How do you go if you try http://www.thebeachcats.com/videos/BladeF18.mpg

without the "-" in the file name.

It doesn't matter what kind of boats, blazing past other boats just looks great. Super looking boat phil!

I got it working.... Nice.. but why are the soundtracks always so bad

Here is a site with instructions to make your own steadicam:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

Very handy..Will take most of the shake out of the shots. I am going to try this out this summer..

Phill,

if we want to carry the kite higher than it's designed for, we let out 5-8cm on the tack line and sheet in. So far we have used this technique to good effect in distance races when the wind isn't too strong (dont try this in anything near trapeze conditions). This small change really alters the shape of the kite and is fast up to a certain windspeed.

Following cats in any kind of chop/waves is next to impossible in small boats. They get thrown around and must slow down while cats power trough the waves much better. What you need is a powerful big boat with a deep V hull (semi-planer?) and a flybrigde, or a motor-cat

Why was they racing on the lake and not in the ocean? Sounds risky to race on the lake with Muldjewangk lurking about


PTP, I am old enough to remember when the soundtrack (Robert Palmer?) was the hottest thing played in the disco, so it works great for me. I suggest you listen to the lyrics while looking at the different scenes, this is obviously done with great consideration.

Agreed - but why not ease it while in trapeze conditions? We do it often - especially distance racing.

Jake, I have three reasons. One is that it powers up to boat too much making it hard to control while creating a lot of drag once the wind is up. The second is wheter the mast can take the loads. We still have the Marstrøm Tornado alu-mast, and it's not the strongest one around. Third, it is hard on the spi cloth.

We spent probably about 40% of last year's 523 mile Tybee 500 running as high and tight as possible with the spinnaker. I will attest that the loads are quite high - most of the crews hands (including mine) really paid the price. The truely grueling fact was that the spinnaker was adding a lot of drag for the power it generated - we were getting about an extra .2 knots out of it for all the work going into it...but we were racing!

Great video. Can we buy a Blade yet? Any idea on price?

Chappie:

I lost the price email when I redid conputer. Check the forum on A cat vs F16. I think it is somewhere in there.

Doug

I'm with Jake here.

Sometimes you need to go high.

I know that the last 5 miles of that race, I was trying to cover Space Coast when they snuffed their chute and started going over us. Knowing that Mark would simply pull his chute out of his snuffer (we had to tramp launch ours) if we started to douse, we popped about 4" of tack line out, double trapped and I had to play the traveller to keep us going. Point is, you can, sometimes, need to pop some tack line... not often in bouys though.

We ended up letting him get ahead of us... so he could find the sandbar for us

Sorry to hijack the thread..but while we are talking about pointing and using the kite....I came up with an adjustable tack line while using the stock Nacra snuffer.

I simply attached a lead at the end of the hoop, then ran a line thru the back in to a cam-cleat on the front beam. The line was measured with a stop knot to adjust from about the distance as if it were tied, to about 4-6" out. Worked pretty good to give adjustment.

If you want to keep it simple, you can always guess the conditons, then tie of the tack accordingly before you sail.

Michael

The Blade F16 (little brother from which the Blade F18 is derived) is build in the USA by http://www.vectorworkssail.com and it costs (fully fitted, race ready, Ullman suit of sails) 12.900 US$

More info at : Full price list given by Doug in an earlier post

The Blade F18 (as in video) is in its final development stages and so is not commericially available yet. However, I personally expect to see Vectorworks Marine add it to their product line in the not to distant future. It should be cheaper then the imported F18's (Tiger, Capricorn, Cirrus) then and on a par with other domestic F18's (Nacra, Mystere).

If you want more info about anything then contact : Phill Brander or Matt McDonald. I'll give you their e-mail adresses when interested.

Wouter

This will be a great addition to their product line for Vectorworks Marine.

If VectorWorks Marine indeed chooses to go for the new boat as I personally expect then she is forming a beautiful product line-up :

- Blade F16 (available)
- Bim XJ A-cat (available)
- Blade F18 (expected)
- Blade 20 footer; Ultimate distance racer (Rolf, this will be something for you)

On www.bladecatamarans.com a presistant rumour is given more credit, see http://asiaboatrag.net/blade/6%20WHO/1people.html

It talks of the Blade 20 footer. Imagine a Taipan 5.7 (similar weight and rig) but with the new Blade hullshape and an updated rig. Got that picture ? Well this is where I expect it to come out at. Bloody fast and a pleasure to sail with excellent handling. And if VectorWorks Marine decides to take it to the market then this will be the first real competition for the I-20 design. The support of a significant production company will make the difference that boats like CFR20 etc simply don't have.

However, we'll have to wait a little while longer for this. One thing I like about Phill is that he doesn't rush things. It is either very good or gets another year of development. An engineers dream as I'm sure you agree Jake.

Wouter

One thing matt told me at Tradewinds about the proposed 20 footer would be that it would have kickup high-aspect boards.

I gotta see that.

Yes I would. I can appreciate that.

Doug: this is the Blade F18 thread, and I'd imagine that's what the question relates to. I know the F16 Blade is available, but I don't think (or know) that the F18 is.

Maughan,

technically, kickup daggers are not too hard to do. There has been made some prototypes for the Tornado. The downside is that you need gaskets to cover the bottom of the well as the boards need room to rotate aft..

Look at this: http://personal.inet.fi/private/muu/boards.htm

The mechanism can be refined a lot so it's hidden in the hull, or look for some other ideas further down on the page. Knowing a certain designers ability to think "out of the box", there might be something completely different in the works.


PS: Browsing trough Reino Uralas site is well worth, he has done lots of interesting stuff. Last was a VPP study of when to go double trapezeing downwind with the spi on a Tornado..

Rolf: I thought it would involve gaskets, but Matt indicated that it wasn't the case IIRC.