Greetings,

How much weight can a Taipan 4.9 carry without greatly enhancing unwanted sailing characteristics? Can the catamaran handle 500 or even 600 pounds and still be sailed in a recreational manner? Does the boat like to pitchpole carrying these weights?

500 I would say, yes it can be sailed. But 500 lbs is a lot of weight. That would be equivalent to three medium frame persons. The 4.9 is only 16 feet long. You will be pushing you limits on space.

600lbs is really pushing it now. Why so much weight?

Regarding to pitchpoling, that has more to do with the angle of sail. Of course if you put all 500 lbs on the sterns I dont think the boat will pitchpole.

The Taipan comes with a sticker on the hull stating the maximum carrying capacity recommended by AHPC. I can't remember it off hand--it's in kg--but I've exceeded and never had a problem. 450 lbs should be okay--I've done it and even flown the kite. I would definately not go over 500 lbs, though.

Someone just asked a similar question on the F16 forum. The more detailed answers to your questions can be found there also.

With respect to your specifics :

As far as I know all F16 builders garantee their boats to 180 kg crew weight (=400 lbs).

Therefor 500 to 600 lbs is not considered a reasonable crew weight for the F16's.

Now I too, like others, have sailed these boats heavy, albeit in a recreational sense. Still 500 lbs - 600 lbs is really alot of weight. I don't think even think the "big boy" Nacra 6.0's and I-20's are garanteed to those weights.

It is just too high for any racing catamaran. I'm sure alot of boat will hold up under these loads but you just don't sail them at these weights. Why this weight range ? Are you intending to carry camping gear ? If so then forget these racing beach cats; they are neither intended nor used best in this role.





I would say that the Taipan 4.9 can carry up to 160 kg (= 350 lbs) is a racing sense (being competitive) and that I can carry up to 180 kg (=400 lbs) is a recreational sense without to much degradation of its sailing characteristics. Beyond that is not garanteed by its builder and it will void the warrantee. You can probably swing it to 200 kg (recreationally) without fuss if you are not afraid of voiding the warrantee. Beyond that you get into the possible damage zone.

Blade is slightly better in weight carrying capabilities; it also show less degradation with increasing weight.

I've sailed my Taipan F16 up to 180 kg's (400 lbs) myself a few times and I typically race it at 145 kg (320 lbs).

Hope this helps.

Wouter
Can the catamaran handle 500 or even 600 pounds and still be sailed in a recreational manner? Does the boat like to pitchpole carrying these weights?

What are the potential damages from carrying too much weight on the boat?

And how would the builder know that specific damages resulted from too much weight, thereby voiding the warranty?

As mentioned in the F-16 thread, I have torn the rear beam out of a hull on 2 cats through carrying to much weight / righting momentum.

That would be a pretty good sign.

Not much really. Most components are optimized for stiffness rather then strength. This means that most components are overdimensioned to get the required stiffness thereby being very very strong. Things that break when putting alot of weight on the boat in rough conditions are :

-1- Breaking the daggerboards
-2- Collapsing the mast (under too much compression)
-3- Damage the layup underneath the rearbeam or mainbeam.




It is not the builder who you should worry about but the insureance companies and they have ways to find out. Also inspection of the damaged area's can tell alot about preceded it.

Wouter

Thanks for your responses. What is the stress or force difference between 500 pounds sitting on the tramp and 400 pounds out on the wire? How large is the trampoline on the Taipan 4.9 compared to other cats? If one needs to repair a kevlar hull, how is it done?