Over the last couple of years I have posted a number of videos on my youtube channel showing our 30ft Sagitta catamaran under sail. As a result people have asked for an interior tour, so here it is. Sagitta was built in our garden and launched in 1991. There are some youtube videos of it sailing back then, so please check them out. Sagitta is a "sailors boat" - so it's a performance cruiser for two couples. It was designed to daysail with eight onboard, offer drinks/food for six and sleep four. This boat has actually cruised from the UK as far as Trieste in Italy, yet was outright winner of the 2026 multihull class in the Round the Island race (Isle of Wight, typically 1000 entries) The saloon headroom is limited to keep windage low, and, more importantly, to make winching and working the deck layout easier. Of course there is full headroom in the hulls. We fitted two companionways, thus reducing the times you need to cross the saloon. When sailing you can easily enter via either to sit in the saloon, or use the starboard one to access the galley, the port one for the heads. More important than filling the boat with bunks is a good head/shower compartment and of course an excellent galley. The central heating is ducted to both hulls and the saloon. The portable fridge/freezer means food can be taken from home, as it will be kept frozen using the car's 12v supply. In each hull is a comfortable double bunk, located aft for the least motion, with sitting headroom. There is no point in having an overwide bunk at sea as, even on a multihull, one rolls around too much. The table drops down for an extra berth. Also essential is plenty of stowage for cruising "stuff". So under one saloon seat are enough tools to rebuild the boat, plus a 300Ahr Lifepo4 battery. There is a big watertank under the other seat. Resin/glass/paint etc is stored in a cockpit locker, along with spare fuel cans, "dirty" engine spares etc. Sails are stored in a big forward locker, anchors and fenders in the forward bridgedeck lockers. You can see more on Sagitta here: https://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/3-25ft-to-30ft-catamarans-designs/171-sagitta As always, no audio on this short video

A few months ago I posted a video of a plywood Tamar 31 catamaran sailing in Thailand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFubXpEmWjk Now, here is one being built in the UK. As always, it's really hard to get an impression of the completed boat while it is still being built. But the video does show what it's like to be an amateur, building in a temporary shed, with all tools and materials stored there, rather than in a separate storeroom, as would be the case in a commercial yard. Despite those handicaps, the builder is doing a great job! Launching is planned for next year. The Tamar is only 12in, 300mm, longer than Sagitta, but the interior is huge in comparison, with full headroom throughout. Although the cockpit is smaller than Sagitta's it's still plenty big enough for a full crew. The builder is using daggerboards and will have a single centrally mounted outboard. More on the Tamar 31 here https://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/5-catamarans-over-40ft/480-tamar-31

Here is a video that I have wanted to make for some time, as it disproves a couple of misconceptions that many people have about sailing multihulls. The first is that a fully battened mainsail is very hard to hoist, and even harder to lower. The second is that multihulls are slow and difficult to tack. So here I am, singlehanded on my 30ft Sagitta catamaran, to show you what it is really like, assuming you have a well designed catamaran fitted with a good deck layout. Many people say that you need a narrow boat to tack quickly. Although only 30ft long Sagitta is 20ft wide, thus disproving that theory. I am not a young, fit, Olympic standard sailor, rather someone of medium build in his 70s. Sagitta has a 12m mast (40ft) and a 30sqm (330sqft) mainsail. There is no audio on this video as it was taken on a sealed case action camera. I can hoist the mainsail to the top without winching, although obviously it gets harder as I raise it - because of the sail cloth and batten weights, plus the friction from the reefing lines and, when nearly fully hoisted, lifting the boom. Of course all those make dropping the mainsail very fast. I do have a downhaul line attached to the headboard that I can use if lowering it on a run in strong winds when it presses against the shrouds. Some people say that a junk rig is the easiest to handle. In my experience the cockpit gets covered in ropes when lowering the sail, while the friction of the parrels at the mast and of the sheetlets at the leech, never mind their weight, makes a junk sail really hard to hoist. In that respect a sleeved luff sail is even worse, while a gaff and, especially, a lug sail has a lot of weight high up - exactly when it shouldn't be. Furthermore lowering the sail often means a large heavy spar flailing around at head height. Disclaimer - I have sailed junk rigged boats, and those with gaff, lug, gunter, lateen, sprit and sleeved luff mainsails. Monohull and multihull, up to 100ft. ============================================== Once at sea I demonstrate how quickly a Sagitta can tack, even when singlehanded, although of course there is a lot of running around for me to do. Much easier with a crew! I tack several times just to show that the first one wasn't a fluke. You can see more on Sagitta here https://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/3-25ft-to-30ft-catamarans-designs/171-sagitta

Uli sails an Eagle 24, stretched to 26ft and he also fitted a small central cuddy. I have posted some of his own videos on this channel already. However he recently stopped by our house in Plymouth on his return from north Spain, before heading home to Germany. So I took the opportunity to sail with him for a couple of hours one evening. It's clearly a well sorted boat, after all he has sailed it singlehanded over 6000 miles in 4 years. Indeed after our sail he left the next day and 48 hours later was passing Amsterdam 375 miles from Plymouth, that's a 7 knot average! Not bad for a small cruising boat that is full equipped (liferaft, central heating, stores for 2 months etc) So there is a lot of string, but it does mean he can trim the sails very accurately and reef them easily. Although it is tiller steered he prefers to stand when on watch, whereas I would fit comfortable cockpit seats, as we have on Sagitta. Of course, as with most of my designs, it steers itself for long periods, or maybe just needs "one finger", to steer, as it is so very light and easy on the helm. We had a great sail, past Devonport Dockyard and up the Lynher river, as we so often do on sunny evenings. The wind slowly moderated but we managed to drift home just before dark. More on the Eagle here https://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/2-catamarans-under-25ft/455-eagle-24 and please check out Uli's other videos on this channel. As always, no audio on this short video.

A couple of weeks after the Falmouth race Shane and I had another weekend race, this time the 20 miles to Fowey on Saturday and back to Plymouth on Sunday. Fewer boats this time, 8 multihulls and 25 half-boats. The conditions at the start in Plymouth couldn't have been more different from the previous race! Not a breath of wind, not a cloud in the sky and hot! Multihulls "started" first, but most didn't actually sail, rather they drifted over the line. In fact the last multihull to start took 15 minutes to cross the line. We were one of the 4 lucky ones who got a gust just at the right time, so we were able to pull a mile or so ahead of the fleet within the first 20 minutes. Which certainly proves that calms can be a slow boat benefit! As we passed the breakwater a light WSW wind picked up, so it was then a beat to Fowey. Unfortunately there was just too much wind for our screecher, but not really enough for the genoa alone. Although the trimarans went out to sea, we decided to compromise and kept further inshore, but even so, well to seaward of the monohull fleet. It didn't really pay off - the out to sea route was the best, but we didn't realise that until too late. Still, we were pretty happy with our 3rd place. Anchoring is no longer allowed in Fowey, so we all rafted up on some of the smaller pontoons and dinghied ashore for a meal. Next morning the wind had increased to 12-15 knots and we prepared for a fast, downwind sail back to Plymouth - for once conditions that would favour Sagitta. Having said that, we weren't quite fast enough in those conditions to "hot it up" and gybe downwind as the others did. Instead we used "tweaker" lines on our asymmetric so we could pull the tack to windward and sail with the wind further aft. It certainly paid off for us compared to the others who, although faster, sailed further, so the whole multihull fleet stayed in sight for much of the race. Mind you, with only two on board we found gybing quite a challenge - more practice definitely needed! So for the first 20 miles it was a no fuss, no frustration, no drama race. But that changed as we headed into the Sound and past the breakwater. Plymouth is not just the biggest naval port in Europe but also has very busy commercial docks. So it wasn't a great surprise to see a Portuguese warship leaving port as we were sailing in. They were probably not expecting to see an armada of 30 yachts under spinnaker spread across the channel! The escorting police boats started "blue lighting" and hailing the yachts to try and get them to gybe away. Luckily we were just far enough ahead to keep clear without a major course change. To compound the problem the ferry from France came into port at exactly the same time. They had to wait in the middle of the Sound until not only the first warship cleared the main shipping channel, but also the second one, this time from Norway. Fortunately only one yacht ended up head to wind with spinnaker flapping while trying to avoid all three ships. Hissy Fit and Gordano Goose are both 40% faster than Sagitta, yet were less than 30 minutes ahead of us at the finish, as the results show. On corrected time we had a 3rd and a 2nd. All in all, not bad results for a "proper" cruising boat. After all, we were the first boat carrying a dinghy in davits, BBQ and central heating!

The 30ft Sagitta catamaran was designed as a performance cruiser, or cruiser/racer if you prefer. So throughout it's 34 year life we have raced it, while it's also been cruised far and wide (currently the furthest it's sailed was to Trieste in Italy) Despite some terrible weather so far this year we have already had several short cruises and also had success in a few coastal races. The first of these was the "Falmouth Triangle" race, the traditional season opener in Plymouth. We first raced it 40 years ago in our Banshee catamaran when we were the fastest multihull and beat all but one monohull round the course. But times move on and Sagitta is now almost the slowest MOCRA rated multihull. Many local boats are 40% faster, which means we rarely see them after the race starts. This years triangle was no exception. There were 14 multihull entries, about a 1/3rd of the fleet, the first leg is roughly 40 miles - from Plymouth to Falmouth. Even under spinnaker and with 4 experienced crew on board, we soon dropped back, with the leaders out of sight ahead. Actually, since it was a misty day that turned to heavy rain for the last 3 hours, that wasn't surprising! Had we been cruising I'm sure we'd have all sat inside and sailed under autopilot. But as it was we got very wet and a bit bored sailing all alone in the murk. So imagine our surprise, as we neared Falmouth, to see more and more boats appearing only just ahead! Some should have finished literally hours earlier, so not unexpectedly, when we arrived we learnt we had won the first leg on handicap. Sadly that success wasn't repeated on the next two legs. The race to Fowey, about 20 miles east of Falmouth, was a light wind beat, but unfortunately we were unable to use our masthead screecher due to halyard problems. So we finished 5th. Once in Fowey Peter went up the mast to, temporarily, sort it out. As he's only 25 he doesn't really need a bosun chair - he just monkeys up the forestay. Which sure makes it easier for the winching crew! By now the sun had come out and we had another light wind beat back to Plymouth. We made a real lash up of twin barber-haulers for the screecher, but we now know how to set it properly. Even so, it wasn't too successful, another 5th, mainly because we couldn't really agree on tactics and in the end made too many compromises. So we came third overall.

There is something seriously wrong with the weather. We just had a 3 day holiday weekend - yet it was hot, a light breeze blowing and not a cloud in the sky! So Jetti and I decided to take a gentle cruise in our 30ft Sagitta catamaran to Hope Cove, about 15 miles east of or mooring in Plymouth. We just drifted along, together with a whole variety of different boats. No drama or excitement, so this video just shows the deck layout and some of the interior of our boat. Hope Cove was crowded when we got there so, unusually, we had to anchor in 30ft of water - normally we try for under 10 ft. And very glad we were not on a monohull, they were all rolling rhythmically in the SW swell. Next day we sailed back to Plymouth, a bit more wind so touched 6+ knots at times. Apart from the lack of roll, the other big advantage of a multihull is that we have all round vision when sitting inside (we go "inside" not "down below" on catamarans) Sunday night was spent at one of our favourite anchorages, up the Lynher river, with obligatory BBQ. Then home again on Monday. If only all sailing was like that! As always, no audio on this short video. More on the Sagitta catamaran here https://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/3-25ft-to-30ft-catamarans-designs/171-sagitta

As many know, I don't just design and sail multihulls. I am also a keen dinghy sailor, having been racing in a huge variety of different singlehanders for over 60 years. For the last 5 years or so I've been racing a singlehander with an asymmetric spinnaker - as seen in the heading photo. But as I'm now well into my 70s I found it a bit too challenging in winds over 15 knots. I bought a 13ft Solution dinghy at the end of last summer. This video is on one of my early sails, before I had got used to the boat and had set it up as I wanted. I hadn't taken any video from a dinghy for a few years and so this one was a bit of a test for a suitable setup. It wasn't great having the mount by the shrouds, even though it was out of my way. So I had to handhold the camera for a while. Anyway, at least it shows you my sailing/racing area, near the mouth of the river Tamar in Plymouth. More on the Solution here http://www.solutionclass.org/ And on my club here https://www.tmsc.org.uk/page/dinghy-sailing-at-tmsc

We spent a few weeks in January touring SE Asia. At the end of our trip we were in Phuket, Thailand and by coincidence so too were Nigel and Suzanne on their Tamar 31 catamaran, Dark Horse. They are very experienced sailors and have a very nicely built boat. They kindly invited me for a sail and we had a great time sailing round the nearby islands. I found it very different to the Caribbean, which is effectively a lee shore after 2000 miles of trade winds and accompanying swells. Whereas off Phuket there was just a wind blown chop and much lighter winds. It also didn't rain, in fact there were not even the "trade wind" clouds we were used to in the West Indies. The downside was that it got very hot and the rigid bimini was essential, even though it did somewhat reduce the view of the sails. One of the few modifications made on Dark Horse. We think there are a lot of multihulls in the UK, but anchored in the bay we counted 23 multihulls and 31 monohulls. And that number excludes the 30+ day charter cats operating out of the marina. More on the Tamar 31 here https://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/5-catamarans-over-40ft/480-tamar-31 As always no audio on this short video

For my birthday treat this year I sailed our Chat 18 catamaran for the first time since before Christmas. A clean bottom and new antifouling did wonders for both speed and manouverability! I only sailed for a couple of hours, in part because the weather was worsening, but mainly because the tide was dropping and I needed to get back onto our beach mooring. It was a great sail, just touching 8 knots at times. In fact the whole area shown in this video dries out at low tide - it's called "West Mud" for a reason! More on the Chat here https://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/2-catamarans-under-25ft/475-chat-18-daysailing-catamaran and lots more videos on my Youtube Channel And keep an eye out for a major Chat boat test that will appear shortly in Practical Boat Owner, the UK's biggest boating magazine! As always, no audio on this short video

Everyone enjoys seeing dolphins round their boat. And it seems catamarans attract more dolphins than monohulls. Presumably because the two bows are more fun to play with - and yes dolphins definitely play on the bow waves. We've seen two swim fast under the bridgedeck from port stern to starboard bow and vice versa, crossing underneath and seeing how close to the bow they could get. And we've seen the other dolphins clearly laughing at the one who hit our bow when cutting it too fine. That didn't happen this time, but here's a recent video taken when sailing our 30ft Sagitta catamaran from Fowey to Plymouth. Unusually for the English Channel it was clear, flat water so we could watch them easily.

Patrick has been sailing his home built plywood Strike 20 in France for many years (see his earlier videos) He just reported "Some refitting of my Strike 20 this year! New 20' outriggers from a Nacra 6.0 replacing the F18 ones I used previously. New paint for the mainhull, Tornado spinnaker, electric motor with LiFePo4 battery. New crew from a Tornado. I am definitely getting too old (79 next month !)." You can see more on the Strike 20 here https://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/27-trimarans-under-25/433-strike-20

The Cornish town of Fowey, about 20 miles west of Plymouth, has long been hugely popular with cruising sailors. We go there several times a year. However we hadn't been up the river itself for many years, so last week seemed a good opportunity to do so. It's crowded with moorings near the mouth, and has a shallow, twisting channel further inland which makes it all somewhat challenging. So we wanted to concentrate on navigation on the trip upriver. Thus this video starts at St Winnow and its famous water front church, and then makes it way back down to the sea. I have been further upstream (it's possible to get to Lostwithiel) but the river narrows very quickly - too narrow to turn a 30ft x 20ft catamaran round, we didn't want to back out! The upper reaches are basically empty, no moorings, no waterfront houses. That all changes at Golant, a village just north of Fowey. Even though most of it dries out at low water it's still full of small boat moorings. A mile further downstream and, somewhat bizarrely for what seems a sleepy Cornish river, we motored past the commercial docks. Usually exporting china clay, from Cornwall's biggest industry. Turning the last bend we reached Fowey harbour and the town and picked up a mooring. But not before passing the small car ferry and then the house once owned by famous author Daphne de Maurier (of Frenchmans Creek, Jamaica Inn etc fame) In the evening we watched the local dayboats - the Troy class - race in a fading wind. Totally ignoring the china clay ship leaving port. It looked huge going out, but nothing compared to the cruise ships we have seen in the river! As always, there is no audio on this short video (you wouldn't like my choice of backing music, nor the constant noise of an engine). Having said that, the appropriate sound track would of course be something by Oasis, as "Definitely Maybe" was recorded in a water front studio just north of Golant. Yes I know, I should have filmed it as we passed.

This video is an extract of a longer video of Uli's latest trip, primarily to show what its like sailing a small multihull at speed in strong winds (comfortable and dry is the answer!) Uli writes: During the summer of 2024 I made another long trip in my Eagle. From Germany I sailed to Norway (Egersund) and then further on, to Unst (Shetland) via Lerwick, round Cape Wrath to Kinlochbervie (Scotland). Sailing up wind south through The MInch and The Sea of Hebrides and, later, The Irish Sea was not really a joy. Throughout August cyclones crossed these area nearly every day. So small windows of opportunity and strong southerly winds dictated the trip. From Greystones (a harbour I do not recommend), near Dublin, to Fishguard I sailed up wind. The wind blew between 28 and 30 knots for more than six hours.(I lifted the daggerboards a little.) The wave got high - between 4 and 5 m - and stipply with white crests. In this, my experience and the weather reports are the same. The trip overall took less than ten an half hours. It was very wet. The Eagle sailed very well. From Fishguard to Lands End I again sailed up-wind, but in more moderate winds - force 4 to 5 - averaging between 8.5 - 9 knots. All the way I put my faith in the Eagle and the new autopilot. I sailed singlehanded about 2.400 nm, and I got a little bit more know-how about how to sail a multihull. You can see more of the Eagle here https://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/2-catamarans-under-25ft/455-eagle-24 and a video of a previous trip here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpX_fEAYLFU

This video was taken on my 7th trans-atlantic crossing, from the Canaries to Prickley Bay, Grenada - via the Cape Verdes - in late 2024. I was on board a Dutch 11m Nimble catamaran with two other crew. We generally had light winds and calm seas, in fact gentle enough so that on most days I could have sailed my dinghy. My first three trans-atlantics were with boats without autopilots, so we had to hand steer all the way. These days it's very different, there's no need to steer (nor, of course, navigate by sextant) unless something goes wrong with the autopilot or electronics. So this was something of a boring trip - reflected in the video I guess. With no real stress there was plenty of time for reading and relaxing. Thus the video shows no exciting moments, because there weren't any - which is as it should be when ocean cruising. As always, there is no audio on this short video. You can read more about this trip, see my designs and much more, all on my website www.sailingcatamarans.com

As always at this time of year I video the multihulls in the storage yard at the Multihull Centre, Millbrook, Cornwall, UK. In the video you can see several of my designs - 4 Sagittas, a Flica, a Strider Club and a Duo. And also: Several Prouts, Dazcats, Lagoons, Fountaine Pajot, Kelsall, Outremer, Catana, Shuttleworth, Grainger, Freebird, Iroquois, Hirondelle, Heavenly Twins, Ocean Winds, Twins 36, Le Rouge, Marples, Dragonfly, Farrier. And a number of designs unknown even to me. (And three monohulls, looking very out of place) You can also see lots of empty space, that's because there are at least 16 more multihulls to be lifted out. So if you are thinking about buying a multihull the Multihull Centre is a great place to go, especially in the winter. https://www.multihullcentre.com/multihull-centre

We try to get out on the water whenever we can, either sailing a dinghy or a catamaran. But sometimes, as on this trip, sails would have no use. So we motored our Chat 18 instead. Once again up the river Lynher, this time past Forder and on further west, to Dandy Hole. This is a very popular anchorage as it has deep water even at low tide. But we were able to anchor for a lunch stop in the shallows. Hard to believe we were only two miles from the largest naval dockyard in Europe! We use OpenCpn on our old OLPC XO laptop as a chart plotter - we've been using it like this for 15 years. All the world's charts on one SD card. USB GPS. Splash proof screen, 12v supply, daylight viewing. Running on Linux. As we motored along past Antony and Whacker Quay we discussed fitting a bimini. "no need" we said "it's never that hot in England". After lunch we said "let's go home, it's too hot here". So we did. Fitting a bimini has now moved further up the "must do" list! As always, no audio on this short video More on the Chat 18 here https://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/2-catamarans-under-25ft/475-chat-18-daysailing-catamaran and the similar Skoota 18 here https://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/6-powercats/489-skoota-18

Here is the last (for now) video from the Douarnenez Boat Festival. This time taken over several days from the shore. I was there helping out on the (DCA) Dinghy Cruising Association stand, see here for more https://www.dinghycruising.life/ (as always, no audio on these short videos)

Another video from the Douarnenez Boat Festival. This time taken from on board Mark's 11ft Gull dinghy. A huge variety of boats, old and new, all out sailing on what was the best day of the festival. As always, no audio on this short video

At long last here is a "walkthrough" of the Chat 18 catamaran. Slightly modified, with wheel steering for the outboard. Which makes it pretty much the same as the Skoota 18. Obviously the latter doesn't have the keels and also has a slightly deeper transom. I apologise for the poor paint job - it hasn't been touched since launching 4 years ago. The engine uses the "old fashioned" rope steering rather than a push pull cable - mainly because I had most of the bits in my spares box. It's a 6hp which gets us to 7 knots but we usually cruise at around 6. Mounted on a lifting bracket - on the Skoota 18 its fitted in a nacelle. The cockpit has very comfortable seats, long enough to lie down and sleep. So a cockpit tent would mean a couple and two young children could (just) sleep on board. For privacy the forward windows are fake, the aft cabin entrance is a roll up curtain rather than washboards, which are always a pain to stow when removed. Two deep cockpit lockers for sail bags etc. Plus several smaller ones for fuel tanks, pumps, spare rope etc. The cuddy is similar to a two person backpacker tent. 2.4m wide and 1.2 m fore/aft (8ft x 4ft) means there's room for a small galley and a double bunk. Although only a single airbed is on board, plus the rolled up cockpit cushions. Headroom is limited of course - 1100mm, 40in - just as in a tent. Apart from the space inside it also gives a lot of protection for the crew in the cockpit - no spray on board! More on the Chat 18 here https://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/2-catamarans-under-25ft/475-chat-18-daysailing-catamaran and Skoota 18 here https://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/6-powercats/489-skoota-18 (as always, no audio on this short video)