First, I am not pretending to be an expert. I want to develop a fast, light beach cat that is easily righted by me alone and that I can be dry on and extend myself. There are no F16s anywhere near me to race and I am posting this because the cat I am starting with is a Taipan 4.9.
It is an older boat and needs a birthday. I have bought a second hand A class carbon mast and will take advantage of about two extra feet of height.
I will have a fat top main and a roller furling larger original size jib and no genny.
The attachment included is of the most controversial change to this boat. I have had these wings made and aim to also fit a curved main track.
I am hoping that in return for any constructive comments I will follow through with how this turns out so you can take from it what you might.

So what are your final overall dimensions going to be?

If they take you outside of the F16 boxrule, and you're clearly not going to be T4.9 class legal, you'll just have a one-off 'blasting' boat. With the expense and effort you're going to would it not be worthwhile to work to a particular rule?

there is no F16 I know of in all of NZ. F18 have taken off in Auckland and that is Three huned Ks away. I have sport boats I could run against here and there are several Tornadoes. This is the only taipan I have heard of here so I thought... just make it the way I think it would really honk!

go for it why not !

Only thing praps would be A mast may not be up to it , with extra rig loads from jib and wings you have had made .

My experience of A class is to be at forefront of developement they don't tend to over engineer things like masts . if it all goes pear shaped there's prob loads of cheap ally Tor masts about !

I have an ole ally A mast which I thought of sticking on some ole hulls for a fun boat for kids and stick a spin on , but was advised mast would not be up frit .

Good Luck

ps you can always laminate more carbon onto mast if a prob, not pretty, but if youre just after a blast.

Warbird,
Would you mind telling me how heavy each wing is?
Regards,
Phill

Hi Warbird,

I put western red cedar timber cross ways inside my mast coated in epoxy glue. It has made the A carbon mast bullet proof, but it added some 3kg. which I needed to come up to minimum weight, with no rules for your cat, you may want to do it by a lighter method like laying extra carbon on the outside.

The mods you are talking about will probably be OK as long as you only want to have a blast upwind and beam reaching, from my experience heading downwind with that mast height and a big square top main will be difficult, if there is much wind around.

Have you sailed the standard Taipan much? They are a very fast cat as standard. Is the problem that the winds are predominatly light where you sail? The easiest way to add downwind power is a spinnaker.

A class rigs where put on 16ft. hulls many years ago, it was called a Graduate A class, it did OK but the full length A survived and the Graduate didn't. I think there is a message in this.

Regards Gary.

Generall speaking Warbird - it has been found that the weight of wings negates any theoretical gain of righting moment. Most of the boats that do carry wings are for comfortable cruising rather than out and out speed.

There have been a few notable exceptions of course, but those have gone the stupid amount of sail route!! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Not weighed yet but best guess is 2-2.5kg each. This has been saved with mast gain.

Many thanks for that. Where exactly do you think extra carbon would be best placed? Wings will help with arthritis which comes and goes. I chose Jib not genny because I read here that the gains up wind bettered the gains down wind.
Everything I am doing can be undone and the wings can go on my old Hydra which I use for joyriding with friends. And yes, this is about reaching across the bay and racing the dolphins.

Arthritis which comes and goes.. I don't feel like watching home movies yet.

So Gary. rather than adding height to the mast it might be better to retain original height of Taipan ( which would have a strength gain for A mast by shortening ) and have two mains, one square top for more choice in wind strength and work with jib to see if the power gain is enough before maybe going to genny?

I think there must be a misunderstanding here. A spi will get you much, much, faster around a windward/leeward course, at a penalty hit in the area of 2% upwind. If you are going to do tight reaches, a overlapping jib (or selftacking jib) might be better, but once you get to a broad reach, a similar boat with a spi will leve the non-spi boat behind like it was anchored.

That is disapointing to hear... but not if it would be difinitive as it is to learn that I have asked the question. Sad thing for me is a live an a cat vacume here and 10 people say 10 diffrent things. I thought I read in this forum that single handed super sloops were banned from F16 compitition for that reason. bugger. But we are still talking faster on the reach.. as far as the rig strength and wings are concerned I would be fine as the boat is engineered for two people and will be carrying one.

You'll put some mesh on the wings, yes? Otherwise they'll have no diagonal strength, and I'm not sure about the strength of the channel sections, they look a bit light weight to hold an adult body. Will you trap off them or just hike?

The banning of super sloops had other reasons, all of them more political and practical in nature then any performance difference.

A uni-rig with spi will beat a super sloop singlehander around a course.

Wouter

I am assembling the boat with net tied tightly to check height etc. Then I will run it with old rig. If all is well I will run bolt rope tramp on three sides and secure with grommets at one end. So sit on boat and lean against and then sit into tramp and then sit on pipe with foot straps and then trap.
Curved sections are three mm 2X1 and pipe is regularly used for skiffs. But that does not meen they are strong enough and maybe I was too worried about looks and weight.

Well, I don't remember who said it although he must have been convincing.... "Super Sloop" sounds fast though doesn't it. : )
One good thing about the vacume I am in up here.... no politics.
Like I said. I am not an expert and this is just a project. My mistakes and disasters can only create more knowledge and thanks for your interest. If any feedback from you guys save me trouble I appreciate it.

Warbird,

To echo some comments above.

Wings will keep you drier, but not much really.

They wont gain you anything upwind as the weight/drag is cancelled out by drag etc

Use a Kite, not a Genoa. Almost all beach cats don't have overlapping jibs because as soon as you get some speed up they end up pushing too much air around the back on the mainsail. I would really urge you to scrap the idea of a Genoa and go for the kite instead.

Thank you, that makes sense.

Wings are an excellent place for your honey to take a nap! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />