Multi vs Mono

[sailingdog]

Umm... each ama on most trimarans are 100-200% buoyancy of the entire boat generally. The amas on many multihulls, including mine, are separated into several water-tight compartments, so a frontal impact is unlikely to rupture the entire ama.

The central hulls on most trimarans is similarly constructed. Mine has the holding tank forward, to help contain any damage in the case of an impact, and two buoyancy compartments aft for the same reason.

Similarly, the hulls on a catamaran are usually separated into multiple water-tight compartments or have some sort of crash bulkhead built in.

BTW, you'd need a really big tender...probably quite a bit longer than your boat to get the lift you need.

[Cruisingdad]

I don't think you have truly consdiered the immeasurable conscequences of a frontal impact on your boat.

Let's see, even if you survive the holing, when your holding tanks open up I don't care what the sea state is... you will be abandoning ship!!

You better start looking into that helium Dink too.

- CD

Personally, I would not have to worry about it since my waste does not stink...

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by Cruisingdad

I don't think you have truly consdiered the immeasurable conscequences of a frontal impact on your boat.

Let's see, even if you survive the holing, when your holding tanks open up I don't care what the sea state is... you will be abandoning ship!!

You better start looking into that helium Dink too.

- CD

Personally, I would not have to worry about it since my waste does not stink...

And if you light the accompanying methane, then you'll take care of any need for flares.

[ebs001]

One thing to consider is livibility. Most catamarans provide much more comfortable living quarters and since you want to live aboard you'll be doing that 100% of the time and cruising maybe 1% of the time.

[newtoschool]

Jeepers, when we initially set to seriously plan our circ, our guts were set on a multi. I learned quickly that the multi vs mono debate is a very interesting balloon to float (if you will pardon the pun ref recent posts) on forums like this, although certainly an interesting one. As you have noticed by the number of readers and posters on this thread, there are some very passionate opinions on both sides of the table. We have narrowed our search to a mono, or I could say "settled" on a search for a mono due to budgetary constraints. Cost is a significant factor on this one that we couldnt ignore, for us it meant the difference between leaving this summer, or working another couple of years and well, and unlike the mono vs multi match, that just wasnt much of a fight. That said, here's a list of capeable (and affordable by cat standards) multi's in our order of pref.

Prout 38
Atlantic 42
Catana 401
Foutntaine Pajot 38
Leopard 38 (production boat though - that would req a totally new thread)

Check out bumfuzzle.com - inexperienced couple, poor quality cat, on their way home in one piece. Not saying thats the way to go for everyone, just that it can be done. Hey, if we prepared for every single eventuality none of us would cross the road without flares and flack jackets.

I know, I know... let 'er rip boys!

[sailingdog]

Yes, cost is definitely an issue, especially when dealing with a larger Catamaran or Trimaran, as the labor to create the multiple hulls is fairly high. Crossings have been made in relative comfort and safety in much smaller multihulls than the ones you've listed.

Some of the smaller producton cats that have made trans-oceanic passages include:

Heavenly Twins 26
Catalac 8M
Gemini 105

Similarly-sized production cats that may be capable of making such passages include:

Maine Cat 30
Tom Cat 30

Some production trimarans that have made trans-oceanic passages:

Corsair F28, F31, F36
Farrier F27, F9
Telstar 26
Telstar 35 (circumnavigated, but not sure this was a production boat, if it was the run was limited).

Other production trimarans that may be capable of a trans-oceanic passage, but none that I know of have done so are:

Quorning Dragonfly 900, 1200 (they also make an 800 but its a bit small)
Telstar 28, which is larger than the Corsair F28 in many ways

OSTAR sailor Lia Dutton's 34' trimaran Shockwave may be a production boat, but I'm not sure what it was.

The Gunboat Catamarans are lovely custom boats, if a bit expensive. If you want to see a funny video demonstrating their capabilities, go to the Safari Charters website and click on the video link. Safari is a Gunboat 62, and a damn fast boat, designed by Morelli and Melvin. She is a huge boat, with a LOA of 62' and a beam of 30'.

Charter Cats, the builders of Bumfuzzle, seem to have some serious customer relations and quality control issues. It pays to do your research and to get a proper survey done of any boat you buy. I don't believe that the couple that owns Bumfuzzle had a proper survey done.

[thesnort]

OK, I've been following along with the unsinkability factor of multihulls, but no one has pointed out that there do exist monohulls with positive buoyancy even when holed and flooded. I give you the ETAP. There are others, but this one is currently in production. I think it's a Belgian make and costs a small fortune.

[camaraderie]

Snort...note date of last post. There is a recent thread on Etaps here:
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showth...highlight=etap

[sailingdog]

And that totally ignores how many people have been lost off of monohulls. I can think of several recent incidents, like Moquini, that lost far more lives.

Originally Posted by RickBowman

Not all that rare really. I know of two instances, one with loss of life, one on Lake Huron and one on Lake Michigan. Lake Huron, 2 dead, tangled in the rigging. Lake Michigan, an elderly woman extridited with a chain saw with the Gemini inverted.

[sailingdog]

Knockdowns are bad, inversions are bad... having the boat sink out from under you is worse IMHO. Overall, capsizes of cruising multihulls are fairly rare events, and as I said earlier, most capsizes of cruising multihulls were preventable and due to human error in large part.

Originally Posted by RickBowman

This really isn't a single/dual hull comparison, only that inverted dual hulls aren't rare, as both of these unrecoverable dual hull accidents occured in waters that I frequent. Certainly, any vessel can flounder given the wrong circumstances but to post that dual hulls inverting are rare and knowing first hand of a discrpency to this was the reason for my posting. Knockdowns are bad news, unrecoverable inversions are imho far worse.