Keeping our Multihulls shiny side Up!

[he b gb]

Good find jmh, I’d forgotten about the Rose Noelle when 2flit asked the question in his last post. There have been a couple of books written about their experience, both well worth reading for anyone considering going cruising on a multihull.
I’ve been scratching my head trying to remember any 40’+ cruising tri’s that have capsized, it really isn’t a common occurrence. They certainly seem to have a better record than cats.
No problem coming up with capsizes of racing tri’s though including one that I designed and built called Lukim Yu . Wasn’t on board but was close by on my cat and came to the rescue. It didn’t happen when racing but shortly after a race with an unexperienced crew at the helm.

 

[SeaGul]

When comfort and space are the top priorities - a cat will do it... if sailing fast is no 1 - its a tri... then people want to sail faster but still have comfort and space.... ok the get a light fast cat - with less space - but it goes faster - but as the stability-curves show - harder to sail on the edge than a tri. The tris havent been developed much for the bigger boats - but now you have a new DFand the Rapidos. Compare an ORC50 to a Rapido 50 - same weight almost - the ORC has more sail - but the Rapido is 2m wider and have superior stability. Add that it also is easier to push. Interior - the ORC50 has a slight advantage - but then the R50 can fold to 5,5m in port. And is -200T$ cheaper? Comfort - at anchor or sailed as a cruiser - the ORC50 I would think. Looking at DF40 to R40; the hottest DF is pretty hot - light with big sails - think its a fast boat.

 

[mightyhartley]

There was the ~40ft cruising cat Tusk which capsized off the Qld coast back in the 90s. Can't recall the circumstances though...

 

[he b gb]

There was the ~40ft cruising cat Tusk which capsized off the Qld coast back in the 90s. Can't recall the circumstances though...

A bit off topic but a good story anyway.
Tusk capsized during the 1993 Brisbane to Gladstone race. I know this as it was the first B2G race that I completed in and I was protested on (and disqualified) for going to Tusks aid.
Tusks skipper (well known multihull sailmaker Gary Martin) was sailing his boat vey shy to get around one of the marks of the course with spinnaker up in Moreton Bay in a good 25kts of breeze. He capsized and drifted just inside the mark where we went to his aid. We rejoined the race without going back around the mark, the reason we were dis qualified.
The wind increased that night to 45 kts and was a long scary night, we throttled back heaps and made it to Gladstone the right way up. XL2 (which is now Pil 66’s boat) went on to win line honours, Omr and phs and broke the race record in around 21 hours. Pretty amazing for a 37’ cat in a 307nm race.
Photo(posted before on other threads but a good photo anyway)

of my cat Nusa Dua during the race before the wind nearly doubled. Somehow we made it onto the cover of Cruising Helmsman mag not what I would call a cruise?

 

[PIL66 - XL2]

A bit off topic but a good story anyway.
Tusk capsized during the 1993 Brisbane to Gladstone race. I know this as it was the first B2G race that I completed in and I was protested on (and disqualified) for going to Tusks aid.
Tusks skipper (well known multihull sailmaker Gary Martin) was sailing his boat vey shy to get around one of the marks of the course with spinnaker up in Moreton Bay in a good 25kts of breeze. He capsized and drifted just inside the mark where we went to his aid. We rejoined the race without going back around the mark, the reason we were dis qualified.
The wind increased that night to 45 kts and was a long scary night, we throttled back heaps and made it to Gladstone the right way up. XL2 (which is now Pil 66’s boat) went on to win line honours, Omr and phs and broke the race record in around 21 hours. Pretty amazing for a 37’ cat in a 307nm race.
Photo(posted before on other threads but a good photo anyway) View attachment 582060 View attachment 582062 of my cat Nusa Dua during the race before the wind nearly doubled. Somehow we made it onto the cover of Cruising Helmsman mag not what I would call a cruise?

That series of pics or Nusa Dua from the chopper or plane are all time.....
Here's a tri nearly pitch polling
Hutcho's Egan designed Voodoo

 

[he b gb]

That series of pics or Nusa Dua from the chopper or plane are all time.....
Here's a tri nearly pitch polling
Hutcho's Egan designed Voodoo

Brendan flappers Egan the designer of Voodoo Spirit was a permanent crew member on XL2, pretty sure he was on board when they broke the B2G record.

 

[PIL66 - XL2]

Brendan flappers Egan the designer of Voodoo Spirit was a permanent crew member on XL2, pretty sure he was on board when they broke the B2G record.

Yes and a lovely guy as well

 

[PIL66 - XL2]

Turbo multihulls: a new generation of performance cruiser - Yachting World

A new breed of luxury fast multihulls are seducing wealthy sailors with a need for speed, Sam Fortescue reports on the rise and rise of this latest breed

www.yachtingworld.com

 

[martin 'hoff]

That series of pics or Nusa Dua from the chopper or plane are all time.....
Here's a tri nearly pitch polling
Hutcho's Egan designed Voodoo

So coming from the perspective sailing a very pitchpoley small cat (Nacra 15 with C foils), what's striking in that video is that the mainsail is wide open. Top of square-top mains is wide open, "barndooring", that drives the bow down.

From a N15/F16/F18 practice, you'd ease main or traveler during the bearaway (to allow the bearaway to happen, otherwise the mainsail prevents it), but trim back hard in haste. Ideally the bearaway accelerated the boat – thanks to the speed you didn't pitchpole and you can trim mainsail hard in, close up the leach (ie: ease cunningham). That'll keep you alive and ready for the hoist.

 

[boardhead]

Tusks skipper (well known multihull sailmaker Gary Martin) was sailing his boat vey shy to get around one of the marks of the course with spinnaker up in Moreton Bay in a good 25kts of breeze. He capsized and drifted just inside the mark where we went to his aid.

The 40' Antrim tri Zephyr capsized in exactly the same way, trying to lift around the leeward end of the finish line while shy reaching under spinnaker in an Unlimited Regatta in Newport RI with a professional monohull pro at the helm. An F31 rolled over in the same event - shocking for NEMA as this kind of incident had not happened before except for several RC 27's and an F27 some years prior.
An emergency meeting was convened a couple weeks later to discuss what went wrong with questions directed at a pretty experienced offshore racers including Walter Greene, Phil Steggall and the pro sailing Zephyr who had five Whitbread's under his belt and was aboard Playstation when she set the W-E Transat record.
The bottom line was that you had better pay attention when pushing the envelope racing! Having sailed on both the capsized trimarans my feeling is they both lacked diagonal stability - both stuffed the bow and cartwheeled - which was further demonstrated to me the next day when we righted Zephyr.
Some of the stability calculations and windspeed limitations being discussed on current threads are simple beam wind sailover in flat water issues but there is a LOT more than that that to be considered.
Such data is probably of some use for a high stability/displacement cruiser but for anybody pushing a fast boat offshore, experience gained on a small cat or tri actually dumping the boat in different scenarios or even observing scale models overwhelmed is invaluable.

 

[martin 'hoff]

experience gained on a small cat or tri actually dumping the boat

Yeah I've sailed all my life, and yet the skills involved keeping a small powered up cat upright in a dicey downwind are just different.

Or. Go pitchpole an F16 a bunch of times until you can do a bear away in chop in a blow. Not that I have it dialed in. Lol.

 

[boardhead]

Yep - big movable weight component!

 

[Dogfish]

I am with you Boardhead, it's the diagonal stability that catches you out, if the bow cannot recover or on some tri's the beam gets immersed the rotation caused can be rapid. On some designs I suspect once beyond a certain point it's all over whatever you do.

 

[he b gb]

I am with you Boardhead, it's the diagonal stability that catches you out, if the bow cannot recover or on some tri's the beam gets immersed the rotation caused can be rapid. On some designs I suspect once beyond a certain point it's all over whatever you do.

When my mate flipped Lukim Yu his main comment was that it happened so fast, didn’t help having a totally novice crew member on the helm. The skipper had just cleated of the spin sheet to climb up to check out if the mast was in column and before he knew it they were on their way to a capsize. Both boats had just finished the Bay to Bay yacht race and the Lukim crew were relaxed and might have been (ie.were) partaking in a Bourbon to unwind after the race. Now I’m pretty sure that the Bourbon was the main cause of the capsize, if they’d been drinking rum (a true sailors beverage) I’m sure they wouldn’t have flipped!
There will always be capsizes of light powered up racing multis, even the most experienced sailors get caught out now and again. I’ve personally seen 4 capsizes happening in races I’ve been participating in (plus seeing Lukim go over) and I’m not talking about beach cats. I’ve come very close twice whiLe crewing on friends tris. One of the positives about all this is that it’s a great education for anyone thinking of going cruising on multihulls.

That series of pics or Nusa Dua from the chopper or plane are all time.....
Here's a tri nearly pitch polling
Hutcho's Egan designed Voodoo

Hey Pil, have you seen this one, Nusa Dua about to drop into the trough.

 

[martin 'hoff]

Yep - big movable weight component!

Yeah I get it, that bit doesn't translate to a bigger boat. But the handling of mainsail - sheet, trav, cunno - and the timing of it is quite a thing, and it applies in bigger boats.

 

[Dogfish]

Just watched some footage of a HH cat flying a hull at the BVI regatta on Multhull Scene facebook page. Just wondering what people think, showboating or fast ?

 

[jmh2002]

Fast of course, and they took Line Honours on Day 1 'with the fastest elapsed time overall in the round-Tortola race.'

But the boat is designed for it, and in fact I think that HH66 is turbo'd for racing with bigger boards, t-foil rudders, and I guess a bigger rig too.

Some more of that boat on Instagram:

HH Catamarans

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Nemo HH66

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[jmh2002]

Here she is on her way from Florida to Sint Maarten in January.

1300nm in just over 4 days, so 300+ miles per day (mostly upwind). Looks wet!

 

[PIL66 - XL2]

That is awesome.... great to see them push it..... it was built to do it

 

[2flit]

Unless I missed it.... No one here has heard of a well reefed 40+ foot cruising Trimaran turning over?
Ours is a stretched Farrier F36 which is 40 feet on deck and our most aggressive conditions have occurred on a passage from Tonga to New Zealand in steady 40 knots gusting over 65 kn winds and fairly consistent 20 foot breaking seas and mostly boat speed around 8-9kn to windward. And also in the Tasman in similar conditions but much smaller waves and lower gusts with boat speeds 10- 15 kn
In these condition... our boat was very fun to sail (big smiles all around while doublehanding) and appeared to be completely in control and well below what I would perceive as a safety margin... but I am relatively inexperienced and may not recognize impending doom.

My tentative take-away... is that conservatively sailed cruising Tri's are hardly (if ever) turning over?