Hi all, this is my first post on the forum. Yesterday I brought home my first cat. It is a 1978 Nacra 5.2. It was listed on Craigslist, and the price had dropped over the weeks from $600 to $300. It came with the trailer, sails, and hardware. It has been stored outdoors for a long time. All of the lines and bungies have rotted away. Trapoline isgood shape. It has the old style tramp with the aluminum bar down the center. It has the orignial dolphin catcher and the 1/1/4" mast step and the non-captive mast base. I have a few fiberglass repairs to make, it is going to the auto shop at the highschool I teach for a few patches. There are some details I haven't been able to figure out yet about the boat.
1. On the early 5.2's, how do the daggerboards get tensioned to stay up? There is no hardware around the dagger boxes to attach the bungie tensioners that I have seen on other Nacra's online.
2. The jib hardware is different than what I have seen online. I have two padded cables, one on each side of the tramp that look like they would be used to hook your feet under when hiking out. There are pullies mounted halfway back on these that look to be for the jib lines. There are no tracks or cars for the jib on the pontoons. Do these sound like they would be for the jib control lines?
3. The padding on these lines is degraded...looks like a cat practiced sharpened its claws on them. Where can you get these pads?
4. Is there a comprehensive list of the what size lines, and how many feet for all the various rigging? I have some of that info on the pdf of Nacra parts I found on line, but it leaves some things off. (for example, what size is the line that hooks to the halyard cables for hoising the sail, and how many feet are needed.

Other than those questions, the cat looks pretty complete. I will work on hoisting the mast for the first time, and the rigging while at the highschool getting the fiberglass repairs. I can't wait to get it out on the water. I used to have a sunfish, and I would get jealous when hobiecats would pass me like I was standing still.

I have only sailed a cat once. It was a worn out 14 footer with only a main sail. It suffered a spectacular death when I tried to fly one pontoon. Unknown to me, several gallons of water had leeked into the pontoon that remained in the water. All at once that water flowed to the front of the pontoon and the boad dived like a submarine. The cat flipped, throwing my wife into the rigging, and tearing the seam between the top and sides of the pontoon completely open. I righted the cat, but it wouldn't stay upright because of the completely flooded pontoon. I flagged down a boat and got a ride back to the dock where my wife's uncle..owner of the boat was. He went out in his houseboat to tow the cat back to the dock. From there the day went worse. When he got to the cat, his steering failed due to low powersteering fluid, and he finised off the cat with propeller cuts down the length of a pontoon. We towed the cat back to the beach where it was sold for parts. Hopefully, the Nacra with have a less spectacular season.
Any advise on mods, sailing the 5.2, or cat sailing in general will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave West

ps. Anyone in California's central valley with 5.2 experience to show/help me set the boat up would be wonderful. thanks