But doesn't it depend to a certain extent on what the boat was designed for?
Indeed it does.
... have a boat that big guys can sail without being penalised for being big (sorry but F20 just aren't competitive on handicap IMO) and b) a line honours machine. That the boat looks fantastic is a bonus.
The ills of the F20 have surprisingly little to do with crew weight. Interestingly enough these very same heavy crews are just as fast on a F18 as they were on their F20. The basic F20 design is the problem. By far most of us know the F20 only by the Nacra 20. And this design has not seen much development at all over the years, while other designs like the F18 did.
For better installments to the F20 rule look for the White formula 20 (John the Vries special) and the Eagle 20 cats. But even then the F20 class specs are limiting the performance more then the crews weights. Modern F18's take large crew weights quite well.
For a line honours boat, yes indeed, they are on track.
I would have respected it more if it became a line honours boat through clever designing rather then brute force (larger boat) but those are just my personal feelings.
Last I knew no development had happened on the foils as this is a small team project who all have day jobs and it's one thing at a time, expect more to follow.
Okay.
I had figured as much, by the way. Hardly any beach cat is designed by a dedicated team. As good as all new developments have come from small private projects. That includes the Capricorn you are sailing. Basically Martin Fisher did the design and AHPC modified is at little bit here and there and took it into production. Most French F18 designs are 1 or 2 person jobs. A-cats and F16's same thing. Pretty much we are all doing it this way, so the Tek-Cat is nothing special in this sense either.
And as regards questioning the designer !!!!! No, the RS600 may not be a Cat but it is one of the most popular boats in a comptitive field and had remained so since it's inception.
In the UK yeah, in the rest of the world it is "just another" dinghy with a microscopic following. In the netherlands (next to the UK) there is not even a RS600 class with races. You can't compare the RS600 and Clive to say Eigner and his Flyer A-cat. The latter broke through internationally and you can find fleets of his design on all continents, with other designers copying him. With the first named person you can't. With respect to innovative design he is no Rohan Veal or Bethwaite either. That is just the truth of the situation.
Most cat classes would be envious of the RS600 regatta turnouts. I would think it safe to say that Clive Everest knows his stuff. I would add the same kind of comments for the sailmaker as well.
I never said Clive is an ignoramous, just that his history doesn't necessarily garantee a succesful cat design to come off his drawing board. With respect to RS600, it is totally non-existant in Australia, USA, NZL and it is still a very small class in continental Europe. And the RS600 is nothing like a line honours catamaran. Sorry all this is just too far fetched.
But indeed there has been enough scepsis on the design now, so I will butt out now.
Wouter
