After wanting a catamaran for the last 4 years it finally worked out. I am the owner of a 1977 Nacra 5.2. Took her sailing last Wednesday for the first time. I have a few questions and need some recommendations from more experienced NACRA owners.

Rigging Question
1. Where am I supposed to tie off the halyard for the mainsail? I feel retarded asking but for the life of me I couldn't find any cleat or place to tie it off. Took a look at the manual and that didn't help.

Care and maintenance
The previous owner told me that he had the hulls re-glassed in 2001 and also replaced all the wiring. It looks like the gel coat was put on in a rather poor fashion. Along the bottom of the hulls the gelcoat is missing in a few spots. Maybe about 5-6 1 inch by 1 inch spots on each hull. After sailing for 2 hours the left hull barely had any water but the right had taken on more than a few cup fulls.

I'm going to need to keep it moored on the water. This means making sure to seal up all the leaking. From what I have read, if the fiberglass is in good condition all I'll need to do is find, seal the leaks and put a fresh gelcoat on the boat. How much should I expect to pay to hire a professional to do this?

When putting on the mast the socket(on the bottom of the mast) that fits on the ball started to pop out. The screws came out and the socket stretched out of the mast about 2-3 inches. Luckily it did not crack.

If someone can give me some guidance on he main halyard and the repair of the hulls/mast that would really help. I'm going to start calling boat shops this week. If anyone has any recommendations in the Seattle area that would be great!

There should be something to hold the tension but in the top of the mast, not int base. Either a hook fo fit a ring in the halyard, on the rear side of the mast, or something to fit the tip of the wire (nicopress oval) in, in the front of the mast. You still need to attach the halyard somewhere near the base, but just to keep it there, not to hold the sail. I made my mast rigging and prefered to attach the halyard near the mast base, but it must be a wire to avoid stretching, and you need appropriate sheeves.
About keeping the boat on the water, it's not a very good idea.

About the mast base popping out, make sure it doesn't when the mast is up. I know it sounds stupid, but it happened to me once: the cat was on the sand, sterns to the water, and I had the brilliant idea of pushing it from the mast. There were no screws and the mast base rotated and came out.. scary...

1> You should have a fork on the top of the mast where a lump attached to the halyard slip into to lock the main in place. Once you pull on the downhaul the halyard is not going to move out of the fork. I have a small cleat on the starboard of the mast for it, but I usually do not keep any tension on it.

2> DO NOT KEEP IT MOORED. With the mast up it will be quite instable in the wind, and no matter how you attach it it may capsize by itself. In addition keeping it in the water all the time will induce osmosis really fast. Bad idea. Get it out of the water.

3> The mast base should be held in place by rivets, not screws. Aluminium rivets are probably fine there, but I'd go with Monel ones, they are more solid. Don't put anything like stainless, it will corrode the mast and/or the mastbase very quickly.

yes the 5.2 in a bit weird with the loose main halyard, once halyard slug on the cable length has locked into it's fork? at the top of the mast the rope section just hangs free

a couple of feet above the tramp on my mast there is a small hook on a bungy that keeps the halyard from swinging around in the wind. the excess halyard i coil and stick down the tramp sleeve for the midtramp bare. but that sleeve won't really hold the jib halyard too so it goes into a mesh bag i bougth at a $1 shop and tie onto the mast base

a good sailing shop should have some monel rivets for your mast base

check very carefully around the bottom back of the dagger well for your hull leak. you may be able to fix it yourself once you find it

here's pic of my mast without sails but it shows the red bungee and clip. the clip goes onto the wire halyard where it loops for the change to rope halyard and bungee is adjusted to keep tension on wire halyard and keep it against the mast
the excess rope halyard is then coiled up and either put into a mesh bag tied to the tramp crossbar or stuffed down the tramp crossbar sleeve

It looks like you are missing the tube that runs from the main beam to the aft beam. If you don't have in place the main beam can rotate and the mast will fall of the ball (oops). If you want to sail the boat that way you can rivet the straps (both fore and aft ) to the cross beams.

old photo from when i was putting the boat together, only shot that showed the bungee, boat is far away

part of a busted carbon windsurfer mast now acting as tube

was going to try and make a righting pole out of it but it seemed a little flimsy as i want to be able to walk out on the righting pole if pole if needed

so the mid-tramp tube is going to be the righting pole and the carbon mast is now the mid-tramp tube

looks much better, is a little warmer to bare feet and gives a little more if knees hit it. should still provide the rotational brake

Matt,

First congrats on your purchase. You have made a wise choice with the Nacra.

On the 77 it should be a halyard lock in, meaning the halyard actually locks in on the front side of the mast. Not the ring type. Once I have my halyard locked in and the down hall set, I have a cleet on the starboard side that I attach the slack side to and then roll up the excess and put in the tramp pocket.

I agree with Pepin do not keep it in the water, for various reasons.

The number one thing I would be worried about right now is the Base Casting, you can get a new one for $31.00 at Murray's online they also have the rivets for it also.

As far a s the gel coating for a professional it would be around 1k to 2k for a complete work over (all fiber glass checked and repaired, new paint and gelcoat.) I have attached the link for some pictures (4) to show you my '79 Nacra 5.2 that I had the hulls done by my local boat shop, wel worth the money and also it adds speed. Enjoy. If you have anymore question feel free to PM me.

http://www.catsailor.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=1&pos=0

I owned a 5.2 at one time and it did not have the center bar. I called the factory and the told me to position the front crossbar with the mast ball straight up and rivet the beam straps to the crossbar, 2 on each strap, at approx 2 and 10 oclock. It worked just fine.

member,former member? Airborne, put up lots of detailed pics of his 5.2 rebuild at

http://community.webshots.com/user/1airborne

there are some showing the riveted main beam straps, plus there are lots of 5.2 pics attached to various postings that will turn up during searches
my tramp looks to be the original one, same with sails and rigging, gulp!
i like the beam, it gives me something to tie my righting bag too, somewhere to push against if a gust brings the hull up too quick and it probably helps support the 16 year old tramp

the excess of the main halyard i stow down the tramp tube sleeve. the jib halyard excess goes into a mesh bag i recently sewed onto the tramp