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Mono Heel fatigue vs Catamaran SLAP, oh to dream canter keel cruiser


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Agree with Booboo we beat every cat on every leg from the med to NZ

Often larger cats by days, 2 from Galapagos to FP

Cats win at anchor but that’s it, sure you can make them faster by lightening them up but your cruising and a lot of that gear is or maybe needed

Where the cat losses every time is when you go to park them

At 15.4m by 4.9m our boat is about spot on for volume and as long as the winds in the 20s apparent we do 200nm days back to back at any angle, 130deg is the nicest thou, we had that for 5 days, and did over 1000nm between G and Poly

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I too agree with Booboo and Jon. Even Island Time was faster on most passages than most of the multi's. Multi's have an unusual quick motion in a seaway - I had to go up the rig of a 45ft multi in a reasonable seaway - only half way up, but came back down with some pretty good bruises, due to the fast motion. Would have been a much easier task in a mono, where the arc would have been more, but not so violent it was hard to hold on....

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I think one has to bear in mind that probably around 70% ( I am guessing here but probably not too far off the mark) of Cats are production Cats whose main purpose is to provide a "comfortable environment" at anchor which they definitely achieve above Monos (plus more anchoring options with shallow draft) often with modest sailing - most non performance cruiser type cats will normally be around same speed (or slightly slower) reaching or running as a similar sized mono but slower upwind. Although a different motion which can be uncomfortable for some it is probably less stressful doing activities like showering, cooking and every day type stuff when you arent leaning . Cooking on a Mono in a sea isnt  very easy.

 It would need to be a pretty quick Mono performance  cruiser  to keep up with a similar sized performance cruising Cat sailing eased sheets .

 Trade wind sailing with a nice swell on your quarter is a lot of fun  on a Cat that can take off and surf.

 Agree with Jon - parking a Multi in a marina is always going to be a more expensive exercise

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Here’s another forum discussing this topic almost

Some more info for you

My take is production cats suck upwind and are almost as fast as a mono down wind, possibly faster on a reach. If you want a cat that sails well you need boards and lightweight high end build.

 

 

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f48/catamaran-tacking-angles-really-that-bad-222453.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

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To get performance sailing out of a cat my list would be in order:

1. light weight

2. long skinny hulls (if there is a double bed in the hull, the cat better be over 60')

3. bridge deck clearance

4. powerful rig to overcome the extra drag in light airs

5. last of all dagger boards

A well designed mini keel can work quite well. However virtually every cat with boards also ticks the top four points as well so the boards get all the kudos, not sure they deserve it.

To get a cat big enough to carry the weight required for cruising on those skinny hulls, I think a minimum of 45' if you want sailing performance.

That's also long enough to have nice enough double berths on the bridge deck.

Cat's are not cheap to build light and long and powerful so as BP suggests you will be comparing with a pretty big mono for the same money.

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