Next message: Tom O'Meara: "Re: lv-ab: Anchors?"
> We had an older but pretty big cat come in to be hauled last week (running
> from the BVI ahead of Erin). Skipper was pretty frank about how hard it
is
> to cruise a cat, at least how hard it was for him. He was loaded down so
> low that the mid-section between the amas was constantly getting thumped.
> His speed wasn't as good as he'd expected either. That was because 1. he
> was way heavy and 2. he was in pretty rough and steep seas generated by
the
> storm, but the winds were pretty calm. His overall speed wasn't much
better
> than a mono in those conditions.
Unfortunately, the multis took a swing towards luxury about 12 years ago and
performance was thrown by the wayside.
Performance is the main safety feature of a good multi hull. Fast passage
and storm avoidance is much easier at 10 to 18 knots.
My boat is a 44'x27.5 trimaran that has the cabin space of a 35' mono with a
bit more storage, much more deck and the impression of a much larger main
salon area. The down side is that you have to watch your weight and you may
have trouble finding slip space to tie up. The upside is that it sails like
a small dinghy even in high winds, it will do 10knots close hauled in an 8
to 10 knot wind and will really get going off the wind. It can be beached
for maintenance, is easy to haul out and has very little surface area below
the waterline to maintain.
There are a lot of Hughs designs that don't sacrifice performance and the
Derek Kelsall cats are a good balance too. I don't know if you will see too
many production cats with this concept, it seems that luxury is where it's
at. Most of these boats never go anywhere anyway, so they might as well be
comfortable.
M.Mech
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