As simple as that.

Does a catamaran have a keel. Furthermore I am one of the few designers who has fitted LAR keels and boards to the same hull on Strider Sagitta and Banshee and then sailed them against each other. A catamaran stays stable since it has a wide base it does not have a deep keel as on a monohull. Hull does not require the deep-running keel of a standard monohull sailboat.

Less hull drag in the water than a monohull. Dagger Boards The average cruising catamaran has keels while high performance catamaran cruisers have dagger boards. Daggerboard catamarans have several advantages over their keel counterparts some of which are well known and others that are more subtle and sometimes only recognized by people who have used them.

Foils are designed to create lift and to minimize drag. If you have a boat with daggerboards please notice that they are not strong enough to withstand beaching and since you dont have any fixed keels beaching might not be possible. You have to be very aware of the wind conditions when arriving or departing a marina dock.

Catamarans just dont have enough keel area. On the other hand if you have a boat with fixed keels then the odds are that. Some high performance catamarans from manufacturers like Outremer Gunboat and HH make incredibly fast catamarans that can achieve speeds in the high teens and low 20s under ideal conditions.

Without a keel boats are much harder to steer and more likely to capsize. The only time a boat may not have a keel is if it is double-hulled. A keel also makes it possible to steer without sliding to the side especially when going upwind.

If one of the hulls on the catamaran had a keel and the other didnt it would be very hard to control. In the case of these boats it comes back to daggerboards. Cats are known for not heeling.