Back when the Hobie 14 and Prindle 15 were popular, there was a 15' cat that I think was called the Freestyle 15. I may have the wrong name, but it had hulls shaped sorta like NACRA, had daggers and I think diamond wires. A friend had one of these, and he always won the single handed races in our area.

Does anyone recall this cat? Do I have the wrong name? Anyone have a photo of this boat?

dan

Do a forum search for Freestyle 474 .

Thanks, I was curious to know if the Freestyle 474 has diamond wires. It does.
dan

Yes, fast single handed boat that has a sweet rating for mixed fleet racing. I do know that the mast is not super robust and trapping with multiple people on board has been known to fold the mast.

dand,
i have one and recently refurbished it.
if you have any questions you can ask me.

Thanks Ryan, I started this thread to see if any other small mono sail cats had diamonds. Putting diamond wires on my P-15 was suggested by Performance Catamarans. They offered to put together a kit.

dan

Still have it and still race it every weekend in the summer, 2 hours NE of Toronto, ON, Canada. The pic on the left is a old picture taken Sep 2001 with my original sail that I have since replaced. The center and right photos are circa 2006.

I can upload more recent photos if you wish!

Dug out a series of photos taken in the summer of 2008.





[img:center]http://www.cowco.net/pics/freestyle474/DSC4811.jpg[/img]
[img:center]http://www.cowco.net/pics/freestyle474/DSC4812.jpg[/img]
[img:center]http://www.cowco.net/pics/freestyle474/DSC4819.jpg[/img]
Enjoy! ... I sure did!

Are you sailing on Rice Lake in the pictures?

Fred S

Stoney Lake, or Upper Stoney Lake actually. I am the Commodore of the USLYC this year. We run our cottage boat races every weekend througout the summer.

Hmmm..
I don't think there'll be any boat races with the word 'cottage' in them in the UK any time soon............

Thanks for the info, tried to sail Rice Lake once just to many weeds. I love sailing the Kawarthas',clear warm fresh water.

Fred

Ya, we are just a bunch of old farts (40 - 60 ish) sailing Lasers, CLs, Wayfarers and few Hobies and my Freestyle. We sail 3 or 4 short 15-20 min races and then use Portsmouth handicap system to balance it out. A social get together every couple of weeks and a wind up barbecue ... Great Fun!

You guys are still young bucks,we have an 83 year young who races an A Cat and still goes to the wire. He's my hero.

Fred