What about a Catamaran?

/ Ben Starling

 

Why haven’t we included a catamaran in our long (or short) list? Or a trimaran?
Multihulls are increasingly popular for cruising and multihull owners are exceptionally enthusiastic. So why are they not on our radar screen?
Here is a summary of the pluses and minuses that we’ve found:
Pluses

  • ‘The cats’ large, open areas for living and entertaining guests in shaded comfort and their stability in the anchorages that tend to be a bit rolly are where the cats excel.’ — Hud3, Cruisers Forum*
  • ‘If you want tons of living space, can afford the greater cost, and want shallow draft, go cat.’ — Kettlewell, Cruisers Forum*
  • ‘… most of them can be beached on any nice sandy shorefront for a quick stay or an over nighter ( if the tides are right).’ — ozskipper, Cruisers Forum*
  • ‘In large anchorages you will see the masts of monos swinging perpetually back and forth while the masts of cats are hardly moving at all… a significant comfort difference. And since 90% of your time is spent anchored there is a considerable enjoyment factor in cats versus monos.’ — osirissail, Cruisers Forum*
  • stability**

Minuses

  • Cats ‘… demand a huge premium on purchase price… unless you have $200k to spend, I would suggest a mono. The cat’s you see for $100k when you show up and check them out will most likely disappoint you. You can get a very good mono in excellent shape for the same money.’ — Palarran, Cruisers Forum*
  • estimated 50% higher fees when staying at marinas* — pablothesailor, Cruisers Forum*
  • and higher haul out fees… *
  • ‘… manoeuvering a cat, without dual engines, they aren’t as easy as a mono. If the cat has dual engines, you have great control but you have double the maintainance. ’ — ozskipper, Cruisers Forum*
  • difficult to manoeuvre in general, especially when loaded for cruising**
  • flipping in a storm during an ocean crossing is a veeery small risk as they are very stable – but if it happens, well… it’s hard to recover from

Conclusion
Doesn’t sound like the boat for us (though the extra area for lounging and yoga mats does sound appealing…). But we’ll look for opportunities to crew on a catamaran and check it out just in case. It’s good to cover all the bases.
Budget constraints, finding berths in crowded marinas and the long tail risk of an irrecoverable wipe out all combine to make us stick to our monohull agenda.
Have you ever owned/cruised a catamaran? Or trimaran? Would you recommend one for blue water?  
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener) 

Yacht Designs

Next: Morris Yacht Designs & Morris 34
Previously: Hallberg-Rassy Monsun 31

* from Cruisers Forum discussion ‘Multi v Mono in Carribean’
** bayacht.com/goodbad.htm

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