TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Sailing a heavy cruising cat to weather

I'm certainly no expert, but I thought I'd pass on a few recent realizations regarding getting a cruising cat upwind.

Over the years, I had come to the conclusion that upwind sailing generally isn't worth it... adopting kind of a "gentlemen don't sail to weather" attitude.

Recently, I had guests on board that were small boat sailors and interested in learning, so we had a sail tacking upwind from Norman Island to Cooper Island.
I had a guest at the helm while I handled the sails and gave instructions. I was really surprised how much I learned in the process, here are some of my conclusions - dissent welcome. This is obviously somewhat specific to the type of boat we were on ( Leopard 42 ) and the conditions ( 16-18 kts with occasional gusts into the low 20s ).

* Close-hauled courses need to be hand steered. These cats don't point well and just don't have the performance margin for a compass course. All opportunities to gain height must be exploited.

* If the telltales are flying, you are probably not pointing high enough. The headsail has to be on the verge of shiver.

* Trim the genoa fairly close, but not overly flat. Then sail by SOG. Every wind increase must be turned into height, not speed. Settle on a SOG ( like 6 kts. ) and try to keep the boat there. If you're accelerating, you missed an opportunity to come up. Puffs must be watched for and anticipated. Fall off in lulls just enough to preserve boat speed.

I'm pleased that the L42 has much better helm feel, less weather helm and overall seems to be a better sailing boat than the outgoing L40.

LIO KAI is now listed on the Moorings brokerage site, MANTA was just offloaded in Tortola and is at the Moorings dock awaiting comissioning and paperwork. We are very excited for the next 5 years.

I made the same experience on a Bali Catspace this year

I agree, EZ. I can get our boat (Leopard 50) pointing upwind at about 45 degrees in those wind conditions. I also try to give the main sail a bit more shape and power by setting the traveller way to windward and letting out the main sheet a bit so the boom can lift freely. Congrats on your new boat!

I am going to be the contrarian in the group. Off course how you go to windward in a cruising cat varies quite a bit with both wind and sea state. In the normal trade winds around 15 knots I will bring the jib car all the way back and sheet the jib in hard. The same for the main as we will be seeing close to 20 knots apparent. I want flat sails at 20 knots. I also fall off best upwind angle a few degrees and go for extra speed especially if the sea state is a bit rough. In lighter winds I will go for a bit more draft in the sails. The SFD has constantly shifting winds so I switch the autopilot to wind vane and let it handle the course once I get tired of steering. 45 degrees apparent is about the practical max on most condo cats. The Voyage 440 could get to 38 but had half the interior space of a modern 45. It sure sailed well however. We once knocked off 750 nautical miles in 3 days on an ocean transit.

Thanks George, I don't disagree and I'm just re-discovering the fun of sailing upwind courses and still learning what works best.

We just completed another circuit of Tortola entirely under sail (though I did have to motor a few hundred feet through West End, mostly due to lack of patience).

I really think the 42 is a big improvement over the 40. I do remember the 50 sailed at least as well on the one 3-week trip where we were on one.

I just spent one night at the dock on a 42. The owners cabin sure was nice!