both half-molds are now laid (nearly 1 gallon of resin!) - separation to be attempted tomorrow evening. Cross your fingers with me! Update tomorrow at Team Seacats

It's floating!



More detail at Team Seacats

It's alive! some light-air launch video at www.teamseacats.com

Where did you find that southern gentleman to do the commentary. Was he sitting outside a bojangles begging for biscuts?? I tink I've seen him there. HA!

something like that...I was going to cut out the audio track but I thought it added a certain ... 'flavor'. He hasn't called me yet so I assume he hasn't seen it. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Congrats Jake! In the old days, we would've called a result like that "Superfine". A very impressive project! I was a little disappointed not to see you dressed in one of the "fine" tee shirts for the occasion <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.

That is sweet! Very nice. How fast do they go? Is there a "fleet" nearby.. talk about getting your head out of the boat!!! HA! ... hmmmm... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

What can you control on the boat? Mainsheet, jib, rudder I would think. When you installing the kite?

Jake:

That sails very nicely, congratulations!

The other boat sailing with you looks like a Nirvana, is that true? Is it part of your personal fleet or did it just happen to be there? I am thinking about bringing a couple of "Thumb Boats" to NAs in case there is time to sail them.

Dan

Yeah, the other boat was a Nirvana. A guy in our office bought that a couple of weeks ago and has really been enjoying it. That Nirvana is an incredible value! I do certainly have a speed and pointing advantage but that Nirvana still goes pretty well. So far, and I'll do some more testing / gps tracking this weekend, but my creation appears to be capable of tacking through 60 degrees or better! (and I haven't even begun to tune the rig).

2 controls; rudder and sails. The jib and main are mechanically linked and you adjust their ratios manually on the boat. They're both set so that at full extension, both booms are 90 degrees to the boat but when close hauled, the jib leaves the slot open (the jib travels just a little less). I may add an additional channel later to tweak the main in and out in relation to the jib to handle puffs better. The class rules only allow 4 channels.

I mentioned before that I started a Nirvana fleet at my Yacht Club. We are at an astounding 78 boats right now! They are rather nice sailing boats, especially when you consider the price. You can see more at: ABYC Nirvana Fleet Information



Later,
Dan

I finally had my first race with the "Bogie" with the Charleston Model Yacht Club. The racing wasn't exactly a fair fight as I was racing against 10 or so Soling One Meters - the US1M is a bit more powered up...but the boat impressed many and the racing was a blast!

More at http://www.teamseacats.com

I read somewhere about a group of cheddar heads, (people from Wisconsin), had had built a large pool in a barn. Complete with artificial waves. I guess if they are waves they aren't artificial, anyway, and a computer controlled fan setup to make the wind. Shifts, and puffs the whole works. Thought it was a neat idea. It gets pretty cold up here.

I saw somewhere that they are racing RC trimarans. I think it was on rcboatdesign.net.

Yeah, I saw a model cat racing somewhere, they had built it so that it fit within the 1m class rules other than the fact that it was a cat.

Obviously I'm an avid multihull fan...but go sail an RC version for a couple of months and you will quickly realize the limitation. They are certainly fast and exciting but you go swimming a lot. A monohull with a big dumb blob of lead on the bottom leaves much more time for beer.

However, I will probably build another good size cat or tri that will use a US1M rig in the next couple of years. I had one a couple of years ago but I sold it in lieu of creating this one.