Hi all, this is my first post on the forum. Yesterday I brought home my first cat. It is a 1978 Nacra 5.2. It was listed on Craigslist, and the price had dropped over the weeks from $600 to $300. It came with the trailer, sails, and hardware. It has been stored outdoors for a long time. All of the lines and bungies have rotted away. Trapoline isgood shape. It has the old style tramp with the aluminum bar down the center. It has the orignial dolphin catcher and the 1/1/4" mast step and the non-captive mast base. I have a few fiberglass repairs to make, it is going to the auto shop at the highschool I teach for a few patches. There are some details I haven't been able to figure out yet about the boat.
1. On the early 5.2's, how do the daggerboards get tensioned to stay up? There is no hardware around the dagger boxes to attach the bungie tensioners that I have seen on other Nacra's online.
2. The jib hardware is different than what I have seen online. I have two padded cables, one on each side of the tramp that look like they would be used to hook your feet under when hiking out. There are pullies mounted halfway back on these that look to be for the jib lines. There are no tracks or cars for the jib on the pontoons. Do these sound like they would be for the jib control lines?
3. The padding on these lines is degraded...looks like a cat practiced sharpened its claws on them. Where can you get these pads?
4. Is there a comprehensive list of the what size lines, and how many feet for all the various rigging? I have some of that info on the pdf of Nacra parts I found on line, but it leaves some things off. (for example, what size is the line that hooks to the halyard cables for hoising the sail, and how many feet are needed.

Other than those questions, the cat looks pretty complete. I will work on hoisting the mast for the first time, and the rigging while at the highschool getting the fiberglass repairs. I can't wait to get it out on the water. I used to have a sunfish, and I would get jealous when hobiecats would pass me like I was standing still.

I have only sailed a cat once. It was a worn out 14 footer with only a main sail. It suffered a spectacular death when I tried to fly one pontoon. Unknown to me, several gallons of water had leeked into the pontoon that remained in the water. All at once that water flowed to the front of the pontoon and the boad dived like a submarine. The cat flipped, throwing my wife into the rigging, and tearing the seam between the top and sides of the pontoon completely open. I righted the cat, but it wouldn't stay upright because of the completely flooded pontoon. I flagged down a boat and got a ride back to the dock where my wife's uncle..owner of the boat was. He went out in his houseboat to tow the cat back to the dock. From there the day went worse. When he got to the cat, his steering failed due to low powersteering fluid, and he finised off the cat with propeller cuts down the length of a pontoon. We towed the cat back to the beach where it was sold for parts. Hopefully, the Nacra with have a less spectacular season.
Any advise on mods, sailing the 5.2, or cat sailing in general will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave West

ps. Anyone in California's central valley with 5.2 experience to show/help me set the boat up would be wonderful. thanks

A bit of shock cord from the top front of the daggerboard to a hook on the top of the hull in front of the front beam.

Those blocks are for the jib sheet yes. The blocks are supposed to slide back and forth on the line with a control line to the back beam and a shock cord to the front beam.

Go to your nearest hardware store and get some stiff pipe insulation. It should do the trick for a while.

Put a spi on the thing, changes the boat...

"what size is the line that hooks to the halyard cables for hoising the sail, and how many feet are needed. "

About 6mm should do it and the whole halyard should be twice the length of the mast [plus a couple of feet]

Thanks for the info. I am taking the boat into my highschool in the morning. I will start figuring out the rigging in the shop parking lot...where there is some space.
Thanks again,
dave

thanks,
Dave

hi david,
1 year ago i was in exactly the same position of knowing nothing about cat sailing or my 26 year old nacra 5.2, now you've found this site you've done the most important step to learning more quickly

- 1st up search this forum for "nacra 5.2" and chase down all the old threads, right click and save all the pics you can find, they'll come in handy later. and when you've done that chase down the threads of the other nacra 5.2 owners on this site

- also do google searches and check out the for sale section of beachcats for other pics

having lots of pics of other people's boats isn't quite as good as comparing 2 boats side by side and questioning the owner about the differences but it is still pretty useful

- buy "catamaran racing for the 90's" and read it over the winter

do position but some searches here for nacra 5.2 lots of good pics on this site and others

The 5.2 use a cable halyard with a ball hooking into a fork at the top of the mast (same as a hobie 16). So the line part of the halyard is only one length of the mast, not two.

So the WHOLE halyard needs to be twice the length of the mast.... YES?

Ditching the metal cable and ball set-up is always a option. My boat was switched to the ring and hook system and i really like it that way.

Congratulations on your new boat! Have you got a copy of the factory assembly manual? If not, you can download or view all the pages online here.
http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=35217

Another 5.2 owner went through your same ordeal and was kind enough to help future owners by taking pictures of the details. Here's a link to the 5.2 rigging pictures.
http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=35563

Attached is a pic showing the dagger support system.

Oh! I read your post too fast, it was right of course... Sorry <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the post. I used the archived Nacra parts catalog and ordered new lines from West Marine. It will be an interesting "rainbow". I bought lines on sale, and got some interesting colors. The only line I still need is the main sheet. 40' of 7/16 double braid dacron. I bought additional supplies from SaltyDogMarine (various bungies and bits and pieces. I asked them if they had a "line package" for the Nacra5.2. He now has it listed on his website. I had already ordered all the individual lines when he emailed back though, so didn't get the lines from him. I need to get the 2 of the black plasti covers that go over the ends of the front and rear beam and I will have all the parts. The boat and trailer was $300, I am in for about $200 replacing the lines and bungies.
Fun, fun, fun
Thanks for the post.

Thanks for the post. I found your photo album a couple days ago, and harvested all your great pics. I am copying your idea for the rudder kickups. I bought red line for the pull downs, and white line for the pullups. My daggerboards are set up different than yours. I don't have the grommets in my trampline for the bungies to go on the sides. 1978 used a bungie pulling the dagger board forward at an angle to make it not slide. There is a hammock hook on the hull a few feet in front of the daggerboard box to hook the bungie. I found a pic of a hobbie 18 with the same setup. I haven't seen any pics of a Nacra5.2 with it, but Oh well...lol.
I am still trying to figure out the bungie setup for the trapeze. I see that 1 bungie goes out of the front beam for a port trapeze and a starboard trapeze. I have 2 trapezes for each side, and haven't figured out the bungie setup that makes them stay apart from eachother.
Thanks for the help,
Dave

originally i think the 5.2 only came with 1 trap for the crew like the tornado

but then about the late 70's keen cat sailors started moding their boats to dual trap.

attached pic shows a 5.2 with old dagger hold up system


basically you need a small eye on the hulls and then eyelets on the tramp for the helm bungee to go through

here's another pic showing the helm trap bungee

all these pics taken off the web from nacra 5.2 searches

Just a small word of advice, if you enjoy the services that this website provides, then it behooves you to order all your catamaran sailing parts through this website's online marine store. There's a link for it on the front page.

You don't really need the eye on the hulls, I just have the trampoline holes for my rear trap shock cord, I've never felt the need to migrate them so far out on the hulls.

I think I will convert my daggerboard keepers to the modern style, but attach them to rivets where the trampoline track attaches to the hull. I will add grommets to the tramp at that time for the bungies for the rear trapeze. I will probably hardware to hold the trap bungies on the same spot of the hull...just farther back on the trampoline track.
Thanks for the ideas,
Dave

another of airborne's excellent pics attached, shows his answers to all the areas you are talking about

Wow...!

Great set up for the trap line.

What is being used for the dagger board tensioners. It looks like some PVC with some padding.

Great plan.

What is it really?

Mine use only shock cord and pulling them up and down eventually saws through.

Thanks,

Tom