Anybody know what's up with the "Nacra Announces the A3" placeholder and "Nacra A2 / A3" heading at http://nacra.us/A2/news.html ?

I was looking at the site the other day as well and saw that. All this A3 all over the page but nothing to really explain WTF it is. Can't imagine there is already a second generation A2 eh? One of the pics looks like one of them is being sailed 2-up.

What about the Hobie A-cat, anybody ever heard anything about that since its announcement ?

Wouter

Interesting.

If anyone would like to see how a Nacra A2 hull is built, Performance cats has a nice PowerPoint presentation of the hull lay-up here .

GARY

It's been shelved, according to Jeremy Evans, in the latest Yachts and Yachting.

So what boat will Hobie market to the single handed sailor?

They tried to end the H17, so that they would have enough spare parts to support the boat in future years and the FX 1 never really got started. The A cat project would have put them in the game with the fastest growing and geographically most widely accepted class.

Mark

Gary - check you link - not working

Work from here: http://nacra.us/A2/making.html
See A2 Slide Show.

The Y & Y article stated that, apart from the Tiger, Hobie Europe are concentrating on the rotomoulded beach cats.

And it is now titled the Nacra A2/A3.

So I am assuming the A3 is an evolution of the A2. Things move fast in A cat land.

Pete Melvin brought a new boat the North Americans that had both the front beam and the daggerboard trunk moved further aft than previous boats (about 6"). He had also added a fairing in front of the front beam. Subtle changes at best.

Bob Hodges
USACA

I could be wrong but I seem to recall Performance working on an F-18 class design with A2 hydrodynamic princples a while back to be dubbed the A3.

Is the article on line? Can you post a link?

http://nacraa2.com/Nacra%20A2%20Hull%20Infusion%5B1%5D.ppt
Reparied Link How the Nacra A2 hull is built.

There are 2 pages of UK and European "Cat Stuff" in the latest Yachts and Yachting. Jeremy Evans is the author. I pobably shouldn't be copying it, but I will put in the whole section on Hobie, so that people will not say that I was quoting selectivly from it.

"The dear old Tiger seems to have bounced back in catsailors' estimation as the most reliable allround performer in Formula 18. Despite this year's challenges from younger designs like the Capricorn and Infusion, Hobie Cat Europe insisted they had no intention of replacing the oldest F18 still available, which originally appeared in 1995. Hobie have kept the Tiger up to speed by employing a handful of the world's best catsailors to race and develop the boat, with steady updates and innovations over the years.
The most obvious novelty on the 2007 Tiger will be new rudder blades designed by Mitch Booth, which are instantly recognisable with fatter tips, concaves at the trailing edge and a profile that kicks under the transom with broad 'shoulders' for added strength. Steve Beard, who runs Hobie Cat UK based in Poole Harbour, went sailing with Mitch and his new daggers in strong winds off Hyeres. He says it took him about 30 seconds to feel the difference which is more precise and smooth steering, making the Tiger even easier to handle.
Other Tiger updates include the fully battened jib with no roller-furling which is now class legal for F18 from 2007. Full length battens should ensure that the jib lasts longer since it won't flap, with a design that is really not so different from the fully battened jibs that Mitch and his crew Herb Dercksen used to win the F18 worlds in 2000 and 2001. It's curious that Mitch was accused of 'cheating' or at least distorting the rules and his fully battened jibs were formally banned by the F18 association straight after the 2001 event. Six years later, they've done a U-turn and welcomed this 'innovation'.
In other areas, Hobie Cat Europe seem to be edging away from hardcore competitive stuff. The Hobie A-Class cat was shelved and both the all carbon Fox and FX-One have remained one-off 'concept cats'. Hobie's big market is still the beach (or at least the dream of a beach) worldwide, with the 1969 vintage Hobie 16 still the third best-selling sailboat of all time, behind the Sunfish and Laser.
While Hobies are built in the USA, Australia, South Africa and Brazil, the independent French owned Hobie Cat Europe has led the way with high volume recreational cats such as the Hobie 15 and a line of rotomoulded beach cats for all sizes and ages. One of their main competitors has been the Dart 16, newly uprated with twin wires and three sails. By Christmas, we should also see the first of three new rotomoulded Toppers, all designed by Yves Loday. This will be a 16ft cat, currently being refined by Rob White down in Brightlingsea, with twin wires, kite and 'loads of volume' so you can take the whole family for a blast! Two 14ft cats will be launched using the same hull shape in spring 2007. One will be a twin-wire, three-sail cat for junior sailors; the other a single trapeze adult singlehander, also sporting a kite. It seems we're due for a beach cat war between Dart, Hobie and Topper - may the best cat win!"

Bob,

I'd call moving the beam and centerboards aft 6 inches more than a subtle change.

Bill

thats exactly what the Dart 16 needed. A spin and twin traps.

Now it only needs some more platform and hull stiffness and some proper boards and .... Gee, then they'll have ended up with the same 3 sails glass beach cat that they were trying to replace with the tupperware rotomolded vessels.

Conclusion; they could just have skipped this whole polyethyleen stage and produced a proper beach cat from the get go !

And ohh !



Well, shouldn't that be :"may the least bad tupperware design win"

And then we can watch the contest between that winner and an old school 16 ft glass, 3 sails, double trapeze beach cat like say the F16 !

I wonder which will win that contest.

Wouter





Wouter

Urm.... I think it's called a Spitfire.....

From the USA perspective.

This scares me. I re-read this several times. Regarding Hobie worldwide an the introduction of new product I glean this; development of the Tiger continues (applause here); Fox and FX One all carbon shelved and NOTHING else cooking. We know Hobie USA is content riding the successful sales of the rotomolding process boats. Now other European manufacturers are following suit? I expect Hobie to stand pat and do nothing.

My interpretation of this is the high performance fiberglass (or Kevlar, or carbon) catamaran becomes an increasingly more finite group. How can this do anything but drive costs up? Even for the Hobie 16? The entry level boat pool is aging and older boats are just that, old and worn out. The chances of an affordable, LIGHT WEIGHT, high performance, boat for the boomer and the young crowd, IMO, is dwindling. Even if I was not so enamered with racing I'd still want a light boat I can singlehand and move easily that is fast (A class or F16 or something new?).



WOULD have been great for me and others in "geographicly challenged" areas. The big fleets here are Hobie 20, and/or Hobie 16 (North) and/or singlehanded Hobie 17 (South). I'm spoiled with the speed of the 20, but I can't/won't afford/justify the price of a new A or 16 and suffer the depreciation just for a boat to play with (no fleets here), so I need churn.

This rotomolded "revolution" is the wrong kind of churn.

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

It doesn't look good.