hi douse anyone know if the hurricane 5.9 will sail singlehanded on the mainsail alone without lee or weather helm?
thanks rich

Ask Scooby Simon, or over on http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=29

Not recommended!
The 5.9 is a quite finely balanced two man boat and even with the jib (5.9sq m) it can stall upwind if both sails are not trimmed correctly when overpowered. The 5.2 sq m jib doesn't choke as easily but is still far too much for singlehanding. If you wanted to singlehand one you could maybe try a dart 18 mainsail (I've seen it done on a Tornado) but your not going to get 5.9 performance. It may even work with the self tacking SX jib (about 3.4 sq m I think.) Also make sure you have help around for if it goes over.

By far the easiest solution GET A CREW! they are great boats.

Cheshirecatman

A friend will sail his 5.9 single handed if his son (or other victim) isn't available to crew for him - but he'll usually leave the jib on. I have seen him sail singlehanded without a jib but it's pretty much a last resort!

as a general rule if a boat has been designed with a jib it should be basically balanced with both sails up, hopefully with a slight tendency to head up for safety reasons

sailing it without the jib will move the center of pressure of the sail behind the center of pressure of the hulls and increase the head up effect

a beginner skier thinks that un-waxed skis will be safer cause they are slower but as they are less controllable they are actually worse
in the same way on my nacra 5.2 i find soloing without the jib much more difficult as it is so much easier to go into irons. it's actually easier to sail uni with someone else on as the weight helps you coast through the tack

yes i was trying to sell it to somone who didn't fancy the jib but i tried to sail my dart hawk with the old 1 sail ploy and it was rubbish, thought it would be ok but baaaaaaaaad move i will never do it again promise, you know those funny little boats that you see on the startline, basicaly a design fault/evelutionary culdasac with the one hull (i know it sounds ludicrouse but realy they do exist) wobbly little things, anyway apparently they sail around the whole course it takes them a while but they manage it good on them i say anyway again the reason i know this is because with my single sail status i was being followed (some would say stalked) by a few of these lovable exentrics in these funny little boats, so i feel i should appologise to the whole internet in person for such a luducrus suggestion, i will be doing so forthwith, i may have been so drunk i was having 1/2 vision of course, has anyone else seen these um i suppose they must be monomorans like tri's but without the bits either side, that allow you to put a sail big enough to call a sail on them, i may start a fred on this its a hot topic i think

Rictorn,

LOL - it's true. There's even a global competition, held every four years, to find the best of these half boat sailors. Clearly, a lot of skill is required to keep one of these things upright!

yes ive heard of that, i think they call it the alimpits as all the boats hve to go so slow,
anyone know if they are prizes are for the fastest of these silly little boats or the slowest? when i was a kid we used to have a slow bysical race wgere the object was to ride as slow as possible without falling over i asume its like that ???

alright-

As I am not wearing my beer goggles- can someone please translate?

No problem; alimpits=olympics, hve=have, bysical=bicycle, evelutionory=evolutionary, culdusac=cul de sac. I can't explain the basic intent except that boats with one hull are slower and get more attenton in the world of sailing. This is unfortunate for us cat guys. This website could use some spell check but it's also a valuable reality check.

yes gr8 translating, alimpits was an 'amusing' (thats not for me to judge) aside, the rest are dyslexia, some people think being able to spell is more important than having a brain which flies of in a miriad of strange and somtimes interesting directions but i wouldn't swap it for all the tea in china, so thanx for the translation, ps douse anyone know if the french have a word for culdesac?

Yup, it's 'Impasse'

Barry Humpries.......now thats a scary thought..!!

Every crash the AC guys have brings cat and multi to the fore. Once people see these boats sailing, like all things televised the programming will move toward it.
The time of the Cat and tri is coming.

The mono guys are competitive too, they will not want to go back to slomo either.

glad the fred (i know spelling) isn't drifting off the point, has anyone else noticed barry humpfries is pope??