Newby questions about Solaris Sunrise cats.

[Jimp45]

Hi forumites, may I introduce myself and my reason for posting on this Forum.

I have a half share in a Benny 393 based near Bodrum in Turkey. I love sailing in this part of the Med. I now want to liveaboard with my wife in this area for the next 2 years. As my wife is arthritic a heeling monohull would not be ideal. Therefore I have been looking at Prout Snowgoose Cats. But my wife did not like the layout (3 narrow corridors). Whilst looking we came across a Solaris Sunrise Sport, my wife loved the layout, so I am now looking to buy a model of cat. I know nothing about.

My questions are:

1.   Does a Sunrise lend it self to single handed sailing. What mods., if any, would you recommend.
2.   When ever I’m sailing the wind always seems to be on the nose. I’m guessing that a Sunrise would sail about 40/45 degrees to the wind, am I correct.
3.   When the Meltimi blows we get short steep waves, has anybody had experience of how bad bridgedeck slamming would be in these conditions.
4.   How well does a Sunrise tack, say compared to a similar Prout.
5.   In the Benny 393 we work on 6 knots average speed in about 15 knots of wind will a fully laden Sunrise give a similar performance.
6.   Are there any known problem areas I should check when looking at Sunrise’s, headlinings, window seals and osmosis would seem to be one area.

As there are very knowledgeable  contributors on this forum your input would be most helful.

Jim

[Roger]

There are several people on the forum who have a lot more experience of sailing the Sunrise than me but I'll give you my views - its also my 1st Cat having come from smaller monohulls so comparing with other cats isn't really something I can do.
1. From what I have seen most of the Sunrises are simply rigged and easy to sail short/single handed.
2. Bear in mind I am coming from monohulls so I have nothing cat wise to compare it with, but windward performance is poor and you might find yourself doing some motorsailing!
3. I have been pleasantly surprised in the conditions I have sailed in. The central wavebreaking hull seems to do a good job of preventing slamming.
4. Can't comment on this, but she will tack eventually!
5. At least one of the members of the forum lives aboard so will be better placed to comment. A word of caution here - cats have loads of space, but bear in mind not having any ballast they are significantly lighter than any monohull, so any weight you add  as a live abooard may end up being quite a significant portion of the overall weight - of course Prouts and the Sunrise are solidly built (ie heavyweight) crusing cats - but they are still light boats for their size.
6. The 3 things you mention are likely to be issues in any 20 year old boat like mine, so yes, look out for them but they aren't Sunrise specific and I presume being a "sport" it will be a much newer boat you are looking at?
The osmosis on mine was just on the surface and the repairers actually commented that they were impressed how sound the laminate was beneath it.

[Jimp45]

Hi Roger
Many thanks for your promt reply.

Coming from a monohull background sailing to windward and tacking are my two main sailing concerns.
I hope that other members can allay my fears on these counts. However all yachts are compromises, what I gain in stability and space I may loose in sailing performance.

As I expect to anchored or moored most of the time the small draught is appealing, it will help me keep out of the way of Gullets in Turkey and squeeze into the shallow end of town quays in Greece.

Jim

[Roger]

I think you have summed things up yourself quite well there, its all about compromises. There is no doubt though that the space and stability are massive plus. The performance is also excellent on the rare occasions when the wind is on the beam or from behind and you get none of the rolling that you get in a monohull.

If its at all possible to persuade the owner of the boat you are interested in to let you go out sailing for a few hours I would try and get them to do that.  Like yourself I was in 2 minds whether to switch to a catamaran or not but a few hours sailing her convinced me it was the right move and I haven't regretted it yet.