A Cat is harder to tack because of the resistance to turning of the two hulls. the Wave has no jib so you can't use the back wind technique but you can head up a little just before you tack so you will have to turn a smaller amount during the tack.
I watched the first America Cup races when they started to sail a Cat and even those veteran sailors did not do very well sailing or tacking a CAT

 

Www.catsailor.com get Rick White's videos from the site. Catamarans are different animals than ballasted monohulls.

 

1. Don't pinch before coming about. Bear off if necessary so you have some speed to work with.

2. Don't stall the rudders by over-steering.

3. As you come through the eye of the wind, ease out the main so that you don't weather vane. As the hulls approach the new tack(ie. close reach) , harden up the main to accelerate out.

 

Today I mixed it up and took out a sunfish..man those little buggers are touchy. I gotta say the cat is soooo much more comfortable than the sunfish. With the sunfish it was cool to see how a tiny change of sail trim or boat position affected your speed. The winds were nothing to extremely light today and I think the fact that I was in the sunfish helped me to catch every little bit of wind. The cats for the most part were just sitting still. That being said I still think I'd prefer lounging in the cat when the wind is dead vs being scrunched up in the sunfish.

 

My opinion...the sunfish sails more like a real boat. And it will go in the direction you want it to, within reason.

The Hobie is faster downwind or on a reach, but God help you if you have to go against the wind- then they are awful. I can never really get them to tack or go upwind. But they do have more room.

 

My opinion...the sunfish sails more like a real boat. And it will go in the direction you want it to, within reason.

The Hobie is faster downwind or on a reach, but God help you if you have to go against the wind- then they are awful. I can never really get them to tack or go upwind. But they do have more room.

No disrepect meant here, but I gotta take exception to this. Hobies ARE real boats. They are more challenging to sail than the average monohull boat and require some extra skill set developement to sail efficiently. Once these skills are learned the boat is like any other boat, handling it comes naturally.

Besides being a blast to sail, Hobies are excellent teaching platforms. Take the H16 - While every H16 is identical, these boats are extremely adjustable. outhaul, downhaul, batten tension, jib tension, traveler, and mast rake all come into the tuning picture when setting the boat up for current conditions. Adding a full set of telltales lets student sailors see the effects of every adjustment and every input. Along with having alot of fun students who learn on Hobies, because they are more challenging, can step onto any monohull and sail it.

And again, no disrepect but I also disagree with these boats being awfull to sail upwind. In the right hands Hobies go to wind without issue. In many cases we can out point monohulls depending on conditions. And regardless, we will always beat them around the cans.

 

1. Don't pinch before coming about. Bear off if necessary so you have some speed to work with.

2. Don't stall the rudders by over-steering.

3. As you come through the eye of the wind, ease out the main so that you don't weather vane. As the hulls approach the new tack(ie. close reach) , harden up the main to accelerate out.

What does pinch mean?

 

pinching is when you are sailing up wind and you sail up to the point just before the sail starts to luff. the boat will slow slightly but will still be sailing to windward. on a Hobie Wave, if you sail the boat upwind with the mainsail in tight and maintain speed then ease the boat up to the point where the sail is just starting to luff and then tack the boat with the rudders at about 45 degrees it will be easier to tack. if the boat comes to a stop or is being blown backward then reverse the rudders and it will help you get the boat pointed onto the opposite tack. on Cats with a jib you do it a little differently and back wind the jib to help bring the bows around in a tack. Cats with only a mainsail are a lot harder to tack even more so when the wind or wave are up.

 

I'm biased towards monohulls, because I love sailing upwind best. So my biased advice would be to get lots of monohull time (a J22 is an excellent choice, so are many others, including the lighter centerboard boats which are more sensitive to trim and body-weight placement). then you can decide if you are willing to give up being able to tack quickly for the extra downwind speed of a cat.

the best sailors, I think, come out of the small boats (e.g. Sunfish, Laser, Vanguard 15, 420), 'cause they're less forgiving of mistakes so the feedback is immediate rather than delayed or not apparent at all. these skills transfer well up to the slower inertia of the larger heavier boats. Vice-versa, not so much....

Good luck anyway, you're learning and asking questions, that's all good.

 

I used to have a Hobie 16 and recently sailed a Wave a couple of times while on vacation. I can say that not having the jib to backwind while tacking was much more difficult than my 16 was; I ended up sculling the rudders most of the time to get the boat to complete the tack. In my opinion, if you are looking to buy and want to stay with a catamaran, maybe look at a 16 or a Getaway both of which have jibs. The 16's are cheaper, but the Getaway doesn't have the soft spot issues, are still boomless, and have much more trampoline space.

 

Some excellent advice on this this thread.

Most Hobies don't have a centerboard which is one of the reasons they can be tricky to tack. You hit the nail on the head when you said the Hobie seemed to take a wider track while tacking than did the J22. The 22 was turning on it's keel. Relatively speaking the difference is like the j boat turning on a dime.

That said, the advice to maintain speed, and not stall the rudders is spot on. Hobies need momentum to tack. Anything that bleeds speed off is a tack killer.

if you get stuck half way thru the tack depending on wind speed you may need to take a step or two to get going. Essentially, because the boat can't go forward because it is head to wind you need to go backwards. Huh? Yup, you need to sail backwards to get yourself unstuck ( out of Irons). In moderate to heavy winds this is a one step process - reverse the rudders. The wind pushes the boat backwards, the stern of the boat will go in whatever direction the rudders are pointing. The sail should be unsheeted until the bow comes around to your sailing course. Once pointed in the right direction go neutral on the rudders, sheet in and sail away. In light winds there is sometimes an extra step - that is - using the main sail to help you back up. Rather than just sitting there bobbing up and down waiting for physics to take over, give it some help by pushing the main sail out to act like a big air brake. Whatever wind there is will push you back more quickly by doing this. Experience Hobie racers who blow a tack make this look like part of the tacking sequence. IOW, with some practice, it's not hard to do.

Good luck with your sailing experience and welcome to a great sport!!!! Or is it a hobby? Either way, it's a lot of fun!!!!!

 

thanks for that post. well said. I thought it was very interesting when the America's cup guys started to sail the CATs and I watched them make all the typical mistakes sailors make when learning a to sail a Cat.

 

after you master any small dingy you will find almost any cruising boat easy to sail. but when it comes to docking you will have a bit more to learn. the saiing part is the easiest part of the cruising boat

 

Your experience sailing the Hobie is fully transferable to larger more complex boats. That the hobie is tougher to tack and that it doesn't have a jib will, if anything, make you a better sailor.

The fact that you are sailing a small highly responsive boat will make you a better sailor. You can see the effects of wind current waves etc on the boat. You get instant feedback to any input. That is something that doesn't happen on a larger boat.

The number of hulls has nothing to do with the actual learning to sail part of the program. When you transition to a monohull you will find it only a matter of learning that particular boat's characteristics. But the basics of sailing are the same, set course trim the sails and off you go.

BTW, there have been some grueling long distance catamaran races. The Worrel 1000 and Hog's Breath come to mind. Over 1000 miles of ocean racing. Not say you want to race in the ocean for days - only to say that your little Wave can take you places. You can learn to navigate and sail it all around the Gulf. I know that's not the goal, but just so you know, the boat is up to it.

 

I'd add you might want to at least add a genoa to that wave (something just more than a lapper) to get a feel for the dynamics of adjusting trim for the slot, if you want the Wave to keep teaching (plus it'll add even more speed to it!).

 

I would like to see a genoa on a Hobie Wave

 

All I could find is a jib...

 

Not a genoa but but it would do for me. these are a blast

 

Sounds like I'm on the right track. Thanks for all the feedback.

Dom