Reddit mentions of Catamaran Racing: For the 90's

I've posted this before, but it's worth posting again. I don't race catamarans but the book has helped me quite a lot in terms of learning how to sail.

It's also been said here before, but if you're having trouble getting both bows through the wind while tacking, try sheeting in the jib late (assuming you've got one) - it can help push the bows across onto the new tack.

But most of all, enjoy the boat!

That's awesome to hear, and once you get one welcome to the club. If you were anywhere near West Michigan I would invite you to join us but I'm guessing your not.

In response to a few things I have read while skimming this thread:

Hobie 16 are not hard to recover from a turtle. I would not recommend using a bob (giant float at the top of the mast) because I had heard of people suffering from a lost of speed due to wind resistance. Unless you and your crew are both tiny people or you will only be sailing it in lakes less than 20ft deep righting a 16 is fairly easy. All you have to do is release all of the sheets, pull out as much slack as you can on the main sheet, and then get all of your weight on the back of one of the pontoons. This will cause the bow of the opposite pontoon to rise and you can get it back to being on its side where you can do a normal recover. On that note I highly recommend a Hawaiian style righting system.

Yes they are big to trailer, but without going to a mano-slug with a drop keel or a bigger catamaran you won't find any dingy with that much sail area and or power to weigh ratio.

The one down side of any type of multi-hull that that they can almost always be out pointed by a mano-slug. If you are unfamiliar with pointing that is how close to straight into the wind you an go while still producing thrust with the sails. With a Hobie 16 you can get in the ball park of 45* off straight into the wind where with a mano-slug you can get about another 10 to 15 degrees closer. Where multi-hulls make up for that is in the speed. To make it to an upwind mark we may not be able to take a more direct route, but we can cover more distance faster. Plus, on a reach we can blow anything else out of the water.

Tacking (changing direction with the bow passing through directly into the wind) is more difficult than on a mano-slug, especially having to cover more of a change of angle thanks to not being able to point as well. This can be compensated with good technique. The basics of that are to keep the jib on the same side until and then let it back wind for a moment to let the wind push the bows through the dead zone and then bringing the jib over on the new tack. This can also be assisted by crew weight distribution to bring the new leeward bow out of the water so there is less resistance to turn.

You absolutely want to sail with a jib. While there are other designs of cats like the Hobie 14 (non turbo) that don't have a jib, the 16, as someone else mentioned, uses the jib as the forestay when when the jib is up. The jib and the main work in tandem by controlling the air moving over the main that helps generate forward force, and without a jib you are really SOL when it comes to tacking as the main alone is just going to act like a giant weather vain.

The name of the book may make it seem comically outdated but Catamaran Racing for the 90's is still often referred to as the Bible of cat sailing
http://www.amazon.com/Catamaran-Racing-For-Rick-White/dp/1880871009

If you have any other questions you are more than welcome to send me a PM. I have sailed little sail boats, raced big sail boats, and I have owned a Hobie 16 for about 4 years now (my girlfriends name for it is "The Mistress").