How large should it be?

Picture of MV 50 from: http://www.class-multi50.org/bateaux/mv50.html

The size depends on how many you have to be on board and how far one should sail at a stretch.

With water makers and dried food, the weight you need to bring are radically reduced. Earlier may be counted by 4 liters of water per person per day and 2 kg of food. Now, the weight reduction down to about one-third and one has still a safety margin.

The smallest ocean-going catamaran, I expect to fifteen meters long. Multi-class 50 gives a good indication of a successful blend of performance, safety and cost already in the class rules. So it becomes the basis to start from. Holding to the Multi 50 so is also some resale value secured. It is possible to increase the volume of the boat slightly without the difference in performance is especially great for an amateur sailor.

I have found five boats that competed in the Atlantic sailings except pure cruising boats. It is, Avocet 50, Delirium, Victorinox, Freydis 50 and Outremer 50. There are new MV50 to be launched this year and Haro 50 and Dogstar 50 that exist only on paper so far. Links to information about the most interesting boats are on the right side of this page.

The beam of a Multi 50 catamaran is a bit different. Freydis and Outremer has been slightly modified production craft and the beam is about 7.5 meters. The others is usually a little over 10 meters wide. A wider boat must be built heavier to withstand the forces from the rig and the designers seem to have stopped at 10 meters as a good compromise.

Link: MV 50