Hey, has anybody noticed any particular characteristics or tendencies for operation without use of rudders and/or boards? For example during shallow rocky water beach entry/exit etc. and various off shore/on shore wind conditions. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Just steer with your sails.

If you're uni then you can steer by moving around the boat. If you go aft and to windward and ease your main right out you'll bear away, move slightly forward, inboard and sheet in you'll point up.

All boat designs behave slightly differently so it's a question of experimenting.

If it is blowing offshore and you are going out over a stretch of shallows, hoisting the kite enables you to sail out instead of walking the boat out. It also impress your competitors a lot when you zip past them at 15knots, rudderless.
The same can be done when going in, but its harder to find the right balance between sailtrim and crew weight.

Practice in an open area before trying it close to shore/obstacles/navigational hazards! It is easiest to get going on a reach. Learning to control your boat without rudders give a new feel for the boat, and is a good way to become faster on the racecourse. Johns post sums it up very well.

When we got our first catamaran, a Shark, back in 1961 or so, my father actually took the rudders completely off the boat and sailed it all over the place with no rudders. He did it to prove how well balanced the boat and its sail plan was.

I think everyone should practice sailing with their rudders up (taking them off completely is a little radical). It gives you a new appreciation for how much more influential the sails and weight distribution are than are those relatively tiny rudders in the back of the boat. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Granted, it is a LOT easier to do with a sloop rig than with a uni-rig. I guess you would have to throw your weight around a whole lot more with a uni-rig.

They do have that class of cats in Europe (Patin a Vela, I think) that race and do not have any rudders. I would think you have to be very athletic, because it is all in the weight distribution.

This brings up a great training exercise--steering w/o the rudders, just steering w/ sails only.

Even more of a challenge with the boards up unless your going downwind. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

For solo beach entry I normally let out the traveler and try to get the windward board down just a couple inches ASAP as I position my weight inboard slightly aft until I can get the rudders down. Just keep her going straight!

I noticed on the Taipan, in emergency it’s even possible to steer with the rudders up by moving crew weight as far aft as possible and windward.

Not sure I'd try beach entry/ exit with the kite just yet... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

So as things would happen, there I was walking along the beach by the Club Natació Barcelona on Tuesday when I chanced (as one does) on these beasts. They are, as Mary said Patin a Vela. No rudders, no boards, no boom, no battens, no trapeze. All wood (including the fives beams), they look quite long, maybe 18 or 20 feet but are much narrower than you'd expect from a conventional cat. The mast is aluminium and doesn't appear to rotate. It has three sets of shrouds/stays - the middle ones are fixed but the others are adjustable on the water. The mast is very bendy, the mainsheet is only 3:1 but the helmsman can bend the mast by a huge amount. They do have a travelled but no way on controlling where the mainsheet is on it - so it's always down to leeward. The day I watched them was very light. Whilst the better sailors had no problems, the poorer guys were struggling a bit, quite a few blown tacks and a few accidental ones where gusts came through!

This shows the shrouds and the adjustments for them a bit better.

This shows one sailing (although there was hardly any wind at the time). Upwind the trick seemed to be to sit really far back, I guess to dig the deep sterns into the water

Thanks for the pictures, George.

So it would appear that they actually rake the mast forward/back whilst sailing to trim the boat? - a bit like a windsurfer then?

Cool looking vessel, exactly the sort of challenge I'd relish <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> although I guess I'd be one of those 'poorer guys' <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yes, thanks for the pics George.

No rudders would have its advantages, a spare hand to light cigarettes and drink lots of beer <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />. Seems like my sort of cat. Do they make 16ft versions with kites?