The following is a copy of Bob’s response to a letter published in ‘The Coastal Passage’ that was bagging cats.

In response to Ian Thomson’s letter on multi/mono bias:

I think Ian has missed the point of the article. My understanding is that the article was a comparison of current 40′ [ish] catamaran design and build philosophies. I think the argument re catamaran acceptance as cruising boats has quite simply been done and won.

Ian’s comment on the article not being a true reflection on the industry is really a bit inaccurate. As an importer [why do we import bloody boats for crying out loud] of monohull sailing boats, I appreciate Ian is trying to protect his interests, as undoubtedly I am.

Count the number of production monohull builders in Australia. Now count the number of multihull builders. The likes of Express fibreglass [G.B.E.], Seawind, Chincogan, Perry and Lightwave have been around for upwards of 20 years. No mean feat in this industry.

I agree wholeheartedly with Ian’s comment on berthing, after poo it’s probably the most discussed subject at anchorage and I don’t think anyone should delude themselves there is going to be a quick fix. It should be remembered that multis can and do take the bottom as a matter of course. I have a number of boats that dry out twice a day on their permanent moorings.

As berths become more and more scarce [so commensurately more expensive] designers will have to come up with larger boats that can be taken home or quickly and easily broken down to manageable widths for land-based compounds.

Again I agree that 2 engines are twice the cost and maintenance and you don’t even get twice the speed. But Ian, I have ever only had one engine [outboard] on any of my own boats [23′, 33′ and 43′ and hopefully a 50′ pod cat early next year]. I simply learnt the handling characteristics of my boat. In fact about half the multis I know have one outboard. They prang them at about the same rate as a badly handled mono, ‘not often’. If the expense of two diesels is too much for the budget then fit one slightly larger diesel in one hull then fit a 3kw bow thruster in the bow of the same hull. You will actually have better handling than a twin engine boat.

Your observation re catamarans going over [or nearly] when racing is accurate and reinforces the common knowledge that if racing under kite, ‘be on the ball’. You didn’t go over so your crew were obviously ‘on the ball’. Oh yep and it was one of mine that went over. It’s now upright with new owners and cruising north - just motoring at this stage till they can afford a new rig.

I can’t comment on foreign multihulls arriving here with structural problems, although I doubt it’s as prevalent as you suggest. But I would be very interested in the details if you could send me contact details of the owners.

I have one 6 year old boat with permanent live-aboards that has 30,000 miles up now. Another boat in New Zealand that probably has about 15,000 up now. No problems so far [Praise the Lord].

When an Australian designed catamaran is engineered properly, built correctly and sailed within its limitations they don’t fail, full stop.

Included in all my plans is a boat handling Polar diagram.

I couldn’t think of anything worse than having a huge piece of lead under my boat that will:

• Prohibit me from mucking around in two feet of water [try and get into Coongul creek or Whatumba with your lump-a-lead]
• Catch on nets, ropes etc
• Slow me down
• Commit me to expensive slipways etc for the most basic of repairs
• Doesn’t give me stability at all
• And then when everything goes pear shape and I just wanna go home, it will take me, my family and my boat to the nearest land ’straight down’

Give me the security of boat speed, shallow draft, and light weight.

Multihull anchoring 101:
If the anchorage is untenable move to the beach, or to the creek, or to shallow water were the deeper boats can’t go, then watch the monos roll their gunwhales under [although I have very nearly been tossed out of my bunk on the 36′ Grainger tri ‘Voodoo’ when anchored at middle Percy].

I was in Noumea in late 2000 and saw a 9 metre Jarcat there that had done the trip in a week. J and I sailed over there in 3 days with Bob and Annie on AMA 2, a 6 ton x 60′ cat. We started motoring at 7kts, cracked 25kts while eating steak and drinking a rude yet wildly offending little red [put 2 reefs in then]. 12 to 18 kts was comfortable.

Jamie ? sailed his 23′ Wharram around the world in the 90s. Manages a charter business in the Caribbean last I heard. He’s probably sick of big multis too - has to clean all that space.

Ian, ring me and I’ll show you how to build a beautiful 48′ ocean-going bridgedeck cat for well under $300,000 [with all offshore safety gear]. In fact I’ll show you how to build an amazing 50′ pod cat with 3 queen size berths, hot and cold water, toilet system that uses a household loo and will sail at considerably better than 1 to 1.3 wind speed without leaving the cockpit [single handed] for a bit over $200,000 if you have the dedication and about year to spare.

As I said, the mono/multi thing has been done; I don’t care to discuss it anymore. I have some wonderful friends with monos and they ——- actually that’s a fib they’re all trying to get multis now, but they’re still my wonderful friends. Most of my clients are my friends and most of them had monos before [some very good ones]. One repeat client sold his first 48′ [Bob Oram design] and bought a good strong comfortable 40′ mono. He rang me about 6 months later saying he had made a mistake, has since sold the mono and is about launch his second Bob Oram design cat.

Ian, obviously I’m biased, ‘I luv em’ there is just no better buzz than cruising along in a genuine 6 knots of breeze doing 8 knots of boatspeed in my ‘cruising’ boat. If this sounds like I’m being a bit of a smart arse then I apologise without reservation and I’m genuine when I say ring me and I’ll chat to you until the cows come home. But you are not going to change my mind, whereas one day you will!

One thing to remember:
A cruising boat has to satisfy a truckload of differing criteria - a good multi does it. If it didn’t do it, there wouldn’t be any.

Bob Oram