50 BEST BLUEWATER MULTIHULLS

TOBY HODGES AND FRANÇOIS TREGOUET CONSIDER THE TOP CATAMARAN AND TRIMARAN OPTIONS FOR SAILING THE OCEANS IN SPACIOUS COMFORT

For sailing the oceans in spacious comfort catamarans and trimarans are hard to beat – and the choice is huge

What’s the best multihull for long term cruising? The one you own, or the one you can afford is the simple answer.

There is a wealth of proven designs to suit bluewater sailing and a variety of budgets. While we have focussed here on those in production, we’ve also included some cracking pedigree multihulls which tour the planet and might occasionally pop up on the brokerage market.

If you can afford to, then pushing towards the 45-50ft length will buy you space, pace and that extra payload capacity needed to take all the items you’d want on your home afloat.

Your choice will come down to that perennial balance between comfort/space and speed/ weight. Choosing a lighter weight performance design will obviously help you cover distance voyages more rapidly and potentially allow you to outrun weather systems. It means you can sail faster, with less sail up and less load and stress. But you’ll have to sacrifice some luxuries and need to be quite scrupulous about keeping weight down and centralised in order to maintain high average speeds.

For the majority of cruisers, however, it is the amount of space multihulls offer once you’ve reached your destination that really appeals. As well as the non-heeling living area and real estate they provide, they’re well suited to typical tradewind sailing.

If you’re considering your first or next multihull, we hope the following will serve as a taster. You’ll also find more online at yachtingworld.com