We've done another analysis on the ARC data to evaluate the question: Do performance sailing catamarans allow you to use less engine time while making passages?
I like the correlations, but keep in mind using the ARC data is extremely limited in the sailing conditions. It's basically all downwind in the trades, with some becalming. How much was even a beam reach, is there any upwind sailing?
This info is very important to potential boat buyers, and very few are putting it out there. Thank you for the data crunching. Hopefully you will do more of this with more recent ARC results and other events if possible.. I'd really like to see data comparing mid sized fat cats. Like Leopard 44 vs Leopard 45 vs Lagoon 450 vs Lagoon 42 vs FP 44/45. Maybe there is performance info compiled on these but I haven't seen it.
Presenter is parsing this data wrong. He says right at the beginning that in this event you're penalized by the handicap system for running your engine so of course the boats who are trying to win the race are running their engines as little as possible. That -23.6 percent correlation number doesn't mean there's no correlation-which would be a number close to zero-it means that in this data set faster boats tend to run their engine less.
TS5 and TS42 look like the clear winners for the sailing, not motoring, enthusiast with less than $1 million to spend. Affordable, fast and easily sailed single/shorthanded. Definitely not as comfortable as the 60 footers but not many people can afford to run a boat that size.
Good point Timothy, but there are sailors on much cheaper boats (monohulls - a friend who's just arrived in French Polynesia paid $2500 for his boat) who don't do a lot of motoring. Some have (obsessively) gone to only electric motors, others just insist on sailing instead of motoring - often takes longer. (In one sense the oceans they sail on are much larger than the oceans faster boats sail on.) I used to paddle by the sail boats in the marina thinking that they all must cost 'about a million dollars. ' Then my stocks went up and I wondered, 'How much do sailboats actually cost?' Duh. I could've been around the world twice already. In my limited experience running the engine is for heavy/wide boats in light winds, into the wind (those comfort cats don't point), how much spinnaker hassle do you want to do? and are you trying to keep a schedule? (Maybe just to anchor or moor in daylight.)
Nice analysis- thanks for taking the time to do this! It is not necessary, but another subset analysis you could have done is to compare engine hours for light wind vs medium or high wind days or years. Would be nice to show as a positive control that engine hours go up in light wind days or years. Look forward to your analysis on upwind sailing! I chartered a Leopard 40 in the BVI and it sailed nicely downwind and up to 90 apparent, but was a very sluggish feeling slow dog trying to go upwind, eg 45-60. But was super comfortable at anchor!
Thanks for the analysis. Very well done. Did you include cruising trimarans such as a Neel. would love to know you thoughts. And are you sharing your spreadsheet?
