A boat with glued beams is lighter, stiffer and cheaper. But if you need to change a hull, repaint the boat or take it apart to store it or transport it you have problems.

On the Marstrom A-class the extra cost is around 1000-2000 euro and the structure needed to transfer the load from the bolts to the hull is 2-3kg.

Is it worth the extra cost and weight?

/hakan

Dear Hakan,

it had always been an argument against the Egner Flyer when it came up. Its not practical to have two hulls non-detachable for transport, storage or repair. In contrast, nowadays the world is filled with Egner's Flyer with glued beams. Like many decisions in the A-class, sailors choose more for the ultimate sailing vessel than placing practical considerations in front. A-cat is performance orientated and performance orientated sailor will always choose for the fastest belived boat. Glued beams are believed to be stiffer so the ambitious sailors will go for it.

There might be other sailors who place practical considerations first but those are not the ones who round a mark in front.

It is good M comes up with a new design. Lets hope its more competitive and looks less outdated than the previous one and also an update on the shape and size of the foils will be included.

If M want to regain a serious % in the market, its only chance is to come up with a killer package. It has to be at least as fast as other designs while looking more sexy. This means M has also to consider if the current lonely philosophie in mast design is still something to continue for the future... if you want to have a future.

Just my thoughts.

Dirk,

I was in China, last about a year ago on a vacation to my inlaws. Nanjing mostly, but while in Shanghai, I went to the bar listed on the shanghai sailors website, and could not find any sailors there that evening.

Wouter had led me to the site, via postings on this site then.

Dear Hakan

while it is widely agreed that a boat with glued beams is stiffer, yr two other statements are very controversial:
1) as far as I know all the A cat boatyards which sell both glued and NON-glued boats actually charge - from EUR 200 upwardly - for this latter optional. On the contrary, according to your opinion, Marstrom sustains an extra cost of 1000-2000 euros to fit its A cat with bolted beams.
So are we all paying more what is costing less?
2) according to my experience the weight saving between the two options may be estimate at 0,5-1,0 kg (instead of the 2-3kg you indicate). Is this due to the fact that most boatyards build their hulls the same way (i.e. with the structure needed to transfer the load from the bolts to the hull) even if the hulls are due to be glued?
Thanks for sharing yr thoughts