The Area D Alter Cup Eliminations last year were interesting as we had a couple of competitive A-class sailors lined up against some good folks sailing spinnaker boats (Bob Curry on an I-17R, Brian Lambert on the CFR-20, Kirk Newkirk on the Tiger, Harry Newkirk on an I-20).

Upwind, the A-boats typically were the fastest, faster than even the CFR-20. Conditions for the event were 10-12 on the first day and 5-7 on the second day. Downwind, the A-cats were never as deep as any of the spinnaker boats whether in wild or mild mode. We were going very close to the same speed forward as the I-20's but not as deep when we were flying a hull downwind. The CFR-20 was faster forward and deeper all the time. We were probably even with the F-18's speed wise also again when flying a hull. I don't think the F-18's sailed quite as deep as the I-20 but they still had a faster downwind VMG than the A-cat. I thought we would be about even downwind VMG with the I-17R but Curry was catching me downwind. The corrected times between Curry, myself, and the top I-20's were very close in most of the races. The CFR was killing everyone on corrected in most of the races. The top A-cat was consistently correcting out on the F-18's.

It'll be interesting to see if the data from this event contributes to any adjustments to current ratings in the future.

Regarding the H-17, I've never sailed one but I can see where the relatively lower aspect rig combined with the wings can make this boat a giant killer in big breeze. First think about the righting moment upwind and then think about how being on the aft corner of the wing downwind can really lift the leeward bow up in a big blow. When it's approaching our wind limit in the A-cats (22 knots), you'll see most of the sailors max position aft on the windward hull to get maximum leverage on the leeward bow.

A-cats are surprisingly fast upwind in a blow. With the new twisty big head sail designs, they depower extremely well. In a fleet of 20' and under beach cats, I think only the Tornado and M-20 would be faster upwind. At the 2004 Slip To Ship distance race, we had a 7 mile beat in 12-14 knots of breeze. I was going higher and slightly faster upwind than both well sailed I-20's and a well sailed Nacra 6.0 NA. Only Dennis Palin on his carbon 200 lb 18 square meter beat me to Ship Island and it was only by about 1 minute. I think the sail/rig on the A-cat is continuing to evolve in terms of performance while the rigs and sails on the other boats have not progressed much (pin head sail on the Nacra, same sail cut on the I-20 for the last few years).

All of the above is based upon my own race observations.

Bob Hodges
A-Class USA 230