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GeorgeC1 said:
It sounds like perhaps you did not enjoy the sailing experience on the cat. Don't give up on them. The 420 is a very poor sailing cat. The 2000 rpm issue on the engines was also a bit strange. The standard yanmars in most cats should be in the 2500rpm range for cruise and propped to hit 2800 to 3200 at full throttle. It may well be the cooling systems need a major overhaul and they placarded them to avoid fixing the issue. Give a different model cat a try next time. You should notice a big improvement.
G


I haven't given up on cats! After I asked, here, if we should go with a big mono or a cat most everyone was for the cat. Then after I booked it there was a thread about how bad the lagoons tend to sail. Oh well, I knew what to expect. Actually, it did sail to wind better than I expected and it moved pretty well on a reach, it just need 18+ knots to get moving! The wind direction indicator showed us doing 30 degrees into the wind on port tack, yeah right and 60 degrees on a starboard tack. I figured we were getting about 45-50 on each tack with a brisk wind. The biggie was the cams on the winches were worn so someone had to keep tension on them to get them to work. On the main even the cam cleat wouldn't hold but I think they replaced the line with a slightly small size and that caused the problem. On the engines I thought the same thing; never had a boat that had a max below 2500 rpm. I think the port engine needed a new impeller but it wouldn't overheat below 1800. Last November we were on a 3 year old Sunsail circling at idle to get fuel at the Delta dock and the alarm went off. Luckily we were close to the base because after it cooled down it had just enough left in it to get us to the dock at 1400 rpms. When they started it to check no water was pumping.

Life involves risks, take some prudent ones (NOT with the BVI ferries)!