Captain Ron's

Sailing and Cruising Pages

Catamaran Cruiser vs. Monohull Cruiser

by Capt Ron

We are often asked why we went back to owning a monohull after having cruised a catamaran. The question is asked as if, once you get to the promised land why come back? ... ummm ... apples or oranges?

Anyway, I'll try to explain some of the rational that we went through when we decided to sell our Edel 35 Cat and buy the Ericson 38. Keep in mind that before the Edel Cat, we had owned a Tartan 34, a Stiletto 27 catamaran, a Kelly 24+2 and a Catalina 25. I have also raced an F28R trimaran for a couple of seasons. If you've read my profile you'll know that I've been messing about in boats my whole life ... in the 70s my wife and I were pretty good Windmill Class racers ... we've been good customers of West Marine for a long time.

After we cruised the Bahamas twice in our Edel 35 and decided that we wanted to do more extended cruising, we decided that we needed a bigger boat. While we really enjoyed the Edel 35, it just couldn't carry all the stuff we thought we needed to go cruising ... I guess that what it comes down to is, personal preferences for convenience. You only really need a certain level of seaworthiness, shelter from the elements, a little water, food, etc and you can go cruising. The rest of it involves the comforts of home that you want to take with you.

We really liked certain features of the Edel Cat. Her speed for one thing. As the wind comes up, she just went faster and faster. Oh she heeled a little as one hull became depressed and the other lifted a bit but we have carried full main and jib up to about 35 knots of wind on a close reach without lifting a hull clear of the water. Might have been close but we never flew the windward hull. The best boat speed we ever saw was about 13 knots, on a broad reach in about 30 knots of breeze with just main and jib. Typically we cruised at about 7 knots and speeds of 9 and 10 knots were quite common ... that's fast for cruising boats. For contrast, our Ericson 38 has seen 9 knots, surfing on a wave but only momentarily. Typically I plan our cruises at 5 knots.

I don't mean to imply that the Edel Cat is a faster boat. It's not. In order for the Edel to go 12 or 13 knots, conditions have to be perfect. She must have beam reaching winds of 20 knots or more and flat seas ... If we were to race the Edel and the Ericson boat -for-boat, in say, 10-12knots of wind with equal amounts of windward work and reaching, the Ericson will beat the Edel and it won't even be close. If the race were held in 25 knots of wind and was mainly reaching, the Edel would do the horizon job on the Ericson. This would be because the Ericson really goes well upwind. With it's big masthead genoa, it points high and goes fast. The Edel, with its short long keels, fractional rig and small jib, won't point unless the boat can get moving at 6.5 knots or better and even then, it won't tack through 100 degrees.

In cruising terms, both boats cover about the same territory in a day. Either way our typical cruising day is 40 or 50 miles and anchoring overnight. Both boats have logged 90+ miles sun-up to sun-down and we have run overnight and logged 140 mile days. Depending on the weather windows we typically chose, the Edel likely will arrive at the next anchorage a bit earlier and be able to anchor in closer to shore. We don't often choose to cruise to windward.

So here's a contrast in styles for you. The Edel is shallow draft (2.5 ft unloaded) and can't point. The Ericson's draft is twice that and can't get in some shallow anchorages. You pick. There are advantages to both. In the Bahamas for example, there are many nice shallow anchorages where if you draw 1 meter or less you can get in, but the anchorages where we go for the most part, have 8 to 10 ft of water and sometimes 15 or 20 feet so draft is really not an issue.

I would also caution you about the Edel's performance in racing trim versus performance in cruising trim. 1500lbs of cruising gear and supplies will lower the Edel a good 6 inches plus in the water. 2500 lbs of stuff on the Ericson raises her waterline an inch. The impact of this loading on performance is dramatic as well. The Edel goes from a sprightly, nimble, sailer to a slow, lugging, barge. The Ericson might be affected some but it's hard to tell. When we had the Edel, every decision about gear or supplies was governed by how much it weighed. We bought the lightest hard bottom dinghy we could find. We had a 3hp outboard because it weighed less. We bought solar panels based on output per pound rather than output per square inch ... (by the way, the Uni-solar flexible panels generate the most wattage per pound and also offer lower windage) ... the Edel only carried 60 gallons of water and 24 gallons of gasoline in 6 gallon portable outboard tanks. By contrast, Kismet carries a Carib 10.5 foot dinghy with 15hp Yamaha on davits, has a 120 watt solar panel, carries 60 gallons of diesel and 125 gallons of potable water plus two 5 gallon cans of dinghy fuel.

Under motor the Edel would do 7.5 knots, flat out with her Honda 25hp four stroke. The Ericson does about 6, typically, at cruising rpm. Interestingly fuel consumption is about the same, somewhat less than a gallon per hour, the Edel on gasoline and the Ericson on diesel.

One thing we've discovered in cruising is that we tend to motor-sail a lot. This was true for the Edel and the Ericson. While cruising on both boats, we run 12v electrical power deficits that have to be made up by running the engine. On the Edel we carried a small Honda genset but on the Ericson we run the main engine. Typically if we're going somewhere that day, it's no big deal, just motor-sail for a while. Also consider that while we're cruising, we run the autopilot, radar, refrigeration, instruments, computer, lights, etc which all demand power. If the sun isn't shining that means running the engine. In addition, it seems that no matter how well we plan, we seem to mostly follow the little pointy thingy on top of the mast. Often it's the wind that dies to something less than ideal and so we motor or motor-sail.

Motor-sailing was no big deal on either boat but the Edel suffered from minor drawbacks. In spite of the relatively quiet Honda 4 stroke outboard and the little Honda genset ... the noise is distracting. You can't talk over the engine noise. Also the Edel's outboard prop could ventilate in steep short chop. It didn't happen often but it would do it. While the diesel is noisy on the Ericson, it's quieter than the Honda was on the Edel Cat. We can at least hold a conversation in the cockpit.

Another drawback to motoring into the wind and seas on the Edel was slamming. Waves would hit the underside of the bridgedeck and it sounded like cannon fire. You thought the boat was coming apart... which it probably was, slowly. This is a problem with most cruising cats where bridgedeck clearance was compromised for saloon headroom.

Cruising comfort is another point worth mentioning. I'm right about 6ft tall ... probably shrunk a little in my old age ... but I did not have standing headroom on the Edel except under the bimini. The berths were also short. Must have been designed for a French man ... Louis the XIV perhaps ... On the plus side, the Edel hulls provided two separate and relatively private accommodations including a head and shower in each side. Another plus for the Edel is that it doesn't rock side to side much at anchor. It still pitches but it doesn't roll although I'm used to the motion of the Ericson so it doesn't bother me. The V-berth is comfortable on the Ericson too with plenty of room for two to roll around in. Another point about anchored comfort ... there have been times in the Ericson where the V-berth became uncomfortable because the wave action caused the boat to pitch considerably. In that case we move aft to the saloon settees which, being near the pitch axis are moving less. Anchored in the same place with Edel in those conditions would have been impossible because waves slamming into the bridgedeck would have been thunderous. Of course, you could argue that you wouldn't anchor there in the Edel since with it's shallower draft a calmer, more sheltered spot could have been found ... maybe, maybe not.

The Ericson also has a hot water tank . With the Ericson's inboard engine we can route coolant through the tank to heat up water. A hot shower at the end of a cold. wet day is wonderful. On the Edel we used sun-showers. We also have air conditioning on the Ericson, which is really nice when we have to tie up at a marina in the hot months.

Sailing comfort is an issue too. The Edel's motion is quicker and choppier...the Ericson more tilted and sedate. Both take getting used to if you're comfortable with the other. The Ericson also seems drier. We seldom get splashed in the Ericson cockpit where spray and waves were frequent on the Edel. While the Edel was built in France and sailed to the Caribbean for charter service on her own bottom, I'm not convinced that it's a good ocean going boat. The Ericson, with a few tweaks is solid enough for serious offshore work.

So Okay given all that ... what's the bottom line? We decided to sell the Edel Cat because we weren't able to carry all the stuff we wanted to carry on the boat. We wanted a bigger, faster dinghy for example, more water storage and more fuel. I wanted more headroom and offshore capability. The commodore wanted a better galley, and a bigger fridge. We weren't happy with the fact that performance suffered so much with the addition of cruising supplies and gear.

Then comes the buying part. Which boat to buy. All things considered, we would have liked a bigger catamaran. Something about 42 feet seemed about right to us in terms of cruising capability, load carrying, seaworthiness, etc but we simply couldn't afford one. Even used 40+ foot cats sell in the plus $200k range which was more than double what we thought we could afford. So we searched for what we could afford... a monohull in the 40ft class. We chose the Ericson for a lot of reasons not the least of which was price but sailing performance and seaworthiness were at the top of the list. We compromised on draft and the engine size; we would have preferred less draft and more engine but nearly everything else fit our desires and we're happy with our choice. If I won the lottery next week, I'd probably change boats again. Maybe an Outremer 50 would work ... dream on ...