamming in steep seas. Try a few designers websites,
I can recommend Derek Kelsall and John Shuttleworth.
www.kelsall.com
www.steamradio.com/JSYD/

 

[Guest]

You can get VERY comprehensive info about catamarans from a German
web-site specialising in cats. Much is also in english.
The internet page is: multihull.de



Sinbad the Sailor

 

[sailbadthesinner]

If your wife is not a good sailor cats are ideal forcruising.
I have i have to say only tried them in the med and would be more wary of their ocean capabilities than a mono but that is gut feeling not hard experience. maybe you will need to trun and run with a storm a bit sooner than the monos perhaps. I would tend to agree with the motorboat motion comment.
a big difference is the need to reef early to prevent overstraining the rig. a mono will heel to let you know. a cat does not until you are really straining. but the joy of doing 6 knots upwind in light winds leaving the others for dead and no healing isconverted me to charter them whenever i could.

i do know that many cats have done circum navs. one of the main issues is they attract upto 50% greater harbour fees than the monos so cost may be a big implication. do the research pick the boat and go for it

Ok brain let's just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.

 

[Roberto]

Don t worry

Stability is a much overstressed problem in cats, everyone knows if you throw one outside the window it will always fall right on its four paws; real problems are rather when you decide to bring your dog in your cat


...apologies..

 

[oldsaltoz]

G'day ronan and welcome to the YBW forums,

I have listed a few links for you to view and hope this helps.
Avagoodweekend Old Salt Oz /forums/images/icons/cool.gif

http://www.multihulls.net.au/

http://www.emultihulls.com/

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wingo.com/multihulls/webring.html>http://www.wingo.com/multihulls/webring.html</A>