Monohull VS Multihull - Kraken Yachts (2023)

Following our readers' question in December's issue about the suitability of catamarans for world cruising, Dick Durham investigates. He spoke to three experienced sailors about their opinions and stories.

Charlie Doane

Cheered on by sailing books such asTaube, by Robin Lee Graham,Siren songs, by Ernest K. Gann and theHorn blowersStories, the student Charlie taught himself to sail. He learned the ropes in an 11-foot Sea Snark, a cheap styrofoam dayboat with lateen sails, off the coast of Maine.

Since then he has made seven transatlantic crossings and completed nearly 100,000 miles of ocean sailing, including multiple single-handed passages between the West Indies, Bermuda and the US East Coast.

He is married to a barrister, Clare O'Brien, from County Kerry, Ireland. "When we got married, she didn't take a slave name," jokes Charlie.

They have two daughters, Lucy, 15, and Una, 21.

Charlie now owns a Boreal 47,Craziness, which he and his wife sailed home from France in the spring of 2017.

His previous cruising boats included a Tanton 39, a Golden Hind 31 and a Pearson Alberg 35 Yawl.

He is the cruising editor of America's Sail magazine and has written on marine topics for The New York Times, Yachting Monthly and Yachting World.

Charlie Doane's story

Sail magazine cruise editor Charlie Doane, with whom I had the privilege to sail, tells Ocean Sailor about the only time he has left a yacht. He was flown by a broken down $400,000 catamaran on her maiden voyage in inclement weather. In 50 years of ocean sailing, it was the only time Charlie, 63, had to radio for help.

Be good too, was the first catamaran Alpha 42, designed by Marc Anassis and Gregor Tarjan. Her launch date was delayed and her new owners, a married couple, wanted to be in the Caribbean by January 2014, so she was put into service during a bitterly cold winter, even the ice had to be broken before she could leave the ship in Jersey City Marina in the Port of New York.

Charlie accompanied professional skipper Hank Schmitt and owners Gunther and Doris Rodatz for the delivery trip to St. John, US Virgin Islands. It doesn't take long before they realize the bilge pumps aren't working, the windows are leaking, the hatches aren't strong enough to withstand the 45-50 knot winds and high seas they'll soon encounter, and the bridge deck begins to dissolve. But the real problems start with the controls: the starboard spade rudder sheared off its shaft after hitting a big sea and flapped uselessly, the port spade rudder was permanently offset to starboard and the connecting rod between the two rudders was only held in place by tiny screws, who soon failed. After three days of drifting, making valiant attempts to get the boat to steer,Be good tooShe would just go round in circles. They were 300 miles east of Cape Hatteras and after discovering that no tow was available, Gunther decided to abandon ship. A Coast Guard helicopter lifted off all four souls (the full story with analysis is retold inThe sea is not full, see Mariner's Library).

Charlie tells Ocean Sailor he believesBe good toosoon capsized after not being spotted by any ship.

"I'll say the only time I was really concerned throughout the whole drama was when we laid a hull during the storm. Laying broadside in a breaking sea seems like a good way to get turned around in any boat. However, the movement was amazingly calm and steady, and at no point did itappearwe were about to cross over. I estimated the wave height to be less than our beam. My guess is that once the wave height exceeds the width, when you're at sea in a multihull you're vulnerable."

Three years laterBe good tooThe overturned and dismasted hull of was found washed up on the South Uist coast in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The rudders had been ripped off, only one saildrive remained and both hull tops - not the underside - were covered from bow to stern with long, well-developed swan-necked barnacles. She clearly showed that she was on the wrong track for many months, if not years.

"I can only assume that she was dismasted and turned over fairly early in her voyage across the ocean, otherwise she would have been spotted much earlier," Charlie said. Scattered all around her were parts of her deckhouse, which were ripped off as she was driven ashore.

Charlie who has tested countless boats forSegelMagazine, whether monohull or multihull, looks measuredly back at his rescue ordeal and says Ocean Sailor:

“I won't judge catamarans as a species, but personally I prefer monohulls for various reasons. There is a rhythm with a monohull, you can feel the sea and waves much more effectively. With two hulls that cannot heel, the reaction at sea is unpredictable and creates a jerky planing motion that I don't like.

I prefer to use my gut to know when to reef. Following an intellectual exercise performed by someone seated at a desk does not fill me with confidence. Multihull manufacturers provide manuals that tell you when to reef according to wind force and for safety-related decisions, but having a "feel" helps one appreciate the ocean on an almost spiritual level. Such a symbiosis is more difficult to achieve at the helm of a catamaran.”

Charlie went on to say very kindly. “Having known about Ocean Sailor Magazine and Kraken Yachts for a while, Kraken is in many ways the perfect ocean crossing concept. Unfortunately, the traditional conservative voice in mass manufacturer advertising has been lost. The vast majority of cruising catamarans are not built for sailing, but to accommodate guests. Many of them have huge mainsails that are never hoisted, they just beam under the jib. I can't imagine any serious recreational cruiser sailing a multihull around the Five Capes.

Monohull or Multihull? Either

Charlie said he would sail a monohull or a catamaran offshore, but given the choice he would choose a monohull.

Paul Redmann

Paul Redman, 69, has been sailing since he was six, starting in the creeks of the Thames Estuary in a Heron inflatable boat with his twin brother Rob. As a teenager he sailed and raced day boat catamarans: Swifts, Shearwaters and Tornados and that's how I met him.

After five years as an Army bomb disposal expert, Paul became General Manager of Prout Catamarans at their Canvey Island, Essex shipyard where he built catamarans including the Snowgoose 35s and 37s, Quest 31s, Event 34s and Quasar 50s. He also delivered them and flew all over the world to solve warranty issues. He raced quirky designer Roland Prout's Wild Goose 35 in the Crystal Trophy, a multihull competition from Cowes around Wolf Rock and back. He built three of his own Snowgoose 35 and is currently sailing the Pelican, a Quasar 50 he keeps in Faro, Portugal.

Paul Redman's story

Paul Redman, 69, has made ten transatlantic crossings in catamarans, four of them solo. He enjoys the fast crossing potential that the catamaran offers, as well as the improved accommodation and living space. He recalls how unconventional catamaran designer Roland Prout was way ahead of his time with a 40-foot boat called Phantom Wake that had a vertical-sided hull and could reach speeds of 25-30 knots.

On a delivery trip in a brand new catamaran to the Southampton Boat Show at night, they came across an abandoned container in the English Channel. It punched a hole in a hull, leaving Paul and his crew waist-deep in the water. They reached Rye Harbor and put her up the bank, drained and made repairs before continuing on to Southampton.

"After new carpets were laid, no one knew anything else," Paul told Ocean Sailor, "until a visitor pulled open a bottom drawer and found silt in there! The point is that there was so much reserve buoyancy that we didn't sink. You don't keep an airplane aloft by filling it with lead,” he adds, pointing to the potential fate of a monohull if seriously punctured by a container or similar object.

Paul agrees that in the back of the catamaran newbie's mind is the thought that she might capsize, but recalls his old boss Roland Prout's assessment: "Waves don't capsize a cat, only sails and a skipper can." And his own Experienced 60 knots in the mid-Atlantic, saw his catamaran Quasar 50,pelicanunder bare poles, gliding down waves "like a duck". The hulls created their own shallow water "loop".

“Catamaran owners start out cautious and nervous,” Paul told Ocean Sailor, “but they soon realize that the boat is going to slide down the seas with the wind. On the wind, however, you have to accept that you could damage the boat if you push too hard.

Catamaran sailors have to be more aware of wind speeds, they have to pay more attention to the gauges... it's a different way of sailing. That means you don’t want to overwhelm a monohull either.”

Paul said.' Thewedding cakeType of modern cruising catamarans are all supplied with reef plans from the manufacturer. You start with something like… 15 knots, first reef in the main, 18 knots furling part of the genoa, 20 knots furling the genoa fully and 50 knots heading for the next land! Or words in that sense. I can't remember the last time I heard about a production catamaran capsizing.

Monohull or Multihull? Multi

Catamarans are safe for ocean crossings as long as you follow the sailing instructions and don't have to push hard upwind. Paul prefers catamarans to monohulls.

John Passmore

At the age of 11, John Passmore was inspired by a lecture by Francis Chichester on the first single-handed transatlantic race and before that by the books by Eric Hiscock that his father had loaned him. John made his own OSTAR aboard the Largo, his first Rival 32, in 1988.

He also completed the solo section of an Azores and Back race in the same boat.

A former chief correspondent for the London Evening Standard, he covered the First Gulf War in Tel Aviv, where we shared adventures as I was there for the Daily Star.

In 1989, John covered the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing for the Daily Mail.

He also wrote a column for the Daily Telegraph and Yachting World.

As a respected offshore sailor and renowned journalist, John now focuses on his blog:www.oldmansailing.com

John Passmore's story

As John Passmore grabbed onto the starboard keel of his capsized catamaran, breaking waves attempted to tear him off the slippery, inverted bridge deck. He'd read all the survival books and knew he couldn't even believe he wasn't going to make it. He yelled at the sky, "I'm not going to die," and he shouted at the waves, "I'm going to stay here and hold on to this stump." That's all I have to do and there's so much I can do.” And he focused on seeing his wife Tamsin and their three young children again.

John, an old friend and Fleet Street colleague of mine, had attempted to be the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the UK. It had taken him 10 days to sail from his home in Woodbridge on the River Deben in SuffolkLotte Warren, his 27-foot catamaran Heavenly Twins, before being engulfed in a north-west gale with sustained winds of between 40 and 50 knots and much higher gusts off the top end of Shetland.

When the storm hit, John was prepared with Heavenly Twins designer Pat Patterson's "Storm Management Handbook" from Pat Patterson's warp, from the starboard bow to the starboard stern, where a car tire rested in the bay. For the next 24 hoursLotte Warren, hopped over the waves, beam-to, like a duck.

Gradually the wind speed increased until John reached the third and final level of the "Storm Manual". At this point, the impact of waves hitting the beam against the hull became “shock-like”, making pounding noises and throwing objects around the cabin. John had to struggle on deck and slide along on his stomach, he laid the bow line on the port stern and the catamaran swung her stern out to sea and was suddenly loose: doing six knots under bare masts.

The first thing he knew of the vast sea that was about to endLotte Warren, was an insistent hiss of rushing water as she began to broach. "I saw the bulkhead wheeling and small items falling from cave lockers...I knew she was crossing."

Now upside down, John removed his EPIRB from its cockpit mount, tied its tether to the heads' pump and pushed it through the window. Next, to his horror, he saw that the aft cabin hatch was wide open and the liferaft was missing. The boat began to calm down and he was chest-deep in water as he crouched in the hull. Breathing rapidly, he realized he was using up the bladder of oxygen in the inverted shell. Then he climbed out and onto the inverted bridge deck. Luckily, John's ordeal only lasted three hours before the Coast Guard helicopter arrived. The pilot had to switch to manual to steer the craft down to 50 feet and negotiate between waves as high as 100 feet, John later learned.

John was flown to the nearest oil rig for immediate treatment for hypothermia before being taken to the hospital on land. The catamaran sank five days later after a Norwegian oil rig tender tried to salvage it.

Looking back on the events of 2000, John, 71, the Ocean Sailor says he believes the oars lost control in the whirlpool of the breaking waves and she was thrown broadside into a huge comb.

"I wouldn't have another catamaran," he adds while riding out a winter storm on boardSamsara, his rival 32, as he prepares her for the 2021 Jester Challenge, an unsponsored singles race across the Atlantic.

Monohull or Multihull? Mono

John would never buy a catamaran again. He prefers monohull boats.

Comments from the web

John, Charlie and Paul have all had very different experiences catamaran sailing, none fatal. Others weren't so lucky.

In July 2019, three people died when a catamaran capsized off Newcastle on the New South Wales coast, Australia. A 16-year-old girl and her 50-year-old father were dragged by the overturned catamaran during the rescue, but the girl's 78-year-old grandparents and another unidentified sailor died in the accident. A distress signal was activated by the 11.7 meter long catamaran, which capsized about seven nautical miles offshore at Stockton Beach. Three bodies were found in the water and recovered by Marine Rescue. The father and daughter were taken to John Hunter Hospital where they were treated for hypothermia. The catamaran was en route from Port Stephens to the Central Coast when it capsized.

Acting Superintendent Wiseman said the crew of the Westpac rescue helicopter struggled in high seas and 30-knot winds during the operation. "What made the rescue quite difficult was an overturned ship, there was quite a lot of debris and ropes in the water at the time," he said. Acting Superintendent Grant Healey of NSW Police Marine Command said sea conditions had been extremely rough. “The conditions were difficult. We had westerly winds of 25 to 30 knots and a sea of ​​one to two meters with an easterly swell coming from the other direction, so it was pretty chaotic out there,” he said at the time.

On another catamaran that capsized in the Solent, four crew members were lucky to survive the night. This catamaran capsized while sailing to windward under reefed mainsail and headsail in 25 knots of wind. The boat encountered an "unusual wave pattern" and the windward hull lifted so far from the surface that the boat lost stability and capsized. The crew had not had time to use the VHF and spent the whole night huddled on the bridge deck until they were spotted at dawn the next day. All four were hospitalized with hypothermia.

Can they capsize?

Browsing through the online blogs, websites and commercials of catamaran designers, builders and brokers makes the reader feel like Alice in Wonderland. Nothing is as it seems. Everyone involved in the multihull world declares that this is “almost impossible”; 'very unlikely'; It almost never happens that a catamaran capsizes, and yet every manufacturer gives guidance on how exactly this catastrophe can be avoided. There is also a clue to blaming the sailor for any reversal. One broker even went so far as to say: "Any skipper who capsizes a catamaran in winds below 70 knots is a clunker"!

Some, like designer Chris White of South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in the US, offer real thought and advice. Two of his catamarans capsized. One, an Atlantic 42 on Lake Michigan in 2004, and the other, an Atlantic 57,Anna, 125 nautical miles from Tonga in the South Pacific. She was under a single reef when a 62 knot squall hit her.

"In order to reduce the chance of capsizing as much as possible, it's important to develop a method to avoid getting caught," explained Chris. Essentially his advice is to reef early, lighten the traveller, loosen the sheets, consider a course change and switch to manual rudder. Chris was honest enough to agree that a "methodology" was needed to avoid capsizing, even if he thought it was "unlikely"!

Others are more aggressive. Like Florida-based portal Catamaran Guru, a brokerage team led by experienced offshore catamaran sailor Stephen Cockcroft, who sells Lagoon and Fountaine Pajot brands, among others.

Their mission statement points out that catamaran sailing requires more careful seamanship. “While handling a catamaran in heavy storms requires a little more skill, the designs of modern catamarans have evolved to be extremely seaworthy and they don't just 'tilt'. In fact, the rig or sails should blow out before the ship capsizes because the righting moment on a cruising cat is so great that it's almost impossible even if you've tried. It really takes incredibly idiotic behavior to capsize a modern cat in sub-70 knot winds.”

This resiliency factor is shared by an Australian and New Zealand brokerage firm, Multihull Central, run by Director Brent Vaughan, which sells Seawind and Outremer catamarans. Under the heading: Do all catamarans capsize? According to their website, "Production cruising cats have far too much displacement to make capsizing a real possibility unless you get it all wrong - all sails up in cyclonic conditions with massive side waves... It's more likely that the sails." burst open or the rig collapses before a production cat capsizes.'

This kind of disparaging utterance can only lead to the question, "Is the fallback plan for a modern cat to come down the mast to keep her from capsizing?!

They all at least concede that production cats are most at risk when coming down very big waves and surfing at high speeds of 20+ knots with too much sail on top and risking the bow digging into the bottom of the next wave.

Briton Nigel Irens, who notably drew Ellen MacArthur's record-breaking trimaran and is the designer of other large catamarans including the Gunboat, Vantage and Allegra variants, wrote an eight-part series on multihull sailing for Yachting World magazine.

While stating that "capsizing is very unlikely with most modern catamarans," he nonetheless thought it useful to go into great detail on how to prevent such a catastrophe. "The level of risk depends a lot more on the skill of the skipper than the qualities of the boat." Many cruising catamarans really are "underpowered floating houses," he added, "...you have to make an effort to win one." Bet to cause a capsize.'

However, he acknowledged that the worst can happen and that when sailing upwind in severe weather conditions, steering path must be maintained. "If you stop, you could be pushed back by a large breaker that could dig into the stern, which in extreme cases could even cause a stern capsize."

He continued: “Don't trust a blunt catamaran with large volume bows. Far from piercing downwind waves, it could simply stumble if pushed too hard.”

If the catamaran sailor is unfortunate enough to capsize, Nigel advises taking shelter in one of the hulls, “…if she settles in the water the bridge deck will soon be close to the water, making an attempt to exit risky. It's important not to rush to the escape hatch... If you open it, some air will escape from the boat, causing it to float lower in the water."

In 1995, experts from the Wolfson Unit at Britain's Southampton University conducted experiments for the Maritime & Coastguard Agency based on 124 "stability incidents" including 33 catamarans; 67 trimarans; two proas; and 22 multihulls of unknown types. Multihulls under seven meters were not included. Most catamaran casualties, they discovered, occurred in winds between Force 6 and Force 9. "Often, capsizing has been attributed in part to wave action lifting a hull," the report says.

Peter Johnstone, writing for US magazine Sail, would agree. In an article titled "Heavy Weather Strategies when Sailing a Catamaran," he explains, "As the boat approaches 10 degrees of heel, the luff hull will be about to lift. It's safe to say that a cat mustn't raise its weather protection on a travel passage!"

Peter also says: “The boat manufacturer should give you a sail selection chart that gives safe sailing limits for all conditions. On most offshore passages, advanced communications and weather information should rule you outalways(my emphasis) experiencing a true storm or surviving conditions.”

In my opinion, it is just such misguided advice that puts the newcomer at sea in grave danger. No “Handbook to Safe Sailing” or satellite weather station will save you from yourself.

my conclusion

If speed is your thing then a catamaran should be on your list. I have done several long coastal passages in them and I would agree that they are certainly exciting to sail. However, they are not on my list. I can't ignore the fact that if they go overboard they won't come back up and to paraphrase Charlie Doane I'd rather rely on my experience and survival instincts than a focus group manual on when to cut the sail .

I was just looking at the issues from a cruising perspective, and from that perspective I think safety should be more important than speed, so I prefer...it has to be a monohull.