Catamaran sailing techniques Part 8 - How to choose a catamaran

What a load of rubbish.  A mono guy talking through his rear end about catamarans.  As we say where I come from.  What a wanker.  For those who don't understand what wanker means it comes from the colloquial term to wank.  A wank is to jerk.  So a wanker is one big jerkoff.

You need to add an Expandacraft modular boat to your list of toys on board. You can store a 16 foot boat in a small space below deck instead of littering up the topsides.

The best place to start for a prospective multihull buyer in making the right decision, is read a copy of "The Cruising Multihull" by Chris White.

brilliant stuff!

Really enjoyed this little series of videos. I'll never be in the financial situation to be able to afford a cat, but it doesn't stop the desire to spend some months sailing on one, or the dreams (and they literally are dreams) of owning one.

How to choose a catamaran.........Talks about lightweight rigging and high end racing trimarans .. Much LOL :)
Hey...Lewis Hamilton, What Campervan should l buy???

Informative video and advises. To be honest our original plan was to start our sailing trip on a catamaran!

Sailing a Leopard Cat for the entire series and then bringing in racing cat specialists like Lloyd and the other guy to pass irrelevant comments is like taking a RV out for spin and then asking Daniel Ricciardo to comment on what to buy, this is really crazy stuff and not at all helpful to newbie catamaran buyers

The triangle is from Tom Follet. Why not attribute it to him? Why is the Marconi rig being assumed? It's not as though Mr. Irens isn't familiar with unstayed masts. It's also nice to pick a boat that isn't likely to have a bow break off....yes, I'm looking at you, Mr. Irens.

Good information, I like the comparisons too.  But the sound quality was pretty bad for some reason? And near the end it started focusing on raceboats for some reason??  Most of us watching are more concerned about price, size, living aboard...ect.

If I wanted to save weight, I'd just leave the heaviest person on the dock.

What about a hydrofoil solution. What I understand is that this is about to be popular.

Some good points but I would disagree about an economy priced boat costing less to maintain. Often times what you save in buying a low priced boat is much less than what it costs to maintain a boat; especially if the components are not marine quality.

My god they need to work on their sound editing

Nigel Irens,,,, Excellent presentation. Many thanks from Lismore nsw Australia

Read between the lines....buy a mono if you want to sail...buy a condomaran if you like to motor around and look cool.

Do we have to see the same intro on every edition of these instructional videos?

How refreshing to hear a knowledgeable discussion on the realities of choosing a Cat. So often the discussion centers around two misconceptions 1: Cats are faster than monohulls and 2: Cats make better cruisers than monohulls. Go to any number of the larger sailing forums and you will see the heated discussions.

Being a former live aboard cruiser in a 40ft mono I was initially attracted to the two items mentioned above. For our next term afloat I wanted our cake and to eat it too. However when you start to look at actual hard data (ie: passage times) it becomes very apparent that the 40-55ft CondoCats are making very little (if any) improvement in passage times. Downwind times in light air is dreadful and upwind in moderate to strong is terrible on these foil-less Cats.

Case in point, a popular Youtube vessel Cheeky Monkey is currently attempting a passage from Panama to the Galapagos, a 800nm passage of approx five days. Wind and sea conditions are moderate (10-15kts). However the wind is dead on the nose and they are currently 5 days into the passage and have only traveled approx 450nm. And their course has taken them closer to Ecuador than the Galapagos.

In reviewing ARC passage times it becomes very apparent that the cruising Cats are not out performing the cruising monos.

Clearly there are creature comfort benefits to the Cats, however any purchaser must be aware that they come with a cost, both literally and figuratively. My advise, if you have the budget, look at the Outremers, some Catanas, Schionning or a semi custom vessel such as a Barramundi. Also be aware that Cats need very capable crews and gear to ensure safe passages in big wind, big sea, downwind conditions where under bare poles or minimal canvas, they become a real handful.