It is easy to overlook a building breeze when bowling along downwind in a multihull which is going faster and faster.

What is faster monohull or catamaran. Typically catamarans do not sail well upwind and therefore need a different technique for tacking. Keep your boat. Whatever your cruising goals are catamarans will usually move you about more quickly than a monohull.

However in very rough sailing conditions tacking going to windward - monohulls perform better than catamarans do. Old cruising catamarans may not go faster than 8 knots and modern monohulls can exceed 10 knots. That plus the fact that they keep their sails perpendicular to the wind means they sail faster than monohulls especially on a run or broad reach.

Sailing flat has definite advantages. You basically get near racing monohull speeds but with all the creature comforts that come with a cat. Sailing catamarans can sail half the speed of the wind depending upon their angle.

So no clear comparison can really be made. The next boat in line is a windsurfer which is a monohull boat. Catamarans are faster both under power or sail compared to a similar-sized monohull.

Its less tiring to sail a catamaran than it is to sail a monohull. Without the need for a heavy keel catamarans are lighter than an equivalent monohull. A 40ft catamaran will have twice the waterline length of a monohull of the same length and can go considerably quicker as a result.

Emirates Team New Zealand has unveiled the new AC75 monohull for the next Americas Cup and this incredible new flying monohull could be faster than the AC50 catamarans. Speed Its often said that a catamaran is usually faster than a monohull of similar size but even on our old heavy displacement monohull a Tayana 37 weve overtaken modern bigger cruising catamarans. This means catamarans can get into places monohulls yachts often cannot reach and that they can also anchor closer to shore.