The most common questions I get from other sailors are why a catamaran and, if a catamaran, why a Dolphin? The catamaram/monohull debate has intensified in recent years as more and more cats are introduced into charter fleets and found out cruising the oceans. The most obvious advantages of a cat are space, space and more space. The livable square footage of a 46 foot cat is equal to at least a 60 foot monohull, and I guarantee the price of the 46 foot cat will be significantly less than the 60 foot monohull. We have three separate cabins (including a luxurious "owners suite", occupying the entire starboard hull), plus a double bunk bed, two heads with separate shower stalls, tons of storage space, and a large bridgedeck with good sized kitchen ("galley" in sailor lingo), living area and navigation station. Outside is equally spacious with a large cockpit, two huge forward trampolines and various other open deck areas for lounging, which I try to do a lot of. Other advantages of a cat: level sailing (no heeling), redundant systems (like if one engine conks out, we still have another), greater speed (as long as we don't over load the boat), better handling under power (with the twin screws) and greater comfort at anchor (no side to side roll).

Monohull purists will say "yeah, cats have more space and comfort, but they capsize, whereas if a monohull gets rolled, it will probably come back upright". My repsonses:

• Other than extreme racing cats, show me one documented instance of a modern cruising cat that capsized in anything other than hurricane force winds and waves (in which I have no intention of sailing).
• When that theoretical monohull rolls and then pops back up, what are the chances the rig is intact?
• If I get a hole in my cat (which is a much greater danger these days with all the crap floating around in the oceans) it will still float. When the monohull gets a hole, it's got thousands of pounds in the lead keel pulling it down to the ocean floor.
• Even if the cat did capsize, it will still float, and being in an upside down, large boat beats the hell out of a liferaft (or so I've been told).

Okay, so why, with all the cats out there, did we choose a Dolphin? As I mentioned on the first page of the 2006 Voyage, we were almost seduced into a PDQ 44 unitl we actually sailed it. Now, I'm not into super fast racing boats, but a faster boat is more fun to sail and is safer (the less time you're on a passage, the less time you're exposed to the potential for bad weather). Also, one of the main knocks against the sailing performance of cats is that they don't "point" well (sail close to the direction of the wind) because they make too much leeway (get pushed sideways) when being sailed to windward. Keels overcome this, but attaching deep keels would ruin another of a cats great advantages: the ability to sail in shallower areas becasue of the lesser draft. The solution? Daggerboards which can be put down when sailing close to the wind and raised when not needed. There are only a couple of catamaran builders that incorporate daggerboaards, including Dolphin.

The speed of roam became apparent during our first voyage when, from Fortaleza, Brazil to Tobago, we covered the 1600 nautical mile distance in 7 days and 7 hours - an average speed of more than 9 knots!!!  That included 6 straight days of 200+ miles (including one 24 hour run of 246 miles).  And, for a couple of those days we were consciously trying to slow the boat down a little in the name of comfort

The other big advantage to the Dolphin was the builder's willingness to customize the layout. You'll never find that at the big produciton builders like Lagoon or Fontaine Pajot, and I think it gives Dolphin a big edge, at least from our perspective.