To the group, Several people have asked me to comment on my experiences at sea in regard to stability. First Paul brought up Steve Dashew' FPB Wind Horse, The 83' monohull designed and made especially of long distance off shore travel. In the account I read he has now traveled over 8000 miles. Mostly from NZ to the US Via Hawaii. Everyone should read what he has written. Just look up Dashew offshore. We should be happy that there is someone like Steve to take the time to write about his experiences and document them so well. Also he lets us in on all of the thinking of his new boat. I read all the books he had written at the time I was planning WWIII. His out fitting all the systems for a boat should be studied. His books were the first books I read that showed the ultimate regardless of price in comparison of Hal Roth who did everything on the cheap. Even if you can't put on the best you at least know where to aim. When I was planning Wild Wind IV I went through much of the same, but not nearly the depth as Steve. My budget had a limit. It is amazing that our thinking on many of things are very similar. It must be the result of coming from many miles of offshore cruising under sail in remote areas. I was fortunate to spend an evening with Steve and Linda at their home in Cal. in '87 or '88 when I was deciding which boat I was going to get to circumnavigate. You must know by now I chose a catamaran. Wild Wind III a 50' Prout Quasar which my wife and I sailed 70,000 miles. Choosing a cat was the best decision I made. Many of the monohullers that travel off and on with us said they would choose a cat if they were to do it again. I will give you some of the instances where stability may have been challenged during our 35,000 miles since NZ in WWIV. The first passage was from NZ to Fiji. When Steve made this passage the first few days were in rougher seas than we had, but later they were behind him. We had beam seas almost all the way. Almost all of our offshore travel was at 8.5 knots on one engine (CPP props.) which gave us about 2 miles per gallon. The ride was rocky as each sea reached the boat, the action was quick. As we found on several passages it was not only the wind waves that affected the boat but the swell. In the southern ocean many times there is a swell from the southeast as a result of a storm in the higher latitudes. One night Dave Pachoud the builder, who made the first leg with me, was at the helm, and I was sleeping in my recliner which is not nailed down. A big wave came and after the crest had passed the starboard hull must have dropped at least 6'-8'. The recliner flipped on it's side. What a way to wake up. After that the boat continued on it's way as before. Talking to Dave about this we felt there was no chance for a capsize. The almost identical thing happened as we left Huahini in French Polynesia. I looked at the radar and I thought I saw the squall line heading away from the island so I headed out. When I rounded the SW corner of the reef the storm seemed to come back. The wind waves were not too bad, but there again one very large southerly swell ganged up with the wind waves and the starboard hull did the same thing. This time I was at the helm and in daylight was able to see exactly what happened and how the boat reacted. The motion was very quick but again, although it was unpleasant it did not seem dangerous. In one hour we were heading to Moorea in pleasant head seas. When we left Western Samoa on our way to Suvarrow I again left too early and after a beautiful start the weather turned bad and after midnight the wind was blowing 30 knots with much higher gusts, With heavy tropical rain and lots of lightning. At first I thought that this is a catamaran and it should be able to handle this without slowing below my 8.5 knots. After a while WWIV on a particularly large wave almost leaped out of the water. I decide to slow down. I really think I had surfed down the back side of a wave and had accelerated. Like ski jumping going up the waves wasn't too bad, but you had to come down. The bow dipped in to the next wave. This was the only time I had solid water wash up on the wind shield. At the beginning of a storm the waves are always shorter than when the seas mature. I was able to continue at 5-6 knots. We also had troublesome head seas going from Tahiti to the Marquises. My Idea was to get farther east and visit the Tuamotos on the way so the long passage from the Marquises to Hawaii would be down wind. In Aug. the trades tend to go south of East. Not for me. Although the forecast was for Easterly winds they were in actuality from the NE. We were on the beam almost all the way to Hawaii. When we left Hawaii for Seattle the first several days were slightly on the nose we reduced speed a little to not get behind the fuel curve. We had hoped to get north of the north pacific high. We finally did but by that time we were at 40 degrees north before we could turn east. Now for the first time since NZ we had the wind behind the beam. We ran down wind in very large seas. Down wind in WWIV is a dream. Running on one engine as I do causes some yawing. As the boat surfs done a wave the push of the propeller stops and the slight angle created is neutralized and the boat straightens out and when the next wave is addressed the one side starts to push again and that causes the yawing. Heading south from The Straights of Juan de Fuca after our trips to Alaska the seas got even larger off the Oregon coast. Many of the ports were closed so we had to continue on to Crescent City CA. We were down wind in seas regularly 15' with some to 25. The motion is so easy we were walking around the boat and living normally. This lasted for over a day. With fuel not a problem we were now running at about 9.5 knots and surfing at times to close to 20 knots. The key here is the fine entry. When the bow is poked into the wave ahead the boat is hardly slowed, only the climbing of the boat on the next wave slows you down. When crossing the Punta Arenas Bay in Costa Rica the seas were steep and choppy. By running both engines and speeding up to 16-18 knots the ride was made much more comfortable. On all those miles these are the only times where the seas were much of a problem. I would like to build a catamaran with Steve's budget and with his parameters. I think a catamaran would out perform the FPB in almost every way. Not only would it be as efficient, it would also have the ability to go 25 knots or more. As far as stability a cat that had a reasonable beam and was kept low would be very hard to turn over. Not only would you have a fast boat but you could keep the draft well under 4'. If the FPB were to ground in a swell the keel would high center the boat and it would rock back and forth on the stabilizers. I unfortunately know from experience what it is like to run aground on something hard. Thank goodness I was in a good cat. With engines 18' apart I was able to squirm my way off before the tide went down with no damage. If the tide had gone down the boat would have sat upright and we would have to wait for the next tide. I would love to help someone build my idea of dream circumnavigating powercat. My wife has told me I'm not to build another boat. She has never known me when I was not either building a boat or operating one. I hope she relents. I hope this answers some questions. If you have particular questions ask away. Dennis Raedeke Wild Wind IV 60' Pachoud