I am quite a new DCA member and have not yet joined in one of the South Coast rallies. I have however made good use of my membership by reading back copies of the Bulletin (my thanks to Mike Williams) and have enjoyed articles on the eternal quest for the perfect cruising boat.

Those extolling the merits of catamarans attracted my attention in particular, because it has always seemed to me that cats have so many natural advantages for cruising.

My own sailing background has been mainly on inland reservoirs racing Miracles and then Solos for 20 years or so. I have also explored other avenues of sailing, including fixed-keel boats, and have done a few longer passages in home waters. Even ignoring the ever-present threat of sea-sickness, I have never really warmed to bigger boats, especially when out of contact with land. Only the promise of a mooring in a quiet estuary with pub lights twinkling on the shore has been sufficient to tempt me away from the routine of Sundays, rocketing round the buoys, with land in sight on all sides.

I bought a new Hobie 15 just before Christmas 2003 from the Hobie Cat Centre at Rockley Point and I have spent the last year getting used to it. They are certainly very different to sail and, despite their inherent stability (you can stand 4 people on one hull!), my capsizes and pitchpoles should have been a regular tourist attraction last Spring; particularly worthy of praise as they were often achieved in conditions that were far from demanding.

Why a Catamaran?

With a season of unplanned immersion behind me, what makes me think that this is the obvious choice for a cruising dinghy? Well, first and foremost, they are never boring. Even in a Force 2 a Hobie 15 will give an exhilarating performance, plane in the gusts, and make good progress on a voyage. Although catamarans are built for speed and have a large sail area, they can be sailed safely in a wide range of conditions. I have had a second reef put in the mainsail of my Hobie and, even with my limited experience, I have sailed comfortably in a Force 6 with this half-size main and no jib. With no keel and kick-up rudders, a catamaran will keep going in just a few inches of water and you can land anywhere. I was greatly amused by one Hobie sailor who, with two young lads aboard and in a brisk wind, sailed flat out on a wild planing run straight up the beach, where I was enjoying a quiet picnic. They all piled off, laughing and chattering, and disappeared into the café on the dunes, leaving the sails still filled. I did surreptitiously check if the rudders had been damaged by the high speed impact, but they were fine.

I have left the main reason why cats are the natural cruising boat for last – space and stability. There is room for a comfortable one-man tent on the trampoline and still space to get round it. No bilges, no thwarts, no clever schemes to keep the saucepan on the burner, no rocking yourself to sleep at night... just a nice flat, steady, sprung mattress of a floor!

Why the Hobie 15?

Having convinced myself that two hulls were better than one, picking the Hobie 15 was the easy part. I went for Hobie as a maker because I needed a heavy-duty, sea-going boat which I could sail single-handed. The others I saw were simply less sturdy. Within the Hobie range, the 15 is the training boat. It has plenty of buoyancy and sails with the tramp well clear of the water. The tramp will take a tent pitched fore to aft. On the smaller Hobies, the tramp was not long enough. It can be sailed single-handed in all conditions. The jib furls and, if the wind comes up unexpectedly, I regularly sail using the full mainsail alone, rather than stop and reef the main. Without the jib, it will not complete a tack in one movement but, because it sails so readily backwards, it is not difficult to turn into the tack, stall, sail backwards for a moment, reverse the rudders and carry on through the tack. It sounds difficult but with a little practice, it works instantly every time.

What else makes the 15 the obvious choice? It has no boom or kicking strap... no helmets required! It also has no centreboard or daggerboard to worry about. That means nothing to lift in shallow water and no slot to get jammed with stones on a pebbly beach. Lateral resistance in the water is provided by low aspect skegs which can be replaced when they become worn; no need for expensive glass-fibre repairs.

Finally, the Hobie 15 is the largest boat in the Hobie range that I felt capable of righting single-handed in the event of a capsize. When I started sailing the 15, I regularly capsized both by mistake and by design to see if I could get it back up on my own. After several anxious weeks, I realised that you actually need a decent wind to help you right a Hobie and I have had no trouble since. To give me more leverage, I had an optional righting pole fitted underneath the trampoline but, in retrospect, I am not sure that this was necessary. Floats at the top of the mast to prevent 180 degree inversions are fitted as standard.

What Else Do You Need?

My catamaran cruising experience so far has been just two separate nights in my tent on the Hobie, moored to the land but afloat at HW. I also managed a few day trips outside Poole Harbour to Studland, Swanage & Christchurch. With such limited experience, I know that I still have a lot to learn about completing the transformation of a Hobie from its high-speed origins to a comfortable cruising boat.

My first modification to the standard equipment was to install 5" round hatch-covers, fore and aft of the trampoline on each hull. The original Hobie 15 had them fitted as standard but the new model simply leaves space for them. Having the hull space available for storage means that only the larger items (tent, sleeping bag and inflatable mattress) have to be kept in dry bags on the tramp. When shopping for camping kit, I take a piece of hardboard with a 5" hole in it to check that whatever I buy will fit through the hatch cover. The hulls are never completely dry, so I fit most things into small dry bags and bin-liners.

My tent is a standard one-man, single pole, side entry model which I pitch with the closed ends fore and aft on the trampoline. My first 3-pole model cost only £35, but as its footprint covered the whole of the tramp area from corner to corner, I struggled to put it up while on a mooring; no problem while beached or standing in the shallows. The new one is better but then it did cost rather more.

I have an anchor but, as a 5kg folding grapnel was the largest I could get through the 5" hatches, I would not want to rely on it for an overnight mooring. I also carry 4 cylindrical fenders in the hulls which, when tied top to top in pairs, can be used as rollers to pull the boat clear of high tide on a steep or stony beach.

There is obviously no motor but with so little underwater resistance a single paddle is remarkably effective. I have paddled from Brownsea Island to Rockley Point (about 3 miles) without difficulty, steering with the tiller extension trapped under my feet. In practice, I have rarely needed to resort to the paddle because the Hobie is such an efficient sailing machine. There is usually enough wind to keep moving. On one occasion in June, the wind fell so light in the afternoon at Studland that the tide was ebbing fast at Poole Harbour entrance as a small group of Hobies approached. I was the lucky one and managed to hitch a lift with a Sadler 34 under power but my companions simply pulled up on the beach in Shell Bay and waited for the tide to turn. A whisper of a breeze came up at dusk that was just enough to carry us all back to Rockley on the making tide. I say 'us' because I rather wasted the advantage of my earlier tow by inadvertently parking on a mud bank so that we all arrived back together after all.

I used to have an allegedly breathable dry suit which felt more like being boiled in a bag. The effect seemed to be that you ended up as wet as if you had worn a wet suit, but smellier. Happily, things have improved and I now wear my Goretex dry suit in anything but sun-bathing weather. Sailing catamarans can be wet, especially if the wind gets up or you have to beat into waves, as the boat offers no protection.

The Downsides

Apart from being a wet sail at times, what other disadvantages are there?

Hobie 15s have trapezes! I wear my harness in all but the lightest weather simply because if the opportunity arises to trapeze, you can make the boat go faster and it is much more fun. For longer distance cruising, I do wonder whether a harness will be necessary. They are a nuisance to stow if you don't wear them and, at this stage, I just cannot imagine having the confidence to sail the boat flat out, except in an estuary or harbour. Time will tell.

Part of the worry of using the trapeze comes from the danger of simply falling off. I have never been separated from the Hobie in a capsize but I am sure that in any wind, whether upright or not, the boat would drift faster than I can swim. It is an alarming thought, but I am slightly reluctant to attach myself with a life-line because there are already so many bits of rope criss-crossing the trampoline that I think it would just cause trouble. My present plan is to sail the boat well within its limits and carry the normal safety equipment (phone, VHF & flares) on me, rather than the boat whilst in open waters. Do DCA members have any other suggestions?

When I first bought the Hobie, I also invested in a road trailer, imagining that I would move up & down the South Coast during the summer. In the event, the trailer lies unused in the garden at home attracting occasional hostile glances from my usually supportive gardener/wife. The problem is two-fold. On the one hand, taking down and putting up the mast is a two-man job and takes a while, and on the other, the sailing at Poole is superb, with the additional luxury of unlimited support and advice from the Hobie Cat Centre.

It is going to be hard to get away, but the next step is a cruise to and around the Solent, which I will report on in a future edition.