Marstrom M18
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http://www.sailcenter.se/administration/Boats/m18/index.aspFirst of all. This boat will make you the envy of the beach; that is when alot of techies are around. It is 99 % made of carbon fibre and Marstrom likes to make things in the most high tech way. A glaring downside of this extremely "high quality or bust" mentality is the proportional price tag. Think "about twice as expensive as the competition".
Will it handle a second person on board ? Well if any A-cat boat can take a second person and do it with flying colours then the Marstrom product is it. Some sailors tried to convert this singlehanded boat into a F18HT doublehander and raced it as such for a week. It held up fine. I would't advice anybody to try this on any other A-cat boat. If taking somebody along is important to you than you must look at the Marstrom products or at the classes that are designed to take crews. (Inter-17, FX-one, Formula 16's (+Taipans), Spitfire) I'm not at all sure if the Shadow would be happy with a second person on board. I wouldn't advice any non Marstrom A-cat for doublehanded use. Afterall 75 kg all-up doesn't give a designer much material to make a boat strong and durable. One really needs an excellent and state-of-the-art production proces to get it as such despite the low overall weight.
does the extra speed and spi mean that its going to be too hard to handle?
What is "too hard". Too hard for one person can be like "a walk in the park" for another. Only you yourself can decide what is too hard for you. I can't tell you that. Does high speed and the spinnaker make the sailing more sportive and require higher levels of attentions and concentration ?
Yes.
But the reward is more fun and and a more potent sense of achievement.
The boats you are looking at are all fast singlehanders that can overpower you when your sailing skills are insufficient. Still, we must take care to note overstate this fact. We must not fool ourselfs that an old Hobie 14 or say an Nacra 5.5 uni are much different. Any cat can overpower its crew when such a crew is caught in conditions outside of the skill level. But it is indeed true that higher speeds make things like bouy roundings and boat crossings harder and more critical. Instead of approaching eachother on a intercept course at 12 knots of speed , you'll be doing the same thing at 18 knots of speed, an increase of 50 %.
The spi is both easy and hard. It is easy in the lighter stuff and great fun, but in the stronger winds your sailing skills will be tested harder. But then again, you can always decide NOT to pull the spi. In April during races I first decided to not pull it, because I felt unsecure in the large racing fleet (60+ boats, at the crowded marks and at the strong conditions (15 knots of wind). Later in the day when the wind calmed and I was at the back of the fleet because I had made a mistake I did pull it. Think of it in this way. If you have it on board you can pull it or not pull it. When you don't have it on board then you don't even have that choice. And believe me, spinnaker sailing on a cat is great fun. Pulling a spi asnd powering up downwind in 5-8 knots is just bliss.
The fact that its weight is only 80 kg is a huge benefit in terms of being able to right the cat, which is a pretty big issue for me.
If righting is a important point for you than your choice of boats narrows down very quickly. You should be able to right A-cats and M18's without much effort at your 70 kg. So these are at the top of the board in this respect. Formula 16's, (only) Inter-17R and shadow are next on the list. The plain I-17, Spitfire and FX-one finish the listing.
Take note that A-cat/M18 mast sections (carbon fibre) weight as little as 8 to 9 kg. Complete mast setups on A's are about 1 to 1.5 kg heavier => 9 to 10.5 kg.
Formula 16 masts (8.5 mtr) sections weight about 10.5 kgs (carbon fibre) to 13.5 to 14.5 kg (aluminium). The fittings are heavier on these boats as they take much higher loads and have more fittigns thus making complete masts about 13 kg for carbon and 16-17 kg for aluminium.
The builders of the shadow catamaran claim that their bare aluminium mast section of 8 mtrs. weights only 9.5 kg (without fittings). That is quite light especially considering that the wall thickness and way of reinforcing the mast is the same as of the alu F16 masts that are 13.5 to 14.5 kg. I have a hard time seeing how they can save 4 to 5 kg just like that. But for the sake of the argument lets assume that their mast weights in at 13 kg overall = same as carbon F16 mast.
I know the FX-one mast when fully fitted weights in at 20 kg's. The inter 17 mast (not I-17R version) I expect to be in the same weight range.
The weight of the hulls and such will factor into the ease of rigting as well but this is hard to quantify. So lets stay with looking at the masts only.
Lets assume that a 85 kg sailor can just right the FX-one/I-17 boats. Than 70 to 73 kg sailor can right an alu masted F16, a 60-65 kg sailor can right the shadow and carbon masted F16's, and a 50 kg sailor can right an A-cat/M18. Move the initial weight of the 85 kg sailor on the FX-one/I-17 up or down the other numbers will follow the swing.
I don't know what the weight is of the I-17R carbon mast so I have to guess at righting that. I would guess at 65 kg to 70 kg righting. From rumours I have it that the carbon I-17R mast is not particulary light. I admit the comment came from a Taipan sailor who said to me that his alu Taipan mast felt lighter than the Carbon I-17R of a befriended sailor when lifting it.
I hope this data helps you. In your case I would look for boats with light carbon masts (A-cat / M18 / F16's) and the very lightest of the aluminium masts (only Shadow and Formula 16's). I underline that not all carbon masts are lightweight and that I know of ONLY two alumimium masts (on these boats) that are below 20 kg when fully fitted. I have no dependable data on the Nacra I-17R carbon mast so I don't know where to place it but I expect it to be comparable to the lightest alu masts.
I hope this helps
Wouter
