hi all,
i sail on a smallish gusty lake in the mountains

usually the winds are very light but when strong are very unpredictable as you speed across the lake and winds ping around off the surrounding mountains

i'm very tempted by the idea of a flat roller furling hooter that could be used in very light winds on all? points of sail but snapped away pronto while i'm hiking out off the stern when a microburst touches down

the weta roller furling gennaker is 8.0 m2/86 sqft

anyone know the size of the wave hooter?

We run one on our Supercat 20. I think you will like it. Rick sells the hooters at his online store.

online store link >>>

yes, i see the wave system, it could be grafted straight to a 17foot nacra easily enough i guess and presumable calvert sails make them to order so a bigger size one could be ordered for a boat bigger than a wave

i see that the 14foot weta tri's gennaker is 80sqft and 14 foot wave's is 88sqft

any ideas how big is the one on your supercat 20 is?

found your website now, going through it:o)

http://teamcyberspeed.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

is there any way to grade these things for flatness?, i understand a code 0 is about the flattest normally, is that what the usa tornado team used for the 2008 olymics?

sorry for all the Q but there doesn't seem to be much out there on roller furling spinnakers for beachcats but in a small super light air venue they seem very attractive

now off to research more about those monster genoas that go to the back beam on those swiss lake cats

I do not know the footage of the sail and I am out of town. I had a sailmaker as a sponsor and he custom built it for the boat. Mine is pretty flat and we have had it run upwind a bit and to run it downwind, you can run it like an asymetrical spin. It has a 20' foot and sheets from the back beam but my boat is 12' wide.

You can probably send a note to Rick and between he and Calvert, they can probably sort you out.

I dont really know much about hooters but If your going to use it as a spin that you sheet in tight as you go upwind you probably wont be putting it away much when a gust hits. I've found that when a gust hits under spin the mains centred and the spin lifts the bows for a great ride. When I didnt have the spin up a month ago and a gust hit with the sails out the boat tripped for the whole arm flapping leg kicking thing.
regards

I believe you would love the Hooter. And you are correct in that we make the sail for the boat. I work closely with Calvert Sails to get you the right sail for your boat.
You can contact me directly at my email address: rick@catsailor.com and I can help you from there a bit easier.
With the Wave I can carry the sail upwind up to about 12 mph winds. After that I could trapeze, but don't have my boat set up for that
With that configuration, I can sail at speeds similar to the Hobie 16
Rick

The hooter can be used both upwind and downwind. When you are sailing upwind, it is treated like a jib and you head upwind for puffs. When you are sailing downwind, you head downwind for puffs. There is a middle ground where it is hard to tell whether you have to head up or down in a puff. If you feel you are in that grey area, you need to do a small test to see if it heats up or slows down if you head upwind or downwind. Always be aware of your exit strategy, it can change as your course or wind direction changes.

My hooter/screecher hounds are well below my spinnaker hounds and I can sheet out on the main a little in an emergency but the traveler is the better tool. We used the screecher in the Keys 100 a few months ago. It was blowing 20-25 mph, gusting to 30 mph and we were running dead downwind in 3-6 foot seas. We were able to hold our own with a Nacra 6.0 with a spin. We had different angles but when we crossed tacks we were always within 100 yards of each other for 70 miles. The N20 seemed to have about the same speed as us but was able to sail a little deeper.

Thanks Craig, boy am I stupid ! I went and looked at the Rick White sailing DVD again and it even shows the difference on my exact boat. I assume the Hooter is made of heavier material than the spin because, my spin works okay upwind in light wind on tight until the apparent wind goes forward then everything gets untidy.
Regards