</htm
| We looked a lot of boats. Went to boat shows and traveled from LA to San Francisco going aboard boat after boat. On one trip to San Diego we had just got back from looking at a Passport 47 and one of the brokers asked us how much were were willing to spend. He then suggested a Catana 431 - a catamaran! We politely suggested that we had never considered catamarans because of their ocean passage reputation. He countered and explained why Catana's were different. We listened and the arguments made sense, but neither of us had much catamaran experience. | |
|
A Catana 471 had just arrived from France, and the brokers were going to go out and check out the sails. They invited us aboard and then for a test sail. The wind was light on San Diego bay, but in 10 knots of wind we were sailing at 7 knots. And looking around at the amount of room that was available got me thinking. Still the only catamaran I have sailed were Hobie-cats. There was a big difference been a 16 foot Hobie and a 43 foot catamaran. |
 |
|
At the end of sail they gave us brochures to look at - and then suggested that we take a look at a 431 in Newport Beach. It was on the way back to Santa Barbara for us and David Renouf, the Catana Sales Rep would meet us there. |
|
| We check out the 431 in Newport Beach. K2 liked it a lot more then I did. It was spacious, well laid out etc. But there was something nagging me. Was it the fact that I had not sailed a large catamaran before? Or was it something else? |  |
| In a week or so David called us up and let us know that he was going to France in a couple of week, and would we like to meet him there to sail a Catana or two. | |
| So now was the time to find out. We were looking at other monohull and even other catamarans, but we would have no better chance to find out about Catanas then in France. So we booked tickets and even booked ticket to go to New Zealand to look at boats or even having one built. |  |
| We arrived in France and toured the factory. There were several different models either in construction or about to be launched. We went aboard a newly completed 401 "Rum Tum Tiger" and a 431 "Far Niente". There were no completed 471, but there was one on the factory floor about to have the interior finished. | |
| That afternoon we went sailing on a 431 - It was blowing like stink on a skunk. At the dock wind speeds were well above 20 knots. The captain, an very experienced Catana sailor, took the boat off the Mediterranean mooring with ease and we motored out of the harbor. |  |
| Once away from the protection of land we were seeing wind speeds in the low 30 to as high of 40 knots. They set one reef in the main and about a 100% jib. At first we skirted the near shore until David made the captain understand that we really wanted to see what it would to with lots of wind and waves. Away from the shore we went. I took the helm headed up wind. At times we would be beating to weather about 35 to 40 degrees apparent with 35 knots of wind and maintaining 6 to 7 knots of boat speed. While that is not particularly remarkable, the boat was more or less flat on the water. You could have, and we did set a cup of water on the salon table without spilling a drop. That was the amazing part. | |
| There was not healing and only moderate pitching. But not bad considering the steep choppy swells and waves that we were in. It was perfectly comfortable. This kind of wind with a monohull would have been a very wet ride as well as uncomfortable. We sailed around like this for nearly two hours. First up wind, then reaching and downwind. The boat did well on all points of sail. | |
| We we got back I was stunned. I felt as if I would have go out on a monohull just to remember what it was to sail a boat in those windy conditions. | |
