The moment of truth will be a real test at sea

Finally, even if the amount of time when you are actually sailing isn’t really that much when cruising, your multi-hull’s performance at sea will have a major impact on your comfort – both everyday life on board and your sleep. Your sensitivity to noise may cause you to shy away from certain materials (see the article on this subject), and you might worry that the low bridgedeck clearance on some boats could induce unbearable shocks as soon as the sea becomes a little rough. The moment of truth will be a real test at sea which will reveal whether the multihull that has seduced you so much on pa-per can withstand the ocean swell.

If you’ve never been a keen racing sailor and aren’t too worried about that extra tenth of a knot, then the VMG and the AWA upwind may seem rather meaningless to you. The apparent wind, noise, humidity and the greater stresses in the sails induced by high speeds can also be considered as elements of stress and discomfort. On the other hand, a few more knots on the log and the daily runs increase, crossings become shorter and less tiring and weather systems are easier to anticipate. Between the followers of Carl Honoré and his In Praise of Slow and the insatiable search for sensations and gliding, there are many compromises to be made. But when it comes to performance on our multihulls, the factors that we can play with are clearly identified: weight, length, sail area, sail shapes and materials, windage, appendages, wetted surface and the cleanliness of the hulls.