I have designed and built an A-cat that comes close to planing, or sure looked like it was when I had it out going downwind in 25 knots of wind. It is a hard chined shape that is v'd at the front then flattens out toward the rear and has a step at the 16 foot mark from the front. I will attach a copy of the 16 footer that I have been toying with making to give you an idea of what it looks like. Sadly, my construction skills were lacking, and I overbuilt some areas of the hulls, so they wound up being pretty heavy at 55 lbs each, so it will probably never perform up to class standards. Plus in sawing off the bottom of the first attempt at a design, there were several things that I had to do that have pretty much made this a peice of crap. It still sails though even if it looks bad!

Bill Roberts has said that there is not much difference in speed between a planing cat and a regular dispacement hull of similar size and fineness ratios. I think that he is likely right from what I have seen with this boat. There are several issues that i have to deal with to see if I can get it going faster, including getting a stiffer mast, but what I have experienced so far, I do not think that it will outperform any decent a-cat out there now. Given enough wind, it can sure blast away downwind, but I have no other decent boat around here to compare it to. That just means that i have to travel to find out. If I can get it going decent this summer, I am going to try making those shorter hulls at 35 lbs each versus the 50 lb ones I now have.