Catamarans are known for their stability so typically if a capsize event should occur it is typical for them to be extreme circumstances.

How often do catamarans capsize. On July 31 2010 the Atlantic 57 Catamaran Anna with a crew of two was capsized by a violent squall 125nm from Tonga in the South Pacific. Wind 56 wind and wave 16 pitchpole 12 wave 8 breaking wave 4 flooded 4. This news came as a shock to me and most of the owners of Atlantic Catamarans as well as sailors of other cruising catamarans.

The truth is a well-designed catamaran behaves much like a light displacement monohull. If you have raced planing dinghies or catamarans you know that when the wind is puffy and you are occasionally overpowered on a reach pulling up the centerboard leeward fin on a cat allows the boat to skid sideways with the puffs dissipating the wind energy. By burying a bow and tripping over it and the vast majority of these are racing catamarans.

Proas are lovely though. This is purely personal opinion. As the boat approaches 10 degrees of heel the windward hull will be close to lifting.

Another positive safety issue is of course redundancy. We think of gravity as a force that pulls things downward toward Earths centre but it doesnt always work like that. Why do catamarans capsize.

While the USCG statistical report does not break out boating fatalities by primary activity except for skiing it is clear from looking over the reports that more than 90 of all of the open motorboats and rowboat fatalities involved boats used for fishing as opposed to sportboats skiboats or other types of open motorboats primarily used for other purposes. And one in 300000 is four times the average height. And now an often overlooked issue wave impact and how the energy is absorbed.

One of the exciting sailing features of mini catamarans is that they can lift off one hull and ride on the other. This lesson can be advanced further as shown below. 84 of the catamaran casualties were the result of wind induced capsize or pitchpoling.