How To Sail A Fast Catamaran: Mastering the Art of Quick Cruising

Large multihulls are getting bigger and faster, but how do you handle them? Pro skipper Mike Kopman has top advice for anyone sailing powerful catamarans

It’s safe to say that the catamaran is truly out of the bag when it comes to the appeal of multihulls as cruising platforms, and not just for a week-long charter in the BVI’s. The mono vs cat debate has long raged, and while there will always be those who will never consider a yacht without ballast as seaworthy, the number of long-term cruisers crossing the world’s oceans on catamarans is increasing steadily.

As they’ve become more popular, they’ve also moved beyond the charter-style offerings of mass production catamarans. While Gunboat remains the brand that defines the performance breed, the likes of HH, McConaghy, Marsaudon Composites, Outremer, Balance, Kinetic and several smaller boutique brands are building multihulls that seem to demand little compromise in comfort yet offer near-raceboat levels of performance.

It’s hard to deny the appeal – this new generation of fast cruising cats offers an unrivalled blend of performance and livability that monohulls struggle to match.

And as we can see from the preceding Supersail World pages, they’re growing, in size, comfort, power, and performance terms.

But as Spiderman Peter Parker knows, with great power comes great responsibility. If you’re going to be safe and comfortable on a big cat you need to develop a certain amount of Spidery sense for the boat. Cats don’t talk back the way monos do, and they’re a lot less forgiving. When a gust hits a monohull, you know about it immediately. She heels over, spills some wind, might round up and flog the sails. On a cat, with its huge righting moment, the structure absorbs all that extra load.

There’s no tell-tale increase in heel, and no way for the boat to automatically shed that power. If it’s sailed well, and not overloaded, that power will quickly translate into speed – which is great when you want it, but not so great if you’re already sailing close to the edge of your comfort zone. The old adage of reefing when you first think about it is doubly true for performance cats. In fact, you need to reef before you think about it!

Sailing large catamarans: Exit strategies

When the boat is really lit up, it’s crucial that everyone aboard knows the plan for if you get overpowered. Whether you’re going to head up and feather your way through a big gust or bear away and ride it out needs to be decided on beforehand, because in sketchy conditions, there’s no time to freeze and think about it.

If you’re already in upwind or downwind mode just keep going. Luffing up or running off works well on cats. But it’s when reaching fast in the so-called ‘death zone’ of 80°-110° true wind angle that things become less clear. Heading up increases apparent wind, which increases boat speed, while bearing away increases boat speed, then apparent wind.

Either way, loads spike fast, the yacht feels squirrelly and steering can become difficult. If you’re in gusty conditions or expecting an increase, then err on the side of being underpowered. This means boards up, traveller down, leeches open and twisted off.

If your ‘exit’ is to head up, you want both main and jib to start luffing evenly. Once you’re almost head to wind and the boat has slowed right down, sheet the jib on (to help with the bear away), dump the main, and turn the boat deep downwind aggressively before she can build speed again. Once you’re sailing deep, slowly and in control, you can plan to reduce sail.

Trimming and reefing

Modern multis tend to have the rig stepped further aft and carry higher aspect mains, with multiple headsails on furlers. This means changing gear quickly is a lot easier, but with the main further aft in the boat, it can act like a great big rudder and prevent you from bearing away, even with the sheet eased, so make sure you remember to dump the traveller too.

If you’re not familiar with sailing a cat with daggerboards it helps to think of them as another sail, and that means they can be reefed. Upwind, of course, you want a board down, but as the breeze builds ‘reefing’ the daggerboards is as important as reducing sail. In fact, it’s remarkable how much you can depower a cat on a beam reach by pulling the boards up. They can be hard to move on a reach due to the lateral load on them, but once they’re out of the water, the boat will be making considerably more leeway and generating a lot less power.

My family and I were sailing our own 20m cat, Komotion, off the south-east coast of Sardinia on the tail end of a Mistral. We’d headed offshore a little to avoid wind shadow, and pretty quickly the wind built into the high 20s, putting our apparent wind over 40 knots.

While putting a few rolls in the jib, the lashing on the furling line turning block failed, and with a bang the jib unfurled and we were under full sail again. The boat speed jumped to over 20 knots and we suddenly had a bit of a situation on our hands.

We dumped the traveller, and my wife, Sarah, steered off deep to slow the boat, while I went up onto the trampoline and lashed the block back in place. Broken gear is not something you can usually anticipate, but having a way out of a difficult situation before it arises can be invaluable.

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Speed on

‘They suck going upwind!’ is still the oft-repeated criticism of sailing cats, and while it might be true for some designs where volume has been prioritised over performance, it’s clearly not true for all cats. With daggerboards down and quality, flat sails, it’s a case of sheeting in and hanging on. Cracking off a few degrees results in a smoother ride and the sharp increase in speed gives a nice return in VMG.

When it comes to tacking, a few small points can help you avoid resorting to the ‘charter tack’, ie starting an engine to get the boat through the wind. Firstly, bear away a little to build speed (don’t try to tack when you’re pinching). Then come upwind sharply and decisively, but don’t stall the rudders. Ease the mainsheet a bit as you’re about to come head to wind. This will reduce the mainsail’s ‘weathervane’ effect that can keep the boat in irons.

As the bows come through the wind, hold off on releasing the jib sheet for a few moments. Letting it back will push the bows down on the new tack. Then ease it across onto the new tack, build speed, sheet in the main again and you’re off.

A quick note on flying a hull. On a true performance cat that is designed to be able to fly a hull, best boat speed generally comes from just skimming the water with the windward hull. If there’s any more air under there, that’s a sign you’re pushing hard and might consider dialling it back. That said, pretty much every big performance cat sailor would agree that flying a hull has no place in cruising. If you’re not on the racecourse, the risks are simply not worth it.

Keeping check

Where maintenance on a performance catamaran differs most from a mono is in the rigging. Visual inspections of the mast base and crossbeam area should be more frequent on cats. Don’t over-tension shrouds; the wide spreader base on cats mean rigs don’t need to be piano-wire tight.

Diamond stays and spreaders, though, take serious loads and need close monitoring for cracks, play, or corrosion. Mast base fittings and beam interfaces are under high stress and must be checked for elongation or wear. Check chainplates on hulls for symmetry and signs of creep or elongation.

Autopilots also work harder on a cat for all the same reasons. Without the ability to heel as a ‘pressure relief’, a catamaran’s autopilot feels a lot more sailing loads. The autopilot experiences higher loads, especially at speed, where shifts in apparent wind come quickly and unbalanced sails can throw the boat off course.

Shoal tactics

One of the attractions of a multihull is that the shallow draught allows you to anchor in places not accessible to monohulls, but this can have its own challenges. A big boat needs a lot of room to swing, and a big cat needs even more, so keep that in mind when picking a spot.

The usual rule of scope applies as much to multis as it does to monos, but it’s worth thinking about the extra windage of some bigger volume cats. Flybridges, solid bimini tops and acres of solar can add a lot of drag, and, as the saying goes, chain does nothing when it’s left in the locker.

Going one size up on your anchor will help you sleep better. Multihulls sail around at anchor a lot more than most monos, so it’s really important to have a good bridle system. Generally, if you’re swinging around like an excited puppy on a lead then setting out a longer bridle will help. And while Dyneema is super strong, its lack of stretch means it’s not ideal for this purpose. Good old three-strand is an ideal material, with eyes spliced at the anchor end shackled to a good chain hook. Simple whipped ends inboard means the length can easily be adjusted.

If you’re tying up to a mooring, don’t run a line from one hull through the mooring eye and back to the other hull. The yawing of the boat will chafe through the line, so always use two separate lines, one for each hull.

When it comes to getting underway again, remember the steering effect of your mainsail if you’re going to do the increasingly popular ‘hoist the main at anchor’ move in a crowded mooring field or anchorage. Keep the sheet eased, traveller loose, and get the jib out as soon as you can to help pull the bow down. Or better yet, motor to where you have plenty of room around you first. It may not look as cool, but then neither does ploughing into another anchored boat!

Manoeuvring

Sight lines on some catamarans are not as clear as on monohulls, so good communication among crew is really important when docking and anchoring. If engine controls aren’t ideally placed you’re going to need people calling distances. As is the same on any large yacht or superyacht, marine headsets make a lot of sense when anchoring and manoeuvring, particularly on cats with large blind spots. However, it’s still prudent to have backup hand signals, so make sure you agree on what distance one finger means beforehand!

Fortunately, twin props set far apart mean cats are really manoeuvrable, but the bows can blow off just like on any other boat and bow thrusters are not that common on cats. The key is to think through any close-quarters manoeuvre carefully in advance, and always have an escape route in mind. Weaving a tennis court through a crowded anchorage in gusty conditions can be pretty nerve-wracking. Daggerboards are just as effective at reducing leeway under power, so if the water is deep enough, then stick them down if it’s windy.

A little trick we sometimes use when picking up a mooring is to back up to it rather than approaching it bow on. Instead of standing up on the forward beam trying to guide the helmsman to the buoy (and then having to reach way down to pass a line through), we find it’s much easier for the line handler to stand on the transom where they’re lower to the water and within talking distance of the helm.

There’s much better visibility aft, the helmsman can bring the transom right up to the buoy, and a long line from the bow can then simply be passed through and brought back aboard as you spin around.

Motion

The motion of a cat offshore can come as quite a surprise to those used to sailing half boats. The sensation is more jerky, less predictable, and this motion can be quite fatiguing for the crew. If bridgedeck clearance on your particular design has been compromised, then expect sudden wave slaps from below that can make that much vaunted unspilled G&T leap right off the saloon table. The first time I experienced one of these I thought the whole structure had split in half.

On Komotion, we find we are frequently slowing the boat down to keep our crew more comfortable, especially on longer passages and overnight. It’s important to manage fatigue and comfort across the length of the trip.

It’s great fun blasting along at 20 knots in flat water in the lee of an island, or for a wet and wild squirt across open water to the next one, but for passages longer than half a day or so the speed, the motion and even the adrenaline can become quite draining (although, that said, I’ll never get tired of watching the spray smoke off Komotion’s lee bow as we send it at 20+ knots!).

Noise in the hulls of a full GRP performance cat can be another fatiguing factor. Even aboard Komotion’s cedar-cored hulls, it sounds like a freight train down below when we’re doing more than 15 knots, and noise increases stress (no wonder, then, that some IMOCA 60 sailors use earplugs).

As a family we often find it more relaxing to sleep in the saloon on two- or three-day trips. Again, the key is knowing when to back off a bit. If you’re not racing, take your foot off the gas, reduce sail and enjoy the easy speeds that a large performance cat can maintain with less sail up. My wife and I will often sail through the night with a couple of reefs in the main and just switch between jib and staysail as conditions change.

For most of the long-term cruisers we’ve met sailing on larger performance cats, their choice of boat is more about enjoying the ability to keep sailing in light breeze, when everyone else is motoring, than sheer flat-out speed. This blend of performance and practicality is exactly why more families, ours included, are choosing to cruise fast, flat, and far.

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