Yep, now we're getting somewhere.

Wouter

word is that carbon is getting scarce. the military is getting most of it.

i agree that making a set of hulls wider apart than they were designed for will increase pitchpole tendency. therefore widening a Fox may not increase chances of winning Texel.
also a lighter boat may not increase the speed that much in conditions where you are constantly depowering.
you would almost need to gear up with a quiver of boats/rigs with different features optimized for various conditions, like in windsurfing, to increase your chances of winning Texel.

There's plenty of source for carbon fiber - and besides, if the U.S. military buys a ton of it, the prices should go down for us a little.

Clinic for early subscribers
This afternoon, the olympic Zwitserleven Team of Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen gave a clinic for the first ten subscribers. Finally, about thirty interested participants of the Zwitserleven Ronde Texel asked their questions. They got tips varying from sailing through the surf to the fastest route around the island. Afterwards the crowd went to the pitlane, where the team’s Hobie Concept Boat was exposed. The six meter hulls remind of the Hobie Fox shape. “But that is about it”, says Booth. “There is nothing more standard. The whole boat is made of carbon, except for the beams. The platform is wider with 3,10 meter. It has a lot more sail. The main and jib together measure 30 square meters and the spinnaker 31. The mast is 10,5 meter. The complete Hobie Concept has a weight of 145 kilogrammes.” Booth and Dercksen, overall winners of the Zwitserleven Round Texel 2004, go for the line honours (first finisher) with this catamaran.

This years Texel is going to be their race.

Go to www.windguru.cz and select "Netherlands - Den Helder" in the windguru locations box and press "go" to see the expected conditions for this years Texel race.

about 12 knots of wind from the north west with 1.7 mtr waves. Just the conditions you want with a 30 sq.mtr upwind rig and a 31 sq. mtr. spinnaker. This looks like a relaxed round of Texel race, unlike most other editions where high winds and rough seas were dominant.

Their rating is going to be a killer though.

81 = standard rating (and for winds less than 4 beaufort)
85 = for winds above 4 beaufort

(F18 = 102 by 102 ; I-20 = 96 by 97 ; Tornado spi = 94 by 94 ; M20 = 93 by 95)

Wouter

61 sq meters of sail is insane! They are going to need a crew of 5 to keep it down!
Tornado 50 Sq Meters
Taipan 5.7 44.4 Sq Meters
Nacra 20 47 Sq Meters
Marstrom 20 44 Sq Meters

Even with the wider beam it might be over powered in most conditions with that much sail.

Maybe so, but they should be able to handle it if anyone can.

Also, consider something like the Inter 17 (well mine anyway) has 13.8 Sq main and a 19sq kite ! That is 32.8 sq all on my own down wind.....And I can handle it.....

Just had a little chat with some contacts in my cat-sailing network :

The Hobie special project is [color:"red"] NOT [/color] sailing of a rating of 81

Grapevine has it that is now listed as 88 (or 86 when I misunderstood my contact)

So the following specs :

145 kg
30 sq. mtr upwind on 10.5 mtr mast
31 sq. mtr. spi

As given by Dermot in This post look suspect.

It heard the rating measurement numbers and it is indeed a little heavier, less big in spinnaker area and my contact frowned upon hearing 30 sq. mtr. upwind area.

Somebody may have been a little too enthousiastic.

Wouter

Here's the boat.

Too bad Mitch Booth couldn't make it through the surf, would have been fun to see what it could do.

Nice pictures on thebeachcats.com. It looks wider than a standard Fox to me, looks like a 10 ft beam. the rudders look like Tornado rudders, AHPC sells similar foils on their website.