The hull numbers are hidden by anti-slip material. According to the paperwork it is TRRE0115M81G. I bought it three years ago. The hulls are the old eggshell type. And yes i'am afraid to break it some day.
The boat was put together out of a lot of different nacra
18 sq parts the nacra dealer had lying around at that time. The mast and sail are from a 1995 18sq. I am running out of proper sails; an upgrade to tornado mast to be able to fit "standard" sails seems a nice way to go.

My sail location is the "randmeren" at the Netherlands.

What do you mean with "It's not captive,but I'm tying off the mast base to the dolphin striker (JUST loosely enough)"?
Did you sail with this mast with another sail yet?

Was the drop level boom ever used on other type cats? I only know it from Mike Colemans site, being used at 18sq.


Geert Lindemulder
nacra 18 sq sail # 306

Thanks! As for "proper" sails, I don't know, but my sail is being made new for me. I had contemplated trying to fit a Nacra 20 main, which is nominally 18 sq metres in area.

I have not sailed yet with this mast. However, my old Nacra 5.O had the non-captive early Nacra mast base system, with the open hemisphere and the small ball. For safety I'd always tie a short line from the mast base to the striker while stepping the mast. This T mast has a similar step, and likewise, I tied a small line to it to keep it from falling completely free if it slips off the step ball while it's being stepped. It has worked fine while rigging it, but I haven't sailed with this mast yet.

The scuttle is that Rennie in Port Arthur is seriously interested in the boat. Good news for you 18sq nuts as he gets out to quite a few regattas.

Chris.

Yes, Rennie and I talked about it quite a bit while we were tearing down our boats at Turkey Day - well, he was just TYING his down, but yeah... Tilt trailers are in the works both for my soon-to-be-yellow boat, and for soon-to-be-his yellow boat. Ian, Jon's son, had mentioned that he'd pitchpoled his dad's boat pretty violently over the summer, and had to redo the starboard hull, which is now about 4 lbs heavier than previously. He took advantage of the moment to repaint the previously-orange boat, too.

I have the drop lever boom on my boat and it works quite well! My question to all you sq.owners is could the size of the boom be reduced to save some weight. Mine looks to be a Prindle 19 section or a 5.2 section. i have seen many of the new cats,(some with much more sail area) using very small booms. With the drop lever I don't think we put that much for & aft stress on the tube. Hope you all chime in.This has been a good 18 sq discussion. (Very far and few between)
Ed
Nacra 18 SQ

If I understand how the drop lever works, then actualy while it puts little compressive force on the boom, it puts a lot of bending. The sail is secured fore or aft of the car the mainsheet block secures to, so the bending is produced by the offset between the two multiplied by the tension (acting perpendicular) So if the car is way in toward the mast (traveller centered?) and the main sheeted hard, then this would be the worst, and not unusual scenario. But when you are travelled out, the car would be typically further back and more directly under the sail securing point, but typically without spin you dont sheet hard then...
The irony is that the old deep rectangular section is good in bending (up/down), but could buckle the weak (narrow) way in compression from the crazy mainsheet angle typical on Nacra Squares with traveller centered. The round Prindle is light and symetrical so it is a good "column" for its weight for longitudinal loading, but not for bending in one plane.
The Duhh trick that the "A" cats use is to load the mainsheet directly to the sail "around" the boom with a ring. The boom only pulls the ring in and out (outhaul) and so can be set up for pure compressive loads, and no nasty bending.
I guess you could do something similar, but you may have to have an inhaul too, when you travel out, to control your foot tension (or lack of it). The benefit would be that you could keep a pure compressive load and a minimum section to the boom. We could really geeek out on this.
The last time I tried to race I got in irons buggering around with the mast rotator, and lost say 10 boat lengths. How often does mast rotation gain you ten boat lengths, even cumulatively? How much a 10 oz lighter boom? Do it for the gee wiz factor. I have two extra Rectangular booms if you want one. How about sawing circular holes out of the sides to save weight? You could saw a lot of big ones out at the mast and less toward the mainsheet ( drop lever) anchor point. Or you could taper the bottom wall in and tig weld it back. Look real trick.

Thanks David. I have a P-19 boom section boom, as well as one of the 1" wide, 4" deep flat sections, and additionally am on the prowl for a windsurf mast piece (per Charlie's suggestion, to copy the Jav2 18HT) so I guess I'll get to try all the options! Thanks for chiming in, and I'll keep y'all updated.

Andrew,

Some of the HT crowd went with a 2" round Forte section for booms. Forte sells a bare 11 ft 2" tube for $218. Its going to be plenty strong for your boom.

www.forterts.com Talk to Tony.

Your boom could probably hitch a ride on boats going south for the races in FL for Jan.

Bill