The principles of sailing catamarans and monohulls are similar, but there are a few peculiarities that catamarans possess. For example, catamarans lacking dagger boards or centre boards are harder to tack. Also, the disproportional weight to sail size does not give catamarans a great deal of momentum when they are head to wind.

Another point of difference is that while catamarans can achieve greater speeds than monohulls, monohulls turn faster than catamarans with large hulls. Still, when it comes to racing catamaran style sailboats are preferred for their overall speed. For recreation, an inflatable catamaran is a good option.