Catamarans

Whitelighter

Whitelighter

Well-Known Member
Joined
4 Apr 2005
Messages
13,977
Location
Looking out of the window
Visit site
What speed will a decent sized modern cat really sail at - one in the 40ft range for example.

I am used to monohulls and I guess a good cruising boat of that length with easily do 6-7knts with 8knts if you are on the limit. Will a cat do much more and if so by how much? Would a 40ft cat easily hit 10 knts for example?

I assume that a big crusing cat will rarely (if ever) lift a hull, but what are they like a different points of sailing? do they point well or do you basically have to keep everything on the beam/astern?

Also, is it hard to find berths in the UK or is that all a bit of hype.

Cheers

Jez
 
Modern 40 foot cats are beyond my experience, but our 1979 32 foot Comanche will very easily exceed 10 knots.

She is also a decent performer to windward, more than holding her own against most cruising monohulls of a similar size. She is light on the helm, well balanced, and tacks instantly (even at sea). I've been very impressed.

Previously, we had a beautiful, wooden, old gaff cutter: no surprise at all that the sailing experience is quite different (not necessarily better - depends what you want from your sailing).

Years ago we had a 31 foot Wharram Pahi. Off the wind, she was sublime. On one memorable trip from Carlingford Lough to Castletown, we averaged over 13 knots under number 3 jib only. Windward performance was, however, deeply unsatisfying: loads of leeway and she'd often get caught in stays.
 
We don't have an anenometer (I hate the things), so not a very scientific answer I'm afraid, but a nice force 4ish aft of the beam will have her screaming along comfortably.
 
"Not out in anything too big".....not sure what you mean (boat size or wind strengths?).

The boat is 32 feet loa (more than big enough for us and guests), and we'll take her out in any sort of weather that we'd have taken our previous boats out in.

I wouldn't passage plan for 10 knots plus, unless we had a very favourable weather forecast.
 
One question: will you be living aboard?
Our cat (36' Solaris Sunstar) when first bought would regularly do 10 knots plus in the right winds. Now, with all our stuff aboard she is heavier and will only do 6-8 knots in the right winds.
However, we have been caught in storms of 70 knot-plus winds and she has behaved impeccably. And no matter what people tell you - cats DO hove to!!
Happy sailing!!
 
Yes, weight is important.

Our Comanche is light: small outboard engine (easily lifed clear of the water to reduce drag), curtains not doors on sleeping cabins, small fuel and water tanks etc.

When we bought her, these factors helped sway our choice (a sister ship was also for sale at that time, but she had twin diesels, big tanks, doors etc).

We wanted the pure joy of sailing.
 
Do you really mean 70 knot plus.......thats the very top side of F12 and is what most people call Hurricane......... 'caught out' as in open water or tucked into a hole ? Do you make a habit of it ? and what do you have for breakfast ?
 
The trip where we averaged 13 knots in our Wharram cat, started out with a nice beam reach in a force 6. We had two reefs in the main, plus the number 3 (yankee cut) and staysail.

By the time we rounded Chicken Rock, it was blowing a full gale (verifed by Manx Coastguard), and we were down to the number 3 only, with the Stowe trailed log on its stops at twenty knots for minutes at a time, as we surfed towards Castletown.

One of the best, and most exhilarating, sails of my life.

(Another was a blast to windward from Gosport to Plymouth in a friend's beautiful She 31b. Force 6 Sw'ly all the way from the Needles....the Wharram would not have been a good choice for that trip).
 
A few year ago I took a 43' Casamance (Fountaine Pajot) from La Rochelle to Gibraltar. Normal cruising speed was about 10-12 knots with a max of 18knts in a following gale off Portugal.

Supposedly regulations require that the sail area is not enough to capsize the boat on wind strength alone.

John
 
You can generalise, just as you can with monohulls, but individual boats will vary. If you take a cruising cat on average, you can expect 1/2 the true wind speed as boat speed off the wind up to about 9knots and point roughly 50degrees off the wind. You can point closer but speed will reduce. My Prout 37 is heavy and not fast but extremely seaworthy and safe. With about 15 knots of true wind I get about 7 knots boat speed on a reach. With 25 knots of wind I can get about 10 knots and above that I would usually reef to slow her down. The maximum I have had running is 12 knots. Last week I ran down the Solent with a 30 knot wind, gusting 40 knots with reefed genoa doing 10 knots under autopilot. At this speed and wind she is comfortable and easily steered. There are many cats that are faster than this but some (not all) get a bit frisky at about 10 knots. I sailed a Privilege 42 back from the Channel Islands last year in 25 knots on a beam reach at about 10, but again this is IMHO a good sea-boat but not overly fast. Generally the "greyhounds" only perform well stripped down and lightweight. My "tortoise" has loads of cruising gear and stores on board.... Take your pick....
 
thanks very much.

All very useful information.

Does anyone have any info/oppinions on this:

IMG_3366_300w.jpg


Apparantly a Spirit 380. Looks like a well designed boat, and other pages seem to rate them above your standard Lagoon type cat.
 
Looks very much like a Schoining design. I would avoid something with daggerboards - they rattle like hell, are prone to cutting holes into your hull when you hit something and take up an enormous amount of space inside the hull.

There are two Schoinings, father & son who are no longer on talking terms because the son left the father's design practise with all the designs tucked under his arm and set up on his own, claiming the designs were his own. There is probably another side to the coin.

Anyway, the senior Schoining enjoys a very good reputation as a naval architect and except for the Wildcat (not his fault, but rather the nasty piece of work that built them), his designs are in demand and hold their values well.
 
So waht about some thing like the Privilege 37, or more preferably the later 395? I like the look of the layout, but not sure how the central master berth works (it looks like a bit of a climb to get into).

Also, it seems the 395 is now out of production, which seams to be a short time from intro in 2004. The Lagoon 380 also looks good, but a bit more plasticy inside (BenJen I guess).

Going back to the original question a bit, what would you think the cruising speed of a Lagoon 380 or Privilege 37/95 would be and which is the preferable boat?
 
TCM owns a 395, send him a PM for his opinion. Last year, I crossed the pond with him on the 395. Very fast - top speed of 21knots in 45 knots of wind - shat myself. The build quality is superb, access to engines etc is excellent. Wish I could afford one.

I don't know much about the Lagoon range, purely because they have never been on my radar and that is because the few that I have spent time on, were poorly built - hence I looked no further.

We crossed the pond from Lanzarote to St Lucia in 15 days. So an average speed of 8.3 knots or 200 miles per day.
 
p.s. The access to the forward cabin and getting onto the bed is no more difficult or easy that the vast majority of forward cabins in cats. IMHO, it's a nice arrangement with a his & hers heads.
 
Ah, didnt know that is what TCM had. DO you know how similar/different they are to the older 37? From what I can see on the web the 395 added a bit more length with the extended sugar scoops and a few other layout details but they are fundamentally the same boat.

Only thing is there are a few more 37 around, but I prefer the look of the 395 interior. Seem to be a few around the £160k mark (395) on the market.

Wonder if TCM fancies a couple of guests for a week /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Oops, my mistake, he has a 495.

He is always looking for crew. Sorry, let me re-phrase that. He is always desperately looking for crew, so I am sure if you invite yourself, he will oblige with enthusiasm. He's more of a Mobo man than a raggie, but eventually saw the light. Judging by your avatar, you should get along famously.

FWIW, I met a 395 owner in Trinidad. He raved about it too the point that it got boring and people started avoiding him.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top