We are four sailors chartering a catamaran in the Mediterranean to each make our first ocean crossing; hence the name Virgin TransAtlantic. We have not met each other in person yet, but will soon be embarking on a trip together to stage the boat in Gibraltar. Hopefully we all get along and enjoy the challenge of pulling together to collectively help each other reach our personal goals.
Our location
Love the Cat, she is beautiful, are they easier to sail of your alone than a regular sailboat or same
ReplyDeleteYou don't need a chef or Butler do you?? Lol
ReplyDeleteHey Matt! Hope all is well there in Detroit-city. Yes, I'm always in need of a chef. My talents in the kitchen are generally limited to cleaning up... but at least I'm pretty good at that as I've had lots of practice over the years since Sal is the cook in our house.
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteOn your question about whether a catamaran is easier to sail than a monohull, I'd say it's about the same. The primary differences are that monohulls heel (lean over) when they experience a gust of wind from the the beam (side). It's a bit like a fuse, a huge gust of wind will lay a monohull on its side until the wind abates, then it will return upright like a weeble (remember "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down"?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq0OQBdIhsc
because they have a massive weight in the keel.
Catamarans don't really heel much, maybe 5 degrees or so, but that energy has to go somewhere. It shows up either as forward motion or if that wind energy exceeds design thresholds, something breaks.
That means the crew on a catamaran needs to be a little more vigilant than a monohull crew. The rule of thumb on a catamaran is to reef the sails (reduce the sail area) as soon as you have an inkling that you have too much sail up. Delaying that decision is not your friend as I'll detail in a later post.
Thanks for your comments and questions. Hope you had a great time over the holidays at your beach house in sunny FLA!
Cheers!