The monohull-versus-catamaran debate is over, and catamarans have won. Right now, there is a mind-boggling array of catamarans to behold: bigger or smaller, faster or slower, each with a blizzard of options. And no, despite marketing claims, there is not a single cat that does it all. Each variation of 40- to 60-foot cat favors specific cruising purposes.
Then, there’s you—and you have not popped out of a mold. What’s your boat budget? How will your work life and family life fit into your dream of a two-hulled breakaway?
The first step in choosing the right catamaran is introspection. At the outset, you have to understand your own goals before you can even begin to choose the right cat to achieve them.
The Round-the-Globe Gambit
Circumnavigation is powerful, life-changing, alarmingly uncertain and exceedingly memorable. You are in for a lot—really a lot, lot, lot—of passagemaking, most of it downwind but plenty of it with the wind forward of the beam.
Direct your search toward modern production cats with a voyaging pedigree. Ask the builder whether a significant number of owners have successfully taken these boats bluewater. Results matter.
Also consider the tried-and-true voyaging catamarans of the early 2000s, such as those built by Fountaine Pajot, Catana, Outremer and others. These cats were designed and constructed to cross oceans. Their low freeboard means less motion at sea, and their sail plans are basic, bordering on conservative.
Given these boats’ ages today, you’ll probably need to upgrade the electrical system and electronics, and add a power-generation system, such as solar panels or a wind generator.
And sure, older cats look outdated alongside today’s shiny, muscular models, but oldies are still reliable, fast sailboats.
The Holiday-Home Habitat
Cruising centers such as the Bahamas, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Baja California are thick with docked, anchored and hauled-out boats. The fly-in owners return when the season is right, and then cruise to a nearby island or harbor.
If this laid-back lifestyle appeals to you, it makes sense to lean toward a cat with charter-style open spaces and accommodations. This means berths for all of your family members and friends, many heads and showers, significant water and fuel capacity, multiple dining spaces, ready stowage for water toys, lounging spaces on the flybridge, and plenty of charging stations and Wi-Fi access in all the guest areas.
Also remember the dive gear and compressor, big-screen TV, high-powered RIB, icemaker and blender.
The Close-to-Home Getaway
Realistically, given the demands of work, family and your garden, is coastal cruising your thing?
Take a look at small catamarans with daggerboards and lifting rudders, and consider foldup, trailerable trimarans, which are zippy and fun to sail. You won’t be camping out, but smaller boats have a way of focusing your life on the essentials: fresh croissants from the local bakery or sundowners in shoal-draft secret spots with your sweetest shipmate. You’ll be happy as a clam (and digging for them, if your getaway vehicle is beachable) in spots where monohullers fear to tread.
Say farewell to monthly berth fees, haul outs and scraping bottom paint. Plus, you’ll zip past the keelboats at 12 knots en route to your hideaway.
The Dockaboard Life
There is nothing wrong with enjoying your catamaran at the dock. And you could go voyaging, if and when your insanely busy life eases up.
If this sounds like you, then investigate cats with amazing amenities. A roomy, ergonomic layout, an interior designed by an actual interior designer, and fabrics, surfaces, lighting and cabinetry that make you feel not only lucky, but also wealthy.
The new breed of “condo cats” is excellent in the context of retirement villas. You’ll have a water view. There won’t be common-wall neighbors above or below or beside you. You’ll have staterooms for kids or grandkids for the weekend or a coastal hop. You can take your work colleagues out for cocktail hour in the harbor or under the bridge, and they’ll be openly admiring and secretly jealous.
And someday, you could cut the cord and go to sea. Not right now, but someday.
The Work-Aboard Scheme
Today’s communications technology has made the floating office a reality. If your work can travel with you, then consider a cat with a home office option.
If an office is not available in your boat of choice, then a carpenter can convert an unused stateroom into a workspace. And any other unused stateroom can be converted into a kids’ playroom or a workshop. The work-aboard option can fit with any catamaran that has a stateroom or two up for grabs.
The Bespoke Cat
You’ve seen these custom creations. The water around them seems to sizzle. Avant-garde, high-tech, edgy. They are big, they are light, and they are fast. They look expensive because they are expensive.
But hey, if you can play in that league, then why not play?
Know that not every custom design and build is successful. Cost overruns and delays should be expected. You will discover the agony and the ecstasy of creating your signature cat. You will be at the table with renowned builders, designers, equipment manufacturers and sailors, and you will make many decisions of consequence. Your sails, rig and sail-handling systems will be cutting-edge—elegantly curved carbon, maybe a wing mast or two.
You and your crew of young guns will be known and, if all goes well, feared at regattas in Antigua and St. Barths, and at race weeks on the East and West coasts.
And you will own the satisfaction of notching up fast passages, because your cat will be one big, fast, mind-blowing ride.
Your Mission Now
Run the numbers, and canvass your constituents. Can you support the purchase cost, options, upgrades, berthage, insurance and maintenance? Even more important, are your spouse and kids on board? And what will you do about your career? Stir the figures and feedback into your crystal ball. Then lie awake at 0300, watching everything swirl.
No doubt you’ve already been online, sifting through claims of cat manufacturers and comparing the models you favor. Check out Cruising World’s “Ahoy!” podcast, specifically the episode titled “From Charter Curious to Catamaran Owners.” It’s an informative interview with a couple making their leap into catdom.
Talk directly with cat owners too. Are they still happy that they switched to two hulls? What are the pros and cons of the boat they chose? What equipment and systems have proved the best and worst?
You’ll get a raft of opinions, of course. But in my 15 years of cat ownership, one opinion is rock solid: I have not found any cat cruiser who wants to go back to just one hull.
Daggerboards, Mini Keels and the Truth about Windward Performance
While it is said that gentlemen never sail to windward, it seems that whenever I set out, the wind eventually works its way around to being on the nose.
Maybe I’m just unlucky, but sailing to windward is part of catamaran cruising. With the apparent wind angle at 40 degrees, a cat’s sails produce much larger forces pushing the boat sideways than they do pulling it forward. Catamaran hulls, being long and skinny, have some resistance to being pushed sideways, but that alone is not nearly enough for efficient windward sailing.
Fixed fins, also known as (unballasted) mini keels, are a common leeway-fighting approach. They are slightly deeper than the rudders, so the fins protect the rudders and props. Daggerboards, an alternative to fixed fins, are fairly lightweight, foam-core fins that drop vertically from a heavily reinforced, watertight case in the hull. They’re a favorite with high-performance cats. Their major disadvantage is that if the boat hits something hard with any velocity, there is considerable risk of breaking the daggerboard—though likely without serious damage to the daggerboard trunk or hull.
Pivoting centerboards are another way to reduce catamaran leeway. The centerboard in the down position resembles a daggerboard and provides a similar performance improvement. If you hit something with the centerboard down, it will rotate around its pivot pin and retract into the hull. Centerboards, however, are more expensive to build than daggers, and they weigh more when you include the water entrained in the case. The long exit slot in the hull bottom can add to hull drag. Still, like daggerboards, centerboards are beneficial when sailing downwind. Steering is better, and the autopilot works less when at least some board is down.
What I prefer in Javelin, my Atlantic 55 cat, is a fixed fin combined with a retractable fin. The fixed fin protects the props and rudders from grounding damage and provides a robust exit slot for the retracting fin. If one of the daggerboards strikes a coral head, the impact is transmitted to the fixed fin, which is isolated from the hull.
The widespread belief that adding a daggerboard will turn a poor-performing cat into an upwind rocket ship is not true. In addition to fixed fins (mini keels), daggerboards or centerboards, excellent windward sailing performance requires a reasonable displacement-to-length ratio, quality sails, a powerful sail plan that can be sheeted to the proper angles for upwind work, feathering or folding props, and an efficient hull underbody.
—Chris White, author of The Cruising Multihull, chriswhitedesigns.com
