How to make a comfortable catamaran even more comfortable

On the one hand, there was a shipowner tired of monohulls and eager to upgrade to a comfortable catamaran, leave for the Caribbean (or better yet, return), live aboard as comfortable as an apartment. On the other, Davide Zerbinati, the “guru” of preparing and optimizing boats for long sailing. When Denis Pietropoli purchased a brand new Lagoon 42S, he asked Zerbinati to “fix it up” and prepare it for the Atlantic crossing (from Sardinia to Le Marin, Martinique, via the Canary Islands) and to make it even more comfortable, marine and safe.

Davide has written this fine article for us, which, as always, is peppered with technical advice and to draw from. Very useful for your “comfortable catamaran.”

How to make a catamaran comfortable–even more comfortable

After two long quarantines in the Caribbean, Denis Pietropoli returned to Europe and ordered a Lagoon 42S (12.80 x 7.70 m) from NSS Yachting. The choice of catamaran is dictated by reasons of convenience and preferring life on board over sailing.

All that wasted time spent in the bay without much opportunity for movement aboard a Bavaria 44 prompted our client and now friend to opt for a boat more suited to his style of experiencing the sea. The choice is dictated primarily, precisely, by adopting a “quiet” philosophy: more roadstead and relaxation than challenging sailing.

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There is still time (until July 15) to apply for the 2025 ecobonus and get the electric motor!

The catamaran ordered on WhatsApp

The boat is ordered via WhatsApp and after about 5 months, between lockdowns, it arrives at the NSS base. There was not even time to do antifouling in France. To avoid closures, blockades and restrictions, skippers got off to a fast start. In April 2021 the boat is in Sardinia on a non-stop trip from La Rochelle.

The choices of the boat outfitting were simple: proprietaire (owner’s) version with removal of the settee and creation of a large chest of drawers, the Code Zero option that provides bowsprit, aft sheet points and additional winches, square top mainsail and an electric mainsail halyard winch completed the sail plan of You & Me (this is the name of Pietropoli’s Lagoon 42S).

For Denis now begins the choice and life change, the decision to go live on a boat, to live in the Caribbean and sail where one could not sail in 2020. The boat then enters the shipyard and those improvements necessary for travel and life aboard are made.

The work of preparing the comfortable catamaran

The first question the owner asked me was this: you know the Lagoons, do you see them in the market after a few years, what are the main weaknesses? Let’s solve them. It really only needs more reinforcements at the bollards and eyebolts of the bow tie-rods, full closure of the cockpit and console, the rest are improvements and fine-tuning based on how you want to sail.

• The first work done was to remove the original sea intakes and replace them with Randex filled resin ones that are fitted as standard in the toilet drains from the yard, but not on the other systems.
• Then it was chosen to applyCoppercoat copper antifouling and epoxy, after a preventive epoxy cycle. This choice is due to the fact that finding places to wing catamarans is not always so straightforward, and then if you are sailing in hot areas, with the water at 30° getting a bath and brush up is also a pleasure.
• On-board autonomy is a crucial point for catamarans; they often have little water, and tanks can be made in the fins or in cases usually at the mast base. Without a generator, the Lagoon 42 has two 300-liter tanks, so a very good range, but water is never enough, and since catamarans run much more on motor than a monohull, the smartest solution is to combine a drag desalinator on a motor. The choice fell on ZP, which provided a 200l/h model. This makes up for any consumption, 4Kg washing machine included.
• For power capacity, having the boat with 600A gel batteries and two dedicated to the motors, it was enough to Build a rollbar capable of supporting 1700W of solar panels, with the undoubted advantage of having extended the fly and thus having the tender (3.50 m with 20 hp) always in the shade or more shade in the cockpit.

It’s off to sea. The first tests

The testing of the boat took place in Greece and then in the Mediterranean crossing to Cartagena where a good disturbance tested You & Me and its crew (there were two on board).

My background on catamarans originated 30 years ago when my father considered building a 50-foot Prout Quasar, a British catamaran very different from those of today, and a Wharram(here is the beautiful story of James Wharram), even more extreme.

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The portable electric generator that takes up the space of a walkway

When I was 16 years old I sailed on one of the first Privilege Jeantot at the turn of the 1990s. These hulls were sturdy, a bit slow, but characterized by a central hull that broke waves passing under the belly and prevented gags. Next came sailing with the Catana drift boats, the Fredys, and the Outremer. Today they are all valued models.

Despite the spread of these multihulls in the charter market there are several ocean nomads who have opted for the catamaran preferring space, habitability, protected cockpit, and shallow draft to the nautical advantages of the monohull. Many spend more time at anchor than sailing. In the most extreme latitudes, very few are seen.

Back to the journey. The owner takes You & Me to the Canary Islands following the Moroccan coast, but there is little wind and for four days we proceed by motor, at least dodging the danger of Orcas, which three days earlier had struck three boats, damaging each one’s rudder.

Comfortable catamaran – The other works

I reach the owner in Fuerteventura, and from there work begins on rigging control and boat optimization.

First, a large, heavy gennaker with high-slip ATN stocking was purchased. The sail was designed to the width of the boat and the height of the mast and deckhouse. In multihulls, the colorful sail is essential, and the boat likes it to be big and carried with a nice high belly. The Para Sailor would be the ideal sail, but Lagoon reports precisely that parachute sails are not to be used without the mainsail.

Actually, there is a trick and that is to create a backstay by using the mainsail halyard and bringing it upwind on the aft bollard (properly reinforced). It is good to remember that the catamaran does not heel, it has no way to discharge energy from the mast, and therefore the mast is highly stressed. Those who want to can take the risk or opt for more structured carbon masts for these sails. It’s a shame because the Para Sailor is a brilliant solution in medium-to-high winds and practical for those on a budget, although I often see crews arranging opening fin lanyards on remote beaches.

These are the key changes:

1. To make the best use of the gennaker

To optimize the use of the gennaker, it is good to bring the tack upwind. We then looked for a spot on the hull that was sturdy and at the end of the bows where we could put a padeye (eyebolt). The hulls are 10 mm thick in that area and thus more than enough to hold the half-ton load of the mura. We recovered padeyes of about 2500Kg load on site, although the package did not state the exact load.

From here we put a dyneema loop and a four-way hoist to take the maneuver to the bollard, nearby without touching the pulpit. The option was to take the maneuver to the windlass should it be necessary to caulk by force.

To be on the safe side, we always left the tack on the bowsprit as well, so as to have an inverted V and help keep the tack point balanced. Its function was also that of safety in case we had to leave the sheet of the tack. Only in one case did we use it.

Allocating the stocking tops was another problem. Initially we put them on the mast, but then to avoid problems we took them downwind on the rigging.

The hoisting and lowering maneuver requires up to four people, but it can be done by two with good training. The sock being upwind is quite stressed by the wind and so to open it well we would hold the sail’s ghinda for the first few meters, then the sail would inflate raising the sock and helping the work of those holding their scottinas.

On the fly you would cock the sheet and go, flying at 8 knots or more. The gennaker was used for 66 percent of the trip, we even kept it for 48 hours straight, but in the second half because of storms we preferred to use the white sails or the Code Zero.

The stocking gennaker is more versatile than the furling gennaker, but for a smaller crew a large furling genoa or reacher could also be considered. Unfortunately, there is no provision for a tangon, which would be a great help in light winds.

2. On-board communications: Bluetooth headsets

To communicate with those at the rigging and controls, we used Bluetooth headsets, which were very useful because the noise of the water forward between the nets and aft from tail wakes made any communication difficult. Bonnets are life-changing, and we use them all the time now, even in anchoring maneuvers. A sailor with bonnets is the ultimate in safety.

3. Halyards, sheets, rigging of the comfortable catamaran

The main halyards have been changed from polyester to dyneema with double overhead sheathing for both the 2-to-1 mainsail halyard and the 2:1 of the Tails. Protective socks were added on the gennaker sheets because the sheet points were carried on the aft bollards.

Here with a loop the blocks were fixed. Before departure and after arrival, the rigging was carefully checked and although the mainsail cannot rest on the mast or shrouds. Le crosses were covered with soft material. In the end, this protection served more for the gennaker. In fact, when the boat slowed down in the hollow of the wave, the gennaker with little wind would sag and the leech would be able to reach the spreaders.

4. How do I fix your self-tacking bow.

The boat is fitted with a self-tacking jib, which is useless at the headlands, so a stern sheet point was created using the padeye of code zero and a barber on the center bollard. This configuration stabilized the sail, reduced stresses on the mast and optimized speed.

5. Mainsail withholding

Retention at mainsail. To avoid large stresses on the rigging, a restraint was put on the boom. This required some fumbling because the deckhouse is wide and there are no convenient handholds to reach. It cannot be carried forward as on a monohull. The padeye of code zero came good in the end.

6. The protection of wear points

All wear points were protected with Teflon tape from Protect Tape, rigging and pulley outlet included. Most useful. All the shackles were fitted with safety clamps except for one, and which one dropped off? Just the one, fortunately lowering the jib for a check of the leech seams. In navigation, climbing the mast to retrieve the channel slider would have been more adventurous.

7. Security

In terms of safety, the boat was equipped with sea plugs, bilge alarms, and a heatsink to reduce the risk of being struck by lightning. Statistically, catamarans are more likely to be caught. We also mounted the classic lifelines on the deck, but they didn’t help much. The only place where you lose a little balance is on the nets in the bow. The fact that they are elastic creates a loss of stability, and the human body cannot always handle it with immediacy and one can clumsily fall.

The experiments in sailing in the Atlantic

While sailing, we also did some experiments, such as carrying the gennaker as a symmetrical spi, using the two sheets at the same time and two hoists to wall them off at the bow.

In medium wind it works better than in low wind, but we would need two tangons to help. Another interesting solution is to put a longer bowsprit (carbon) and brace it with dyneema so as not to redo the steel cables.

How the “Comfortable Catamaran” sails

But in the end how do these catamarans sail and how do they perform in the Ocean? The Lagoon 42 at 12,000 kg was fast, faster than other catamarans under the same conditions. We had ideal conditions with winds from 10 to 30 knots real, averaging 13-18 knots. Three thousand miles covered in 18 days from Fuerteventura at an average of 6.9 knots and little engine, 6 hours in the middle of the crossing and more at the beginning while we were between the Canary Islands.

The boat prefers to have stern waves, and we have noticed that it sails better with an apparent wind at 163° than at 150° where the wave slams under the nacelle and creates big noises, forcing the rudder to work harder.

Taking the reefers required going into the wind. Which is not easy when the sea swells, fortunately the two motors allow the boat to rotate, but it is still a delicate operation. Halyzing the mainsail to remove the hand was also feasible while holding the course.

We consumed 2,000 liters of water and did 7 washings, we did not suffer from the cold, which is typical for the first days of sailing, but we appreciated the cockpit enclosure and the living space of the boat.

We had to install potholders, and let’s just say that a tilting kitchen would not have hurt. There were six of us on board, organized in two-hour shifts during the day and two-hour shifts at night with a “wild card” person. Each morning there was a four-hour double shift and so there was minimal rotation.

To break up the monotony of the voyage, every 500 miles or so there were aperic dinners, masquerade parties, training courses, language classes, interviews, guitar playing, and pure social moments accompanied by dolphins and a handsome zyphoid that followed us into the roadstead in Le Marin.

Now You & Me is frolicking downwind in the Caribbean islands, waiting for new adventures.

Davide Zerbinati
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*Who is Davide Zerbinati

Davide Zerbinati is a sailor, Engineer and Nautical Architect, CEO of Valle Scrivia Srl company specializing in supplies for long-range sailing and safety on board. In his activities since 1998 has appraised about 5,000 boats, more than 1,000 models, and supervised about 100 refitting. He is skipper of the Stadtship 54 Aluaka, a boat with which he won among monohulls Leg 1 of the Las Palmas-Mindelo (Cape Verde) leg and the Mindelo-Santa Lucia leg at ARC+ and ready for new adventures and formations.