Multihull cruiserr

It's multihull time again and we have an eclectic group of boats to review. I know the argument rages on in some circles about which are the better boats, multihulls or monohulls, but I like both. Sailing is sailing and while I may personally prefer one flavor to another I would never think of saying one type is better than the other.

This Raider 30 comes from Australian designer Tony Grainger. This boat already has an impressive track record with several offshore racing wins including a 330-mile event in which they beat, boat for boat, 22 multihulls and 50 monohulls. The only boats that beat the prototype Raider were an Open 60, a 56-foot carbon racing cat and a 60-foot racing cat. That is indeed impressive. In a recent 15.5-mile race in Florida in light air the Raider beat a Stilleto 23 cat by 2 minutes, 7 seconds and an F-31 by 10 minutes, 56 seconds.

The idea behind the trailerable Raider 30 is performance and comfort. Well, I agree that this boat has more comfort than many racing cats but it has some disadvantages in terms of comfort when you compare it to a 30-foot monohull. The Raider has four berths. They are generous in size but none can convert to a double. This is simply a function of the narrow hull.

The galley is equal to what you would find in many 30-footers and the head is even bigger than one in a typical 30-footer. The head is essentially part of the forward berth area with no privacy. The problem with this layout is that there isn't a saloon. There are opposing seats in the port hull but you would be sitting knee to knee with other crewmembers. I suspect this boat is intended for areas where it is warm and sunny and dining and other saloon functions will occur on deck. Trampolines are comfortable to lay on but not very comfortable to sit on for long periods but this cat does have extended cockpits in both hulls.

The hull form for this cat shows rocker that stays flat from amidships forward but kicks up sharply around station 7.5. There appears to be plenty of volume forward to help prevent the lee bow from burying. L/B is 7.54 for each hull. If we use overall beam, BOA, L/B is 1.54. I estimate DWL to be 29 feet and that gives us a D/L of 54.9. Note that there are molded GRP hiking racks fixed aft, which do not show up on the drawings. From the photos I would estimate these racks allow the crew to get about 20 inches farther outboard. Daggerboards are canted so when the cat heels the board will be 90 degrees to the water surface. The rudders are retractable.

The Raider comes in two models, standard and grand prix. The grand prix model has an additional 61 square feet of sail on a rotating mast that is 3 feet, 6 inches higher than the fixed mast on the standard model. The mast is well aft in this design. There is a bowsprit for flying a large screecher. Using the sail area numbers (not I, J, E and P) for the grand prix model we get a SA/D of 48.15. That's a lot of horsepower per pound.

Raider will introduce a cruising model later this summer with a hard deck instead of the trampoline, a higher boom and roller-furling headsail.