That would be no good at all. I want to be able to set my boat up exactly the way I want (and to check everything). I'd be very happy to let someone else pack everything away after racing though!

Steve that was a laugh out loud for me.

Thanks,
Dan

About 10 years ago there was a Shearwater catamaran fleet in Lagos. They were mainly sailed by people working for international companies. When they moved on, the cat had to be sold back to someone in the club - keeping the fleet together. When the sailors arrived for the evening racing, the cats were rigged and ready. The sailors were handed their buoyancy aids and went sailing. When they came back in, there was a guy standing in the water who took the buoyancy aids and cat from them and they were handed a drink on their way to the bar

Hi,

I did some following of the whole discussion about which boat is the best. In A-class on this moment there is a possibility to get the right mast/sail combination for lighter or heavier people. When you give your specs , lenght, weight than there can be made a sail and mast what will fit your needs. I do not recommended a spi on a A-class when your to light, the reason is that the boat is only 2.3 meters wide and this is giving problems with not enough counterweight, the boat has the change to fly. I have have this seen a few times, the boat was lifted out of the water about 1 to 1.5 mtr and dropped down without any rudder control. When you have somebody sailing on your lower side you have a serious problem. The other issue is that the A-class as design in competition the most fun is to sail just like all the other a-class types. When you talk about sailing with spi and solo than i would consider a F16. The advantage of this is that the design is made for solo and doublehanded. Another advantage is that you don't have to carry a lot of polyester (weight)around the beach. So i would advise a F16.


Hans

Please spend all your money and get the most expensive boat you can get and then go back to school.

Zee (Sarah)


Somewhere in this thread it was asked if spinnaker sailing is a high priority for you. And I fully agree with him that that is fully for you to decide.

However I just came across some footage that shows in an excellent way why a spi in 7 to 15 knots is just a massive blast.

Look for the part where a similar type boat without a spi is overtaken, about halveway in the clip. This was in 7 knots of wind.

Download to disk first then play, some browser mess of the view ratio and compress the video into a compressed rectangle.


So in the spirit of 60 second of footage tell more then a 1000 words.

Enjoy :


http://www.xs4all.nl/~whijink/Taipan_F16_promo_video_part_2.mpeg



And here a bonus video clip.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~whijink/Stealth_F16_1up_racing_datchet.wmv



Wouter

Zee/Sarah

If you are still interested in an F16, I just heard of one in Pakistan. The owner is here in Houston. I am guessing shipping would be easier than from the US or Europe.

Carl

lol go back to school?

Thank you guys for posting and helping me choose the right cat for me.

Im sorry that I havent replied to a lot of the messages. Ive just been really busy with my midterm exams.

Oh and thanx for the videos Wouter I LOVED them

That is Asims Blade F16, I know he was likely to return to the USA in the future but never in such a short timeframe.

Wouter

Sailing ANY multhull with a resonable performance downwind with spi is about steering and sheeting, not how much you weight. On several pictures and videos with singlehanded boats with spi they don't even bother to use the trapeze!

If you use a really big spi on the A-class you could get a boat that is difficult to handle downwind, but if you are on the light side use a smaller spi. I use 16 m2 on my A-class and that makes me go a bit deeper on the downwind than other cats even though I'm flat out on the trapeze, if that is a problem, use a smaller spi. The big issue if you are light is sailing upwind.

About voiding warranties, this is not an issue for the Marstrom A-class. You can buy a spi kit with pole, snail and support rods from Marstrom and add them to your Marstrom A-class without voiding any warranties. The latest snail design from the M20 is now being scaled down to the A-class spi size of 16 m2 and is soon avaliable from Marstrom. You need to drill a hole in each bow for the support rod, glue a fitting for the spi pole on the main beam and rivet an eyelet on the mast for the spi block. The sheeting blocks are tied to the shroud fitting and the cleats for the spi halyard is mounted on the spi pole. The boat is a blast downwind and if you are using a chicken line and trapeze as far back as possible there is no problem with submarining even in higher winds thanks to the fullness of the Marstrom hulls.

About M18!
The ONLY thing that differs between the M18 and A-class is the width. The mast, hulls, center boards and rudders are the same.

/håkan

The mainsail is 15sqm instead of 13.8 on the A class, The M18 is also 8 feet wide instead of 7 foot 6.

Forgot the main sail size....

The M18 might show up on Texel but the mainsail size needs to be optimized for Texel, the current rating for the M18 is a bit tough! We might use an A-class main instead or even cut it down further to get the Texel rating up. The current M18 main gives an Texel rating of 93, switching to an A-class main of 13.8 gives an Texel rating of 95 instead. You could cut the main down even further and hope for a good breeze.....

/hakan

Hi Hakan,

Honestly I've given up on the Marstrom cats because the service is just too slow and I know that if I ever needed spare parts I wouldnt get them in this lifetime. I've tried to contact them several times without any reply.

Nacra have MUCH better customer support. Not only that but I know that I dont have to worry about spare parts because they could ship them to me from Europe. I also prefer the hulls of the A2 to the ones thats Marstrom uses since I will be sailing on the ocean not a lake so wave piercing hulls are a big issue.

Be careful what you ask for with wave piercing hulls. That is not a good thing when the waves are two feet high. As I found out the hard way on a wave piercing design, that puts the bows under two feet of water, which then washes down the tramp knocking you off your feet. And the hulls may be wave piercing but the front beam and mast are certainly not. Wave Piercing is only faster in small (lake size) waves.

The big boys like the Inter 20 in the ocean mainly because it has alot of volume in the bows, to get you up and over the waves, not down and under them.

Actually the waves here arent that high so I shouldnt have any problems with the hulls.

Sarah:

I found out the only way to get Marstrom is to call them direct. I sent numerous emails and get no response. You have to call and ask for Ann-Marlene, she speaks english. BUT what I have found is they are HI as HELL. They wanted $350 euro for a compass mount. I got one for $55 from www.apsltd.com.

Doug Snell
Hobie 17
Sunfish
Soon to be Mystere 4.3
www.tcdyc.com

I think I get the message. Most people here think that Marstrom sucks! If you want Marstrom to stop manufacturing extreme beachcats and focus on the products they currently are building (Tornado, Volvo Extrem 40, sea cart trimaran, carbon masts among many things) you are doing a great job!! There are very few manufactures left that builds high performance beach cats and I think we should take care of them instead of bashing them.

The problem for Marstrom is the priority for A-cat/M18/M20 products compared to other products. With the current workload at the Marstrom company which has grown a lot the last years you must be a BUYER to get priority. I have been buying boats/sails/parts from Marstrom for 10 years now and if you call/mail and buy things it works fine in most cases, but if you just wants to talk they will not put you on high priority.

/håkan

Hakan:

That is the POINT we are making is if Marstrom WANTS or CARES to get new customers there service and pricing MUST get better. They NEVER answered any emails I sent them. I had to make a call to get anyone to respond. They wanted 300 euro for a compass mount. I got one that works from APSLTD for $53. IF they are all that concerned about getting new customers, there aptitude MUST change !!! There is to much competition out there to be treated badly. My family had a business for 100 years and the customer WAS everything!!

Doug Snell
Hobie 17
Sunfish
Soon to be Mystere 4.3
www.tcdyc.com

Hakan I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. Marstrom is a great company and they make high class catamarans which is why I tried so hard to contact them and buy thier product. But not only did I sent them countless emails, I also called them a lot of times and was always told to call after a week.

So Im not saying that Marstom is a bad company, just that I dont feel comfortable buying a product if Im not sure I can get parts later.

Im sure they have a stressful workload to deal with because as you mentioned they manufacture high performance cats. But like Doug said, the customer should also be important to the company.