Ben,

That thing is cool, bravo for being the first to really give it a try. Hope it works out for you.

Good on you Ben. Thanks for taking the time to give us all the straight and skinny from the source, that will help cut down on all the speculation.

I hope it catches on and some day we are all flying wings instead of trying to bend battens. Your wing seems the natural sail evolution just like from the Wright brothers first flyer wing to today's high performance ultralight glider wings. Keep up the great work.

Now, about foiling.... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Thank you Ben for bringing this thread back to a bit of realism and logic, (two things that are regularly lacking in a lot of posts here). Your thinking and application are without fault and as an avid admirer of the A class and wing development (and as an aside, of foils as well) all I can do is congratulate you on your willingness to just "do it", rather than discuss the hell out of the subject as just an “idea” to later be forgotten, and I sincerely hope that all your work proves to be many times more successful than you could have ever dreamed it could be.
Darryl J Barrett

Hi Ben, Any chance that you will release the plans to the public after the regatta?
Dave

Ben,

Thank you for pulling this back to reality. I am glad that you went ahead with this project. It is also one of the clenest and yes "coolest" looking wings that I have ever seen. You should be commended, not condemned for putting this forward in the class as well as timing it before the worlds. Good luck this weekend, and at the worlds. That is also a great looking platform that it sits upon. I hope that it does not get lost in the to do about the wing. By the way, is it just the two boats built or are there more? See you in Bristol next season. Again, good luck, great job and cool boat and wing.

places order for 1 x F16 sized rig..

One question how does one attach the spinacker?

*scratching my head*

in reality development classes are no more expensive than SMOD classes or Formula or one design..

correct me if I'm wrong.. Isn't the Aussie "Tool" also a home-built?
this is what I really like about the A & F16 etc.. One can either go plonk the dosh down or beaver away yourself in the shed..

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> is that a straight line or a non conforming cluster? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The Tool is not really home build because 1 of the containers from Europe has 7 Tools in it. They are build production wise.
We bring 7 Tools, 1 Scheurer, and 2 Flyers with us to the Worlds.

Regards,
Hans

thanks I did not know that about the tool... Still think there are one or two aussie A cat sailors who build their own hulls..

I wonder though when does a home built not become a home built? May sound silly.. But a few years ago a group of Javelin skiffs sailors got together built a mold and pulled 5 or so hulls off the mold.. Maybe a dozen or so over the years. These guys built the hulls in a home garage and had day jobs.. Worked weekends to help the class.. I guess this idea could apply to cats as well

Bill,

So if I buy a platform and put my own mast and sail on it I qualify as a "homebuilt"

All the DK's came out of a professionaly built mold and the hulls were built with at least some aid with Steve and or Lars. Lindahl is a "professional" builder from the past and now back especially if they are producing 3-4 platforms in time for the Words. Bens and Cogans hulls were made in a shop from professionaly built molds, and final assembly and rigging done at one of the premeier rigging shops (Halls Spars)

Not that it makes any difference in the grand scheme of things, but the lines are muddy. I would consider a boat to be home built that was not produced out of professionaly made molds.

I see 30k for a new a-class boat next year

You might see that this year with the new Marstrom A-Class, but it may come in below that. I have yet to see the boat or its pricing. I have not seen what the new Hall/cogan platform is going for either. It seems that with the increasing price of carbon and epoxy at this moment, the prices around the industry reflect those increases. Going back to Ben's new wing, as I stated earlier in this thread, it was not built to start an arms race in the class, it was built as a development process. I cannot see Ben wanting to "kill off" the class that he has put so much time, effort, development and committment into.

"All the DK's came out of a professionally built mold and the hulls were built with at least some aid with Steve ..."

Correction: I built my DK-17 myself! Steve, Bill and Heater Beaver, Willy, and David. All assisted at some level with the lamination of the hulls. (If you're going to cycle the molds twice in less than two days you need a little help...) Yes the molds were built by Steve and cut with an NC Router. I brought my own materials. I paid to use the mold. I walked away with four pieces that hardly resembled a boat. I have a day job completely unrelated to my hobby/addiction. I built the rest from scratch in an 18’ by 19’ garage. I can’t speak for the rest of the DK-17’s buy mine was home built. A trivial issue to most, but not to me.

Back to the topic at hand. Excellent work Ben! I can’t wait to see how the wing performs against the current rigs and I could think of no better venue/event than the worlds. I fully support the development aspects of the class and wish more people would take on projects like this. Now if that pesky little hydrofoil rule would go away we could answer that question as well. Given the time, I’d surely like to play…

-GMS
USA-215

Ditto for me, I left Steve's shop with 4 parts and finished it myself. I consider it homebuilt, not bought. And we laid the hulls up at Steve's house not over at Vanguard.

And Lindals molds dont look production to me.

Bill

Thanks for the post Ben! Very cool project. I can't wait to see it in Ismoralda.

Jeremy
Surf City Catamarans

That DK17 sounds like an interesting project. Did you guys each have to figure out your own laminate schedule or are there existing plans?

Dirk Kramer specificed the laminate. I used one layer of 5oz carbon weave on the outside skin, 1/4 inch corecell foam core, 5oz on the inside skin. George and Steve's boats are Nomex core. Mine is glued together, Steve's is bolted, not sure about George's boat.

We added additional patches of carbon cloth at the shrouds, forestays, beam sockets and the outside skin that you stomp around on while trapezing. So far mine has held up great, I was out in 30knots plus 2 weeks ago and nothing broke.

Bill

Mine had the same laminate as described. Glued together at at a return flange along the center line. I also bagged two layers of tape over the seam all the way around (1.5 inch wide and 1.0 inch wide). I spec'ed high modulus beams from Composite Engineering (VanDusen Racing Boats). Beams are glued in. Beams are slightly more than 50% stiffer in bending and torsionl compared to a Flyer. This boat is extremely stiff and its will underweight.

Did I mention that I weight 250 pounds, not even a peep from the boat.

-GMS