I wanted a boat that could average 250 miles to 300 miles a day. On the Eastern coast of Australia there are many world class cruising grounds within 750 miles. With the right weather window and a fast boat you can get there in 3 days - Speed is Safety. Solution long and light catamaran 17m LOA and 10-11 tons fits the bill. To better balance the rig we went to 17.5 LOA, which gives me a 1.7 long forward cockpit, and only 0.5m spare in the shed. Well building long is easy, and I suppose light, but the cost has to stay down too. Foam was the initial choice. Problem was I am not familiar with using foam, so in the end decided to go with end grain balsa - DuFlex from ATL in fact. Another advantage is that ATL cut out with their wonderful CNC machine many of the large bulkheads which speeds up construction. Will be interesting to see what we can keep the weight down to - I will be happy with less than 13,000 kg (all up sailing / cruising weight)

Cockpit Layout

One of the things I dislike about a large cruising cat if the fact you always seem to have trouble seeing where you are going, you spend a lot of time looking out over the stern of the boat - like most people I like the idea of seeing where I'm going. I've seen a few methods depolyed to get around this, a few that come to mind.
1) Mega Large wheels with a central high seat that lets you steer and see over the cabin top.
2) Wheels either side of the boat and out in the open so you can see easily down the side - but you are out in the open.
3) Has to be the only real solution and we crave the best solutions - A forward cockpit in front of the main saloon - can get a bit wet - but there is an inside steering position to solve that one - Go the forward cockpit eh.

Powering

I want to be able to cruise under power at 10 knots, the wind does not blow all the time - or power at 8 knots against a 25knot wind and associated sea. Never undersell your powering ability. In my experience a lot of the time is spent running the motors. - Solution powerfull engines with 3 blade folding props, I am investigating variable pitch props too. Engines in there own easy accessable compartments of course.


Safety

Sirocco is going to be sailed around the world and although I would like to hope for 99% of the time I sailed with 15-20 knots of wind aft of the beam, well there might be a short time when this does not happen, only joking, expect it all the time, but just in case. Anyway decided to go for centerboards. Joan Bell has mini keels, great place to keep the water, but could, I think, cause the boat to roll should she ever be caught sideways on to a breaking wave, with centreboards up the hulls should just slide sideways down the wave while we sip our G and Ts. The speed of the boat should add to the safety of the boat, both under power and under sail meaning if we are looking like we are in the wrong place we should be able to get the hell out of wherever we are real quick. All the usual water tight compartments. Water, holding and fuel tanks are to be part of the hull, giving, where these tanks are constructed effectively a double bottom, so a hull breach at these points does not allow water to enter the internal parts of the boat. Below floors are constructed in a manner that areas can be isolated. A bit of sika on one or two floor hatches and a few screws driven home with your favorite screwy and you have another water tight compartment. We will be carrying all the usual safety gear plus personal Man OverBoard alerts. Last one - Catamarans are positively buoyant as well as positively cool.