Hello all,
I was going to post this to the Design & Construction, but the stickied thread there warned against posting pre-purchase questions, which this is also. So my apologies if I've posted into the wrong discussion group.
So I'm looking into cheaper cruising multihulls, such as the Iroquois. Regular sailboats make my wife seasick, but she's fine on catamarans, so that's a hard constraint.
I've looked at an Iroquois and a Gemini so far. I liked the
lines on the Iroquois, it's a very pretty catamaran. The inside is quite cramped though, but on the plus side there's relatively high clearance underneath the boat, so there should be less slapping. It also has an outboard instead of inboard, which I consider a plus (less thru-hulls, easier maintenance).
My biggest concern is the number of capsizes of Iroquois catamarans. Are these boats relatively more tippy than more modern catamarans such as the Gemini ? Were they marketed to racers who pushed the limit ? Or are all smallish catamarans equally tippy, and have an equal chance of going belly up ?
No urgency on replies since both particular boats are long since sold. Have to buy the wife a new car in a couple of months and then the boat hunt begins in earnest (I was ready to buy a year ago, but my wife prefers that I don't rack up piles of debt and have cash in hand first).