Can we agree on terms? 1)plower = cutter and planer = hopper 2)we don't mean plane as true planing or plow as displacement only 3)most cats share both of these characteristic depending on many factors including sailor weight position but some cats due to hull design show one of these characteristics to a greater degree much of the time
I had said: "4) If others have observed this, how is it influenced by boat weight and hull length (and why) - ie, would the same phenomenon be seen on A-cats, FXOne, and planing F16's such as Stealth/Blade (but not seen on I17 and T4.9)?"
And you replied: "In your list of examples you have actually listed boats under "don't" that do and visa versa"
I'm assuming you're referring to which boats are plowers/cutter vs planers/hoppers?
But in an earlier post "Single Handed Cat Sailing" you had said: "The cutters more smooth and silent. The Taipan is a cutter and I believe the I-17 is so as well. The FX-one, Stealth F16 and Blade F16 are more of a hopper ... With respect to F16's ; Taipan 4.9/F16 is definately a cutter, Blade F16 and Stealth F16 are planers."
I had thought I was classifying the boats as you did; did I misunderstand you?
One of the reasons I raised the original question of spi + planing hull is related to another comment you made during the same post:
"With regard to the term planing. No cat planes fully and probably never will. It is indeed more like "having a (small) portion of its weight carried by dynamic forces created on the hull. I personally believe that such surfaces allow you to drive the boat harder without picthpoling and that explains more of the (possible) speed increases than the actual "plaining"."
So I had thought that a cat with planing hulls would be more resistant to pitchpoling and not less so while flying a spi and driving it hard. Yet the experience of one cat sailor goes against this. Which brings up a related question: how much of the pitchpoling characteristic of any hull design is due to boat setup/tuning? You and others have showed previously how changing the tuning of a boat can dramatically change sailing characteristics (ie, in reference to BroBru's I17). How much of this one cat sailor's experience might have been due to the boat he was sailing not being tuned well for the challenging conditions - and if so, what can one change on a cat to allow it to be driven hard off the wind cat rigged or spi that would help it avoid pitchpoling?
Speaking of tuning, one unrealted question: when you sail a cat such as a T4.9 or I17 cat rigged vs sloop vs spi, is it generally necessary to adjust standing rigging (ie, mast rake) or otherwise retune the boat for each configuration in order to allow it to sail properly (ie, balanced helm, pitchpole resistance)?
