Hi Mate,

As far as Autralian High Performance Catamarans are concerned (builders of the Auscat Flyer and Boyer boats) they have a very clear warranty for all their boats wich you can find on their website.


A Class warranty link

Yeah but we'd all be dead if that happened.

Hell would have frozen over if they let a multi in the syd-hob.

just need to convince the cruising multihull club to hold a parallel race! Start a Km upwind and have someone in Hobart set a finish line..

Well this is a dream boat thread *chuckles*..

Why not just start 30 minutes after the last class? Then you can have all the fun of catching the Maxi's with your 'small' 60 foot dream-tri.

What would you do if Groupama 3 shared your starting line?

Groupama-3

I would take him up...HARD!

By the way, I have only sailed the A-Class this one season, but I don't think adding a spinnaker to this boat makes it better! It makes it heavier and more complicated. In light air, it makes it quicker. I am not sure it gets quicker with spinnaker once you can wild thing. The thing that makes my A2 my DREAM BOAT is that it is extremely simple to assemble, move around, and sail. I don't claim it is simple to sail well, just that you can sail it easily and simply. The next part of this being my DREAM BOAT is that I find that it responds to changes in adjustments of the outhaul, downhaul, mast rotation, mainsheet tension and traveller position. I have a lot to learn, and that fact makes my A2 my DREAM BOAT...plus it goes upwind like nothin' else!

Take him up, with 350 square meters of sailarea creating a very personal and nasty vacum for you to the lee??

I would very much like to see you yell "up-up-up" to them as you try it

The 60 footers are incredibly fast even in light winds, I think Groupama 3 will be even faster.

But if I don't do anything to him at the start line, when would I get another opportunity? If I am going to do anything, it will be at the start, yes?

Only hope I can see, is a boarding..
Seriously, when racing larger boats on yardstick we always look for free wind and fight for that. I guess that's what you would have done sharing the line with such a monster.
We have shared the starting area with some 60 foot tri's, and kept well away from them! They are _fast_ and _very large_

The largest boat I ever shared the starting line with is the RC27, and it was large enough to make you want to keep clear.

The A-class with spi is THE dream boat, and I have one!!!!

You gain about 30% of downwind VMG in higher winds if you compare an A-cat+spi with a normal A-cat. In lower winds the gain is a bit more.

Upwind you loose a bit, 5% maybe? How much you loose depends on the type of snuffer you are using and if you're using external or internal halyard for the spi. The "gain factor" between upwind and downwind is approx 2, that means if you gain 5% of downwindspeed with some extra gizmos and loose 2.5% upwind due to the gizmos you haven't gained anything during a complete lap.

You start to trapeze downwind in about 8 knots of wind, and in 18 knots of wind you must stand with the rear foot close to the rudder to keep the bow up. Use a chicken line or footstraps to stay attached to the boat.

I have several plots of downwind sailing with the A-class using the spi and in 16-18 knots of wind you are doing around 17-19 knots of boatspeed with an angle of 30° to a direct downwind course (15 knots VMG).

If you go wild thing without spi you will sail around 45° angle to a direct downwind course and the speed would be around 14-16 knots (11 knots VMG).



The course, one lap plotted:



/håkan

Barge the line

...I mean... who wouldn't? :P

Wellllll.. I think for safety they would start the fastest boats first.. Cutting one way thru a fleet of a hundred dead slow boats wouldnt be nice.. (Although lifting a hull above the mast tip of a maxi would be fun )

Add to the congestion issue is the spectator fleet.. Maybe a few thousand of various sizes and abilities (and when talking about abilities I mean the skippers with the booze content approaching 0.1%)..

Starting the big cats/tris a km or two down or upwind would be the best option.. But the spectator fleet is a huge issue and Groupma3 being cut in half by a drunk on his 75 foot palace isnt worth thinking about!!..

S..

Hey Stewart,

We're dreaming here!!! Remember, in a dream everything is perfect. The spectator boats are nicely lined up forming an alley for the racers to sail through. The larger boats are to leeward (no wind shadow there for the racers) and the smaller ones to windward. That also lets every one view the boats going by. Also as you would come up from behind the slower boats will meander over so you can pass w/o any trouble.

Oh, the alchohol consumption would not inhibit anyones ability to perform (we're dreaming remember?)

yea right! Dream on!

Clayton

Hakan, that is an excellent bit of data. How did you acquire it, please?

Regards,

Rob

I have on my hands a R33 (Reynolds 33) which is a fabulous boat and very fast, its awesome, but just to big for me as I am a dinghy sailor at heart. After being on this cat and sailing the MacGregor 26M, and sailing many other cats during the last few years I now can say I have experienced about all the sailboats I possibly can. I have experienced A-Cats, Tiger, F18 & 16, and so on. I am now back to my favorite the Hobie 16 and cruising on the MacGregor 26M with my family. I just love sailing more so than ever before with the great Hobie 16 fleet racing and my extended cruises on the MacGregor. I can’t imagine sailing getting any better than I have now! Heck all 4 of my kids are now sailing Wave’s and Hobie 16’s. Life is good!

Yes the Mac 26 is a fine boat.... with its water balast, ocean crossing capabilities and we must not forget the elusive 4th mode.

A very fine racer / cruiser. How could we forget the M26 in a thread about dream boats.

You should realy go see the guys at Sailing Anarchy. They are avid Mac 26 fans.

Anyone remember the big Macgregors? I think they where something like 60 or 70 feet long, and maybe only 12 or 15 feet wide. Fast, funny looking, but not "dream boat" material though.

HWSNBN?

I'd have to go with Russell Brown's proa, Jzerro. I know it's not exactly a cat, but at least it has two hulls.

http://www.wingo.com/proa/brown/jzerrophotos.html

How do you tack one of these beasts?

-Rob V.
Panama City
Nacra 5.2