Thursday, November 1, 2007

Some Disadvantages of Catamarans Chartering

We posted about the advantages of catamaran chartering. Now let's look at the other side...

It is possible that anchoring is somewhat more difficult with the anchor chain entering the yacht between the two hulls and that the anchor is often stowed in either hull. However, like anything else you get used to it quickly. Besides if you have never chartered monohull you would never know the difference

Because of its width catamaran charters experience more windage in gusts, which makes it more difficult to raise or set anchor or to dock in windy or gusty conditions. Moreover, it lacks a keel to prevent leeway (which means the boats slips sideways in the water much more easily)

In older catamarans, the danger of capsizing would lead to more reefing and less performance, because a catamaran would not recover from a knockdown or capsize. This doesn't mean a multihull is less safe than a monohull because hull breaches are often not fatal in catamarans. Plus this is much less of an issue in today's modern catamaran charters.

Sailing upwind is a problem, because multihulls don't point that high. (Although it is true a catamaran will not always point as high into the wind as a monohull - a cat will go almost twice as fast so falling off a little stills enables a cat to fly!

Catamarans are difficult to tack, especially in a choppy sea.

Contrary to monohulls which have a ballasted keel, catamarans rely only on form stability, which may lead to motion discomfort and more seasickness in light wind conditions.

There you have it. The pros and cons of multi hull and mono hull sailboats.

I say - go charter them both and decide for yourself!

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