PREPARING FOR THE PACIFIC
Sailors have long asked whether a multihull or monohull is best for crossing oceans. For me, the perfect sailing machine for the Pacific is a Lagoon 570 catamaran built in 2003. I spent far too much time in my early sailing days being ill on an old wooden Hillyard monohull. I’ve now sailed over 40,000 miles on my catamaran and, while I have felt a bit dodgy on occasions, I have never been seasick.
Bear in mind when choosing your catamaran that lighter and faster is not always the strongest or most seaworthy – being safe and comfortable takes preference and, if you’re a little slower, you get to spend more time sailing.
Sailing west in the Pacific is nearly all downwind and rolling along on a monohull is not for me. While some may say that 57ft is too large, I found that two of us could easily handle the boat, as it is such a stable sailing platform. Indeed when talking to others who had sailed both monohulls and multihulls, most (with the exception of a few diehards) have to
