If anyone is interested, I have a DVD of the Alpha Omega F14 sailing a variety of locations and courses over the three months from March through to May 2002.
If anyone would like to have a copy of one, just email me your postal address and I will post one to you.
My email address is
ao14@optusnet.com.au
This cat really "kicks butt" and has been competing on the same courses, same start, same finish, as the 18' cats, due to the fact that it completely "blows away" ALL the 14' AND 16'cats, (F16 excepted) and there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Hi Darryl,

How large (Mb) is the video? Can it if necessary be broken down into smaller segments of say around 10Mb and then put up on a website for download? With a 1Gb broadband connection 10Meg downloads in under 2 mins.

I'd really like to see the boat in action as she looked great in the photos that you published.

Hi Darryl,

can't help myself. Altered would like to challenge you to see how fast this F14 realy is.

Why don't you bring it over to Sauna Sail 11-13th of June, it has always been used as a showcase for new boats, lots of cats up to 20 Paper Tigers in recent years, a good chance to show 14' foot cat sailors what it can do.

Maybe with the A's there we can see which is the fastest single handed cat in OZ. Windward and return course that is.

Regards Gary.

Gary,

If you & your boat really perform as well as previously stated against the Capricorn F18, there will be no challenge.

The New F14 Alpha Omega is a really nice looking boat & the rig configuration looks good ( would be better with bigger kite), but the boat currently has to chase F18, Nacra 5.8's & mixed Tiapans around the course for competition.

I would love to see some more competition for this boat in a similar configuration.

Gary, to give you an idea Darryl's boat is currently on a VYC yardstick of 80 & will probably end up around 77 or 78 with a few seasons under her belt. My guess is your F16 yardstick is around 72 or 71 ??

Gary, is the sauna sail on a lake some where that some times you can not even see where your going ??

regards

Marcus

Hi Marcus,

doesn't look like Darryl can make it. Why don't you come over, I will guarantee a return trip for a event over there.

Sounds like you have been there before, yes it is a Lake, Pondage, Dam, it's been called all of these, which is used as cooling for a Power Station, so the water is warm leading to fog if the air is cold and wind is not strong. It is usualy only a problem early morning, still get plenty of races in. Besides its exciting trapping in the fog when you can't see any other boats, an unusual experience to say the least.

Hazelwood pondage is near Morwell 2 hours east of Melbourne. The event is hosted by Latrobe Valley Y.C. Windward and return corses are available for the first time this year.

Regards Gary.

Got the DVD!!!

Darryl posted it to me as promised. There's a lot of very good footage on it (and 'Floyd's "Dark side" as soundtrack ). Some of the sequences are at extreme zoom and a bit grainy but still very informative and good to watch. Excellent Darryl .

Having just watched it once through my first impressions are:
AO looks and behaves bigger than 14ft.
She doesn't appear to bury at all despite the lack of waterline (I'm sure she WILL bury but doesn't appear to be any more prone than a larger boat)
The kite is quite small and cut very flat but appears effective.
She seems very predictable and docile in the puffs
She is QUICK (liked the gybe in front of the Nacra)
AO has a clean, uncluttered tramp area
Overall I can believe that she has shaken up a few of the bigger boats - its quite something to see her flying downwind whilst everyone else is sitting in on their Taipans and Nacras!!!

I rate this video:

Just go the DVD you send to me Darryl. Now this is how a 14 footer should look like ! Hell this is how even bigger boats should look like (when it is not using the flyer hull shape).

The DVD was also the best argument I saw for the Aussie Taipans to fly spinnakers as well.

I can't wait to see the AO F16 that you are working on Darryl !

Wouter

So for the benefit of those of us without the DVD, what would you say are the significant design characteristics of the AO? e.g. in terms of hull shape, sail plan etc. Just from Darryl's avatar photo the thing that looks most striking is that the front beam (actually the middle beam it looks like) seems to be rather further aft than many boats.

Mark.

Yes indeed! I just got the video as well. The video is sweet! The boat is even sweeter. Although the spinny looks kinda small? Not sure. Also seing how its only 14 feet, would it work good with a mast top? is that out of the questions?

Anyway, great editing, and you are always waiting for more, which is good, cause it keeps the attention of the viewer. I was glued to the screen until it finished.

I think if it can be converted into an .mpg or .avi it would be an excellent download, and it would get spread even easier.

All in all, awesome video and even better boat! She is a true beauty!

MarkMT, if you want to see what it looks like just email me your postal address and I'll send you the DVD!
Darryl J Barrett

MarkMT, the cat on my avatar is NOT the Alpha Omega F14, that is the Alpha Omega 5.5m that we manufactured and sold throughout the '80's - standard as sloop rigged, sailed two up on trapeze with spinnaker - It's dimensions were almost identacal to the F18 made now, except that at that time cat sailors in general, frowned on the use of a spinnaker on a cat, we were told by many cat sailors that, "
spinnakers don't work on cat", and comments in a similar vein. My how times change??
Darryl J Barrett.

Thanks for the clarification Darryl. I've emailed you my mailing address.

Mark.

Just got the DVD today and watched a bunch of times

--Thanks Darryl!

The Alpha Omega F14 is really sweet looking.

A few observations:
-spin pole is very short, barely reaching past the bows
-spin itself is more like a deep genoa than a gennaker; it really looks like a hooter without added benefit of the roller furling
-boards look quite large, both in terms of width and length for the size boat; also, they are far back, like the Taipan
-hulls are deep, perhaps to provide adequate buoyancy in such a short package
-the boom looks rather beefy for the size rig

Overall, it looks like a blast to sail! What is the crew weight range? Are you planning production or just testing the interest level?

At 75kg, I bet the AO F14 would stack on the trailer quite nicely atop my Taipan F16...

Glad you liked the video,
The spinnaker pole is set at two different lengths at different times in the video. We tried the spinnaker set almost at the bows and used the spinnaker like a Genoa (but one which sets and works much deeper) and sheeted it off the rear beam, it works beautifully in that role. We then set up the pole further forward and sheeted the spinnaker from the side stay mounting point. It seemed to work equally as well in both locations but, we have decided to keep the second option as it just keeps the trampoline cleaner when sailing. Your right the spinnaker is actually designed from a Genoa program only cut out of spinnaker cloth so that we can "chute" it. This makes for a very versatile sail that works to advantage throughout an enormous range of wind conditions and points of sail, it is very quick to set and even quicker to chute, and gives a lot of advantage over a more "conventional" deep running kite. As to furling, we never furl down here, it is just often so much slower and regularly more "problematic" than a properly set up kite which can be set and chuted so much simpler, quicker, and much more reliable, and the drag and loss of point to windward from a furled head sail, we feel is too big a disadvantage.
Other people have noted that the C/Boards look "big" which we find a little humorous as when we first prototyped the 4.3 Alpha some years back, everyone told us then how "narrow the boards looked”, amazing how quickly perceptions change, still we have already incorporated "narrower" higher aspect C/B's in the next set of hulls, and their position for and aft are exactly where they have to be for their right relationship with the centre of effort of the rig. The hulls are very narrow with a lot of tumble home but their depth is not that great, I think that it may be a little bit disconcerting from the video as the cat does float very high in the water and this can give the illusion that the hulls are very deep? The boom is the same diameter, filament wound carbon fibre that is used on most A class cats, which is fairly small. I think that the next size down is 25mm and that would be a bit ludicrous to use!
The Alpha Omega F14 is in production as we speak, but our output in numbers is fairly slow, at this stage, as we have to fit their production in between "bread and butter" out put.
The key word in “tie down on your Taipan trailer” is definitely “tie down” as if it isn’t tied down well (even on the beach sometimes) it will literally fly away (which is not a pretty sight when your paying)