atlantic waves on a sailing catamaran

we are on the atlantic ocean in march 2005

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• sailing
• waves
• atlantic

[andreasLan]

Hello,

actually the meteo was quite rough, on murterska-avantura.hr/include/­meteo24032005.png the actual situation.

Also for the italian readers: an article published on Nautica in 2009 can be found on murterska-avantura.hr/archive.­aspx

See you on the open sea!

andreas

[tiopiratamike]

I have 140,000+ ocean miles in various multihulls and about 41,000 in various monohulls, plus coastal miles etc over the last 50 years. There are unseaworthy vessels abundant in both types but there can be no refuting the generality that catamarans are safer then monohulls, under all circumstances. Shallower, faster, more buoyant, less fatiguing, 2 rudders etc. Incident report and statistics bear this out too.

[Ozbullwinkle]

I would love an English translation of what he is saying - what type of cat was this & length ;looks like a FP,

[youngestpilotinGa]

im sorry is this sounds offencive but are you french or german? i can hear one of those two

[tkoltiska]

@tiopiratamike You are spot-on. I agree with you on all points

[tiopirata2]

@airborne373 Survival stories of this nature in monos are rare, as are events of this type. Many of these incidents have occurred in conditions that would leave a good cat unperturbed, again I know having lost friends to such sea states in their monos while sailing very close to them in one of my cats. No question, the worse conditions get, the better a catamaran is relatively speaking. We do need to discount the charter type cats which are not created with ultimate seaworthiness in mind though

[tiopirata2]

Seems to be some misunderstandings of the relative seaworthiness of monos and multis. I recommend study of Chris White's excellent book "The Cruising Multihull", a few years old now but still THE definitive tome.Also recommenede are the websites of Derek Kelsall and John Shuttleworth, and my own New Zealand site, Marine Scene. We have 200 years experience designing, building and sailing multis, we do know.

[airborne373]

@tiopirata2 Hi, thanks for the reply. I really like the obvious advantages of a cat. But when I read blogs and news stories about monohulls being picked up tossed around and slammed upside down only to self right and keep it's crew alive even in hurricanes I tend to think of a full keeled mono as the safest.

No doubt I would chose a cat if I were sailing lets say the Caribbean but really unsure about global sailing on one.

What I know about global cruising is from blogs.

[tiopirata2]

@avianskipdiver I have seen a lot of knockdowns where the cat is still afloat and salvageable and the ballasted mono has disappeared completely below. I do mean a lot, and mono knockdowns are more common and statiscally more dangerous.

[tiopirata2]

@airborne373 Hi Mate. The problem of perception seems to stem from the awful multihulls that have been built, ignoring the fact that a much greater number of terrible monohulls have also beem launched.. Firstly the obvious safety factor of reduced draft makes a modern multi less likely to run aground, and if it does run aground it is in shallower water, a much safer and more easily remedied situation. Equally a catamaran can be driven onto a beach in safety, a mono cannot.

[airborne373]

@tiopiratamike I am very interested in the mono vs. cat discussion. I really love the space and comfort of a cat. But the monohull particularly with full keel and ballast seems safer in heavy seas. I mean really heavy seas. Can you tell us more why you think cats are safer? Thanks.

My only experience sailing is in lakes.