Hi Laura,
I hope you can acheive your dream and get into a yacht sailing.
Cats definately have more space & comfort compared to a monohull but unfortunately cost alot more.
We have been live-aboards for three years on a mono and look longingly at the many cats we have met & seen.
If your looking at cats I would strongly suggest looking at the market in Phuket/Langkawi. Many choices and the perfect place to learn / improve your sailing. (Mostly flat & steady winds with amazing places)
Many sailors terminate their adventures around these places & sell their boats. Friends brought an ex-charter cat there and were treated well by the charter company as they took procession.(also novice sailors) They learnt alot very rapidly.
Also being in Thailand/Malaysia there is a big sailing community that are always willing to help.

Having said that, one look at the US market and there are some bargins there. Just means you start your adventure over there!

Fair winds in the future
D.

and I will add, if you have no sailing experience, it would help to go to a school and do a basic intro course.

Then buy a cheap off the beach cat (older hobie 16 for example), this will teach you sail trimming and how a cat reacts to sea state (in a smaller scale) and being overpowered ect ect - it is different to a mono.

Then go do a off shore course.

Heaps and heaps of reading.

Maybe get yourself on a delivery trip as unpaid crew.

Hi there,

There is actually a blog about a couple in a similar situation. They purchased in the Carribean. The blog has a lot of general info. I have been a fan for some time.

Check out: http://jjw47.blog.com/about/

Good luck, and I agree with the other posts, sailing schools have a lot of pretty easy courses, like Competent Crew, and Day skipper..... Relatively cheap

Cheers

Hi Guys I will follow this thread with interest , I too am keen one day in the not to distant future to buy a cat and also learn to sail. Ive mucked around on small cats before , but want to learn navigation and open ocean sailing. Can any one recommend a good sailing school or person on the Goldcoast?

Thanks

Hi Laura, sure there are many more options, than courses or turning pages of handbooks.
Considering you already experienced cat. fishermans, transition to sailing can be as easy as
get a skipper on board for a few days. Basics are the the same like deep keelers, but some cats
have unique set up for head sail. Simply you have to see on your boat.
Don't stress too much, sailing cat. is simple and 90% she would be on autopilot anyway.
I can tell you that decent cat. has all you can ask for.
Choose the cat. & marina is you first obstacle.
There is no such a thing good cat. under 200k.
In your case, sea change , has to be something decent, my choice would be
locally well build Seawind 1160. I sailed Seawind 1000, but too short for coastal passages.

I would have a mono or a tri any day over a cat in the ultimate storm sea.

Monos self right, Tris can be self righted and Cats are a disaster looking for a time and place to happen.

Hey honey, is my asbestos suit still in the wardrobe???

I have no problem with cats and for coastal cruising and especially tropical cruising they are fine. For actually living on they are fine. The most common complaint with monos in the Whitsunday type of cruising is ventilation. Cats have plenty of deck area and roomy main cabins.

Friends have just returned from a cruise up the coast to Queensland on their expensive up market cat and it is now on the market. This will not be cheap though, its a 45 foot vessel similar to the 60 footer above. Like all cats they attract bad weather! Ever notice how they all complain that the weather went on the nose and they had a hard time getting anywhere. Another of our local cats, a high performance racing cat in the 40 foot range had to be rescued a few weeks back. Heading down to Jervis Bay for a regatta the Westerly was too much for her to enter the bay. With reduced sail she had too much windage and got no where, with the motors could not make headway. Had to call up for a tow.

cisco said..

Righting a Tri usually involves flooding one of the pontoons but in the case of most Piver Tris I think it would be almost impossible.

With Farrier type Tris (ie with folding pontoons) the leeward pontoon can be retracted and as the boat rolls over and the mast and sails surface the wind will assist the righting. Just have to be careful it does not blow it over again.

I remember seeing Mooloolaba Fire Truck at the marina years ago and she was fitted with permanent plumbing for the purpose of flooding pontoons.

Weta Tris are set up for it with a flooding hatch at the rear of each pontoon.

Are you serious .your talking about a 16 ft tri .? I have never heard of a Tri bigger than around 25 ft self rescuing after a capsize .i have documentation of a Tremalino tri self rescuing (23ft) . if this were the case why would the big trans Atlantic racing tri's worth millions of $ which sometimes come to grief racing often get abandoned , when they do get salvaged ,iVe seen them use several cranes to right them.As for cats I have seen a video of a 30 ft cat self right after a capsize ,but how many cats do you see with a massive float on top of the mast and releasable side stays?

Although, I certainly don't have as much sailing experience as some others here and I could be talking complete b***t

But here is my 2c's worth:

1. We're talking about cruising not racing so the chances of capsizing, let's say a Lagoon, are fairly slim. Although there was a report of a capsized Spirited 380 (a high performing cruising cat) a couple of years back, which allegedly hit a shipping container at good speed and capsized somewhere in the Bight. With a hole in the hull a mono would have most likely sunk. Cat's don't sink, the keep floating. There was another report of a couple who abandoned their cat in a cyclone and they found the cat a few months later the right way up happily floating with no damage. I guess this shows that it takes a fair bit to tip them over.

2. As a cruiser you have the option to avoid storms or conditions that would get you into serious trouble, when racing you don't and you push the limit. But to capsize a cat you either need to surfing down a wave to fast and nose-diving or get into conditions where waves are breaking at a significant size. Strong wind with too much sail will more likely break the mast before capsizing a cat. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe the decision to buy a cat or a mono should not be based on self-righting ability. The pros, in my opinion, outweigh the cons by far in the mono vs. cat debate.
If budget is not an issue, the decision should be made based on where you want to be cruising. For tropical, sub-tropical and anything above the 40's, I'd go for a cat hands down (if a decent one wouldn't be so frigging expensive). But if cruising further south, rounding Cap Horn I would go for a proven steel mono - but their slow compared to a cat.

In regards to where to buy a cat, as someone suggested, Phuket or Langkawi are certainly an option, and you can start cruising in a great location immediately. But you need to rely in someone else's opinion for the condition before making the decision. Buying local gives you the option of viewing the yacht a few times before making the decision.

And of course, a sailing course would certainly be helpful in any way.

Lagoons are not really known for their performance but comfort with heaps of space with a bling factor but they are probably the slowest cats you can get. But 6.2kts in 15-20kts wind is a bit shocking - especially for that size.

Some of the good Australian build cats are Schionning, great performance vs comfort with good bridgedeck clearance. Some owner-build and some professional. I'd certainly consider one of these if I'd be looking for a cruising cat.

jev7337 said..


But if cruising further south, rounding Cap Horn I would go for a proven steel mono - but their slow compared to a cat.

This one is not steel but it is a mono and looks to be doing 20 knots or so. I don't think any cat would handle the pounding let alone do the speed.



These ones were steel and would round Cape Horn at 16 knots. Alan Villiers was an Australian Sailing Legend, wrote a bunch of books about it and eventually became a director of The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

By Way of Cape Horn, The Set of The Sails and The Cruise Of The Conrad are fantastic reads and teach a lot about character.

cisco said..


This one is not steel but it is a mono and looks to be doing 20 knots or so. I don't think any cat would handle the pounding let alone do the speed.

I've often mistaken a Volvo 70 going hammer and tongs for a cruising cat too, common mistake that.

DAMA said..





Cruising catamarans.....

This where they excel.

No problem!

teatrea said..

What about Tri,s , some of those corsair ones look the goods , and the dragonfly models. What are the advantages or disadvantages of tris over cats? I like the idea of being able to beach and trailer.

From the original post,

"Want to travel further afield in our boat
We want to live on it for a minimum of 5 years
We have only just started looking at sailing cats (looking at 38'-50')."

Not quite sure how a trailer tri fits into that equation.