"Why fly just one hull when you can fly Two?"

"put the seats out on racks off the ama's"

These 2 statements don't fit togther, Keep those amas clean and smooth if you want 2-up!

West Palm to West End probably could take as little as 10 hours under the right conditions, but that Gulf Stream can get really ugly...fast. And if your GPS goes, you can only hope to find land...

Try Lauderdale to Bimini. I think that's only about 60 miles (4 hours)

I’ve been out of town working the last few days. Jake I was in South Carolina. I have Craig’s (team cyberspeed) Supercat 20 completed so we are launching tomorrow and I’m also taking my Gcat5.7 we are going out off of Singer Island. The weather girl is calling for 85 degrees and 10-15 knot wind.

Codblow - It was cool and I did look up the tri you mentioned it is a good idea and I may consider doing something like that in the states. I'm 54 and I’m starting to have some physical problems, degenerative spine disease. I have problems in my neck, shoulders, and fingers. I’m thinking of something that does not tear me as much as I’m not a young lad anymore. I started sailing/racing cats when I was 25 after I crashed a motorcycle at 95 mph “street racing”. I’ve had 4 surgeries on my shoulders over the years I have good days and bad days. So I have this serious crazy streak but as Jimmy Buffett says: “You treat your body like a temple and I treat mine like a tent”---got a lot of tent years.

Bvining and Jake – I’m torn between seats and ama helm. The design calls for foot steering and sheets leading to the ****. It also calls for a skeg type rudder in each hull. In south FL we need to have a kick up rudders. So I’m thinking of a way to combine it. The Naval Architect, Kurt Hughes, says it is designed for **** helm and there is not a need for ama hiking.

As a cat sailor we think different. Kurt says it will out point cats. The fastest speed we know is with a big reacher or spinnaker. So does a 17’ beam tri down wind balance enough to negate hiking? Is the beam wide enough for a beam reach? Last winter I meet with Randy Reynolds for a day on his boat and we talked designs, sails, hulls, and beams. Randy proved on his 33 that a narrow beam is faster then a wide beam. One would think the opposite but he had the data to prove different to my surprise.

Do I set up dual helm for the conditions? One for ama helm and for **** helm? Or just make it one or the other? Do I set up two wires or is just the crew on the wire enough? When the NACRA 5.2 first came out I bought hull number 325 it was a one-wire boat. The wire configuration and the portsmith number made the sol cat 18 a go to boat. Not because it was fast they had about a lap on you for a handy cap. These are the things I have to weigh out. Also what is the speed sensation sitting 6 inches above the water line compared to hiking out at what 6-8 foot level? Have you ever land yachted. You sit about 4 inched above the ground and I was clocked at 48 mph. Then when I flew a wheel it brought tears to my eyes. The wind was blowing in the 20’s. I only did it once in California about 20 years ago what a rush!

The good thing as the builder is that I will have time to tweek these things out and the first will be my “mule” to test. I hope that the boat is all that I hope it will be. I’d like to go into production of the boat. I’m also thinking of building an 18/20’ Hawaiian sailing canoe. My plan is to have 3 molds that would give a configuration of 5 boats. But that is a long-term plan.

Next week we will work on the website so I can put some more picture up.

Mike aka TheManShed

super yeasts go up to 18-20%, which i think is near enough to 40 proof

Mike,
I've sailed a DN iceboat, so I get the comment about land yatching, but I dont think the center console will give you the same rush.

Given that you have physical issues, I would go with seats and set it up for center controls. Your crew can always hike out, or trap out.

Kick up rudders are pretty easy if they are hung off the transom, I'd recommend Dotan rudders because you could reach back and flick them up or down and not have to leave the ****.

Speed question on a tri is about being able to fly the center hull, so you will need to make sure that the ama's have enough volume to fly the center hull without submerging.

The Reynolds narrow beam is faster because he can fly a hull sooner and reduce drag from the windward hull.

Your tri needs to be able to fly a hull to get real speed. I would focus on making the ama's big enough - look at the ORMA 60 tri's for proportions and reduce weight, foam on carbon for the hulls and ama's. Most cruising tri's dont fly the main hull, or barely fly it, so they are slower than a 20ft cat. Look at the Oracle tri, that has a huge sail plan, 90 ft wide and lightweight, its probably the fastest tri on the planet at the lower end of the wind scale. It will fly a hull the center hull at 5knots.

I'd go with center controls only and you can alway add trap wires later if you need them.

My armchair naval architect 2 cents.

Bill

To add; this is while the wind is light and the wider beam boat isn't yet flying a hull. All other things being equal, additional leverage = more speed when it can be applied.

Bill cool on the DN iceboat sailing! I had one chance in the late 70’s when I lived in the upper Midwest to iceboat and Mother Nature hosed it. As you know the ice has to freeze level and that is not always the case. Those ice speed bumps can crash you at 50+ mph and the snow can’t be very deep. The Ice was finally thick enough and level then it snowed like hell that night. It was right about the time I moved to Florida so I did not wait around for another chance. I’d like to Iceboat before my final chapter is written. Do you have connections in the Iceboat world? I almost moved to CT with Pratt & Whitney about 10 years ago. I quit instead to stay down here.

The TMS-20 (The Man Shed 20) tri is built to fly on one ama. That is why the ama is almost the full length of the main hull it is about 19’ loa, 14” beam, has a slight rocker, and each ama has a rudder and board. Each ama is about 6 feet from main hull on the respective side. The main hull does not have a rudder or board. The flair I added to the beam of the main hull is above the waterline to give about 32 inches of wiggle room but no additional wetted surface on the hull. For those that are the engineer types the two connecting beams need to support 850 lbs. What would I need to have in Carbon Fiber for that type of stress?

I noticed the Multi23 has a swing keel and main hull rudder. You can’t fly that too high and I’m sure that has a lot of drag. The TMS-20 design had the rudder and board in the center hull in the original design and it was found to have too much drag, so it was moved to the hulls “cat” style.

Let me apply the Reynolds, Jake, and My theory. And the hell of it is they all make sense to me! Where is Bill Roberts when I need him?

Reynolds - Narrow beams less wetted surface. (Also better parking)

Jake – Additional Leverage more speed (this is where the 17’ beam comes in play plus say a crew on the wire.)

My thought – Down wind speed flat, fast, and hopefully enough buoyancy w/ three hulls.

Update Team Cyberspeed SuperCat 20 almost made it in the water today. It is about 30’ short. It is under the bridge on the launch beach at Singer Island. We had a problem with the re-welded alignment pins holes in the main beam - the tolerance was too close. Tomorrow we will have it fixed. The weather lady lied today anyway. Sunday should be a bit nicer for a shake down sail. The beer cooler we built in the hull worked great!

Later,

Mike