T&T: Catamaran vs monohull

[Richard P Blake]

Well,  I have been watching this thread for some time and decided to add
my $.02 as the last boat I sold was a 34' 79 Mainship I which I owned for
5 years for a 1988 36' Mainship Nantucket Sedan and also own a 41'
Kevlacat 4100 Ocean Treck Cat from Australia. 

The 79 Mainship I is a great inland cruiser for seas 3' or less.  It
performs right on the edge of real scarry on anyhting over 4' seas.  It
has a very high tendency to bow stear at anything over 12 to 14 knts. in
a following sea.  Once going onto South Seas Plantation via Redfish Pass
a stern wave picked up the stern the bow went to port aimed directly at a
stone jetty whille I had the wheel hard to starboard lock and the hull on
a 45 degree heal.  The only thing that keep me in the helm chair was the
fact that a certain part of my anatomy had sucked up a yard or two of
vinyl attached to the chair.  This boat is a round chine hull derived
form a hunter sail boat hull by Charubini.  Itr will acheive exceptional
fuel economy but will rock and roll in anything but a flat sea.  With all
its faults it was a great boat and I had many a great day crusing the
west coast of florida on her.

The 1988 Mainship Nantucket is a great step up from the Mainship I.  It
is a planing hard chine hull.  It is heavy glass with no hull coreing. 
She is stable in all sea conditions and run very economically at 16 Knts
with twin 200 Hp diesels.  With two staterooms and a large salon it is
very comfortable for long trips.  I have had this boat in 8 to 10 foot
seas off the Florida Keys fishing and felt completly safe.  It is the
best Mono Hull boat I have every owned.  It is a shane that Mainship only
made a gas version of tis boat.  My boat was converted to diesel in 1998
3 years before I bought it.  Being twins it provides excelent control and
is a very stable boat for coastal crusing.

The Kevlacat Ocean Treck 4100 is a awsome boat it is made of "KEVLAR" and
has three large double staterooms two with ensuite heads with separate
showers.  The salon is extreamly large as is the aft cockpit.  The 20'
beam eliminates any concerns with trainsent docking.  Fuel economy is OK
I went 1200 miles from St Petersburg, FL to the Outer Banks in NC on 998
gallons of diesel at 10 Knts.  Several times we were in heavy sea
conditions.  On the trip across Lake Okachobee we were hit by a large
storm with 50 knt winds and 8' seaas in 12' of water.  It was real scary
but the boat handeled it fine. Several mono hulls turned around only to
get the crap kicked out of them.  This boat was designed in Austraila as
a fast ferry of which 5 were manufactured 3 were made as Sport fish
models one of which was sent to the US.  This boat is amazing as to its
interior space and handeling.  As far as performance it handels like a
21' center console with twin 150 outboards.  This boat is quite fast yet
it can run at economical hull speed for slow crusing.  As for looks its
profile is more like the conventional SF nono hull boat.  The only
negative is the ocasional cat sneeze and shutter of the wing deck with
that said it handeles better than any boat I have ever owned.  

Regards, Richard Blake
Kevlacat Ocean Treck 4100
For Sale Spring 2008
SharkByte2 at juno.com