Catamaran's, - must they be unsafe and ugly?

[G Jacobson]

Hello all,

Due to some significant life changes, it's been a while since my last post about my still ongoing skiff project. One would think finishing one boat would be prudent before dreaming about the next, but a recent trip to the Carribean (honeymoon to be exact) got me thinking about shallow-draft sailing cruisers, - and particularly catamarans.

Now I know the majority here loathe cats for a number of reasons. In spite of their performance advantages, I too find them to be (for the most part) aesthetically lacking, and am also concerned about their ability to handle rough seas/foul weather without capsizing.

However, I feel that cats have numerous advantages which are difficult to overlook, and the primary objections to aesthetics and seaworthiness MAY simply be a matter of limited design focus. While I am hardly a marine architect, I have looked at many cats and I get the distinct impression speed and/or interior accomodations have been the primary design motives to date.

For my purposes, I could care less about racing. I am far more interested in the shallow-draft capability and having more living space than an equivalent length mono-hull. Since all boats are a mix of compromises, the question remains whether one can design a truly seaworthy cat which does not look like it was assembled from various airplane parts.

With that in mind, I'm going out on a limb to say that yes, an attractive AND seaworthy cat can be built, - IF the designer doesn't "typecast" it as a speedy playtoy before picking up his sketch pad. To me most cats look like "wavestabbers" and I feel they could benefit greatly from the combination of more freeboard and deadrise to the hulls. With that in mind I did a conceptual drawing of a cat using a hull roughly based on a dory, - albeit stretched radically. I'm not saying this is a good design or even an attractive one. Instead, I offer it as an alternative to typical cat hull design, and as a starting point to stimulate further conversation on the topic.


http://i36.tinypic.com/2jd0rqh.jpg

[peterAustralia]

What about Wharram.

From all that I have heard they have good seakeeping and safety record

[G Jacobson]

What about Wharram.

From all that I have heard they have good seakeeping and safety record

Shows how much I know. I would add that they are easy on the eyes also. I like how he has integrated Polynesian canoe tradition into his designs. They actually look like boats, - not plastic contraptions. Might be just what I'm looking for.

[Thermo]

Wharram boats have a really good reputation as sea-boats. And they're about the only multi-hulls I can think of that don't look like plastic party-barge monstrosities. It's just what I was looking for myself.

[jackster]

An authoritative view is to be had from Chris White, who wrote " The Cruising Mulithull"
Although I'm too old to try something so out of my comfort range, and my perception of what a "boat" is, is much too set in stone, Chris offers persuasive opinions and facts on design and safety that make multihulls intriguing.
www.chriswhitedesigns.com

[slidercat]

I have to say that the name of this thread has a "When did you stop beating your wife" flavor to it.

There are plenty of handsome cats, though there are also some abominations, just as there are ugly wooden monohulls.

Think about the first modern era cat, Manu Kai. That was a pretty boat by any standard.

There's no essential element in the design of cats that impels them to be ugly. Because they are a relatively new kind of boat, at least for non-polynesians, designers don't have a long history of traditional ideas of beauty to draw on, as monohull designers do. And there's a tendency for some designers to be concerned only with function, and to try to make their boats look like high-tech machines. Sometime the boats end up looking like pregnant space guppies, but there's no reason that they have to look that way.

Looks generally don't cost anything to add to a design, but folks have to demand attractive boats.

I drew this little cat, and tried to rely as much as I could on traditional looks. Not a great beauty, but wholesome, in my opinion.

http://slidercat.com/blog/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/beachedsm.jpg


(http://slidercat.com)

[Michael s/v Sannyasin]

Cat's can be safe enough off-shore. A friend of mine built one 30+ years ago and sailed it across the Atlantic to Europe then down to South America and back.

http://1000days.net/site.preJoomla/boatbuilding/CCM00002.JPG

http://1000days.net/site.preJoomla/boatbuilding/CCM00024.JPG

http://1000days.net/site.preJoomla/boatbuilding/CCM00003.JPG

That said, I have a friend with a plastic catamaran here in NYC that we were just out on yesterday. They're not at all comfortable in a chop, and they don't feel much like what I consider a sail boat... more like taking your wooden patio deck out for a spin around the harbor.

But, if you want to coastal cruise around some islands, get into shallow snorkling grounds, and have all the comforts of home, they're absolutely great.

[62816inBerlin]

I had the good fortune to crew on dinghy-sized Shearwater cats as a boy and found them more fun and safer than the Flying Dutchman monohulls that I had also crewed.

We got to know Jim Wharram after he arrived in Trinidad and my parents were able to provide him and his "family" some assistance. In consequence, we were able to join him on one of the trial day cruises on the new boat he built while in Trinidad. It was a great day out and the boat showed its qualities. My father who, being a professional captain, was always sceptical about yachtsmen, was impressed even if he didn't like to admit it outright. The boat went on to take Jim and the "crew" back to England safely. Since then he has gained many years experience in improving his designs. Many boats that have been built by amateurs and professionals can be seen cruising all around the world.
The downside is perhaps the fact that he favours seaworthiness over space and comfort - if you lay great store by the latter, then better buy one of those plastic star-wars spaceships - some of which are reputed to sail quite passably and are by no means unsafe.
There have been many ocean crossings in cats with central cabins on deck, such as the older Prout designs from England (e.g. Snowgoose). These boats have been sailed in rough waters around the UK and Ireland and do not have a negative safety record : so where have you got the "- must they be unsafe and ugly?" question from?
I'd sail a catamaran any day - only the moorings are generally too narrow (or wide moorings too expensive) here in Berlin, so I'm stuck with monohulls.

Gernot

[Thermo]

Cat's can be safe enough off-shore. A friend of mine built one 30+ years ago and sailed it across the Atlantic to Europe then down to South America and back.


You're friends wit' that big celebriteee?:D

Anyway I've always wondered what model cat that was. Have any idea? It looks like a 20-something Wharram. I love those windvanes on the rudders.

[Michael s/v Sannyasin]

dang-straight! I'm part of "mission control".

I know that he built it, but not sure if built from a kit or some designer's plans or neither. I know he put his own shape to the lines of his schooner.

http://1000days.net/site.preJoomla/boatbuilding/boatbuilding.htm

[chill]

I think cats can look good.
I like the looks of the one I am building so far
http://picasaweb.google.com/chill3570/LatestBoatPic

[Thermo]

I think cats can look good.
I like the looks of the one I am building so far
http://picasaweb.google.com/chill3570/LatestBoatPic

I liked your cat last time you posted pictures of it. I haven't gotten that far on mine. :) (I'm still waiting for the big truck to arrive with all the plywood from Ohio!)

Hopefully it'll look something like this when it's on the water:

http://www.andy-smith-boatworks.com/wharram_catamaran_boats/trillian_2.jpg


dang-straight! I'm part of "mission control".

I know that he built it, but not sure if built from a kit or some designer's plans or neither. I know he put his own shape to the lines of his schooner.

http://1000days.net/site.preJoomla/boatbuilding/boatbuilding.htm

I always liked that catamaran, moreso than the big boat I think. Sometimes I dream about going up the Amazon in one, just a 'ways.

[Woxbox]

Here's my spaceship. The "unsafe" slap is a bunch of malarky. There's absolutely no record to demonstrate these types of boats are less safe than monohulls built to do the same job. And as has often been pointed out, they don't sink. This particular one has many cubic feet of foam in it. You could litterally rip holes in both hulls and continue to sail. The keels, by the way, are designed to rip off on impact without holing the hull.

But as Bolger once commented about his box boats, the same a pplies to these cruising cats. (to paraphrase) "People can't get over the fact that the looks they don't like contribute to the performance they do like."

Is it like sailing your backyard deck? In light air, pretty much. (The cooks on board love that point.) But at about 20 knots and up it takes on a whole new aspect. When many others are running for cover, we find big grins spreading across our faces.

The Wharram cats look great. Woods has some that are maybe half-way between the Wharram look and the spaceship look. By the way, G Jacobson, in Woods' portfolio you'll find at least one small multi with dory-style hulls. Others experimented with these years or decades ago, including I beleive Wharram. And Bolger has big cat designed with dory-style hulls. But by and large they've been abandoned because they seem to put a top limit on boatspeed. And of course, slapping and pounding can be issues.

There are all sorts of aesthetics on boats. I've seen these spacy style cats with huge graphics down the side that make them look like another type of boat alltogether. An Orca design comes to mind. Also a fantastic Chinese dragon down the side of a 40-foot racing cat. It's all good.


http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f92/Woxbox/AnchoredontheChesterRiver.jpg

[chill]

Thermo
That looks like the Wharram 30 footer. I like that boat. I considered that boat for a long time. Waiting for the big truck of wood. I also remember having to haul all the wood from the truck to the basement :) So do my sons :)

Exciting starting a new project like that. Best of luck and have fun.

Anyways ,in my view a cat will never be a good looking as say those english cutters and the like. But they do have there own distinctive look that I find appealing.

[Thermo]

Thermo
That looks like the Wharram 30 footer. I like that boat. I considered that boat for a long time. Waiting for the big truck of wood. I also remember having to haul all the wood from the truck to the basement :) So do my sons :)

Exciting starting a new project like that. Best of luck and have fun.

Anyways ,in my view a cat will never be a good looking as say those english cutters and the like. But they do have there own distinctive look that I find appealing.

Yeah, it's a T30. I've got my kid and her crayons figuring out what color she wants it. :) I think we'll end up with the 'pod' cockpit, but I've just got to get the hulls done and on a trailer first.

[G Jacobson]

I have to say that the name of this thread has a "When did you stop beating your wife" flavor to it.

There are plenty of handsome cats, though there are also some abominations, just as there are ugly wooden monohulls.

Think about the first modern era cat, Manu Kai. That was a pretty boat by any standard.

There's no essential element in the design of cats that impels them to be ugly. Because they are a relatively new kind of boat, at least for non-polynesians, designers don't have a long history of traditional ideas of beauty to draw on, as monohull designers do. And there's a tendency for some designers to be concerned only with function, and to try to make their boats look like high-tech machines. Sometime the boats end up looking like pregnant space guppies, but there's no reason that they have to look that way.

Looks generally don't cost anything to add to a design, but folks have to demand attractive boats.

I drew this little cat, and tried to rely as much as I could on traditional looks. Not a great beauty, but wholesome, in my opinion.

http://slidercat.com/blog/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/beachedsm.jpg


(http://slidercat.com)

Sorry for the title, - I was "poking the anthill" so to speak trying to draw out the more "polarized" opinions on the subject. To say that all cats are "ugly" and "unsafe" is obviously just such an extremist view which I do not subscribe to. Speaking for myself, I can usually see both sides of an issue and try to steer away from thinking in absolute terms. That said, the best points are usually made by "purist's" and it pays to listen to the extremist's on any issue.

BTW, the clean lines of your cat definitely meet my standards of an attractive boat.

[JimConlin]

Trimarans can be pretty, too.
http://www.wingo.com/newick/echo2-s.jpg

[Woxbox]

And that particular one is a work of art.

[Zane Lewis]

Look carefully and decide what you want the boat to do.
I've done 1 offshore trip in a Cat 40-45ft and learned a lot. We towed a drog for 3 days to stop it going ass over nose and came very close to dropping the sea anchor.
Dodging flying plates when the breaking sea would hit the aft quarter and the plates and cups in the galley would go flying across the cabin.
I also have to say that I found sleeping on the sides of the hull Keel boat style very unnerving. Add say a small 5-10 deg heel plus the slope of the waves.

Things I leaned where that crewing for owners who have 20 years + of offshore sailing in cats is important. Things like pinning up the boards when leaving the coast. We hit speeds of 17 knots leaving NZ but after that they set a max speed of 12 knots as time to reduce sail.
Anyway I leaned that there is a huge difference between a Cat designed for Offshore and one for Coastal Cruising and one for Racing.
Zane

[G Jacobson]

Look carefully and decide what you want the boat to do.
I've done 1 offshore trip in a Cat 40-45ft and learned a lot. We towed a drog for 3 days to stop it going ass over nose and came very close to dropping the sea anchor.
Dodging flying plates when the breaking sea would hit the aft quarter and the plates and cups in the galley would go flying across the cabin.
I also have to say that I found sleeping on the sides of the hull Keel boat style very unnerving. Add say a small 5-10 deg heel plus the slope of the waves.

Things I leaned where that crewing for owners who have 20 years + of offshore sailing in cats is important. Things like pinning up the boards when leaving the coast. We hit speeds of 17 knots leaving NZ but after that they set a max speed of 12 knots as time to reduce sail.
Anyway I leaned that there is a huge difference between a Cat designed for Offshore and one for Coastal Cruising and one for Racing.
Zane

So how would you characterize the design differences between an offshore cat and a coastal cruiser?

Since I live in the Pacific Northwest of the US, I would want a craft capable of handling the "significant" seas we have, but maybe that's too tall of an order for a Cat to fill. However, having shoal-draft capability would be just as advantagous here as some warmer places I might fantasize about cruising (such as the Sea of Cortez or the Carribean). My home waters would be the Columbia River which has inumerable sandy islands, inlets, and channels, - places a cruising monohull could never access.

With that in mind, how much could a "seaworthy" cat design (such as a Wharram) be modified in terms of hull deadrise to adapt to PNW sea conditions without destroying its sailing performance or cruising comfort? The drawing I posted may look extreme in terms of the forward deadrise, - but having been across the Columbia River bar a few times it looks about right to me.

[Woxbox]

The first problem for cats in rough water usually is not hull volume up forward. It's the deck clearance -- at some point if you keep pushing the boat the bridgedeck will start slamming heavily. These boats are so light for their hull volume that they don't drive into the water the way a heavy ballasted mono will. Here's my favorite video to demonstrate the point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ53CxBUj68
The Wharrams already have a tremendous amount of reserve stability designed into them. But I don't believe the decks stay very dry when it gets rough. There's a pretty active owners group out there, I'm sure they've be glad to fill you in.

[kenjamin]

G Jacobson,

As someone else said, Woods design has a dory hulled catamaran called the Janus that they have been selling for years. The dory hulls are easy to build, sturdy, and look nice. The only knock to them is that there is more wetted surface with the dory hulls so they will be a little slower than a more rounded design.

I am just an amateur when it comes to boat design but I've done a lot of reading on the subject. On your drawing at the top of this thread, I see a problem with bringing the bottom up out of the water and curving it into the air like that. Seems like you are going to be slapping the wave fronts head on rather than penetrating them. This means that progress in a chop will be more difficult and worst, it will impart an uncomfortable amount of pounding. If you look at the forefoot of the Woods Janus design, there is a very fine entry that allows the hull to penetrate and then lift through the waves much like a proper dory would.

http://ford.physics.fsu.edu/Janus.jpg

Also of all the boats at the Mystic WoodenBoat Show this year, this Tiki 30 was my favorite.

http://ford.physics.fsu.edu/Tiki1348.jpg

If it were my boat, everything red would be blue but it is still an attractive boat and very capable too.

[mmd]

Awww, c'mon....

Using a video of a professionally-crewed, balls-to-the-wall racing maxi-multihull, flying along at the ragged edge of control (because that is what racing boats do) probably approaching 30 knots or more is not a fair example of what a novice cruising sailor should expect in a small cruising multihull. That is like showing Sunday's NASCAR race to a new driver and telling them what to expect from their new Ford Taurus.

That said, taking any small boat - monohull, or multihull - through short, steep, breaking seas as experienced at the Columbia river bar would be risky. Once outside, I think the boat would be fine, but the transit across the bar would be wet.

Regarding your proposed hull form: With the usual caveat that boat design is the process of determining the least-offensive compromises between conflicting demands, the hulls you have drawn would not be very efficient. The idea with cat hulls is to make them as long and slender as possible, with the least amount of wetted surface area. Hard-chine, flat-bottom hulls do not meet the criteria of minimal wetted surface area very well. An elliptical-section, strip-cold-molded hull form would probably be the better way to go. The other compromise in cats is below-deck headroom; if you look at most cats, they have either flat or reverse sheer lines to create maximum hull depth at midships where the people live. It also keeps the boat drier.

Check out some of the smaller designs of Malcolm Tennant. http://www.tennantdesign.co.nz/

http://www.tennantdesign.co.nz/uploads/images/chevron/chev4.jpg

[Nicholas Scheuer]

I once had a 13-ft Alcourt Catfish catamaran. Unlike the Hobie 12 and 16's which were hot in those days, the Catfish had hulls featuring a straight shear along with fine bows that looked hell-bent on burying everything in the next wave.

The hull sections were symetrical eliptical instead of sharply V'd like the Hobies, and the hollow entries flowed very nicely through flat water. Nonetheless, the evident potential to bury in lake Michigan chop, along with seating discomfort on the rigid molded fiberglass bridge, led me to sell it after just one season.

Years later, aboard my son's Hobie-16, after we'd almost burried the leeward hull at considerable speed on Lake Michigan, prompting my son to suggst that we move our seating positions aft a bit, I reflected on how my decision to not keep the Alcourt Catfish had been a wise one.

Moby Nick

[mmd]

Moby, you have provided an excellent example of the old phrase, "size matters". The buoyant volume of the bows are very important in cat hulls. Wee small cats have very little buoyant volume forward and must therefore rely on bow shape to toss spray (and green water) aside. Larger cats have more volume forward and don't need the same shape as a Hobie to slough off water until the waves are scaled up to the same degree as the hulls. Usually, when that happens, the wave period is longer, so the dynamic motion of the boat is different and the burying of the bows is not as severe as in small cats.

BTW, I agree that Hobies and other wee cats of their ilk are fun warm-water boats, but to me they are merely beach toys. Like their monsterous cousins such as Playstation, they should not be used as a comparison tool to small cruising cats - they are much too different a creature to be a reasonable simile.

[slidercat]

Moby, you have provided an excellent example of the old phrase, "size matters". The buoyant volume of the bows are very important in cat hulls. Wee small cats have very little buoyant volume forward


I'd agree that this is true of beach cats-- but beach cats are not the only choice available in tiny catamarans.

http://slidercat.com/blog/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/morning6c.jpg

This is a 16 foot cat that has very little in common with a beach cat. Because of the flared hulls and relatively high freeboard, there's a lot of reserve buoyancy forward.

I know I keep harping on this, but I've found it very difficult to convince people that beach cats are not the only choice when considering small trailerable cats. It's as if people are unable to imagine anything else, and I suppose the ubiquity of beach cats has something to do with that mind set. (It was really really hard to point this out before the boat actually existed.) I agree that beach cats are toys (and there's nothing wrong with that.) However, there's no reason that the more sensible hull forms and sail area/displacement ratios of larger cruising cats can't be emulated in smaller boats. A lot of beach cats have a SA/D ratio of 40 or more. No cruising cat approaches that ratio.

Of course stability goes up exponentially with size, so the bigger the better for offshore work. For coastal passages in settled weather, a tiny cat can be safe enough.

[Woxbox]

MMD -- I wasn't trying to imply that a cruising cat would look like Playstation in rough water. I was after a specific point -- that the volume in these boats relative to their displacement is quite high. Playstation looks likes she's going to nosedive deep into the water, but it just doesn't. The volume to mass ratio is too high.

My own catamaran, which at 35 feet is these days on the smaller end of the cruising cat scale, imparts a huge degree of confidence because the initial stability is so high. And there's far more volume above the waterline than below it. I can't imagine what it would take to really bury the bows. It's certainly not to be compared with the feel of a beach cat.

How about this video for discussion. She's being pushed pretty hard, but doesn't show any tendency to dive under or flip over or anything like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsTXGhN3rLU&feature=related

[mmd]

Sorry, Woxbox; I’ve become somewhat hypersensitive to the anti-multihull crowd using extreme racing machines and beach cats as their example of why all multihulls are dynamically unstable and therefore evil. As you have admirably shown, it just ain’t so.

The video you’ve posted shows a couple of other things besides stability at speed – one good, one not so good (in my humble opinion). The good is subtle – the speed. It shows a 50-foot cat sailing at eighteen knots. Forget that it is doing so in barely more breeze than it’s boatspeed for the moment, though that is remarkable in its own right. An Outremer hull is not a planing, nor even a semi-planing, hull form. This is a displacement hull form apparently defying the old rule that a hull is limited to a maximum speed of 1.34 x sqrt LWL. It proves that long, narrow hulls can comfortably exceed that artificial limit and is, in fact, moving at 2.55 x sqrt LWL. Aside from the sheer thrill of moving that fast on the water under sail alone, it is food for thought for monohull day- and weekend-cruisers: If you can travel at approximately twice the speed of your monohull cruiser, the territory that is open to you for a day cruise or a weekend with the family effectively quadruples.

The second thing to be taken from that video is one of my pet peeves about cat hull forms – the desire to squeeze every possible inch out of the waterline length by making the bows plumb. This allows the spray created by the leading edge of the bow to have no impediment to blowing up and over the bow, making the boat wet. If styling permitted a raked bow with the beam of the deck carried a bit farther forward, the hull shape would intercept the bow spray and knock it back down, keeping the decks much drier. However, this would be at the cost of maybe a tenth of a knot of potential boat speed and would fly in the face of what cats are “supposed” to look like. Once again, aesthetics wins over common sense, IMHO.

[kenjamin]

mmd,

You've got to have that spray bursting up and in your face for the sensation of speed. If it were too dry, it might be too boring. It's like with Mazda Miatas. The newest generation Miata, the MX-5, is so much smoother and more comfortable than the older cars that you have to go a lot faster to get that same sensation of speed. I don't know this to be true (yet) but I suspect that the authorities don't care one bit about what your car is capable of, they're only interested in how much over the speed limit you are.

Thanks for the Tennant link. Those are some very nice looking cats there. Some of them actually have nice bows. I especially like the Turbo 6. It sure looks like a nice looking cat to me.

http://ford.physics.fsu.edu/Turbo6.jpg

[mmd]

Tennant's "Wild Thing" trimiran is probably the most attractive mid-sized multihull I have ever seen.

[kenjamin]

If you buy one and need crew in Florida, please give me a call.:cool:

http://ford.physics.fsu.edu/Wildthing.jpg

[Thermo]

It sure is pretty and all, but where would you set up the portable charcoal grill? :D :D :D

[mmd]

Outboard of the semi-circular sheet car track on the port side, opposite the outboard motor. But why would you want to mess up the lines of this beauty?

http://www.tennantdesign.co.nz/uploads/images/Wildthing/wildthing3.jpg

[kenjamin]

In answer to your question, mmd, ...Grilled fresh grouper with lettuce, garden ripe tomatoes, grape seed mayo on toasted french bread. Can't those grills be easily removed and stored? (A man's gotta eat, no matter what his boat looks like!:D)

[Dan St Gean]

In answer to your question, mmd, ...Grilled fresh grouper with lettuce, garden ripe tomatoes, grape seed mayo on toasted french bread. Can't those grills be easily removed and stored? (A man's gotta eat, no matter what his boat looks like!:D)

No different than your ride in that respect. Everyone must eat, but the SS grille hanging off the stern is a visual impediment on most boats save dedicated cruisers with tons of stuff all over anyhow.

Like some others on the list, I happen to love cats--as long as the bridgedeck clearance is sufficient for the conditions. Most cruisers have nowhere near the SA/D #'s that beachcats do, and for that matter it seems that smaller inshore cruisers like Ray's Slider are all the better for sticking with a more sane ratio.

I'd like to do a bigger version of Ray's Slider, but keep the width trailerable and the SA conservative. I imagine Mike Lenniman's Beachcat 22 up my alley.

Dan

[bucheron]

I'd agree that this is true of beach cats-- but beach cats are not the only choice available in tiny catamarans.

Here is another example.

http://woboq.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/W_036cs.jpg


This small catamaran was designed and built by its owner, I have referred to it as a picnic cat and he hasn't told me to stop. It is easily trailed, launched, sailed and recovered. We don't know how it would handle heavy weather, but it was not intended for that, and the builder is a prudent sailor. It is wonderful for enjoying a great day on the water, The deck has good storage pockets on all sides for the comforts we like. It is a great camera platform.


. . . . .the ubiquity of beach cats has something to do with that mind set.
Of course stability goes up exponentially with size, so the bigger the better for offshore work. For coastal passages in settled weather, a tiny cat can be safe enough.

That ubiquity can work in favour of homebuilders. Ron bought an old neglected beach cat which provided a lot of the trailer, spars, sails and rigging.

I like the rig of the slidercat. Another assumption of the beach cat mindset is that the sail must have a huge roach and therefore full-length battens. They almost never have luff slides, such as Ron has installed.

If caught at sea by heavy weather, the slider's sprit rig suggests to me, it would be possible to lower sails and mast, and lie to a sea-anchor.

cheers

[kengrome]

If caught at sea by heavy weather, the slider's sprit rig suggests to me, it would be possible to lower sails and mast, and lie to a sea-anchor.I agree. In fact I think most small boats can deal safely with breaking waves by using a sea anchor -- if they deploy it before they capsize or roll.

[brian.cunningham]

Here's my toy that I'm, slowly building:

http://members.aol.com/swiftwood/swiftwood.jpg
http://members.aol.com/swiftwood/3_hulls_6.jpg
More progress this week
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff87/swiftwood/08-28-08_1534.jpg