Sailing a Cat

I have sailed and raced cats since the mid -seventies starting with a Hobbie 16 and I have found them to be great boats.  However, if you have never sailed on a cat before, there are a few tips that you need to know.

Tacking.

This is probably the trickiest compared to monohulls. Cats do not have the inertia of a full displacement hull and stall easily. With a cruising cat you want to fall off a bit in order to get speed and drive the boat through the wind. Let go of the old jib sheet as soon as the jib luffs and start trimming gently on the other tack. The idea is to get powered again on the other tack and then head up. If you get stuck in irons you can backwind the jib with the helm hard to the other side, i.e. to starboard if you want to tack to port, in order to get the bow over.  Once this is done, in reverse, let go of the old jib sheet and trim gently the new one while falling off on the new tack.  If this fails... start the engines.

On most cats the jib is 120% and the lines tend to get caught in the mast gear, so make sure your lines are clear before you tack.

Gybing.

When gybing I recommend to sheet in the main and center the traveler prior to the gybe and then ease them back out. Gybes are usually done from broad reach to broad reach since cats don't perform that well dead down wind.

Sailing Angles.

Cruising cats sail best off the wind, 50 degrees upwind to150 degrees downwind.  If your cruising plans call for a long downwind leg you would be better off sailing fast at 120 and gybing on a new tack. Speed is key to comfort and enjoyment of a cruising cat as it gets more stable and punches through the waves at higher speeds.  If you have to head upwind...start your engines.

Speed and Reefing.

On a large cruising cat you can expect to sail at about half the true wind speed.  Most of the power is generated by the main and the jib is used more as a foil to properly direct air flow to the main.  Since the boat does not heel and has little weather helm it is sometimes hard to judge when to reef. Let me say first that modern cruising cats are very stable and unlikely to capsize in normal conditions and that you could probably keep all the canvas out until winds reach 40kts or 50kts  but you would be in for a wild ride..... As a rule of thumb, in order to keep things under control, I would put the 1st reef in the main at 25kts and the 2nd at 30kts and would head for the marina at 35kts. Mama Cocha fastest angle is at 100 degrees to true wind where you can expect 60-70% of true wind speed.

A few years ago my brother, Eric, was sailing a 35' Foutaine Pajot  in 30kts downwind. As the wind kept on building up he decided that it might be time to reef the main and started to head up with full canvas.....that's when the big cat decided it could be a Hobbie and went up on 1 hull....Eric had the scare of his life and learned 2 lessons.

If you are thinking that you should reef  it is probably 10 minutes too late.

Don't forget that when you head up the apparent wind will increase and the boat will accelerate so depower the main while you're doing it.

DOCKING

They are wide and big and have a lot of windage but they also have 2 engines which makes maneuvering a snap. Always go very slow and use the engines to your advantage. Try to be docking with the bow into the wind and use the seaward engine in reverse to bring the boat closer to the dock once you have secure a forward bow line. Don't be afraid to practice at sea prior to your first docking or mooring.

In tight anchorages or marinas it is best to lock the helm and do your approach slowly in reverse, maneuvering with the engines only as they will be pulling the boat instead of pushing and will afford you better angles.

ON THE HOOK

Use the bow bridle at anchor or while moored for a perfect setting. In the BVIS there are only a few places where you actually use the anchor and in most conditions a scope of 5 to 1 is more than enough. We always raise the dinghy on the davits while sailing (for speed) and at anchor for security and noise. In the BVIs the security is not an issue so you may elect to leave the dinghy on the painter. If you find the lapping noise bothering you may want to attach the dinghy stern to and that should take care of it.

We have found that with the engine driven refrigeration we need to run both engine at 1500 rpm for only about 45 minutes twice a day to keep things cold and batteries topped off. Since we do not like to run the engine at sunset, which ruins the otherwise perfect happy hour setting, or in the morning while we are often nursing the side effects of the perfect happy hour....we always start the refrigeration system as soon as the engines are running for maneuvering on approach or departure.