Prout or Trintella

[bg9208]

All my previous cruising has been in monohulls but next year we are proposing buying a boat to liveaboard, sail down to the Med for a few years and then, possibly bimble across the Indian Ocean to India and Sri lanka. As we would like to take as many important bits of our present life as is practical, we are likely to farily well loaded at the very start and for the bluewater bit loaded with provisions and fuel, all kept as low as possible. Now I like the Snowgoose but 'her indoors' thinks Cats are ugly however I think I can probably address that challenge but my own concern, due to lack of firsthand knowledge is the frequent reference to degradation of performance of Cats when overloaded. What I must ask is 1) just how much is weight is needed to 'overload' a Snowgoose 2) Just how much effect on performance and stability would 'overloading' cause 3)Is the Snowgoose right for the task 4) What effect to windward ability and handling/manoverability, or should I stick with monohull.
Bear in mind that I'm not interested in racing just to go fast enough to get out of trouble.
TIA

Brian Owen
www.leschenauds.com

[eleven]

There's been alot recently on the 'cruisersforum' about cats load capability. All say performance suffers markedly with weight compared to mono's. Wetted area and slim hulls sink deeper faster with added weight.
My choise, when I get started, is trips of more than two weeks take a water maker rather than water, add rain collecting if suitable, take lots of empty plastic gerry cans which are dinghy friendly and fill a few with known clean diesel in case you pick up poor quality fuel, some with rain water for washing/cooking. Consider an extra tank for rain water if you have time to plan ahead. And stock your dinghy like a life raft. it should be the permanent home for handheld-nav+coms/watermaker/solar panel/fishing gear/dryfood then if you do bale out you will survive. Tie the life raft to it too, and all to the cat with a weak link. Standard stuff but it gets forgotten. I wish i could get past the planning stage.

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Determined Prospective Sailor. House sale delays boat purchase. Experience needed - cheap crew.