fastest production monohull sailboat

What Are the Fastest Types of Sailboat (and Why)?

For most of us in our "normal" sailboats, we can get going "fast" on a good breezy day. Even a small day-sailer can give you a white-knuckled ride in the right conditions, and good racers in modest boats can put up double-digit speeds. Twelve knots can feel really fast when you're used to half that. But what does fast mean now, and what are the fastest types of sailboats? And what makes these speed demons fly?

The fastest types of sailboats are:

• Specialized performance boats : 65.45 knots
• Foiling multihulls : 44 knots
• Foiling monohulls : 50 knots
• Windsurfers & kiteboards : 50+ knots
• Racing skiffs :
• Performance multihulls : 20 knots
• Offshore racing monohulls : > 20 knots

As of this writing, the fastest sailboat in the world is a specialized boat called Vestas Sailrocket 2. In 2012 she recorded a sustained speed of 65.45 knots over a 500-meter course in a sanctioned speed record. Other fast sailboats include a variety of foiling monohulls and catamarans, kite surfers, windsurfers, and performance catamarans and trimarans.

Stick around, strap on your crash helmets, and come look into what causes ludicrous speed in today’s modern sailboats. First, we'll explore what makes sailboats fast or slow. Then, we'll explore the fastest sailboat types and their speeds (jump to the list ).

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What is "fast" for sailboats, what makes a sailboat...not fast, the fastest types of sailboats.

"I feel the need, the need for speed!" Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun

Fast is always relative. If you sail a small dinghy, the eight knots that has you white-knuckled and hiking hard barely pegs the fun-meter on a fifty footer racing sled.

But for "Fastest" there are absolutes. The World Sailing Speed Record council keeps records of various sorts as part of the World Sailing organization. They keep records for straight-line speed (500 meters, nautical mile) and many distance records from races and ocean crossings.

What makes up "fast" is also determined by the type of measurement. A kite surfer will put up amazing speed numbers of a mile but can't cross oceans. Some ocean races only allow certain classes of boats - multihulls are often excluded, and ocean race records are recorded by elapsed time and average speed.

To determine "fast" for our list, we're going to look across categories and pull out the best of the best.

To understand why screaming fast boats are fast, it's important to know what these speedsters need to overcome to break out and sail fast.

Power and Weight

If you apply the same amount of force to two objects with different mass, the lighter object will accelerate and move faster. Throw a light plastic ball with the same force as a steel ball the same size, and the plastic ball will fly faster and farther.

With sailing, in the same conditions with the same driving forces (wind and sail area), the lighter boat will sail faster. If you can reduce weight, you can go faster, and racing sailors can be over the top stripping weight to improve performance. It's not just weight in the hull; weight up the mast can hurt a boat’s performance too.

Using modern building materials like carbon fiber and honeycombed cores cuts major weight from hulls. Couple that with multi-hull or foiling designs which eliminate heavy keels, and you get light, fast boats.

Friction, Drag, and Wetted Surface

Although water doesn't feel it, it's rather sticky. On a molecular level, water adds considerable friction when a hull pushes through the water. High-performance yachts have mirror-polished finishes to eliminate drag, but a slick bottom isn't enough to get the insane performance we're looking for.

Friction between materials is governed by how slippery the two surfaces are and the surface area of contact between them. Imagine dragging a piece of plywood flat across a carpeted floor. There's a lot of contact between a 4' x 8' piece of plywood and the carpet: thirty-two square feet. It will be hard to drag lying flat.

Now lift one end of the plywood and drag it. You've cut the surface area from 32 square feet to a few square inches, and the plywood drags easily. The same concept applies to boat hulls - the less hull you have in contact with the water, the less drag to slow you down.

Displacement hull shapes can affect how much area is in the water and will change as the boat heels.

Multihulls can lift a hull out of the water in the right conditions, cutting drag in half.

Hydrofoils aren't a new concept, but recent advances in materials science and yacht design have led to major advances in boat speed. Foiling boats lift the entire hull clear of the water, reducing the wetted area to the foils in contact with the water.

Several production boat companies are experimenting with “foil assisted” monohulls - traditionally ballasted boats with foils to lift them partially out of the water to reduce wetted surface drag. Time will tell if the technology works and the market wants it.

In some of the fastest boats, air drag can also be a factor as speeds get over 20 knots. Streamlining of above-water components takes on new importance.

Sail Area and Force

Bigger sails catch more wind, any sailor knows this. And bigger boats have bigger sails, right? But how can you look at the sails and hull together to make the boat faster?

Yacht designers use the Sail Area to Displacement (SA/D) ratio to categorize boats by performance. Displacement is equivalent to the weight of a boat, so the lighter the boat the lower the displacement.

Calculating sail area to displacement Sail Area to Displacement isn't a straight-line ratio since the impact of displacement isn't linear. It's calculated by dividing the sail area in square feet by the displacement in cubic feet to the 2/3 power. SA/D ratio = sail area (sq ft) / (displacement in cubic feet)^2/3 To get displacement in cubic feet in seawater, divide the weight of the boat by 64 lbs, the weight of a cubic foot of seawater.

The higher the SA/D ratio, the more powered up the boat. By reducing displacement increases the ratio. Kiteboards and windsurfers take this to the extreme, with very low displacement boards for hulls with large amounts of surface area.

Developments in wing sail technology have also increased high-end performance. Sail performance is more about lift than size , and wing sails generate tremendous lift with a trimmable, reduced airfoil profile.

The SA/D ratio goes out the window once a boat foils, since it's only a rough guideline assuming the hull is in the water. Foiling changes all the math.

Sailing Faster than the Wind

For centuries, sailing faster than the wind was as inconceivable as flying. Modern boat designs and foiling technology has changed all that. Once a boat moves at an angle towards the wind, its apparent wind - the wind observed on the sailboat - increases. This generates lift, and a lightweight boat with a lot of sail area can generate enough lift to sail faster than the wind.

Apparent wind is how the wind feels on the boat. It's the true wind added to the wind caused by the motion of the boat. The faster the boat moves, the more forward the wind feels.

Add foils, and all bets are off - the current America's Cup is a stunning display of boats sailing many times the speed of the wind.

The physics explaining this (read on kqed.org ) are beyond this article; the result is the sails generate lift to accelerate the boats past the true wind speed and the boats sail on their own apparent wind.

Very few of the world’s fastest types of boats are commonly available, and most of them are racing focused and seen in those venues. There are some affordable, smaller options, though they take some physical fitness and skill to sail.

Ice boats and land sailers deserve a mention, as they sail on the wind. But they don't float, so we're not putting them with the boats. Water is a lot less sticky when it's frozen, and sailing on blades has gotten speeds over 100 miles per hour. The land speed record for a wheeled land sailer is 126.1 MPH (202.0 KPH).

Specialized Performance Boats

Many of the top sailing speed records have been set by purpose-built boats designed for setting speed records. These are the sailing equivalent of drag racers - purpose designed for speed rather than other competition or use. Two of the best-known are Vestas Sailrocket 2 and Hydroptère .

Hydroptère is a sixty-foot foiling trimaran and set the world speed record in 2009, sustaining 50+ knots over 500 meters and one nautical mile.

Vestas Sailrocket 2 is the current speed record holder over 500 meters with 65.45 knots and holds the nautical mile record with 55.32 knots. Vestas Sailrocket 2 is a trimaran in that she has two hulls (or floats), but the specialized design has a wing sail offset over one while the helmsman sails from a pod on the other hull.

Foiling Multihulls

While the specialty boats are setting records, a variety of foiling multihull boats are raced in sizes from small single-handers up to the AC72's used in the 2013 America's Cup. Boat speeds in the 2013 America's Cup were typically at thirty knots or higher, with speeds hitting 44 knots.

There are many foiling multi classes, including the GC32 and the F50. Even a small foiler like the IFly15 can hit speeds of 25 knots.

Multihulls don't need ballast for stability, so they accelerate to foiling speeds without tipping and stay on the foils with three points of contact usually in the water.

Foiling Monohulls

Foiling dinghies like the Moth woke dinghy sailing up to high foiling speeds. Several single-handed small dinghies are in the market, and sailors have been experimenting with adding foils to existing designs like the Laser and even the Opti to hit double-digit speeds.

Foiling monohulls are trickier than cats since they have only two foils and are less stable. Dinghies use crew weight to keep stability, but larger monohulls have been a problem because of pre-foiling stability without a keel.

The foiling AC75 designs in the 2021 America's Cup solved this with moveable foils, which act as ballast when retracted and foils when in the water. With sophisticated computer feedback systems and skilled sailing, these boats have cracked 50 knots on the racecourse, with in-race speeds in the 30 and 40-knot range when the boats are foiling. These boats can foil in less than ten knots of true wind, hitting speeds three or four times the wind.

Windsurfers & Kiteboards

Drag race speed records are set and broken by windsurfers and kiteboards regularly. The "hull" is a surfboard - a low profile, low displacement hull. Large sail area and low displacement allow speeds over fifty knots in record attempts. Even casual wind and kite surfers sail at high speeds in moderate wind conditions.

Racing Skiffs

Ultra-light hulls with minimal ballast and massive sail area, racing skiffs ranging from 11 to 18 feet are favorite classes down under in Australia and New Zealand. From single handers to crews of four, these ultrafast boats have been pushing the edge of faster than the wind performance for years, and are still some of the fastest small race boats you'll see on Sydney Harbour.

Sailors pushing the edge have added foils to skiffs (of course...), creating more fast entries in the monohull foiling category.

Performance Multihulls

Gunboat and Outremer are two examples of high-performance catamaran brands you can use for something other than racing. These boats use lightweight but tough construction and sleek designs to make bluewater capable cats capable of double-digit sailing speeds in comfort and safety.

They aren't cheap for the average boat owner, but they are fast and comfortable. Cruising at 20 knots isn't a dream.

Offshore Racing Monohulls

Almost all of the records in the big offshore races are still held by the big maxi racing monohulls, and these are still some of the fastest boats in the world. If you follow offshore racing, you’ll know names like Comanche , Wild Oats XI , Rambler , and dozens of others hold line honors records on most of the major ocean races. While specific races like the Volvo Ocean Race or the Vendee Globe don't always make the records books, they sail fast over great distances.

These boats are campaigned by full crews of professional sailors. Design innovations and updates are constant, with new boats built to outpace and outperform. While they don't have the straight-line speeds of the fast foilers and inshore racers, average speeds close to twenty knots over hundreds or thousands of miles of offshore sailing is some serious offshore velocity.

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6 of the fastest boats you can buy right now

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Serial boat owner and adrenaline junkie Elliott Maurice picks out 6 of the fastest boats available on the market…

A rarefied segment of the boating industry is dedicated to creating some of the fastest boats in the world. They’re the Bugatti Chirons and Koenigseggs of the seas. Builders of these boats work to extreme tolerances, using exotic materials and construction methods usually found in the aviation industry.

Of course, at this level, low volume production and the aforementioned construction methods combine to create an exclusive product with an even more exclusive price tag. These super high-performance boats will be hugely impractical for most purposes, when compared to a typical leisure vessel, and the skipper will need significant ability to get the most out of it.

In reality any boat capable of speeds more than 60 knots (69mph) is very fast indeed. Given the hugely changeable nature of water compared to tarmac, this is akin to driving a car at around 120mph.

Most of the fastest boats use race-derived hulls with roots dating back to the 1980s when the ‘Go-Fast boat’ became synonymous with the glamor and excesses of the time. TV shows like Miami Vice , with Don Johnson catching drug dealers in his iconic Wellcraft 39 Scarab , helped make these boats extremely popular.

In reality, high performance offshore boats of this type were extensively used by cartels to run drugs into Miami, with the DEA commissioning a fleet of Blue Thunder powercats to help combat the problem.

Fast forward to today, some of the fastest boats are capable of exceeding 180mph with specialist engines and are in fact faster than the boats in Class 1 Offshore racing, where horsepower is limited to twin 1,100hp.

This list is by no means exhaustive – there are also a number of phenomenal offerings out there from legendary builders like Nortech, Sunsation, Donzi and Fountain.

6 of the fastest boats you can buy

Goldfish 46 Bullet

World’s fastest RIB

Top speed: 85 knots (99 mph) Price: $1.2million

Starting with one of the most revered names in the world of performance RIBs, Norwegian yard Goldfish Boats build exceptionally capable open water powerboats. They are also the fastest Ridged Inflatable Boats on the market today.

The 46 Bullet is the fastest of them all – with triple 500hp V10 Mercury outboards 85 knots is achievable. Around $1.2 million will put you in the driving seat of this exquisitely built boat with a carbon superstructure, state of the art electronics and custom racing seating for six.

Perfectly capable of cruising for hours in excess of 60 knots in challenging conditions, the Goldfish is capable of holding its own in rough water against almost any offshore powerboat challenger.

Article continues below…

Fastest boat: The current holder and contenders for the world water-speed record

Mystic m5200 yacht tour: on board the 70-knot, 2,400hp bentley gt of the seas.

Outerlimits SV50

World’s fastest production monohull

Top speed: 156 knots (180 mph) Price: $900,000

At 50ft 1in LOA and only 9ft in the beam, this rocket ship is a pure raceboat in design, with five steps in the hull and staggered engines to keep the driver as close to the centerline as possible.

At the 2023 Lake of the Ozarks shootout an SV50 with enclosed cockpit and twin 2,000hp engines ran 180.47 mph on a 1km run making it the fastest production monohull on the water.

More impressive is that a standard boat with twin Mercury Racing 1,350/1,550hp can easily top 140mph. However, this is a boat requiring an exceptional skill to drive, with handling characteristics as aggressive as its outright speed suggests. Starting at around $900,000 the SV50 is the ultimate in its class.

MTI Pleasure 52

Top speed: 156 knots (180mph) Price: $2 million

Another brand known for its offshore race winning boats, MTI produces nothing but high-performance boats. From its V series center consoles to its outboard -powered cats, this semi-custom builder doesn’t make a boat that does less than 80mph.

The 52 Pleasure is the fastest of the breed, with a full race version available using the same hull. With twin 1,750hp Mercury racing engines, this boat can achieve over 180mph.

With full custom options, MTI have even built a Lamborghini-inspired 48 footer to match the owner’s Lamborghini Aventador. Fitted with Aventador style tail lights and dashboard, the boat even had a matching covered starter button.

Needless to say, all this glamour doesn’t come cheap. You can expect a starting price of around $2 million for this level of exotica.

Cigarette 515

The most legendary go-fast boat

Top speed: 113 knots (130mph) Price: $2.2 million

No go-fast boat comes with as much pedigree as the Cigarette. Founded by the legendary Don Aronow, Cigarette Boats dominated offshore racing worldwide for over a decade, so much so that the brand name has become synonymous with offshore racers.

Still built in Florida, the brand has development ties with Mercedes AMG and Mercury Racing alike. As the largest high-performance boat in the range, the 515 offers peerless attention to detail and quality alike.

It is not the fastest production monohull, with a top speed of just over 130mph achievable with twin staggered 1,350/1,550hp Mercury Racing engines. It is, however, the best riding and one of the most capable offshore powerboats for handling rough water.

Its carbon fiber, vacuum bagged construction helps to justify its $2.2 million starting price and above all, it is the ultimate Cigarette boat.

Photo: Tom Leigh

Mystic C4000

Top speed: 108 knots (125mph) Price: $699,000

Mystics founder John Cosker is responsible for some of the fastest offshore raceboats in the world. Throttling his American Ethanol 50ft Catamaran, he hit 204mph this year setting the record on the Lake of the Ozarks sprint course.

Mystic will custom build a race winning boat for you on request, however Mystic now has a range of three high performance center consoles, with the C4000 outboard cat being the fastest production boat in the range, equipped with twin 500hp Mercury Racing outboards.

The C4000 will top 125mph and cruise in the upper 80s. With a bias on cruising comfort, the C4000 is a tuned down version of the Mystic race boat, with the tunnel compression reduced to hold the boat down rather than create the less controllable lift of the 180mph capable race hull.

The engines are also mounted on hydraulic jack plates to further trim the hull and keep the boat glued down in rough water. At just under 44ft the luxuriously appointed Mystic C4000 can offer performance akin to a light aircraft over distance – think Miami to Bimini in under an hour in the right conditions.

The Mystic is designed to run at speed confidently by most owners without the extreme characteristics of boats at this performance level. Options like a full cockpit sunshade, premium stereo and open transom make the C4000 as comfortable for lounging at a sandbar as it is running at blistering speed in open ocean.

Midnight Express 43 Open

The fastest center console boat

Top speed: 78 knots (90mph) Price: $1million

The center console market has exploded over the past few years, with a ceneter console now available for almost any boating application. The high-performance end of the spectrum has a handful of sublime builders.

However, the fastest arguably goes to Midnight Express 43, when running 5x 500hp V10 outboards. Capable of over 90mph, the 43 can also accommodate up to 20 people in comfort and 9 people at speed in luxurious quilted ultra leather bolster seats.

So good is the hull on the Midnight Express that Miami-Dade County DEA used the 39ft version as its high speed response boats. With its all-carbon superstructure and air-conditioned helm, the 43 is an extremely desirable boat, and over 100 units of this $1 million dollar boat have been sold to date.

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The Fastest Monohull Cruising Sailboat

Sep 13, 2021

less than a min

Monohulls are boats with only one hull, intended for mainly comfortable voyages, plenty of interior space perfect for entertaining and long cruises. While they are not generally known for being as fast as multihulls, these boats can also achieve considerable speed. The fastest monohull cruising sailboat is called V.O.60 and stands for Volvo Ocean 60 . This is an ocean racer with a needle-nosed shape, designed by Bruce Farr. 

The V.O.60 is 17 feet wide, 64 feet long, and weighs about 30k pounds. In addition, it has a mast of 85 feet high. The fastest this boat can go is 36 knots. 

The way this boat achieves extra speed in comparison to other similar monohulls is its planing ability. The V.O.60 has a portion of the bottom that is flat and allows the hull to lift out of water when speed gets over 17 knots. In addition, all its heavy equipment is placed in the center of the boat to achieve a low polar moment of inertia while the rest of the boat is left clear to increase speed by decreasing resistance. 

This boat has a narrow blade keel and a T-shaped rudder, in addition to a composite sail and stainless steel and aluminum elements. It can be sailed by a maximum of 12 people. For this particular boat, all 12 people are professional sailors with racing experience. 

Apart from being the fastest monohull in the world , this boat is also a very expensive racing vessel, amounting to at least a couple of million dollars. 

While you might not have a racing boat that is the fastest in the world, you can still enjoy some speed on your monohull. In order to optimize its efficiency and performance, there are a few maintenance tasks you can perform regularly. These include cleaning the hull and checkups on the propeller to make sure nothing is broken and causing extra friction between the boat and water. 

You can keep track of these tasks and more through TheBoatApp , an extensive and organized platform that allows you to keep all your boat data in one place. You can have all your documents, inventories, alerts, maintenance tasks, checklists, pictures, logbooks, and more stored in the app. You can access all this information both online and offline and from anywhere in the world. Check out our website for more features and specifications provided by TheBoatApp. 

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40 Best Sailboats

• By Cruising World Editors
• Updated: April 18, 2019

Sailors are certainly passionate about their boats, and if you doubt that bold statement, try posting an article dubbed “ 40 Best Sailboats ” and see what happens.

Barely had the list gone live, when one reader responded, “Where do I begin? So many glaring omissions!” Like scores of others, he listed a number of sailboats and brands that we were too stupid to think of, but unlike some, he did sign off on a somewhat upbeat note: “If it weren’t for the presence of the Bermuda 40 in Cruising World’s list, I wouldn’t even have bothered to vote.”

By vote, he means that he, like hundreds of other readers, took the time to click through to an accompanying page where we asked you to help us reshuffle our alphabetical listing of noteworthy production sailboats so that we could rank them instead by popularity. So we ask you to keep in mind that this list of the best sailboats was created by our readers.

The quest to building this list all began with such a simple question, one that’s probably been posed at one time or another in any bar where sailors meet to raise a glass or two: If you had to pick, what’re the best sailboats ever built?

In no time, a dozen or more from a variety of sailboat manufacturers were on the table and the debate was on. And so, having fun with it, we decided to put the same question to a handful of CW ‘s friends: writers and sailors and designers and builders whose opinions we value. Their favorites poured in and soon an inkling of a list began to take shape. To corral things a bit and avoid going all the way back to Joshua Slocum and his venerable Spray —Hell, to Noah and his infamous Ark —we decided to focus our concentration on production monohull sailboats, which literally opened up the sport to anyone who wanted to get out on the water. And since CW is on the verge or turning 40, we decided that would be a nice round number at which to draw the line and usher in our coming ruby anniversary.

If you enjoy scrolling through this list, which includes all types of sailboats, then perhaps you would also be interested in browsing our list of the Best Cruising Sailboats . Check it out and, of course, feel free to add your favorite boat, too. Here at Cruising World , we like nothing better than talking about boats, and it turns out, so do you.

40. Moore 24

39. Pearson Vanguard

38. Dufour Arpege 30

37. Alerion Express 28

36. Mason 43/44

35. Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43DS

34. Nor’Sea 27

33. Freedom 40

32. Beneteau Sense 50

31. Nonsuch 30

30. Swan 44

29. C&C Landfall 38

28. Gulfstar 50

27. Sabre 36

26. Pearson Triton

25. Islander 36

24. Gozzard 36

23. Bristol 40

22. Tartan 34

21. Morgan Out Island 41

20. Hylas 49

19. Contessa 26

18. Whitby 42

17. Columbia 50

16. Morris 36

15. Hunter 356

13. Beneteau 423

12. Westsail 32

10. Alberg 30

9. Island Packet 38

8. Passport 40

7. Tayana 37

6. Peterson 44

5. Pacific Seacraft 37

4. Hallberg-Rassy 42

3. Catalina 30

2. Hinckley Bermuda 40

1. Valiant 40

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The Fastest Monohull Sailboat In The World

The fastest monohull sailboat in the world is a needle-nosed ocean racer called V.O.60. It was designed by Bruce Farr, and is capable of 36 knots. That's 41.4 mph. This sleek machine is 64 ft. long, just over 17 ft. wide and weighs 30,000 pounds. The mast soars 85 ft. in the air. The bottom of Farr's speedster has a flat after section like a powerboat--the hull lifts out of the water and planes at anything over 17 knots.

To achieve this record-breaking performance, with handling to match, the weight of all equipment is concentrated in the center of the hull for a low polar moment of inertia. Both the hull and deck are as clean as possible for minimum resistance. The keel is a narrow blade sticking down into the water, with a 12,000-pound lead torpedo at the bottom that's contoured to provide lift. The rudder is T-shaped, with its own lifting foil. To help trim the boat against the tilting force of the sails, 13,000 gal. of water can be pumped into three holding tanks in the hull.

The hull is Kevlar cloth set in resin, and the mast, boom and spinnaker pole are carbon fiber. The sails are a woven composite, vacuum-formed under heat and pressure to hold a preset shape. Everything that's not some form of composite is either aluminum or stainless steel. A Volvo Penta MD2030 Diesel generator provides power for extensive electronics, and a Volvo Penta MD22P provides auxiliary power for docking.

Some 35 of these racing boats have been built, comprising an international 1-design class. The premier V.O.60 event is the around-the-world Volvo Ocean Race held every four years. The latest competition started in Southampton, England, on Sept. 23, 2001, and will end in Kiel, Germany, on Sept. 6, 2002. By that time, the crews will have raced 32,700 nautical miles, with stops in Cape Town, Sydney, Hobart, Auckland, Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Baltimore, La Rochelle and Göteborg.

Expensive Racing--Is There Any Other Kind? Racing around the world is not cheap. The eight participating V.O.60s cost $3 million each and are owned by multinational companies including Australian Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Swedish lockmaker Assa Abloy and German construction company Illbruck. The companies will have spent an impressive $15 million each by the time their boat reaches the finish line.

Each V.O.60 requires a crew of 12 to race it flat-out, day and night. Nearly all crew members are full-time professional sailors, who can earn up to $1500 per day. Most are in their 20s or 30s and look like bodybuilders. Only the helmsmen and tacticians, whose experience is more valuable than bulging biceps, are apt to be older than 40.

Volvo has its own V.O.60, called Volvo Spirit . PR guy Dan McCue was able to secure berths in Volvo Spirit for six U.S. journalists, including me, on the 922-nautical-mile Miami-to-Baltimore leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. We'd be paired with six professional sailors from Sweden who were none too sure what they'd gotten themselves into.

Before we neophyte ocean racers were allowed out, we had to go through two days of sail training with our new crew mates, plus an all-day course in safety and emergency procedures. We were restricted to one small carry-on bag and told not to expect to bathe, shave or change clothes during the trip.

Above decks, Volvo Spirit looks like an oversize dinghy. There are tandem steering wheels, a dozen winches, two grinders and a convex deck fenced by lifelines. When Volvo Spirit buries her nose in a wave, there's nothing to stop the water from flowing smoothly over the boat, sweeping anything not tied down--including careless sailors--over the cut-down transom.

Down below, Volvo Spirit has all the cheerful ambience of a World War II U-boat. There are a half-dozen pipe berths, a token marine toilet jammed against the mast, and a cubbyhole crammed full of computers where the tactician spends his days and nights. The galley consists of a foot-square sink and a single propane-powered burner. Ocean racers live on tasteless freeze-dried food reconstituted with distilled seawater.

Volvo Spirit 's skipper divided the 12 of us into three watches, 3 hours on and 6 hours off. We lined up next to the eight race boats and left the starting line just north of the entrance to the Port of Miami at 1 pm on Sunday, April 14. Amazingly, six of the professional skippers jumped the start and had to turn around and recross the line. We sailed behind the leaders, and ahead of the miscreants, until the group spread out over miles of ocean.

The sailing was magnificent, hour after hour of running before the wind or on a broad reach, pushed along at 14 knots by 20-knot winds. We made only a handful of sail changes in four days. Twice, I was able to steer for a full 3-hour night watch without touching a line, delicately balancing the main and spinnaker, Polaris ahead and Orion behind, providing my only illumination, and 150 miles from the nearest land. It was sublime.

We reached the finish line in Baltimore at 12:04 pm that Thursday, 10 hours behind the leader, News Corp. We'd covered 922 nautical miles in 95 hours. To our delight, the last three competitors entered the harbor while we, having shaved and showered, were eating lunch on the waterfront. The perfect ending.

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Akilaria 40

Mc38 one design, solaris 36 od.

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Comparison of recent 38ft monohull cruisers with a minimum draft that must not exceed 1,5 m. The goal is to sail close to the shore in shoal waters. We also look for a good trade-off between comfort and sail power.

Here we look for a comfortable boat, safe, with enough sailing power. You can adjust the length and date parameters to better fit your case.

Here we look for a solid boat to sail between icebergs. The search criteria are : - Aluminum or steel construction - More than 10m (33ft) long - Lowest draft and in any case under 2m (6.56 ft) - Highest comfort at sea - Highest sailing power - Highest fuel and water autonomy

Comparison of mid-size cruisers to cross oceans. The criteria are: - A monohull which length is about 13m - Displacement greater than 8 tons - Built after 1990 - A tradeoff between comfort at sea, sailing power and capsize recovery

Ranking of modern rapid sailboats for cruising and racing. The criteria are: - A recent (after 2000) monohull - A displacement greater than 8 tons - A fast hull and maximum sail power.

We look for the best recent monohulls for racing. The search criteria are: - Length about 40 ft built after 2000 - Highest hull speed - Best tradeoff on performance ratios.

Here we compare classic long keel sailboats under 41 ft. The comparison criteria are : - Must have been built at more than 50 units - Production started before 1980 - Length less than 41 ft -The lowest capsize screening factor that should never exceed 2 - Best tradeoff on other performance ratios.

Comparison of big catamarans with a good autonomy for cruising with friends and families. The criteria are: - Length greater than 40 ft - Lowest draft - Highest sail power and hull speed - Highest autonomy (fuel and water)

Comparison of catamarans under 30 ft for racing. The criteria are: - Length less than 30 ft - Best performance ratios tradeoff.

Main characteristics of the boat and its equipments.

These ratios define the performance and stability of the boat.

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• Yachting Monthly
• Digital edition

Fastest monohull on the planet?

• January 15, 2011

35-foot replica built of speed-record chaser

The skipper of a speed-sailing monohull is promising to ‘smash all existing records’ after the yacht’s designers launched a 35-foot replica of the aspiring record-setter.

Vlad Murnikov, the lead designer and creative force behind SpeedDream , has designed the mini-version to test ideas that can be used on the full-sized version.

Mr Murnikov hopes that the boat will break monohull speed records and even match the speeds recorded by multihulls by using many of the technologies that are on the extreme foiler L’Hydroptere , the boat that holds the outright speed record.

He said: ‘For a typical evolutionary design you start with a set of known performance parameters and work to gradually improve them, but the SpeedDream concept is so radical and innovative there are no analogs to compare to and improve upon.

‘While CFD analysis and tank testing are extremely important, they can only get us so far. It will be very useful to check both the general concept and the hull shape, appendages and rig configurations on a real scaled version of SpeedDream .’

SpeedDream skipper Cam Lewis said: ‘I have followed developments in both monohull and multihulls for decades. This latest America’s Cup was a great example of how some new developments in foils radically changed the performance of both boats.

‘It’s these innovative technologies like the telescoping keel and lifting foils that will set SpeedDream apart from all other monohulls and allow the boat to not only break, but smash all existing records.

‘We will test these features, along with others in the SpeedDream -35 prototype and prove to us and the sailing community that this boat is a step ahead of anything else out there.’

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World’s Fastest Sailboats – The Catamaran, Trimaran, Windsurfer and Kiteboarder

By Danny Cruz

Photo by: CultivArte

Any time someone mentions a sailboat as being fast, the non-sailors cringe at the thought of 12 knots being fast. Can you say 50 knots? Teach them a lesson about fast sailboats…

While 12-15 knots is actually quite fast for a racing sailboat in good windy conditions, high-caliber racing sailboats can do more than 20 knots in high-wind situations. In fact, TransPac TP52 sailboats for example, have been clocked around 30 knots for short burts. That’s nearly 35MPH for easy comparison! And a TP52 is a monohull! Trimaran and catamaran sailboats are typically much faster. On a sailboat, those kinds of speeds feel quite incredibly fast. Doing 20 on a sailboat feels like doing 40 in a powerboat – possibly even more exhilarating than that! Specially given the fact that to go that fast it has to be very windy, which in turns equals choppy seas unless you are in some narrow channel. Consider what it might feel like doing 20 knots in choppy seas where the boat is hammering into wave after wave. You can probably imagine the excitement.

Most of the above comments are based on above average sailboats. Well, to be fair, a TransPac or Santa Cruz 52 is well above average. They are in super boat territory. But, there exists a certain breed of speed sailing boat that is at a whole other level of performance and speed unattainable by standard production boats – Boats that are purposely built for speed as the number one priority. If a TP52 is a super-boat, the way a Ferrari 360 is a super car, the freaks of nature we are talking about would be hyper boats. The same way one would call a Mercedes McLaren 722 a hyper car, boats like the wing-sail AC45 and AC72 developed by the Oracle team for the America’s Cup would be exactly that. These boats which run on a new class in the America’s Cup, are capable of average speeds over 30 knots. Multi-hulls is what the America’s Cup is all about these days, with full teams racing them. Much harder, but much faster and much more exciting for those who love to see fast sailing. In essense, the AC45 is being run during the America’s Cup World Series events in preparation for the America’s Cup in San Francisco in 2013 where the larger AC72 will be raced.

Check out the AC45 and AC72 video below:

Oracle America’s Cup AC45 Photo:

Photo by: chatani If this is not exciting enough yet, check out this high-speed capsize of the Oracle AC45:

These are like sailboats on steroids capable of performance and speed like no other. Most of these hyper-boats are either multi-hull catamarans or trimarans and the random hydrofoil like the l’Hydroptére shown in the photo at the top. But while a multi-hull sailboat is almost always faster than a monohull, you can’t completely write-off a mono. There is a certain breed of monohull sailboat capable of speeds close to 40 knots with sustained distance-averages up in the 20’s. Once such boat is the Mari-Cha IV, a carbon fiber mono-hull that holds the world record for the fastest single-hull sailboat to cross the Atlantic. According to the WSSR and ISAF, the 140-foot monster yacht crossed the Atlantic in 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds at an average speed of 18.05 knots.

There will always be a place for fast single-hull sailboats even if the latest trend is toward multihulls for the sheer speed. Plus, keep in mind that until recently the America’s Cup was done with mostly mono-hulls. There are also plenty of major regatta’s dedicated to monohulls. For the combination of speed and rough-seas ability, fast single-hull sailboats will always have a place.

Video of the record setting l’Hydroptére:

Then there is also the very well known sailing craft, which could also be considered a monohull, called the windsurfer. Yes, we’re talking about the guys on a surfboard with a sail on it! As common as they may seem, they are actually one of the fastest sail-powered crafts on water. And of course, we have to mention the kiteboarders which are actually even faster than the windsurfers if the conditions are right. There’s a lot of debate however as to whether a kiteboarder can be considered a sail-powered craft but we’re simply not going to get too much into the stupid politics related to that.

The big numbers…

Top speeds are usually calculated over short distances such as 500 meters. Most of the fastest sailing vessels can reach high top speeds but because they cannot sustain the speed for long distances, average speeds over long passages seem somewhat low for inexperienced eyes.

Since top speed is the key to a lot of people’s excitement, the numbers for fastest sailing speeds over short distances (500 meters) are also held as world records. Let’s look at some of them:

• l’Hydroptére mentioned above, clocked for over 500 meters: 51.36 knots (59.33 MPH)
• The strange Macquarie Innovation which could be considered a catamaran, but hardly: 50.05 knots (57.62 MPH)
• SailRocket , a wing-sail minimalist boat: 47.36 knots (54.50)
• The Yellow Pages Endeavor , another sailboat made just for speed: 46.52 (53.53 MPH)
• Long Shot , another type of strange trimaran… er… or something 43.55 (50.12 MPH)

However, let’s look at the more common “boats” that are actually FASTER than the strange (and expensive) speed machine sailboats listed above.

• Antoine Albeau holds the speed record on a windsurfer at 49.09 knots (59.49 MPH) – Not quite as fast as some of the mutant sailboats, but still one the fastest sail-powered crafts over water.
• Finally, an American Kiteboarder Rob Douglas did 55.65 knots (64.04 MPH) over the waters of Luderitz, Namibia while kiteboarding, making him the fastest sail-powered vessel in the world!

However, ISAF does not want to acknowledge a kiteboarder as a sail-powered craft claiming that a kite is not a sail. (Even though it’s powered solely by wind). That’s up for debate, and nothing takes away the fact that it’s the fastest wind-powered craft over water.

Of course, these are the current records and someone will soon build something that will break them. But, top records aside, it’s the fact that a sail-powered craft can go THAT fast what really matters. Yes, sailing is exciting. Next time some petrol-head wants to argue about how boring sailing is, show him this article and teach him a thing or two about speed sailing!

About Danny Cruz

Publisher of FloatWays, Danny Cruz is resourceful creative designer, lover of the ocean and all things that float.

What Makes FloatWays Unique For You and Why You Should Stick Around

We love boats! We love everything about boats! FloatWays is dedicated to the art of boating and sailing. Whether it be in the ocean or the lake, we are devoted to the lifestyle and all the joys that come from being on the water. We are people who have practically been raised aboard boats. At the same time, FloatWays believes in being humble, friendly and down to earth (er … More

Sunglasses Guide for Boats

At FloatWays we pay a lot of attention to the visual aspect of the water activities in which we participate. This means we are focused on enjoying our outdoor life by making sure we have the best optical clarity and sun protection we can get. Not only that, but we like to look good while doing it. We've created this sunglasses guide for that very reason. As we look into what the market has to offer for functional and stylish sunglasses and review them on FloatWays, we'll … More

• Yachting World
• Digital Edition

Launched: the fastest monohull ever?

• October 8, 2014

A 100-footer built for no other purpose than record breaking has been launched in the US. Wow!

A new superfast 100ft yacht specially designed for record breaking has been launched in Maine for serial big yacht owner Dr Jim Clark, and is in Newport getting her keel and rig installed ready for sail trials. The yacht, named Comanche, is a full-on ocean speedster. Designers VPLP and Verdier were liberated from the shackles of handicap rules and tasked with creating a yacht capable ofvpure speed to smash ocean records.

Dr Clark, the Silicon Valley magnate and founder of Netscape, has had a number of high profile yachts: the 47.4m Frers-designed sloop Hyperion in the late Nineties and the groundbreaking 90m Dykstra schooner Athena in 2004, and since 2009 Hanuman, the replica of the J-Class Endeavour II (built for around €21m and now seriously for sale at a reduced price of €11m).

Kenny Read, the former Puma Volvo 70 helmsman, has been helmsman on Hanuman and skipper/collaborator on Clark’s recent projects. He has been intimately involved in the new Comanche project.

Although remaining in the US for the build by going to Hodgdon Yachts in Maine, Clark and Read looked to Europe for the design, attracted by the recent Vendée Globe successes of the VPLP and Guillaume Verdier collaboration. Between them, these teams have mastered record-breaking multihulls and IMOCA 60s.

“There’s no compromise [on this boat],” says Verdier, “no interior fittings, no toilet – it’s like an Open [IMOCA] 60.” A challenge when reducing weight is to make sure the boat is also safe in all conditions. “The freeboard height is no higher than an Open 60, so the stress on deck was a big concern,” admits Verdier, who is in charge of shape and structure.

Speedboat (now Perpetual Loyal), the 100ft maxi designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian, was a benchmark for Comanche. This yacht has a similarly outrageous beam and righting moment but is lighter and less sticky. She will have, of course, a canting keel, L daggerboards and a formidable amount of sail. A bank of pedestal winches on deck will be used to power winches for record-breaking events that prohibit powered systems.

“The goal is to get the boat into all the major racers there are,” Read says of the plan. These include doing the Sydney-Hobart this year, plus the Fastnet, Newport Bermuda, Transpac, and Middle Sea Race next year. Then there are straight speed events like the Transat and the 24-hour record. Read remained unsure if Comanche might one day attempt a circumnavigation.

The consistent speed promised by this boat could break new ground for a monohull. “In 90-120º true, she should do 20-26 knots, when we will be tearing sail area off as quick as we can,” says Read. He compared it to a multihull with one hull, “where the apparent wind is never behind 65º.”

Comanche will be crewed by some of the same pro sailors who accompanied Read aboard Puma and Hanuman, including Casey Smith (Captain/ trimmer) and Tony Mutter. But will Jim Clark actually join them? “That’s weather dependent,” says Read. “If we’re lining up in front of a cold front to do the Transat, you probably couldn’t pay him $20m to do it.” but he adds that Clark and his wife, Kristy, are both keen and competitive sailors and are normally “pushing us off the wheel to get on the helm.”

There’s a nice video of the boat launching from Onne van der Wal here

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Why Leaders Need to Value Their Retirement-Age Workforce

A conversation with psychologist Ken Dychtwald about an overlooked segment of workers.

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A growing number of workers are reaching retirement age around the globe. At the same time, many countries face a worker shortage, especially in critical areas like health care. Ken Dychtwald, cofounder and CEO of Age Wave, says it’s time for companies to stop overlooking this valuable labor pool, because AI alone won’t alleviate the tight supply. He explains why many late-career people want to work longer. And he shares creative and often simple ways that companies can keep older workers engaged, including phased retirements, non-ageist recruiting, mentorship programs, and grandparental leave. Dychtwald is a coauthor of the HBR article “ Redesigning Retirement .”

CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Curt Nickisch.

Take a quick guess which age group is the fastest growing segment of the labor force in the United States? If you said millennials or Gen Z, or maybe parents returning to the workforce after a pandemic break, you’d be wrong. By far, it’s people who are 65 and older. In the US alone, around 10,000 people reach this age group each day, and it’s not just an American phenomenon. In Germany, Italy and Japan, already more than a quarter of the workforce is over the age of 55.

Today’s guest warns that if companies don’t watch out, these workers will walk away sooner than they’d like, taking their experience, skills, and social acumen with them. And he argues that organizations should make some bold changes to how they value these workers and create opportunities for them.

Ken Dychtwald is the founder and CEO of Age Wave, an organization that studies the workforce implications of an aging population. With Katy Terveer and Robert Morison, he wrote the HBR article, Redesigning Retirement. Welcome, Ken.

KEN DYCHTWALD: Great to be with you.

CURT NICKISCH: Ken, since the pandemic in the U.S. at least, labor force participation has been going down while the number of jobs has been going up. It’s really pronounced in some fields like healthcare. How have organizations typically viewed their aging workforce when they have challenges kind of bridging this gap?

KEN DYCHTWALD: Well, the story is really quite fascinating and let me back it up a little bit. When Social Security was set in motion in the 1930s and similar programs in other parts of the world, the life expectancy was only 63. But what was a piece of that puzzle that most people aren’t aware of is that the unemployment levels were 25%.

CURT NICKISCH: Yeah, it’s kind of the opposite problem today.

KEN DYCHTWALD: Yeah, and partly what got set in motion was this belief that people over 65 were no longer capable of working. They didn’t really have anything to contribute. Young was good, old was not so good. And so here we are today where we have high demand for all sorts of talents, and we don’t have the people to fill those slots, whether it’s doctors or FBI agents or engineers or pilots or greeters at Walmart.

And we’ve got tens of millions of people over 60 or 65, and that number is growing because of the demography of the baby boom, which I’ve referred to as an age wave. And a lot of those people say they’d like to keep working for another two or five or 10 years. So on the one hand, we’ve got gaps and challenges with regard to how do we find people who can do these jobs. On the other hand, we’re pushing people out the door because of an old notion that they were no longer worthwhile.

CURT NICKISCH: And that behavior hasn’t really changed, it sounds like?

KEN DYCHTWALD: I would have to say that in the last year or two, the subject has gotten hot and it’s almost like we’re entering a new age of aging. So there’s Harrison Ford becoming Indiana Jones again at 81. There’s Jagger, the Rolling Stones in his ninth decade of life back out on tour. There’s Martha Stewart on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. So all of a sudden we’re scratching our heads and saying, wait a minute, these people are not looking or acting old the way it used to be. What 70 or 80 looks and feels and acts like is very different than it’s ever been throughout history.

There’s a lot of talented people in their 60s and 70s who are doing their best work ever. The highest rate of entrepreneurial success are people over 55 now who’ve got a little bit of life experience and they know how to make things work well. So you would expect that there would be more responsiveness on the part of employers, but they’re moving slowly, but they are beginning to realize that this is a change that they’ve got to undertake. Which is to do a better job of keeping people a little bit longer or recruiting people who might be at an age that they would’ve otherwise disregarded, or finding ways to make age diversity part of their identity.

CURT NICKISCH: Well, you just gave a bunch of examples of people who probably can afford to retire but want to keep working. It sounds like there’s some demographics at play, some changes in society that companies are not keeping up with.

KEN DYCHTWALD: Yeah, on the one hand, so why would people want to work longer? I mean, well, one of them is with rising longevity, should we be in some way tracking how many years we work to how many years we live? And if you’re 65 today, you’ve got another almost 20 years of life expectancy. That’s a long time to be living a life of leisure. So a lot of people are thinking, “I think I would like to work a bit longer.”

The second reason is socialization. You get a chance to have connection with people. And the third reason is that a lot of people have begun to realize, “My goodness, I might need to work a little bit longer just because I’ll need the money to build a bigger nest egg for a longer life.” So what we’re seeing is an awakening on the part of the workforce.

CURT NICKISCH: It’s also interesting hearing about this at a time when AI is the big business conversation today where a lot of companies are thinking that is the solution for job shortages in some areas.

KEN DYCHTWALD: Well, AI is an answer. We’re living in a world where there’s no question that AI will take over more and more of the functions that human intelligence has historically performed. But there are still people jobs, and there are still relationship jobs, and there are still leadership roles to be fulfilled by people. I’m not just talking about labor, I’m talking about talent. There’s a lot of people in their 60s and 70s with a lot of that talent, and we shouldn’t be pushing them out the door and assuming that AI can take the job.

CURT NICKISCH: So we have this wave in the United States. I also mentioned some established industrial economies like Germany, Italy, and Japan. Does this pattern hold globally too?

KEN DYCHTWALD: It’s a fascinating phenomenon because we often think that this is unique to the U.S. phenomenon. It is not. In fact, we are only 40th worldwide with regard to our longevity. There are many, many, many countries in the world that have an older demographic than we do. We hear about Japan, we hear about Germany, we hear about China as going very swiftly towards an aging population. In 1950, the life expectancy in China was only 45 years, and the average woman was having six children. Now they’re down to about 1.2, 1.3 children per family, and the life expectancy is just past ours. So that’s a speed of change. And China will in the years to come become an older population than the world has ever seen. And so this issue is not just for North American employers or leaders to think about, but it’s a global issue as well.

CURT NICKISCH: It’s also interesting that this is coming at a time when the gig economy, the freelance economy has been growing. A lot of people associate that with a young person’s game, but that structural shift in the economy might actually open some doors to companies who want to leverage this workforce.

KEN DYCHTWALD: So one of the interesting things is my company Age Wave has been surveying pre-retirees and retirees all over the world now for 25 years, and many older people, the new 50 and 60-year-olds are saying they want to keep working a few more years, but they don’t want to necessarily work full time and they’re open to trying different things. So that’s kind of amazing because when my grandparents reached their 60s or 70s, they weren’t thinking about a gig economy or reinventing their careers. They were imagining that they’re on the last ending of life and it was time to wind down.

And so the good news is that many of these 60 or 70-year-olds are open to doing gig work. And now whether that’s driving an Uber-type transportation vehicle or whether that’s only coming in two days a week, or whether it might be working on projects or assignments that only have three or six or nine months to them. So there’s a lot more flexibility within the new generation of people who are near or in the retirement stage of their lives to do more gig work or work on flexible projects or maybe put in fewer hours.

CURT NICKISCH: We may have made this point already, but I think it’s good to just underline it. Spell it out for us. What is the business case for companies to look more carefully at this group of workers?

KEN DYCHTWALD: I’m going to make three arguments for what the business case is. And I wouldn’t say that everybody who’s had a 60th or 70th birthday is perfect. It’s just like every other group in every other life stage. There’s some talented people and there’s some less talented people. But I would also tell you that the track records have more on display than a 25-year-old might. If you’re talking to a 60-year-old, you can see if they’re good at sales or not, or you can see if they’re good with people or not. They’ve got a track record that they’ve laid down. Let me give you the three arguments.

One of them is there’s a shortage of workers right now and there’s a shortage of talent right now. And who can think of another time in our lives where that’s been so pronounced when you’re thinking, “How am I going to possibly get this work done? I can’t find the people.” Where I live, every store and every situation I find myself in it says, “Hiring.” So there’s a lot of people looking for talent, but they don’t necessarily look towards older people because they think they’re over the hill. Well remove your blinders and get over that bias and that ageism. There’s a lot of talent there waiting to be hired.

Second point is that older people have a body of emotional intelligence that we’ve never encountered before that they have been through. For example, I was there for when my dad died. I was there when my mom died. My wife and I raised two kids. You know, we’ve even through ups and downs in the economy, ups and downs in the marketplace. So I may not have a higher IQ than I did when I was 25 now that I’m in my 70s, but I surely got a higher EQ. And having some people with a little bit of perspective and vision and big picture is valuable.

Third, more and more of our users, our customers, our clients are 60 and 70 themselves. And so having people on your team who can give voice to the issues, the needs, the worries of empty nesters, of people who are maybe are grieving or maybe have been divorced or widowed or conceivably are just eager to reinvent themselves. I mean, we don’t think of Bill Gates as being an old guy. We think of him that he used to be a CEO and now he’s a philanthropist. So the idea of imagining people with an appetite to reinvent themselves.

I was working with a healthcare system a few years ago and they decided to take a number of the sanitation workers who worked for the system, who were loyal and hardworking and trustworthy and train them to become nurses. And it worked. And so the idea of these are people who are available, you’re looking for talent, there you go. Second, they’re loyal often more than younger people. They have a certain degree of perspective because of the years they’ve lived. That kind of wisdom and emotional intelligence doesn’t come so quickly when you’re in your 20s and 30s. And third, they’re willing to plug and play and they’re willing to try new things. And that was never the case before for people at that stage of life. We are entering a new age of aging, and the folks you might be willing to talk to are open to trying new things more than ever before.

CURT NICKISCH: You have spelled out kind of a five-part strategy for companies to rethink how they approach talent and how they manage this workforce. It’s preserve experience, replenish experience, share experience, offer flexibility and leverage age diversity.

So let’s run through them starting with preserve experience. It sounds like, and you mentioned this already, if you have these workers already, it’s kind of the first place to look to keep them on or find ways to keep them around longer rather than letting them go and then figuring out how to replace them.

KEN DYCHTWALD: Maybe I’m a little bit of a wise guy, but the way this looks to me is like a Three Stooges show where on the one hand you got a hole in the boat and you’re trying to cover it up. On the other hand, you’re trying to row the boat. So companies are always trying to recruit talent while they’re pushing 63-year-olds out the door. Why don’t you work out programs or affiliations so that you can keep people a bit longer? Boom. We have examples in our article like the principal financial group that’s created on ramps to more flexible work and maybe phased retirement, which is what a lot of people say. They want to keep working, they just don’t want to work as hard.

And by the way, I’ve given talks to college students and when they hear that they cheer because they don’t want to work as hard either. Maybe our older workers are giving us an example of what the new balance between work and leisure is going to look like. So keep some of these people, particularly the good ones, particularly the talented ones and the ones that are eager to keep going. And I’ll add to that that sometimes if you’re pushing people out the door but they want to keep working, they’ll go work for your competitor.

CURT NICKISCH: That’s actually the perfect lead-in to replenish experience because if people are leaving, you need to replace those workers. If other companies aren’t hanging onto those workers, you might want to go and hire them and recruit them.

KEN DYCHTWALD: Yes. And think of those workers, and also think of some of your older workers who you may not be pushing out the door. They may need some new learning and experience. And often companies when they think of their training departments or their educational programs, they think of training new recruits or young people, but there might be 60-year-olds that need to better understand the new technologies or understand the new directions in the company or understand what’s going on in the world from a fresh perspective. Replenishing doesn’t only mean finding talent from some of your competition, but it might also mean keeping people but re-educating them, retraining them, giving them kind of a new lease on their work with you.

CURT NICKISCH: Which seems to be one of the desires of older workers is often just to get to do something new or have some variety, be able to basically get a new job without having to change employers.

Now, you had a really interesting takeaway in the article under the strategy of replenish experience, and that was to basically say, don’t put a cap on years of experience when you have a job listing, a job posting. And also try to avoid using phrases like energetic or digitally savvy, which might make people who are applying think that this is only intended for younger workers. You actually say to field test your organization’s career site with a small panel of older employees and retirees, which makes a ton of sense, but it’s just never something I’ve heard before.

KEN DYCHTWALD: I’ve been absolutely mind blown over the decades with how much ageism floats under the surface. And you might not think about it, but your company’s HR department may be looking for young people like they are, and they may be using phrases and words in their ads or their recruitment: “High energy, swift with technology, eager to meet new people.” There’s little buzz phrases that they may not even realize are not going to be quite as captivating to an older person because they can kind of feel that they’re looking for young people here.

So yeah, how do you know that if you’re 32 or 37 or 41 that you may be spewing ageist ideas and ageist recruitment sub-messaging? And the best way to find out is either talk to some of your older workers and have them review that copy or talk to some older people and say, “We’re thinking of hiring and we’re going to use language like this. What do you think?” And you may be surprised to find that hidden within a lot of your messaging, or the pictures that you might have accompanying your report or your website, give somebody the impression who’s older, “They’re not looking for me.”

CURT NICKISCH: Now, another key way that you suggest that organizations can keep that experience around is share experience. What role do you see for seasoned employees and companies to add value by passing on their knowledge? And what kind of opportunity is there that companies aren’t realizing now to be able to take this breadth of experience in this group of older workers and share it with workers of other generations in the company?

KEN DYCHTWALD: The biggest thing has to do with there’s a desire when you turn 50 and 60 and 70 to kind of share your life lessons. So mentoring becomes a role for people to play, and they may not necessarily want to manage a division or a department. They may want to just help the younger people figure out how to do it better and avoid mistakes. So mentoring in all sorts of things. It doesn’t have to be high-tech jobs. It could be working in a grocery store.

The other thing is that older people have probably learned along the way what to avoid and what to do more of in order to be effective. And you can spend decades trying to figure that out when you’re a worker, why not get the shortcuts? If I were going camping and there were some people coming back from where I was heading out, I’d be wise to ask them, were there any beautiful sunrises to be seen? Where’s the fresh water? Is there any place that’s dangerous? It conceivably could make your trip a better trip. So not just mentoring in terms of skills, but mentoring in terms of effectiveness as a worker, as a salesperson, as a school teacher. Why not get that from older people?

CURT NICKISCH: Now the next strategy that you write about is offering flexibility. We’ve talked about this a little bit in just redesigning your retirement to be able to phase it out more, retire at a different age, be able to stay longer when it’s mandated that you leave at a certain age, for instance. What other kind of flexibility do you think that organizations can offer workers in this age group?

KEN DYCHTWALD: So there’s a few different arms and legs to flexibility. One them is timing. Most people when they reach their 50s and 60s, believe it or not, have more free time. We figured it out in the United States, the boomers due to retirement and empty nesting are going to have 3.9 trillion hours of free time over the next 20 years. And because they’re not encumbered by getting their kids to school or caregiving a parent, they’re more freed up. But also they don’t want to work full-time, that the idea of full-time work is only appealing to about 10 or 20% of older workers.

So people say, “Well, we can’t change our rules around how many hours a week you work.” Well, I would remind you of the 1970s when boomer women started applying for jobs, employers said, “We’re not going to offer leaves. We’re not going to care for your kids. Take them to preschool. Sorry, that’s not the way the workforce works.” But that’s all been transformed because these women were so capable and so talented. I think you’re going to see another revolution happening where older workers are going to create more flexible timing.

The second thing is location. People might want to work from home or they may live far away and they can work out of their home a thousand miles away from your office.

Third have to do with benefits. Some people want to keep working longer because there are benefits, particularly until you’re 65 when things like Medicare kicks in. But by the way, that’s an asset because your 65-year-old workers already have a healthcare benefit, and you may want to supplement it, but pushing people at the door, 62 or 63, they’re scratching their head and saying, “Oh my, I all of a sudden have to pick up my healthcare costs.” So those benefits become particularly meaningful for that group.

And then I would say personalized transitions. I imagine once upon a time it was like a light switch. You worked and then you didn’t. Well, there may be people who want to boomerang, maybe they’re retired, but they don’t like being retired. Have you thought of bringing them back? Maybe there’s people who would rather go down to four days a week and then three days a week and then two days a week, and maybe you can work out that personalized transition.

I haven’t seen many employers that offer any courseware on how to make the transition into this new chapter in your life. Yeah, there’s 401(k) discussions and there’s financial workshops, but what about volunteering? What about where might I live? What about who can I be become? What might my new purpose be? And so there’s a lot of room to personalize the transition, but also help your workforce make the most of the chapter that’s in front of them. And so flexibility rather than light switch, I think is the way we need to think about this.

CURT NICKISCH: Now, your article mentioned a couple of specific practices that I thought were really insightful and underscore what you’re talking about here with flexibility. You suggest offering dental insurance because that’s something that Medicare in the United States doesn’t fully cover. So if you are trying to tailor benefits to attract this workforce, that’s something you might want to considering offering if you don’t do it already.

KEN DYCHTWALD: Another thing is offering caregiving benefits, not just for children, but for parents. Could you offer elder care programs or benefits or services? HR department might say never thought of that, but we’ve heard of companies that are even offering long-term care insurance as a benefit, and if that were spread around a larger population, it would be less expensive. And there’s a lot of people who would view that as highly desirable.

And last I want to say that another benefit is just giving people some respect. I mean, you get a little bit older in this country and all of a sudden you start to realize that there’s a lot of ageism. And a benefit, which is not a formal piece of compensation, but showing some respect and letting people think that they’re worthwhile.

CURT NICKISCH: I’m also going to just mention one other benefit that made me raise my eyebrows because I just hadn’t heard of it, but it makes total sense. A few organizations are now offering leaves for grandparents, grandparental leave, which is a reason sometimes people retire. But what if you can actually take time off to spend time with a new grandchild and then return to work when you’re ready? You also talk about offering sabbaticals to older workers. So there is a lot of creativity and a lot of specific policies that you mentioned in the article that I just had not heard of.

The final strategy in your list is leveraging age diversity. We’ve touched on this a little bit. What role does that play in helping organizations address this issue?

KEN DYCHTWALD: First, let me share a perspective. What we’ve been living through is a century where all of a sudden young people have been exalted and then obsessed upon. And the roaring 20s is all about youth. And then when the boomers came along and modern marketing got its bearings, there was the belief that people would be brand loyal for life. And so you should heavy up all your programming, all your shows, all your movies, all your ads to young people because that’s who you wanted to target. Those are the words literally, youth demographic – this was their perception, which is like saying the heck with you if you’re not a young person.

So we now have a age-diverse workforce, and a lot of people are not comfortable putting their older workers in their brochures and their annual reports because they think that people will think they’re losers if they do that. So we’ve got to be more courageous and more futuristic and reinvent our thinking that having young and middle-aged and old working together and contributing each in their own ways as we’ve been discussing, but also that age diversity better aligns with the consumer marketplace, it better aligns with the future, and it is just kind of the sensible and moral and increasingly demanded way that people want their employers to be thinking about them and their older and younger colleagues.

I would say, realize that some of your thinking may be set in the past. You may be all futuristic when it comes to your technology but old-fashioned when it comes to your biases. And then begin to recognize that there’s a lot of talent among 50 and 60 and 70 year olds particularly, that is being pushed out the door.

CURT NICKISCH: Well, Ken, I believe you’ve shown that companies have a lot of room for improvement, and you’ve also shown some specific ways that they can make changes in that regard. Thanks so much for coming on the show to talk about this.

KEN DYCHTWALD: Thank you, Curt.

CURT NICKISCH: That’s Ken Dychtwald, the founder and CEO of Age Wave, and co-author of the HBR article, Redesigning Retirement. You can find it at hbr.org.

And we have nearly 1,000 more episodes plus more podcasts to help you manage your team, your organization, and your career. Find them at hbr.org/podcasts or search HBR in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Thanks to our team, senior producer Mary Dooe, associate producer Hannah Bates, audio product manager Ian Fox, and senior production specialist Rob Eckhardt. Thank you for listening to the HBR IdeaCast . We’ll be back with a new episode on Tuesday. I’m Curt Nickisch.

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Fastest Catamarans for Cruising in 2023

Catamarans appeal to sailors and would-be sailors for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is the need for speed—cats have a reputation for being faster. There are dozens of brands and tons of great boat designs that capitalize on this, and designers are constantly pushing the bounds and asking, “Really, how fast can a catamaran go?”

Performance sailing catamarans may look like your run-of-the-mill Leopard or Lagoon from a distance. But these boats are full of little tricks to boost their speeds—narrow hull designs, retractable daggerboards instead of keels, and extensive use of cutting-edge lightweight materials like carbon fiber. All of this adds up, so expect to pay double, triple, or maybe much more for a truly fast catamaran. And that means there are far fewer boats on the water, and owning one puts you in an exclusive club.

Table of Contents

Neel trimarans, what is a fast catamaran, how fast can a catamaran go, are fast catamarans the boat you’re looking for, fast catamarans faqs, top brands of fast catamarans.

Here’s a list of some of the best-known and trail-blazing fast catamaran makers. These companies are making luxury performance catamarans suited for owners who want to cruise fast. These aren’t barebones race boats built for nothing but speed. Instead, these are comfortable boats that will outperform most others in their class. 

Most performance boats will be 45 feet long or more. Small catamarans don’t fall into this category, and most production liveaboard catamarans are built too heavily in order to save money.

For more than two decades, Gunboat has been setting the bar on what a performance catamaran can be. They took state-of-the-art technologies from the racing world and applied them to family-friendly cruising catamarans. The company started in the US in 2002. One of the company’s stated missions is to create boats that sail faster than the wind in anything more than 6 knots of breeze.

Since 2016, Gunboat has built top-quality boats at their La Grande-Motte, France, facility. However, they are still a boutique builder making only a handful of boats yearly. Their current offerings include the 68, 72, and 80. All boats have narrow hulls, retractable boards, high-performance sail plans, carbon fiber construction, and luxurious living accommodations.

The first hull of the Gunboat 68, CONDOR, was launched in 2019 and set out on a trans-Atlantic crossing immediately after its sea trials. The crew wrote a detailed report of the experience and the boat’s performance. CONDOR exceeded 30 knots occasionally, but average speeds were between 14 and 17 knots. Their best 24 hours saw 328 nm (an average speed of 13.7 knots). 

The company motto says it all. “Life is too short to sail a slow boat.”

Outremer Catamarans is one of the original makers of French performance cats, in business since 1984. According to their website, the company has made over 300 boats since then. A large-scale production boat maker they are not. These are custom-built fast catamarans of the highest quality, made for safety, comfort, and speed. Outremer recently received much attention when popular YouTubers Sailing La Vagabonde sailed aboard an Outremer 45 for several years.

Currently, Outremer offers boats ranging from the 45 to the 5X (48 to 60 feet long). The X models (4X and 5X) are even more performance-oriented, with more extensive use of carbon fiber and a more race-inspired sail plan.

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Catana is yet another French performance brand of luxury cruising catamaran. Today, Catana Group also makes Bali cruising catamarans, effectively marketing Catanas to the performance set and Bali’s to the cruising and charter set. https://www.catana.com

Presently, Catana is only making two models, the OC50 and the 53. Historically, however, Catana has made many beautiful boats. Notably, the 471 is a fast cruising catamaran that is a favorite among long-distance cruisers. On the smaller side, the 431 and even the 401 and 381 are quick and fun sailers that move better than their competition.

Catanas are easily recognizable by their daggerboards and narrow hulls with asymmetrical designs. In addition, they use a lightweight composite layup that results in a very stiff boat that weighs less than their competitors. Still, Catanas are not on the same level as an Outremer 5X or Gunboat–these are fiberglass boats that are built better than the competition and made to outperform many other boats. 

HH Catamarans is Gunboat’s first real competitor in the high-end performance cat market. They started in 2012 and are part of the Hudson Yacht Group. The boats are designed by Morrelli & Melvin, a highly-regarded multihull design firm, and are built in Xiamen, China, or Cebu, Philippines.

HH has boats in their model line from 44 to 88 feet long. The company focuses on providing what owners and sailors want and are looking for, so you’ll see lots of customizability within the lineup. They include features you won’t find from a lot of builders, including lots of planned real estate for solar panels (5kW or more!), hybrid drive systems, and ocean cruising OC (keels) or sport cruising SC (daggerboard) models to pick from.

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Balance started in South Africa in 2013. They focus on making semi-custom, comfortable performance yachts that are strong and safe and can be easily operated single-handedly or by a couple. They are live-aboard boats that strike a balance between comfort and performance. But, compared to the current offerings from Lagoon or Leopard, it’s clear that Balance cats skew far more toward performance than others do.

Models currently range from the 442 to the 750. They’re available with daggerboards or keels and made with extensive carbon fiber and all epoxy-resin composites. According to their website, the current record speed for a Balance 482 while surfing is 28 knots. She’ll cruise all day between 8 and 14 on a reach, though. They describe the 482 as a “trend-setting circumnavigator”—the perfect boat for your sail around the world route .

Kinetic Catamarans are designed by Simonis Voogd and built in Knysna, South Africa. Like others on the list, these are semi-custom, luxury, performance cruising cats with an emphasis on speed. They have all-carbon construction, carbon spars, laminated sails, and a forward sailing cockpit deck layout.

Since they are truly semi-custom, each boat is spec-ed out to each buyer’s vision. This includes standard or racing rigs, centerboards or daggerboards, and many furnishings, layouts, and outfitting options. Kinetic currently offers 54 and 62-foot versions.

What’s better than two hulls? Three, maybe. That is, three might be better if your goal is truly fast sailing. Neel Trimarans is a new French builder attempting to capitalize on this simple fact by merging the best of all worlds—the space and liveability of a cruising catamaran with the performance, sail efficiency, and stability of an offshore-capable tri.

The company presently offers models between 43 and 65 feet. They say cruising speeds are reliably over 10 knots, with 15 to 18 knots when the breeze freshens. Compared to cats, these boats’ rigid central hulls allow for stronger rigging and better upwind performance, and the central keel allows better tracking and rudder control.

Now you’ve looked at some fast cats, you might wonder what constitutes “fast.”

You will be wowed if you’re selling your 30-foot monohull and moving up to a 50-foot cat. But if you’re coming from the world of car and plane travel, sailboats of any ilk are anything but “fast.”

The first thing to accept is that all sailboats are slow . This shocks many people who think they’d like to travel and see the world by sailboat. The marketing of these “fast cats” is everywhere, and the idea that the faster boat is safer because you can “beat the weather” is especially pervasive. No sailboat at sea can outrun a front or storm cell moving at 30 or 40 knots. 

In truth, the fastest catamaran you can comfortably live aboard and cruise on will average out under 15 knots . In similar conditions, production catamarans might be doing 10 to 12. The monohull speeds of the same length might be 7 or 8 knots, and a bigger monohull with similar living space might be doing 10 or 12.

So don’t be lulled or wowed by these vessel’s maximum speed or “surfing” claims—they’re fun numbers to kick around with your dock neighbors, but what really matters is how many miles you can tick off in a day of travel.

To get more speed than this, you’ll either push the boat in ways that are not safe or comfortable at sea, or you will have to find bigger, more advanced, and even more expensive vessels. Most boats on this list are luxury liveaboard that is safe to travel the world. 

But are they fast? As the old sailor saying goes, “Nothing goes to weather like a 747.” Sailing is still sailing. And sailing is a slow, slow, slow way to see the world. 

Traditional monohull sailboats are displacement vessels that are limited by a few rules. As they push the water out of their way, they build up bow and stern waves. Push too much water, and the waves get bigger, pulling the vessel farther into the water. So no matter how you power it, it’s limited to hull speed. Hull speed is a factor of waterline length, width of the hull, and displacement. 

Modern designs favor flat bottoms like powerboats, with the idea that they can surf and plane to get more speed. Catamarans take this even further, and with some clever design tricks , it’s possible to get a catamaran well above displacement speeds for extended runs. Of course, a lot depends on the hull type, and other factors are also at play.

Catamarans are very sensitive to weight . Their speed comes from being a lightweight boat with the ability to fly across the water, contrary to how a heavy monohull plows through it. The heavier the boat, the lower it sits in the water.

Therefore, adding weight to any catamaran will slow it down. To this end, finding a performance-oriented liveaboard catamaran less than 47 feet long is difficult. Less than this, and the narrow hulls simply can’t hold the weight of you and your stuff. 

Finally, there’s the consideration of the environment you’re sailing in. The wind is obvious—they sail fastest on a broad reach. And, just like any other type of boat, they are slowest when close-hauled and on a run. 

Rough seas are another of the catamaran characteristics to consider in your need for speed. Often the boat is capable of more, but the ride is rough and uncomfortable.

So you shorten sail and slow down to find the sweet spot of comfortable sailing speed—enough power to maintain a good speed without pounding your brains out and causing undo fatigue on the crew. And, of course, the rougher the conditions, the slower the boat’s performance as she slows and in the troughs and speeds “downhill.”

While they are faster than other vessels, that’s certainly not the only thing catamarans have going for them. Fast is a relative term, and “fast” sailing is still awfully slow. So unless you already love sailing, sailing fast might not have as much appeal as you’d expect.

Catamarans are great vessels with a lot of pluses. And these fast modern catamarans are some of the best—luxurious living space aboard comfortable, top-quality vessels. 

What are the fastest catamarans?

Like those used in recent America’s Cup races, pure racing catamarans use foils to lift their hulls out of the water. Whether performance-oriented or not, regular catamarans for cruising are much slower, averaging between 10 and 15 knots. Still, they generally outperform monohull sailboats of similar lengths in most conditions, especially when sailing downwind.

How fast does a 50 foot catamaran sail?

There are many designs of catamarans, and they all sail differently. In some conditions, a pure racing catamaran may sail significantly faster than the wind speed. Most cruising catamarans, whether designated as “performance” or not, will max out around 12 to 15 knots. Momentary peak speeds may be significantly higher. 

What is the fastest point of sail catamaran?

As with all sailboats, the fastest point of sail will be near a beam reach, where the apparent wind is 90 degrees from the boat’s bow. Since cats travel faster over the water, this usually means that the true wind is off the quarter, with a true wind angle of about 120 degrees off the bow.

How fast is the Gunboat 68?

Gunboat 68, hull number 1 (68-01), was launched in 2019. Immediately after sea trials, CONDOR crossed the Atlantic . The crew reported the vessel’s max speed exceeded 30 knots occasionally, with averages between 14 and 17 knots. Their best day was 328 nm, making the average speed for those 24 hours 13.7 knots (15.8 mph).

Matt has been boating around Florida for over 25 years in everything from small powerboats to large cruising catamarans. He currently lives aboard a 38-foot Cabo Rico sailboat with his wife Lucy and adventure dog Chelsea. Together, they cruise between winters in The Bahamas and summers in the Chesapeake Bay.

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Catamaran Vs Monohull

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

August 30, 2022

Monohulls and traditional sailboats, once ubiquitous, are giving way to modern catamarans. But how do these designs differ?

Monohulls have a single hull, and catamarans have two hulls side-by-side. Catamarans are faster than monohulls of the same length and displacement, but monohulls are stronger and more spacious. Monohulls are also cheaper and easier to build than multi-hulls.

In this article, we’ll cover the differences between catamarans and monohulls, along with the benefits and drawbacks of each design. We’ll also cover the sailing characteristics of each and why catamarans so easily outrun equivalently-sized monohulls.

We sourced the information used in this article from trusted sailboat design resources, along with manufacturer specifications and boat market analysis.

Table of contents

‍ What is a Catamaran?

Catamarans are a kind of multi-hull sailboat with two hulls joined together. They are often short and wide, resembling a square or rectangle from above.

Catamarans are colloquially distinct from outriggers, which are double-hulled vessels with one large primary hull and a small outboard stabilizing hull.

Catamarans usually have hulls that mirror each other, both in size and arrangement. Sometimes, the interior layouts are mirrored, too—but this varies between designs and manufacturers. Catamaran hulls are narrower and taller than most monohull designs of equal lengths.

Catamarans have limited commercial and military utility, as these applications favor space and ease-of-construction over handling characteristics. That said, there are some commercial uses for catamaran designs—most commonly passenger and car ferries.

What is a Monohull Sailboat?

A monohull is probably what you traditionally think of as a boat. Monohulls are longer than they are wide. It features a single hull—it’s that simple. Sailing monohull designs have evolved over the centuries into many distinct types, usually distinguished by keel type.

Monohulls come in many shapes and sizes . For example, sailing monohulls designed for offshore use have long keels that sometimes extend much further below the waterline than the freeboard and cabin extend above it.

Monohull sailboats are also designed for other purposes, such as inland sailing and racing. These vessels have more contemporary characteristics, such as rounded shallow ‘canoe’ bottoms, V-bottoms, and fin keels.

Monohulls aren’t just sailboats. Virtually every cargo and container ship, warship, and many passenger ships are monohulls due to their strength, ease of construction, and high cargo capacity.

Are Monohull Sailboats More Common?

Monohulls are more common in every application, though multi-hulls are becoming more common for ferries. Monohulls have numerous benefits over multi-hulls, and these benefits only increase with scale.

Monohulls are easy to construct. They’re also cheap. Large monohull ships, such as container ships, can be built with very little material and effort. This is because the vast majority of the length of a monohull is just a box, with a bow and stern welded onto the end.

Sailboat construction is more intricate, but the costs are still lower. Plus, monohull designs are robust, and cabin space is plentiful. There’s a lot more study in the field of monohull design, which was the universal truth until somewhat recently.

But all in all, the reason why monohull sailboats are more common is that they work just fine. Most sailboat owners aren’t interested in breaking speed records or hosting dozens of people aboard their boats. As a result, a standard, simple, and easy-to-control monohull are more than sufficient.

Are Catamarans Faster than Monohulls?

Catamarans are most certainly faster than monohulls. This is almost always the case. Even the fastest production monohulls can’t hold a candle to the average cruising catamaran.

But why is this the case? Aren’t catamarans restricted by the same hydrodynamic forces as monohulls? As it turns out, they aren’t. This has to do with the unusual way hull waves impact speed.

Hull Speed Limitations

Monohull speed is limited by something called hull speed. Hull speed is determined using a formula that calculates the maximum speed a displacement hull can travel under normal power and conditions.

When a displacement hull moves through the water, it kicks up a set of waves at the bow and stern. These waves travel along the side of the vessel and create drag, which slows down the boat. Normally, the power of the wind can overcome this drag—but only to a point.

At a certain speed, the waves kicked up by the bow will sync with the waves kicked up at the stern and begin ‘working together’ against the boat. The speed at which this occurs is the hull speed, which is calculated from the length of the boat.

Hull speed limitations for monohulls aren’t universally true all the time. Some vessels exceed it, and some don’t—but the number is a useful estimate of the limitations of monohull designs. Modern monohulls with clever hull shapes can defeat hull speed calculations.

Do Hull Speed Limitations Apply to Catamarans?

Surprisingly no—hull speed calculations don’t work for catamarans. This is because, for one, the hulls are shaped differently. Alone, catamaran hulls wouldn’t float correctly. But together, they create different hydrodynamic effects and cancel out the effects of hull speed.

This means that catamarans can easily exceed the speeds of even the fastest monohulls of equal length—and sometimes beat them by a margin of 50% or more. It’s not unheard of for 40-foot catamarans to exceed 20 knots, whereas 40-foot monohulls rarely get past 10.

Are Catamarans More Comfortable than Monohulls?

Catamarans can be much more comfortable than equivalently-sized monohulls—up to a point. This is because catamarans engage in ‘wave piercing’ and have a wider and more stable footprint on the water.

Catamaran hulls, when properly designed, can slice through parts of a wave instead of riding over every peak and trough. This effectively reduces the height of the weight, which reduces the amount the boat rolls.

Additionally, the wide footprint of a catamaran allows some waves to simply pass right under it, keeping the boat level for longer durations. Catamarans also don’t heel under sail—instead, they plane slightly, raising the bows out of the water and reducing bumps.

Monohull Benefits

Monohulls are proven in all conditions. A well-designed displacement monohull sailboat can ride out the strongest storms, and monohull workboats can support enormous loads and move them efficiently. They can be fast, comfortable, and also easy to sail (even for beginners).

Monohulls are cheap to build and forgiving, as precision doesn’t have to be microscopic to get them to sail right. They’re robust and strong, featuring a naturally stress-resistant hull shape. They’re also easy to modify and aren’t required to meet as strict of dimensional ratios to operate.

With a monohull sailboat, you have a lot of interior room to work with. This means that monohulls are available in numerous cabin layouts and are just as easy to modify as they are to build. Monohulls often have a center of gravity at or below the waterline, which enhances stability at steep heel angles.

On the water, displacement monohulls can weather extreme conditions with ease. They lack the initial stability of multi-hulls, but they can recover from knockdowns on their own, and they’re very difficult to push past their rollover point.

Why do Catamarans Cost More than Monohulls?

Catamarans cost more than monohulls because they’re more expensive to build, more complex to engineer, and require more material. This isn’t always the case, but the design of catamarans requires much more careful engineering and strength-of-materials analysis than comparatively simple monohulls.

There are several critical structural points on catamarans that monohulls lack. In fact, the very shape of a monohull is physically strong—so it has inherent durability. Catamaran hulls must be joined in the middle, and the mast must have a strong point far from the inherently sturdy hulls.

This requires stronger materials and more care during design or construction. This is why catamarans remain a premium part of the sailboat market and why they still aren’t the most popular sailboats despite their numerous performance and comfort benefits.

Catamaran Cabin Layout

Catamaran cabins are split between the two hulls, and there’s usually a large pilothouse in the center. Pilothouse catamarans can be quite spacious, primarily due to the large space between the hulls.

The pilothouse is usually where kitchen and sitting areas are located, along with cockpit access and the controls of the sailboat. The mast is also located in this area.

Catamaran cabins sometimes mirror each other. For example, each hull may contain two identical bedroom/bathroom combos, while the center console area contains the kitchen and living spaces.

The two identical hulls sometimes make for unusual design decisions (such as small catamarans with four master bedrooms), but owners say this gives their passengers a much better experience than a monohull cabin.

Monohull Cabin Layout

Monohull cabins, with the exception of split-cabin sailboats with a center cockpit, have only one large interior space to work with. It’s usually much wider than catamarans of equal length.

Monohull cabins are usually accessible from the bow (via a flush deck hatch) and the stern via a traditional companionway. They run the span of the hull between the bow and the cockpit and sometimes include spare berths under the cockpit seats.

These spare berths are often used as convenient sea cabins, as they offer quick access to controls in case of an emergency. Catamarans often have convertible berths in the center console for the same reason.

Monohull cabins are traditional and include everything that catamaran cabins do—albeit with slightly less room overall. That said, individual spaces are often much wider, and facilities are more appropriate.

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