Following on from an article on multihulls in Yachting World, Daz writes about that much bandied and abused term, ‘performance,’ giving his take on what makes a performance catamaran. He should know, he’s built a few. Number one in a series of Daz Rants - reader response at the foot of the page.

What’s in a word?

That word is performance. I remember a discussion between Richard Woods, John Shuttleworth and James Wharram about this very subject in Multihull International magazine nearly 20 years ago and find it amazing that, to this day, there is still no system to establish whether it is or isn’t a performance boat, and what that means. And if it isn’t, does the boat have other benefits that are just as good, like commodious living space, practicality, low build and running costs, high environmental standards etc?

I have been struggling with this in the way multihulls are marketed (“The boat has great performance.” Compared to what?). Are people being misled or are they simply ignorant? Do people simply lie to themselves? How do people really view performance and what makes them choose sales speak over reality?

I think what’s needed is a clear set of terms that relates to the facts so a clear message can be given to the client. But how can this be achieved, as most people want it all squeezed into their catamaran. But how can you have everything on board and expect the boat to perform well as a sailing boat? I think there’s a challenge to find a way to create a set of terms that frankly does not mislead people.

So let’s look at marketing speak and the use of the terms carbon Kevlar and Twaron. What exactly do they mean? How much carbon? What resin system is used? How is it processed during the build? Just because it’s infused it does not always follow that it is lighter, though environmentally it can be very good, as can the build quality be if it is done well. Just because you put a patch of either of these material in a boat does not make it a performance boat, and it doesn’t necessarily make it lighter, so why would you associate the word performance with it? Actually you can make a very light boat in plywood just as easily if you wanted to.

So where do we start? What are the highest performance boats on the water? I guess an America’s Cup 45 would be a good start but we don’t sail our cruising cats on one hull - well not very often - we don’t use solid wings yet and we don’t have an AC budget either; well, most of us don’t. In the UK the closest thing we have is our MOCRA rating system which, though not perfect, gives a pretty good indication, but does not take hull forms into account, which is crucial to the word performance - how can you have great big fat hulls with walk-round beds and expect your boat to sail well?

At Dazcat, when designing a cat we have a set of targets to hit, depending on the user requirements. Often these requirements contradict each other and it is the job of the designer to find a way around an impasse, or get the user requirement changed, or simply and clearly say NO IT’S NOT POSSIBLE.

I think what is going wrong is that clients all want too much from less, when the old adage is less is more; if it has it all or simply looks too full in the plan it simply can not be a performance boat. And if that is what the client wants you have to clarify, what do you want? A floating hotel room? Do you want a performance cat that is exciting to sail? Can you have both? Yes maybe, with loads of cash, but there always have to be compromises.

To destroy a catamaran’s performance by turning it into a hotel room is self-defeating, unless you don’t care about performance; in which case why market it that way as you are lying and misleading the client and s/he will be bitterly disappointed with the new boat, and the designer will not have done their job well. But as there is no stake in the ground to show what performance really represents or compares to, it is difficult for the client to have any right of redress.

If we were to get a group of designers together with a group of owners how would they answer this conundrum? Would they compare the cat to a monohull, in which case which monohull and why? Does it have any bearing at all? Surely then they have missed the point of why we love to sail cats, whether they perform or not. Would they class a boat by its length or by its volume Would they compare by power to weight ratio? Would they look at the waterline beam ratio? The displacement to sail areas? Righting moments - just because it’s more stable does it make the boat faster? Number of beds? Method of fit out?

Why does a boat get heavier and who is to blame? Is it the client’s fault for demanding more and more kit or is it the marketer’s fault for selling them the stuff in the first place? What is the true weight of a boat? Are the tanks empty or full, or half full or half empty? Do they have all the safety kit on board and what is the weight of this?

Another consideration - so now you have everything, suddenly you are over the published displacement, are you putting yourself in danger? Is the warranty invoked if it goes over the designed weight? Do you care? Would you buy the boat if the salesman actually stated “It sails like a dog but it’s got lots of space”? I doubt it. 

I guess that’s why we race our boats; to prove our boats perform well. So we sail in extreme conditions to see if they break, and continually develop our boats on the basis of this experience. Does this make for the best performance? Maybe, but there is always someone that wants to go faster.

Everyone has different budgets. They buy new or secondhand, they have good sails or bad. You could own the fastest boat but fill it with junk and it wont be fast any more. Some people live on them and go nowhere so does it matter? It does to us, as we go sailing to sail and like sailing fast, though I accept there is no reason to really.

What are your views? Here are mine below.

Dazcat design rules for a boat that might be able to use the word performance:

1. •Hull waterline beam length ratio - keep it skinny. 12-1 is my favourite. V entry U section, flat at the back.
   

2. •Hull flare, yes I like it, it keeps the waterline skinny, breaks up that godawful slab look of mainstream production cats; but keep it high or you’ll never sleep due to the slapping noise.
   

3. •Rocker line - very tricky question but if it looks right it generally is. Transom immersion is good but better to start without so you can load up for a long voyage.
   

4. •Boards or keels boards are best if you race; you tack faster, point higher, you can go into shallower water. Downsides, it makes the boat much more expensive and you have to resolve what to do with the rudders; whether to sit the boat on them or pull them up when drying out. They are more vulnerable and take maintenance but if you race I’d have them.
   

5. •For cruising I would choose beach cat style skegs, with or without a canard board as they offer lots of benefits for the ocean cruiser. They give better protection under the hull and they help keep the boat running straight in big seas preventing yawing and broaching, which can happen with both boards and bilge keels.
   

6. •I don’t like bilge keels as these add displacement exactly where you don’t want it - creating buoyancy effectively in the centre of the boat - increasing pitching and slowing the boat down. So, not for me but it’s the norm for most production boats today.
   

7. •Construction - this is a big subject. Ultimately you are looking for lightness, not marketing speak, so compare weights. For a production forty footer these range between 4-12 tonnes, and for a 55 footer between 8-22, so it’s easy to spot which is a sailing boat and which ones are a floating holiday home, or somewhere in between. But, I hear you asking, will it be strong enough? I believe boats break because they get too heavy, which increases the loadings dramatically. So the lighter the boat the more reliable and better it will be. The other great thing about a light boat is you can have a smaller rig to power it, making it more manageable and less costly when it comes to sails and rigging servicing. To put a big rig on a heavy fat hulled boat doesn’t work - it increases loads to the point where you can only achieve diminishing returns to the point where something breaks.
   

8. •Fit out linings are heavy; there’s a balance to find here between finishes. The less the lighter, but we are coming to expect better finishes on our boats today and lining can cover a multitude of sins within most production boats, as well as give you a perceived image of quality, so watch out. I prefer the naked finish but it’s more expensive and might not be what you want but. There’s a balance between creating a comfortable but light and practical solution which can please all. I guess the rule is, if it looks like a house it probably sails like one.
   

9. •Systems - the less the better. This is the biggest killer of any boat, mono or multihull, so stop spending your money on them and buy a better, longer boat and keep it simple.
   

10. •Air con. My god this is a no no in my book. Buy a fan, it works much better and if you have to get one get a mobile unit as you only need it in harbour anyway. That way you can leave it behind, preferably at your nearest skip - sorry, WEEE collection point.
    

11. •Washing machine. Come on, just vac-pack some extra silk sheets. You can afford them now as you haven’t spent all your cash fitting a massive generator and water maker and capacious tanks to your boat, thus destroying any hope of ever sailing fast. It’s simple to get them picked up in harbour by a cleaning service, use the laundry in the marina, or wash them in the sink. You have plenty of time and it stops you getting bored.
    

12. •Stowage. It always gets filled up with stuff you don’t need or never take off the boat. Design in only what you need. Zip bag systems are good for clothing; just unclip to take home and it stops your clothes from getting damp and musty in a poky locker.
    

13. •Keep the weight out of the ends of the boat by centralising as much as possible. Don’t fit your 40kg anchor on the bow - that’s madness. If you have one then throw yourself in the tide with the anchor attached.
    

The biggest reason to keep it simple? Servicing, maintenance and constant repair costs and the hassle of fixing it; if you haven’t got it, it won’t break, allowing you to relax and enjoy yourself more. Sit back and sip your G&T; with ice from a small freezer, as I accept there are some things that are needed. Not only will you be smiling, your wallet won’t lose a fortune trying to get the stuff fixed. Best of all, the stuff you don’t need that you haven’t got weighs nothing.

Historically some of the most voyaged catamarans are James Wharram designs. Though not every man wants to get naked and sail with lots of girls - hang on what am I saying - he keeps it simple and has certainly inspired that within our own designs, by designing from both a sailor’s and a boat builder’s approach, rather than commercially for the charter market. The production builder could learn a thing or two from James and Hanneke’s philosophy this means keep it SIMPLE and keep it light.

Whatever your boat, whether it performs or not, as long as you have fun what the hell does it matter anyway. We all have different ideas and different boats and budgets and my aim here was simply to make us all think about it by sharing the first edition of Daz Rant.

Happy sailing. See you there. Last one buys the drinks.

Daz

Response from Keith MacDonald:

I enjoyed reading the [above] article and thought it well balanced and honest.

Personally, it think one of the root causes is that magazines (of all sorts) are increasingly recycling marketing material and press-releases from manufacturers and importers, with very little critical effort to convert marketing-hype into objective comparisons. Also, qualitative performance testing is more demanding and costly, especially if you're trying to do group tests comparing like-for-like, in similar-enough conditions.

I've noticed that even simple items that could be used as benchmarks are disappearing e.g. the polar performance diagrams that used to be in most sales brochures. It seems to be a cycle of "dumbing-down" content, presenting them as lifestyle accessories instead of appealing to readers' intelligence and explaining the marine engineering.

Some yacht reviews are so shallow it reminds me of Motorcycling Weekly in the 1970's, which was rightly ridiculed for their sycophantic reviews of crap British bikes, when they used coy phrases like "the controls fell readily to hand" - that would have been just before the bits dropped off and the bike leaked oil over everything.

Now that printed magazines are shrinking in content and circulation, maybe manufacturers like Dazcat should work to establish objective benchmarks?

Next issue of Daz Rant will be: to build yourself a boat or not?