WETA trimaran - pretty cool boat

Thought I would share an experience I had while evacuated from LA for Hurricane Gustav. I stayed in Gulf Breeze, FL and while there had the opportunity to sail Cliff Farrah's new Weta trimaran (www.wetamarine.com) at FWYC.

The Weta trimaran is a 14' FG/foam/epoxy platform with a carbon mast, carbon bowsprit, carbon beam tubes, carbon rudder and daggerboard, full battened boomless mylar mainsail, mylar jib, and a roller furling spinnaker/screacher. The main and jib are combined around 100 ft2 and the screacher is 60 ft2. The overall weight of the boat is 200 lbs.

I was pessimistic in my expectations of this boat so the actual sailing experience was a big surprise. The best sailing experience is when it is fun and easy. This boat does both extremely well and feels quite "sophisticated". I sailed with my girlfriend on the boat in 6-14 knots of wind on two afternoons. Our combined crew weight was around 265 lbs. In over 8 knots of wind, the center hull (which is very skiff like) started to plane upwind. The boat appears to have a tacking angle around 95 degrees. We had a Velocitek GPS on board and in 10-12 knots, we were doing 8-9 knots upwind. Downwind with the screacher, we were seeing 9-11 knots, our top speed for the two days was 15 knots. The builder advertises a maximum crew carrying capacity of 400 lbs. I would think it could be raced competitively in the range of 240-300 lbs which potentially makes it a great teenager, guy/girl, parent/kid, or spouses boat.

You can sail seated on the trampoline with your feet in the center hull **** or if you want to avoid the spray, move out to the weather ama. You don't have to hike. The epoxy construction makes the boat very stiff (I saw no appreciable flexing). The finish quality was excellent. Some of the running rigging was a bit lame but it could be easily and cheaply upgraded by the owner. The total cost of the package with a launching dolly and yard cover is right at $10K.

The boat can be sailed/raced double- or singlehanded. In New Zealand where it was introduced, they race both single- and doublehanded fleets separate.

The Portsmouth rating is 81.2 singlehanded and 87.2 doublehanded. That's pretty quick for a 14' overall length boat and faster in comparison to the majority of monohull dinghies raced in my area. Some might think it would feel too small for two adults at that length but it does not seem that way at all and I think that is because the trimaran width makes it feel bigger.

My girlfriend and I are really too light for a doublehanded beach catamaran. She has a desire to race some type of doublehanded dinghy and this boat seems much more fun (and easier to sai) than a Snipe, V-15, or JY-15. The price seems like a great value considering the carbon content and the epoxy construction. We may be very interested in getting one.

The boat currently has only one distributor in the US and they are selling each one they bring in so far.

Sounds like fun, and you two at 265 are about the same weight as the fastest F16 crew, Matt and his wife Gina McDonald. Have you sailed one of those yet?

Yes, they are quote a neat little craft...want to try one myself.

Cheers!

this is sweet... if I weren't already too busy....

I like F-16 but I am not sure my girlfriend would like it. She loved the Weta and I think a lot of dinghy/monohull sailors would be intrigued by the boat because the center hull is more like a skiff/dinghy. Weta should consider trying to market the boat as an alternative to established one design dinghy classes as this boat is lot more fun than a Snipe, V-15, or JY-15. It is also very cost competitive against these boats.

Not to knock the Wave, but this boat is a higher performance yet as easy to sail alternative. It is more expensive but that hit could be softened if the fleet grows and a used boat market develops.

I believe the Weta is something that has been needed for a long time. I really hope it is successful.

Hey Bob,

Thanks for the writeup - it is a great boat, and I'm really happy with it...glad you both enjoyed it. You both looked good out there.

If anyone is going to the GYA at Key Sailing in early October, the boat will be there and I'll make it available for test sails when there is time.

C.

hey everyone.
i am a weta owner and am able to sail it by myself. we get a lot of wind in the river where i sail and have nearly capsized it a few times. i was wondering if there a trapeze option. if anyone has any ideas, please email me.
[b][/b] cate.blackburn@mac.com

Has anyone tried out the French built Astus 14.1 tri? It's a bit smaller than the Weta & apparently less expensive with no carbon fiber elements. I can find no tests in higher winds, but it has a quickly planing hull.
Ron

http://www.exaqua.co.uk/trimaran_astus_14.1.php

There is one of those at my sailing club, I've seen it on the water 4 or 5 times. All I can say about it is that it is slower than my 5.2 on all point of sail and it took forever for the safety team to bring it back up when it capsized the only day I saw it in more than 10 knots of wind...

I have an Astus 14.1 that I sail in Cornwall and righting it has never been a problem for me. The floats are quite small and it's fairly easy to right the boat by standing on a float and making it sink.

What I like with the Astus is that it's very light and goes like a go-kart. It does accelerate quite quickly with the genny up.

Cheers,
Pete

What about the Astus 16? Anyone have experience?
Because it has no dagger board it would be more user friendly for our shallow water. No dagger board, kick up rudders and plastic hulls in a Hobie Wave/Getaway becomes a trimaran would be a great package. Sadly the Astus 16 is glass

The Weta will be at the Baltimore Boat Show on January 21-25. Tell us you saw this post on Catsailor and we will have a free gift for you. Stop by and see us!!

Jon

Fun boat, my father in law had one and we would go out in 15 mph plus and have a ball while the other boats were on the beach watching. A trap would have been very cool. our total wieght was 360lbs. good times. he told me he wished he never got rid of it.

Sounds similar to my Windrider 16 (just not the same).
I'll be by to get my free gift friday or saturday. I was wondering if any other beach cats would be shown, I'll just have to wait and see.

Scott

OOOOOOOOOps! Guess I should have paid attention to the first postings...Sorry

How confident in that rating on the Weta? Currently US Sailing has it listed in the "Inactive" multilist as 78.5 Portsmouth...putting faster then H14 but slower than H16.

lots of new youtube videos including a review by Meade Gougeon

http://www.wetamarine.com/GALLERY.aspx

If you are looking for performance check out the TMS-20 that I am building.

http://www.themanshed.net/tms-20-trimaran/?g2_itemId=30

This is the basic design I started with then we modified it. Working on the prototype now.
LOW 20'
Beam 17'
Mast 31' carbon
Construction: Foam / carbon fiber
Est. dry weight <500lbs

Looks interesting!! So can everything be done sitting done? Sheeting in. Spin set? Estimated cost and would you sell them?

Doug

The rating we are using for the Weta is 78.5. It is probably a little low. We don't have enough buoy racing records against other catamarans to have a feel for it. In an upwind/downwind course, it will probably do very well as it points well, tacks on a dime and has the reacher for downwind. It loose the waterline battle on a reach. It will do better if it is breezy as the Weta can handle heavy air very well.

Doug,

That is the design to be sailed from the ****. Original design was for the Worrell 1000 when it was an open class all out non stop race.

I'm taking it one step further. We are adding 4 inches of freeboard to the ama's so they will be around 22" tall max and 13" beam max. I'm thinking about rigging it so it can be sailed both from the **** and from the windward side, at least get the crew on the wire. Once the prototype is done and raced some I'll see what I'll do next, modify or make a mold. My plan is to go into limited production. I have not figured out the cost yet. The prototype cost just went up when I went from an aluminum mast to carbon fiber and the hulls from E-glass to carbon fiber, but that is half the fun.

I don't want to stomp on this posting so I'm going to do an update on the TMS-20.

hi everyone, my first post here!

I've been looking for a new boat for a while now ..... I'm getting to be too much of a codger for the laser after 30 years sailing that fine little dinghy.

thought I might go to a H16, but I want to be able to sail single handed, and trailer the new boat as well. There are no drysailing facilities for dinghys here in Comox, on Vancouver Island. the Weta looks like just the ticket.

Does anyone know the best setup for trailering for the Weta? Too bad the included beach dolly isn't a road legal trailer!! Would be a lot easier in my opinion.

Hey Eric,
Check here: http://www.norbanks.com/ If you call ask for Jon. I believe the dolly integrates( sits on top of the trailer with the boat on the dolly as it should be) with the trailer that he sells, so it's almost like a road legal dolly.
You'd need to ask him for sure.
Todd

I believe any locally available small utility trailer can be adapted to take the Weta & dolly. Saves having to ship the trailer with the boat from the dealer.

That is exactly what I did with my Antrim Wing Dinghy. It only came with ply/glass dolly. I picked up a Northern tool small utility trailer, took the casters off the dolly, and bolted it down. Light and very easy to do at a nice price.

thanks for the replies regarding the trailer,
will be checking it out.

just brought the 1st two wetas into japan, will keep the resort version with dacron sail and roller furling jib in tokyo, as a demo, and have brought the standard version with mylar sails up here in the mountains to be sailed on our local lake

was out the other day and trying to use the gennaker as a super genoa?, as the swiss do on those light air lakes. very nice in light air to get the jib nicely shaped to to the main and then pull the big gennaker around the whole lot and bring it as far back and close to the rear of the boat as possible

even found a convenient cleat on the hull back there to hold it!

and then, just like on those swiss mountain lakes, while i had my head in the boat a big gust came swooping in, grabbed the genny, stuck the ama bow and proder in and then started lifting the stern, fortunately slowly enough that i had time to climb to the highest part of the boat and lever the whole lot back flat again

quickly pulled in the wildly flapping genny with 1 hand and lay across the back of the windward tramp with feet on the hull leeward hull inner and we were off blasting through a channel between island and shore

my 1st spinnaker? boat so i was steering around to find the best point of sail for speed and was pleasantly surprised to find that planning downwind on a skiff-like hull meant i could pretty much go where i liked

so that's what i did and 2 wake boarding boats coming out of the channel were concerned enough about my speed and directions that they both went WELL wide of me

i didn't look that much out of control i hope

around the other side of the island and the white caps were still forming so it was back upwind with just the mylar main and jib. spent a little too much time in the main hull during 1 tack and must have rounded around to a broad reach as suddenly the leeward ama was a full foot underwater!

fortunately the weta beams are like arms in a press up positions so there wasn't a huge amount of drag and i had plenty of time to steer back up to close hauled and scamper back up the tramp and find a seat just behind the stay

from there you are actually further out than if you were on trapeze from the hull

back up to the head of the lake while the wind was still good and then my first long crazy drag downwind under spin

all in all a great learning day and i think future owners of bigger tri's like the multi23, farriers and cosairs wcouldn't go wrong by spending some time building confidence and skills on these baby tri's before splashing out on the bigger sisters. certainly it was less intimidating that soloing my slightly faster but almost twice as heavy nacra 5.2 in similar conditions

found a july2009 video of a guy blasting through auckland harbour on his weta, every now and then you see the plumb amas doing some wave piercing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxSK1-8Ik0Y

anyone know of a weta dedicated owners group or forum yet?

Nice write up... glad you enjoyed the ride. We have a couple here and they look amazingly fun in 30knots (and less i must admit)

I guess you can count that as your first spin run,... but there is still a big difference using a monster asymmetrical beast...

There is a Weta forum over on Yahoo Groups.

I took my first extended ride on one a couple of weeks back with owner on board (at my insistance!).

My impressions...great little craft. Took me quite some time to adjust my steering response coming off the Tornado. The Weta felt quite sensitive on the helm...more like I would expect a small dinghy/laser to steer like. The T tracks well and while the helm only needs fingertip control and is well balanced, I found myself constantly over steering the Weta. Boat would turn up/down so freely compared to the T. This made finding & staying in the fast groove quite challenging.

I found the gennaker sheet loading to be quite high with only the one auto-ratchet block setup. This made hand holding for more than a few minutes at a time quite difficult. Loading on the hand seemed higher than we get on the tornado in similar breezes (we run two ratchets...one auto load sensing, one manually switched...per side in 10+ knots). I would definitely look at adding a second ratchet on the weta setup (might violate the class rules though...could lobby the class for this option).

We saw a best speed on the gps of low 12 knots. Not bad for 10 kts wind and two big guys on board.

Mike.

Thank's for that info, our club has just purchased its first one to run off the beach sailing for the disabled correctly titled "Sailability" and I'm the rescue boat driver for that. What are your thoughts regarding righting and returning people to the Weta?

The boat is hard to flip, but it is possible. If you just go main and jib, it would be almost impossible to flip without really high winds and waves The process for righting is to flood one ama and that flips the boat on its side and you then right it using the centerboard. Upon righting, all but about a gallon of water will drain out of the ama. Or you can just take off sailing and it will drain. Getting back on from the water is pretty easy. There is a You Tube video of the boat going turtle and getting righted. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6S7o5nHiKU

Have not pitchpoled with a Weta...but have seen the videos of the righting procedure. Might want to add a keeper system to the ama hatch covers (we use a big sponge tied by a thin line to a small "vent" hole in the cover on the T...the sponger can't just fall out of the opening when the hatch is off...keeps the covers from departing). Anyone thought of self-bailers liek some dinghys use for the Ama's?

The new boats have a ama hatch safety cord to the inside. It works well. Good idea on the self bailers. One Weta owner who flipped in SF Bay, righted it, lost his ama hatch cover and sailed the rest of the day without it. He had to hustle at the lift, but he had a great day sailing!!

Erice,
One sure way to pitchpole or capsize any multihull is to cleat a big off wind sail. Even using a continuous sheet on a sail like that is risky.

Noticed that there were several Wetas signed up for the Everglades Challenge. If this little boat makes it in this race I will give it some respect.

By the way OBX dudes any chance of a Weta being races in your own backyard in the North Carolina Challenge. Can oars be attached.


See ya on the Water

J.P Ayers
Isotope 186

I think the Weta would be a great boat for the challenges! I plan on doing it in the future. You could figure out a way to do oars, but I think the boat could be paddled easily. Where did you see the registration list? I would like to contact the sailors doing it and offer some support. I spoke with someone last month who was considering doing it.

I've spent the last two weeks doing sail training for disabled people and having a blast on my own on the Weta when the wind comes up. Paddling would be no problem each of you would sit on the opposite front ama support with feet on the ama.

Had a good look at '08 WETA. Boat was lightly used, stored indoors. Some build observations have me concerned. There is no mast shoe or base to protect what is a bare carbon tube. Abrasion was quite noticeable. Mast step was top deck mounted, had no direct support structure below though laminate was thicker in this area, perhaps concealing a plate, no compression cracks were evident. Mainhull was stiff in the tankwall areas and bow, otherwise soft from **** forward at sidewalls. Layup appearance was quite fair. Floats had appearance of poorer lay-up, appeared wavy when sighted down the sides. This may be build quality not necessarily compression, however there was minor delamination or topside surface compression cracking forward of forward vertical support post on starboard. Floats appeared sound at the mating surfaces. The mainhull's internal amas mount sockets appear to be bare carbon tube, a difficult fix, should wear or leaks develop. Mast sections with external trac appeared high quality, sleeved "carbon on carbon", again a potential repair area. Foils and hardware appeared well done, not all thru-hull hardware had backups. Sails, battens, and stitching looked well made, boltrope showed excessive wear, typical of Mylar sails. Overall, I'd like to see a newer build for comparison. There were enough potential problem areas to give me pause. I realize low volume and cost effectiveness go "hand n' hand", but believe there is room here for mfg. improvements, guaranteeing a robust product for initial and potential second hand owners.

G'day acat this was my reply to someone who asked my opinion on another forum. I'm also concerned about the mast foot, it doesn't wear once its on but each time it's put up a little bit more wears away.

"Baz I've taken the Weta out 5 days now in our learn to sail program, probably sailed it for 15 hours. In about 8kt, had to work hard to get some fun and wasn't that impressed. Took two disabled people out for a sail and they loved it. One had never sailed before and took the tiller after 10 minutes. You can do a 360 turn staying on the wrong side without tipping with the genoa up in 12 kt. I took it out in 15-18kt on my own and enjoyed it for what it is, I got the ama and more than half the tramp under water with the nose starting to dig in and it still pushed along fine but you need all 3 sails up and to be solo to get it going. It's perfect for disabled sailing, would be great for a nervy newby family boat or somewhere really windy. The boat is well made but the block set up is fiddly little blocks, the downhaul requires 2 hands, the gennaker and jib halyard cant be tightened on the water when the gennaker comes a bit loose even under load it wont unfurl the gennaker. The tramp has stupid blocks to tighten it. If you want one get it with no blocks on it and put on cat type fittings like swivelling camcleats for the downhaul and halyards not 505 dinghy stuff."
regards Jeff

the mast base WAS just a bare carbon tube on the earlier boats but there now seems to be a black nylon plug in the mast base there, also nylon plugs on the prodder tube where before there were none

also new are large hatches on the bulkhead just behind the mast. inside you can see that the deck area directly under the mast base is supported by thick honeycomb bulkhead

the amas are a solid glass layup,the hull has a thick honeycomb core and the deck a thinner foam core

the tramp lacing material has recently been upgraded from a slightly stretchy line to a amsteel type line, so less mucking about with the tramp tightening blocks is needed after setup

downhaul, at least on mine, is operable with 1 hand from either side of the mast

performance/thrills wise my weta is no match for my nacra 5.2, but then very few boats are...

however it packs a very big punch for a 14' that has the space and the power to sail 1, 2 or 3 up and i find it a more maneuverable, smaller, more relaxing sail than the nacra

bonus that it packs away and trailers so well too

A good lookover and there have been improvements (see above post). Feel free to contact me anytime through wetatrimarans.com and I can go over all the changes with you. Also, we have a great owners group on Yahoo where you will get more feedback on the Weta. We like to hear all feedback! Good, Bad or Indifferent!

G'day Erice our one is 2 months old now so I'll enquire about the mast foot, we have the big hatch in the front. Our downhaul arrangement might be different, we have two little V cleats on the decks about 2 feet apart that you have to pull the sheet level with the deck whereas a single swiveling cam cleat would allow us to adjust the downhaul as needed from anywhere on the boat. When you sail solo if you are in a decent breeze with the three sails up do you have to go forward and adjust your downhaul? Our tramps have open pulleys (which look like they’ve been put on the wrong way) and V cleats to hold it that don't line up with the direction the tramp is pulling it, I think it's designed so you don’t have to untie the knot to take the amas off but when they come a bit loose they come off the pulley. The jib and gennaker halyards tie off to big 5 inch cleats so I have to pull hard and tie off then roll up the halyards which are held about 3ft up the mast by velcro, the jib brushes past this lump every time it flaps, it's also time consuming and impossible to adjust on the water so I sail the boat for a while then take it to the beach and tighten, all it needs is 3 swiveling cam cleats at the mast base so you thread the 2 halyards and downhaul through them, easy to adjust easy to set and pack up. These are little problems which is why overall I think its a good boat for what it is. The block problems I'm sorting out but if we get the next one for our disability program we'll order it without blocks so we have clear decks and don't have holes every where.
regards

OBXCC.......IMHO, the Catsailor forum is the largest of it's kind. This would be a great venue to air out changes to the WETA. The '08 boat I looked over showed potential problem areas. Many will choose to fiddle with blocking and sheeting, as the class allows, but my concerns are hull and float construction. For a "cored" build, I felt the main hull to be soft esp between forward tank wall and bow. The floats, especially inboard, showed layup imperfections quite visibly, with some delamination/gel cracking topside forward of amas post. A honeycombed bulkhead was mentioned, but with limited access, I felt no framing directly below mast step ? I've had 2 piece masts in the past, and found reinforcement necessary when carrying a spinnaker. It's been noted that the mast is quite flexible, a good depowering attribute. Aside no mast shoe, I wonder what design strength and mechanical testing went into the designed loading for such a build, especially pertaining to the sleeved joint and multiple hound fittings ? Further, what precautions/remedies were made for the possible failure of the mainhull's amas frame tube sockets. I liked the boat's design parameters, but walked away from the sale.

Just went and looked at ours acat and there's a bulkhead that looks like it makes a forward flotation chamber that comes up just forward of the mast base to support it.

OBXCC, I was over to the Yahoo group and found many "gaga" over the new boat, and well perhaps they should be. However, I saw no critiques. Please consider the forum here so we all benefit.

thanks for the observation. Jeff...."seeing is believing".

do you have a weta acat?

I'll have to take a look at one of these boats.

G’day Erice, I’ve taken a while to digest your reply, look at the boat how I sail it and we're going to ask Weta about the mast foot.
I feel the downhaul is important to not stretch the sail and with a mast that lays over I tension it on the beach but the lines stretch, knots tighten on the water creating some slack, the halyards are on the outside of the mast , when the mast lays over it creates slack in the line. I don’t need a trucker hitch to tighten the halyards, I have enough strength the same way I didn’t need to cleat the main on my 5.8
Our club paid AUD$15000.00 for the boat plus a further AUD$3000.00 in freight, insurance etc. If we were asked if we wanted the blocks package that takes longer to rig and makes no sense or the block package that works for a bit more we would have paid the bit more. The person at our club that organised this boat wants a couple more for the same program but we’ve decided to wait to see how the boat and program goes before we get any more, if we do we most definitely won’t be getting the Weta block package. Probably the most telling thing for me is that I’m the only able bodied person at our club that has taken the Weta out even though it’s available to any club member for free the others prefer their own boats.

Sounds like its a bit of a toy rather then a race boat. Do you think they will still be around in 10 years Jeff or will they dissappear like the other small trimarans have?

Darryn
Mozzie
1782

Just been watching the you tube videos, looks like a fun toy and they race them.
Does the Weta have class rules? How much can they be modified?
Surprising the other club members dont want to sail it.

cheers,
Darryn

G’day Darren it’s definitely not a toy and I think it’ll be around in the future. I really like the boat for what we use it for, there is nothing like it for the people I’ve taken out so far. I’ve had the ex cat sailor with no legs, the stroke victim, 80 year old ex cat sailor-ex rescue boat driver, scared small kids with equally worried parents and people that have had sailing experience, all happily sailing without getting wet unless they want to. It’s a real privilege to take these people out and have them take the tiller.
The boat is well designed for what it is and my complaints are only superficial blocks etc, when I sail it on my own I find it a bit lame unless I reach every where with the gennaker and I think that’s the problem with it not unfurling, if I was going dead downwind which is boring it may come out ok. After an hour of reaching with the gennaker in decent wind and the ama under water I came back exhausted but entertained. It has a definite use for introducing people to sailing, I get people that are unsteady on their feet to hold onto the side as I pull it in the shallows so they can walk without anyone on the beach realising they have a disability, then in about 1 foot of water I get them to stop while I pull the tramp under the back of their knees, they then sit on the tramp and swing their legs into the hull they look normal and retain their dignity. Then when they’re sailing quite often I lay on my back on the ama tramp holding the gennaker and leave them to sail, because it’s so forgiving if they make a mistake we just go in a circle and there’s no boom to hit heads. As for the others at the club not sailing it they own high performance cats that are more entertaining for them and quicker to set up, we had a visitor from WA use it for our Cape Jaffa regatta you can have a go if you want the next time you come our way.
regards

just a thought Jeff

you might be able to kill 2 birds with 1 stone if you do fit a a pivoting downhaul cam-cleat to the mast base as the 2 current jam cleats could then be taken off the deck and put on to the mast and replace the factory horn cleats for jib and genny halyards, you'd still have all that line to tie up but adjustments could be made on the water much easier

this current front page pic on the velocitek site shows them quite well to the left and right of the red circle

http://www.velocitek.com/community/news/weta

very cruisey little toy at times

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQgkAcoHWbE

I wanted to comment about the Weta... I think this boat is awesome but for inland waters I think its a bit under canvased. At our last years regatta a H14 and several H16's smoked the Weta. Still it has great stability for those that need that characteristic and is fairly easy to rig but not as easy as the Wave. Also not as durable as a Wave, not even close. The Weta is a great boat to get ex laser sailors, etc. into multihull sailing!

Jeff as for being good for the disabled, I would agree to a point. I find the boat good for persons with disAbilities not for the disabled. The fact that the persons you are taking out are willing to do so tells me they are not disabled regardless of their pre-existing conditions. So its great you are doing accessible sailing.

Have you tried a Hobie Adventure Island or Tandem yet. These boats are easy to sail and allow a person to pedal or paddle from and to shore. So not only can a persons with a disAbility sail this boat but they can leave and return to the dock also with no assistance and that is true independence in sail. Simply the most accessible boat out there. Also H16 Trapseat sailing is a blast.

Just some thoughts...

G'day 16nut, glad to here someone putting up some useful info about the Weta, I did 2 weeks of sail training then sailing on Saturdays which probably added up to 40 hours this year on the Weta. Personally I think the Weta is a 420 dinghy with training wheels, I've had the racing 420 with spin planeing which required less effort and went not a lot slower than the Weta. If you put all the extra sail area on a 420 the Weta has it would kill it and take half the time to set up. As for the disability side I suppose it's the degree of disability, I spent about 9 Saturdays coaching and helping, then put together a team to sail the Weta off the beach here. The skipper is an ex A class sailor that lost his legs, his crew had a stroke has limited mobility cant look down, has no balance and takes a long time to make a decision, I consider these guys disabled. They tow the boat to the water, set it up, sail it, pack it up, tow it back to the shed, wash it, put it away, with no assistance now. The problem with the Weta is the people selling them saying to novices they can go out in 25 knots when they cant hold the boat on the beach in that, when the boat capsizes in the shallows and cant turtle, the air pressure in the ama wont let you undo the hatch cover to right the boat. We had to sink the ama by standing on it and wrenching the boat after the boat capsized in 18 knots. I have strong arms and hands, I ultrasound up to 5000 sheep a day (not a misprint) by pushing a probe into their guts and then push them out the crate all with my right arm and still couldn't undo the cover. The fittings on the boat are really poorly thought out, the hatch covers only turn half a turn to lock and nip up, I'm putting handles on the hatches to provide purchase for removing them, the ama’s get water in them, when I phoned the supplier for support and told them where we’re located I got the Homer Simpson, Duuuu. I still think their not a bad boat for what they are, the people saying they have similar performance to a Hobie 16 or similar aren’t lying to you they're just bull shitting they’re not really a cat they’re a safe dinghy.
As for the Hobies, unfortunately we don’t get any Hobies that come to our club so I couldn’t guage their performance and last time I tried to sail with the Hobies in Adelaide they sailed away and did their own thing leaving us other boats to race.
Just my thoughts since you asked