Cruising Multihull Speedster

Stroll around any big marina. There tucked in a corner you will inevitably find an old Stiletto cat with its jet fighter canopies and knifelike hulls. These old boats are still being raced and enjoyed. The Stiletto represents Peter Wormwood's introduction into cruising cats. Believe it or not, built in the very early '70s, the Stilettos were built with Nomex honeycomb and pre-preg E-glass hulls.

Thirty years later these hulls are still near state of the art. Peter's new cruising cat is this 35-foot racer-cruiser. Weight is the enemy in any boat design, but even more so with cats. This cat weighs 7,300 pounds for a D/L of 86.68. If cats get heavy they gain wetted surface and can become light-air dogs. Consider that a comparable, high-performance monohull with the same weight would have about 185 square feet of wetted surface (without keel and rudder). Put this displacement into two hulls and you get 220 square feet of wetted surface. This is an 18-percent increase.

In light air it's almost entirely a wetted-surface battle. You can balance this a bit with the knowledge that in Peter's design the boards are fully retractable, whereas in our hypothetical monohull, the keel would almost certainly be fixed. Curiously enough, the difference in wetted surface between the cat and the monohull is almost precisely the area of the hypothetical monohull's fixed keel. I see some of the goofiest, yes, "goofiest," looking keels on multihulls. Peter has avoided this by using high-aspect-ratio centerboards toed slightly in. This angle helps get the board trunk out of the accommodation volume.

Board-up draft is a convenient 16 inches, but board down you get a solid 7 feet of draft ensuring excellent speed to weather. The rudder is retractable, allowing you to beach this cat. Outboard motor power also facilitates this draft reduction for beaching. The accommodations for this boat feature a layout designed for warm weather.

The galley is essentially in the cockpit. My favorite quote from Peter's designer's comments refers to the galley as "not being pretentious enough to compete with romantic evenings ashore dining in some quaint, local restaurant." That's an interesting way to put it. The hard dodger blends the accommodations with the cockpit. You can enclose the whole thing with a Bimini-curtain if the weather turns wet.

This rig is tall with a high-aspect-ratio "fat head" mainsail sporting no less than 11 battens. The mast is a rotating type to further increase the big mainsail's effectiveness. There are seven battens in the jib. Battens help control the back half of the sail and ensure a smooth exit in contrast to the "speed curl" we see along the leech on so many in-mast furling sails. The SA/D of this design is an intimidating 34.44. Not to worry, this boat can be sailed under mainsail alone when the wind pipes up. An asymmetrical chute tacked to a short, articulating bowsprit is provided for off-wind power.

In light air you can ease the pole to leeward and fly a big screecher outside the shrouds. This looks like a fun ride to me.