I bought some 4 inch OD aluminum beam from onlinemetals (I believe it was 1/4 inch thickness... clearly overkill, could probably go with 1/8 thick). I cut three lengths that were, I think, 8 or so inches. I will need to post pics but I basically cut the "top" off the tube then cut a larger top off the extra tube, turned it upside down on top of the open tube and had it welded by a local dude. I used the extra length to cut a larger top so that the beam would have more to rest on. I made them so that they raised the beam almost a full 4 inches. I then cut a total of 6 2.5 (or similar) inch circles in each to lighten them (on the sides that sit on the beam and receive the beam so no one would get fingers/hands/feet caught in them. I also bedded the beam in epoxy (after coating with mold release). Total cost was about 150$. It ended up being slightly heavier than the carbon ones a friend has. It was a much better option than the 600$ than Bauman would have needed to make the carbon ones, and still better than the 400$ that Bill mentioned. They are bullet proof (probably literally) and make a world of difference if you sail with a somewhat heavy crew on the HT. If you are seriou, I can have a friend show some pics.

BTW, just checked here:
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm...&top_cat=60

15/ft. Can't beat that! figure 40 or so for welding, you are looking at less than 100$. hard part of the whole deal is cutting it, but it would be easier with the 1/8 than the 1/4 I used. It would work on any boat that has the problem of slapping. As bill said, may not be a problem, but on my old HT with a total crew weight of almost 400 lbs and not a lot of bouyancy in the bows, getting to the back of the boat to fly the spin meant a lot of dragging and going slow.

Hi PTP

Pictures would be great!
We have allot of Javelins in our 18HT class. So that would be interesting.

You need to come up with a logical way to derive a rating but none of this is an exact science and would be open to some debate - I'm assuming the rig comes from a Gcat 5.7?

G-cat 5.7 (without spin): 72.7
18HT (with spin - 2up): 59.6

Modifier for boat normally with spinnaker sailing without one: 1.020

18HT (woutOUT spin - 2up): 59.6*1.020 = 60.80

now is where we have to get creative; the 18HT w/o spin is at 60.8 and the Gcat at 72.1. In this scenario, I would estimate that the rig probably has about 80% to do with boat speed and the hull (w/ modern daggerboards) and boards have about 20% effect. So I would take the difference between the two ratings, and put the rating on the boat it 80% toward the G-cat rating over the 2-up spinless 18HT.

Gcat - 18HT(no spin) = 72.1 - 60.8 = 11.3
80% of the difference = 11.3 * 80% = 9.04
18HTGC = 60.8 + 9.04 = 69.84

69.84 is where I would start.

I think I would start with a maybe clearly "too fast" number than a "too slow" number. In the end it will still be a light boat. How much sail area will it have with the main and jib? will it be anywhere near the 20 sq meters that the original main only HT rig?
I like Jake's thinking though, but might start at 66 or something.

Obviously you are not talking about Texel-rating? The calculator for this can be downloaded here:
http://www.watersportverbond.nl/content.asp?me_id=468%20
(english explanation)

How about using the Texel calculator, find a simlarly rated boat in Texel rating system - that also has a US Sailing DPN and use that.

An example only (not a prediction): The Texel handicap calculator gives the same rating as a Nacra 5.5 SL, use the N5.5 rating from the US tables as a starting point....

Excellent help, guys!

I am OK racing just to build data. The G-Cat has 225sq/ft total sail area w/ jib- 20.9 sq/m. (but old sails- maybe newer ones next year.)

We could start with the estimation that Jake worked out. I will take a look at TEXEL and see if it will make sense.

And thanks, PTP for the spacer description. We could make that fairly easily. We will see how the boat sails first. We will be right at 400lbs crew weight. Mostly lakes and coastal rivers/harbors.

J.

Hmmm,

Using TEXEL rating and guessing on boat weight, no spin, 1 trap, hard numbers for jib size and extrapolated main I arrived at 106.

Same as an F16. DPN 65.2. I really doubt the boat could sail to that w/out spin. But, could be wrong.

Here are the rear beam mods. the first pic is the carbon mod and the second is the aluminum.

Here's the aluminum mods

Come to think of it, I didn't really factor in boat weight when I made that 80/20 assumption...I would put it closer to 70/30.

Check out www.schrs.com as well.

Thanks for the pictures!