sail in a blow

I have been sailing monohulls for many years now and just purchased a getaway. Its pretty easy to sail, but I was wandering how to handle a large puff or blow. Will a catamaran round-up like a monohull? I dont want to have to find out the hard way. What Ive been doing is just quickly dumping the mainsheet, which spills the main. My concern with that is that with a full-batton main, the sail can't flog in the wind, which could prevent the sail from fully depowering.

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Sail.fast

470, 08 Getaway

I don't know if the getaway has a traveler or not, but in my 16 I ease out on the traveler when I sense a puff coming.

compared to the average monhull, a catamaran has a lot more control area available through 2 rudders... on a 16' or 18' boat. A 30 knot gust in a 20 knot breeze will be a lot easier to handle on a cat than on the 35' J109 I race on... which has a rudder surface area equal to 2½ times a Hobie rudder, but on a 54' mast.

so, there is a lot more control vs. hull SF areas on a cat.

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Chris
'88 H18SE Arís

I wouldn't worry about depowering based on the fully-battened main. Spilling the main can be challenging as you can lose speed and control. When I'm out for a fun sail in big wind, I try to compensate for puffs with rudder (heading up upwind or down downwind) which keeps things moving. It also helps to sheet way in during gybes to avoid slamming and the sudden rush of speed and forward lean when the main slams over. (Head down into the gybe while pulling in the main, cross the wind, then sheet out slowly.)

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Bill
H20 #433
Southeast Iowa