The worst of the storm, force 10, 52 knots Gale part 2

The great thing about Catamarans is they float upside down just as stably as right side up And, this has been demonstrated many times. A friend of mine and his wife and infant child were all lost at sea when their Trimaran, un-damaged, and intact; decided it would rather float upside down. This was off the Farallon Islands off shore of the Golden Gate.

Hilarious. We discovered one of the mooring lines was dragging; trying to secure a linefrom the Spinnaker, that had "come loose"; the worst of the worst of the storm; laughing too hard to continue. That's just a good stiff sailing wind if you had a real boat and some people who knew what they were doing. The Bed is all wet !! Well, that proves the boat is un-seaworthy, if proof were needed. And yes, and I've been there and done that, and a lot more; and no I never had anything trailing anywhere, that "came loose". Pathetic.

There are a few things I do not understand with today's sailors… 
No life jacket ??!!…
No harness either ??!!…
So a catamaran is better to leave a wife alone with her mate lost at sea ??!!
The again walking barefoot on the deck ?… The best way to break a toe !… Can't you put deck shoes on ???…
Do you realize how your movement are hampered when a toe is broken ???…
This is so "inconsequential" !…
This baffles me.

looks rough out there. I bet you were glad you were on a mono in those conditions. Cats seem to dig in and almost stop at times. I was reading comments below about no splashing water and small seas, no stirm jib. I could see the wave height over your spreader, water hitting the dodger and a storm jib to port. are we all watching the same footage?

Goede dag dssque1, Thank you for your kind words. I definitely prefer catamarans for sailing anywhere! We sailed monohulls from 1972 until until about 2009 when we started with catamarans. The stability and ease of sailing on a catamaran cannot be discarded. The women preferred the catamaran as well for the same reason plus the fact that cooking on a stable platform made life soo much easier! As a result of this we are now designing and building, what we believe, is the perfect catamaran! I cannot give you a short version of the size of boat that you should get but you are welcome to contact me via email on j_de1@hotmail.com if you wish further advice, perhaps we could even Skype. Best regards Jef

Hello Jef, I've watched this video a few times over the past couple of years and it's great to see a catamaran in tough conditions as opposed to the sun-kissed decks most catamaran video's contain.  I gather you have experience of both mono and multihull and I wonder would you tell us which you would prefer if faced with conditions like this again. Also what would be your minimum length of catamaran for mostly coastal (western Europe) sailing. Hartelijk bedankt.

Thanks Bill for the compliment, we have been sailing since 1972. Can't imagine another way of life! ⛵

Sounds like the Skipper is a world class sailor

Hi Ray, thanks for your interest. To answer your question to 805gregg, he wasn't there. There were 4 of us on the delivery of A St Frances 44 catamaran from Richard's Bay in South Africa to Portimao in Portugal. The trip covered 11,000 nautical miles and our route was via Cape Town, across the South Atlantic, Through the Caribbean to Bermuda, Across the North Atlantic via The Azores to Portugal. I hope this link takes you to the map info (please try it and let me know if it works): https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zo4qxJMmPxrs.k4SDFpFn02hc&usp=sharing

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Hi 805gregg, Thank you for your input. You are obviously a highly experienced sailor. Would you like to share some of your tips for sailing in heavy weather and your experiences with us?

Waves in a storm only come from one direction, from windward, those wave might have been 15' no bigger, should have fixed the leaks before leaving.

Hi Tom, thanks for your comment. It was a bit "hair raising" but we had confidence in the boat. Wouldn't deliberately choose to go into weather like that. It really wasn't uncomfortable in the cat, except for the leaks and having to sleep in wet bunks and the other small things that were damaged, it was generally fine. Still prefer being at sea rather than on land. 😊

Those rough trips are so much fun………………..to talk about afterwards in a calm harbor with a cold beer. But at the time, sometimes not so much fun.

Long and eventfull journey - congratulation! Interesting to see that almost all this big cats and monos are leaking like a sieve. I had so far 2 (small) boats 1 H28 (Herreshoff) and one Wharram Cat and it took me even there considerable efforts to seal them. It is extremely unconfortable to have a wet boat during a long journey! My next boat will be small again but bombproove sealed and dry, like the Ming Ming II from  Roger Taylor. Fair winds!

I'm not sure that a water soaked bed and someone in a storm fixing a sail qualifies as needing a warning that the footage is  "Not for sensitive viewers!"  Talk about melodrama.

"Force 10" and not even a single splash on deck? and almost no white patches on the sea? Running with engine instead of storm hib? That "storm" was a mere 7 Bft breeze, let alone seamanship.

GREAT VIDEO ! I'M FROM THE USA. I ENJOYED YOUR ADVENTURES ! ALSO I FEEL FOR THE GENTLEMAN WITH THE BAD BACK I'VE BEEN THERE IT ISN'T FUN ! ! ! CHEERS ! 

Great video, thanks for sharing and well done to you all. Being new to sailing it still takes all my courage to sail from Southampton waters to the Isle of Wight but Im getting there

I wouldn't gybe in heavy air with the vang on and if you do, have some one on it to control it.