I'm way too cheap to spring for a carbon A cat, but aren't there some plans for a home built wooden one? If so, what are specs i.e. weight, performance, etc.

I know there are plans for the Unicorn floating around somewhere. I used to have the name and number of a guy in Alberta that built a Unicorn every winter in his garage until all his friends owned them and they had a nice fleet. But I have lost the information, and I don't know if he is still even around on this Earth, because he was getting up there when I met him at least 10 years ago. (He had to stop building the boats because he developed an allergy to epoxy resin, which seems to be a fairly common problem.)

The Unicorn A-Class was competing with the Tornado back in the late 1960's for the Olympic Class designation.

And, as others have said in other threads, the Gougeon Bros. should have plans for A-Class cats. Website is http://www.gougeon.com

Thanks Mary.

Contact Phill Brander in Australia, who often posts on this site. Cal Fuller is long retired in New Jersey, still has a few unused woodie A-class boats and parts. There are several on the A-class website too, usually for sale for $2500 or less. My Cal Fuller Catnip is shown on my website- www.fastsail.com/catcobbler Fuller won the A-class North Americans with this boat in 1982 and 1983. It is still totally sound, having been built of 1/8 inch marine plywood and epoxy with aluminum parts. I bought it with both hulls holed after a tornado blew thru the Miami Yacht Club. About 10 new sailors sailed it lately, and 4 then bought A-cats. Caveat: some old boats were made of 1/8 inch non-marine door skins. They DID NOT LAST.

Wooden A-cat plans have not been updated for some time now. Don't expect to either be competitive or as fast as an F18 or Tornado these days. Unicorn is a predessor of the A-cat with lower specs I believe; it weights more, I think I remember around 100 kg = 220 lbs.

If my momeory has served me right with regard to the specs than you may be better with a newer homebuild design; I'm thinking Blade F16.

In tests it has held its own against mark 3 and mark 4 Boyer A-cats (90's generation A-cats) as well as Taipan 4.9 cat rigged (comparable to 80's A-cat design). My intepretation of the test results are that the Blade stands a good change against flyers as well; but that is my intepretation of the test result. It is a given that the Blade beats Tigers, Nacra F18 and Capricorn F18's upwind when singlehanded. I know the unicorn is not capable of that anymore.

It may be worth investigating. I know of others in the US contemplating home-building one and we're going to help them.

Wouter

Wouter: Thanks for the information, it should very interesting.

Wouter,
Who is "we" and who is "them" and how are you (the "we") going to help "them"?

>>Who is "we" and who is "them" and how are you (the "we") going to help "them"?

I assume that with "them" you are refering to "others in the US contemplating building"

If so than I can be short about it. I will not announce names publically without the persons having disclosed themselfs on the F16 forum as buyers or builders. Privacy protection. I may name numbers; at this time we have 1 building (modified Taipan) en 2 very seriously thinking about starting building (Blade F16) in the USA.

With "we" I refer to other homebuilders in the class and the F16 class itself. Mostly in the area of advice regarding homebuilding. But we also have a network for parts now and can group purchases of saila and masts to lower the cost. With respect to masts we can do a little more in some situations as well.

Currently a Dutch guy is finishing up his homebuild Taipan F16 hulls (painting) and for example I arranged a free mainbeam for him when I was made aware of a broken mast section. Actually some Aussies did the same thing for me when I was looking for a mainbeam section. He plans to write an extra document detailing how to do somethings in a better way. Of course the designer of the Blade is very open to questions.

Things like that.

It really does help when there are people around with experience building your platform and who are willing to share the experiences.

Wouter

Pete,
If you want to build an A class there were plans available for the Goodall Mk2 and updated by hand to bring it line with the Mk3.
(Not sure if you can still buy these.)
I think Mk2 is 1984 vintage but the hand written updates should bring it up to late 80s vintage.
The hulls are supposed to come out at 22kg.
If you are going to race it I think the competative weight of todays A classes hulls is around 17-18kg.

If your not going to race there are more robust designs out there than an A class. An A class is only 3mm ply while boats like a Cobra, Mosquito,Taipan and Blade are all 4mm and while it does not sound much difference the 4mm is a lot stiffer and will take impact a lot better.
I've built boats in both.

I had a friend that built a set of Marmian A class hulls a bit over 10 years back and he got it down to todays min weight but he was a master of light weight construction. The average person just isn't in the hunt.
I don't think the Marmian plans are available anymore.

Now if there was a Flyer type hull design out of ply you might make it because the Flyer has less surface area which is less ply and less internals etc.which would most likely get you into the ballpark. The hull shape has also proven to be much faster that is why the guys at the top have them.

(I was working on a design but had to shelve it to concentrate on the Blade F16.)

If you want to build an A my suggestion would be to contact Greg and see if he will still sell the MK2/3 plans. The plans are quite cheap but they are really only are for the hulls the rest is up to you.

Good luck.

Regards,
Phill

Hi,
I purchased the MK3 plans not too long ago (I think I was the last person to buy them). As Phill stated, they were the MK2 plans with some hand changes to match the MK3, but they were very incomplete. None of the full-scale "blueprint" sections for the bulkheads, top deck, etc were updated so that they were useless in the end. Cost me $100 (I think). I did contact Greg, et al, but they told me that was the best they could do. If I had the time I guess I could have tried to develop new full-size drawings by somehow scaling various portions of each section, but that would be too much work/guesswork. At that point, I might as well start designing my own.
If you want them, you can have them (just pay for the shipping).

Steve

Steve:

Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass. If I go the A cat route, I'll probably just buy an old "Woodie".

Steve,

I bought a set of the Mk2/3 plans several years ago and I'm pretty sure what I got included the bulkhead shapes etc.

When I ordered them the person I spoke to mentioned that they didn't think they were selling them anymore.

Maybe I got the last complete set.

What did you end up doing?

Regards,
Phill

Hi Phil,

Any chance you could "lend" me a copy of the full-size sections?

In the end I purchased a brand new Hobie FX-1. I came very close to buying an A-class (and also Taipan 4.9), but after trying an A-class (I won't say which one), it seemed to delicate and flimsy for my needs, such as the occasional family picnic sail, etc. I'd still like one for solo racing, but as a one-cat family, I need a more universal boat.

Thanks

Steve

Steve,

Do you intend to build or do you just want a complete set of plans?

The reason I ask is if you want to race you won't be competative against the newer A classes.

For me, I like to collect plans.
That is why I have them.

Anyhow normally copying them would be a breach of copyright.
In this case as you have already paid for the plans so I could probably get away with sending you a copy of what your missing.

I'm not at home right now. When I get home I'll track them down and see what you're missing.

You'll need to send me your postal address by private email.

Regards,
Phill

Steven,
I finally got home and managed to check out my Goodall MK2/3 A class plans.
I have 14 x A3 sheets and one A1 sheet.
The A1 sheet has the rudder profile as well at all the bulkhead shapes and bow spacers.
Are you only missing the A1 sheet.
Email me at phillbrander@bigpond.com with what you are missing and your postal address and I'll get it copied later this week and pop it in the post.
Regards,
Phill

Hi Phil,

I guess I'm somewhere between a plan collector and ship-builder-wanna-be. If I built one it would be for pleasure sailing only.
It's not that it's missing, it's just that the hand-written changes show a 12 inch max hull beam while all the bulkheads and deck lofts are for the older 14 inch beam. I'll look more closely and see what I need.

Thanks!

Steve