Insights from Catamaran Conversations Episode 8 with Phil Berman, Patrick Shaughnessy, and Herb McCormick
When catamarans first started gaining popularity decades ago, the sailing establishment was skeptical. Monohull sailors in places like Newport, Rhode Island and Newport Beach, California shared the same refrain: catamarans are dangerous, they’ll capsize, they’ll never catch on. Fast forward thirty years, and catamarans are the largest and fastest-growing segment of the sailboat market.
So what changed — and how safe are modern catamarans really?
The Capsize Question
It’s the first thing most people ask about, and Phil Berman of Balanced Catamarans has a characteristically direct answer. He’s been selling catamarans since he was thirteen, and to his knowledge, not a single customer has ever capsized one. That’s a remarkable track record spanning hundreds of boats.
The physics are straightforward: a higher-performance catamaran with a greater power-to-weight ratio is theoretically easier to push over. But for a well-designed cruising catamaran, it would take extraordinary wind conditions and poor seamanship to cause a capsize. And even in the worst-case scenario, an inverted catamaran serves as a far better life raft than anything you’d inflate from a canister. It floats, it has compartments, and it gives you time — something a sinking monohull does not.
Fire: The Real Threat
If capsize isn’t the primary danger, what is? According to Berman, the answer is fire — specifically catastrophic fire aboard a fiberglass vessel. This concern has shaped much of Balance’s design philosophy in recent years.
The move away from propane cooking systems, enabled by modern 48-volt lithium battery banks, has eliminated one of the most common fire risks on cruising boats. But lithium batteries themselves introduce new considerations. Berman is emphatic that lithium systems should be installed as complete, integrated packages from a single manufacturer — whether that’s Victron, MasterVolt, or another reputable brand — rather than cobbled together from mixed components. Balance even brought in renowned marine electrical expert Nigel Calder to conduct independent surveys of their electrical systems against new lithium-ion safety standards.
Speed as a Safety Feature
Patrick Shaughnessy, president of AK Design and a lifelong monohull racer, offers a perspective that might surprise the traditional sailing crowd: speed itself is a safety feature.
The logic is simple. A faster boat spends less time at sea. Less time at sea means less exposure to bad weather. And when weather does threaten, a catamaran’s ability to motor at nine or ten knots on twin diesels — or reach quickly under sail — gives crews options that slower vessels simply don’t have.
Shaughnessy is also quick to point out the safety value of redundancy. Two engines, two alternators, multiple charging sources. If one system fails, you have a backup. Balance has had boats sail hundreds of miles on solar power alone after alternator failures — inconvenient, but not dangerous.
From Art to Engineering
Thirty years ago, multihull design was more art than science. There were no established scantling rules for catamarans, no standardized engineering requirements. Designers were, as Shaughnessy puts it, essentially doing destructive testing on themselves every time they went sailing. Someone from the aerospace industry would have been horrified.
Today, CE and ISO regulations provide rigorous structural standards. Combined with better materials, more repeatable lamination processes, and advanced engineering tools, modern production catamarans are — if anything — overbuilt. Structural failures on well-constructed cats have become extremely rare.
The Technology Revolution
Modern technology has transformed offshore safety for all vessels, but catamarans are particularly well-positioned to benefit.
Weather routing and communications have improved dramatically. Services like PredictWind allow crews — and their support networks on shore — to monitor conditions in real time and adjust routes accordingly. Starlink has become nearly standard equipment, with most Balance customers requesting their boats be wired for it, while keeping an Iridium phone as backup.
AIS and GPS have simplified navigation to a degree that earlier generations of sailors could barely imagine. The days of relying on Loran and paper charts are gone, and with them much of the anxiety of coastal and offshore navigation.
Instructional video libraries, like the one Balance is producing for its owners, mean that when something goes wrong at sea, crews can quickly reference step-by-step troubleshooting guides rather than relying solely on memory or thick paper manuals.
Man Overboard: The Sobering Reality
For all the technological progress, Shaughnessy is candid about what keeps him up at night: man overboard situations. Having spent years racing offshore, he’s seen how poorly even experienced, fully crewed race boats handle MOB recovery drills. The statistics on recovery timelines are sobering — the window for a successful live recovery closes quickly.
His advice is direct: practice man overboard recovery seriously and repeatedly, especially if you plan to sail shorthanded. Both people aboard need to be capable of executing a recovery. Modern electronic locator beacons are essential gear, and the technology is too good not to carry.
The Human Element
As the conversation wraps up, a clear theme emerges: the boats, the equipment, and the technology have all reached a point where they rarely fail us. The weather can be tracked and often avoided. Systems are redundant. Structures are sound.
What remains is the human factor. Seamanship, preparation, and practice are still the foundation of safe sailing. Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule may be aspirational for recreational sailors, but the underlying principle holds — every repetition of reefing, every man overboard drill, every hour spent familiarizing yourself with your systems builds the muscle memory and confidence that keep crews safe when conditions deteriorate.
Modern catamarans, well-designed and well-built, are remarkably safe platforms. The question isn’t really about the boat anymore. It’s about the sailors aboard.
This post is based on Episode 8 of Catamaran Conversations, featuring Phil Berman (Balanced Catamarans), Patrick Shaughnessy (AK Design), and sailing journalist Herb McCormick. Watch the full series for a comprehensive look at catamaran design, construction, and seamanship.
