An email from Rob Malin MD, the owner of the Atlantic 42, Hull #1, Remedy, launched 1996.
Chris-
In what might be the first encounter of an Atlantic 42 against a late model Catana occurred just north of Nantucket on 7/16/04.
Remedy was sailing from Cotuit, MA to Nantucket and the Catana 431 was coming from Edgartown. We had 5 people (men) on board for a weekend cruise with tanks about 3/4 full along with food and the usual gear. Outside of Cotuit we had 20-22kts from the SW and my "crew" was not interested in going fast or getting wet so I went out with a double reefed main and full jib. This was a very comfortable and dry ride moving along in the 9kt range. As we approached Nantucket the wind dropped to 15-20 kts and we were sailing about 60 degrees apparent at 8-8.5 kts. About a mile north of Tuckernuck Shoal I noticed a mainsail with large roach on our starboard beam and knew it was a multihull. We were both converging on Tuckernuck bell buoy where we had to alter course to fetch the Harbor about seven miles away. I had the impression she had a little boat speed on us which wasn't surprising since she had full mainsail and jib.
It took me less than 5 minutes to shake out the double reef, get the lee board down and trim the main. By this time the cat was right on my stern and I thought I could hear her bow wave. I turned to look and much to my delight saw that it was a Catana 431. As soon as I got the main trimmed Remedy launched towards Nantucket. She instantly hit 13-14kts with the wind at 16-18kts---60 degrees apparent gusting to 19kts with slight chop. I eased off the main to open up the leech and she settled in at 11-12kts popping up to 14kts on the gusts. By this time we had rounded Tuckernuck bell and both boats were on the same course to the harbor. Within 5 minutes the gap had opened to a margin that surprised even me. In 10 minutes the Catana was on the horizon. As we came up to the Nantucket breakwater I could no longer make out the Catana. The visibility was about 2-3 miles in the haze. Distance from Tuckernuck to the harbor entrance is about 7 miles. In retrospect I should have tracked them by radar to measure the distance but did not think of it at the time. Needless to say it wasn't even close and all of us on board Remedy were surprised to see how quickly we pulled away.
Later that day we took the launch into town and ended up picking up the Catana skipper and crew. Several people were asking him about his Catana and its speed. Not knowing which boat we were from the Catana skipper reported he had averaged 9-10kts from Edgartown. I assure you given my knowledge and experience of sailing a 431 in the same wind conditions he never broke 9kts that day.
The difference in performance of the 2 boats was astounding and I was sailing conservatively. Had I had somebody with experience to handle the mainsheet the thrashing would have been much worse. That's the blow by "blow out".
By the way your son was tooling around the harbor the next day in a whaler and escorted us out. He swung by and proudly announced that "his father had designed that boat". He appeared to be in his element-another budding water rat.
Regards,
Rob
