I've long been a fan of the "motor-sailer" concept for a catamaran. In fact, I had a design commissioned for a boat my company was going to offer as a production-built model. (We subsequently decided not to at that time, due to increased sales of some other models.) But I continue to hope that it might go into production sometime in the next 3-5 years. It's a 45' cat, with twin 75-HP diesels. (It could easily accommodate twin 100 HP dsls, but at the moment I believe the maximum horsepower that current sail-drives will accommodate is 75 HP. On the other hand, for extended motoring, one might well NOT want saildrives, but instead a V or Z drive.) The designer projects a motoring speed of 12-13 knots (with the twin 75 HP engines), and a sailing speed of up to about 15-16 knots. Of course, if it has a "serious" amount of sail area, then the beam will need to be at least 21' to 22'. If one were willing to accept a less effective sailing rig (i.e., one that couldn't typically sail more than about 8-10 knots), then the beam could be lowered to perhaps 16'. This isn't just theoretical ramblings. I was aboard a 38' x 19' motorsailing cat in New Zealand a few years back, equipped with twin 100 HP dsls, that readily motored at 13 knots, while offering an easy turn of speed under sail that was 45% of the apparent wind speed. (i.e. 4.5 knots boat speed in 10 knots of wind, 9 knots boat speed in 20 knots of wind -- the sailing power-curve quickly diminishes thereafter). Under sail, with just one engine ticking away at about 1200 RPM, she could point an easy 37-to-40 degrees toward the wind; that is, as high as most any top-notch singlehull sailboat can when simply sailing to windward. Plus, that slowly running engine greatly dimished a sailing craft's normal leeway; the engine's noise was minimal; and it only "sipped" fuel at that low RPM. Meanwhile, the pressure of the wind on the big sails, in conjunction with a cat's enhanced stability, made for a very comfortable ride. I suspect, from a North American marketing standpoint, that the biggest pejorative to such a rig would be (a) the public's unfamiliarity with the long-proven benefits of sailing-while-powering (much more commonly employed in northern Europe, and thus more readily accepted...and even favored....there among cruisers), and (b) the commonly held belief (very often true in the case of monohulls) that a "motorsailer" is neither fish nor fowl. That is, the majority of singlehull motorsailers are neither GREAT motoring vessels nor GREAT sailing vessels. But that substantial compromise isn't at all necessary when employing a catamaran design. Here on Puget Sound (NW corner of US), sailboaters have long learned to accept that as much as 80% of their time underway during the summer sailing season will be via mechanical propulsion, NOT by sail. So imagine their pleasure if that motoring speed (expecially given our 2 to 6 knot currents) could be done at 12 to 14 knots instead of the typical monohull sailboat's 6 to 8 knots. Rod Gibbons Cruising Cats USA power-catamaran-request@lists.samurai.com wrote: >Send Power-Catamaran mailing list submissions to > power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com > >To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/power-catamaran >or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > power-catamaran-request@lists.samurai.com > >You can reach the person managing the list at > power-catamaran-owner@lists.samurai.com > >When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >than "Re: Contents of Power-Catamaran digest..." > > >Today's Topics: > > 1. Station Wagon Effect (Jack Angus) > 2. Re: Station Wagon Effect (brian eiland) > 3. Re: Suitability for offshore service (brian eiland) > 4. Mexico News (brian eiland) > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Message: 1 >Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 23:05:25 -0700 >From: Jack Angus <angroup@shaw.ca> >Subject: [PCW] Station Wagon Effect >To: power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com >Message-ID: <006901c544a5$c78a7640$6601a8c0@D2Y6XX11> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > >My new-to-me 42' planing cat (configured like a sports-fish) ends up with the cockpit and aft glazing covered with salt after running at speed. This is probably a problem with a lot of sports-fish boats, but likely made worse by the increased beam of the cat. Any tricks or attachments that might alleviate this (other than getting air-flow through the boat and out the back door - it's still too cold here in Victoria for that)? >

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