race monster in Texel cat race

Mischa Heemskerk is tuning his special designed M20 cat on the beach just before the ROUND-TEXEL starts saturday.

Skip all the dutch talking. The cat is 4 meter beam, has each rudder doubled! (one for shallow water and one with wingtips for deep water). So you see them sailing with what looks small rudders up. The wingtips on the long rudderblades are flexible.

Finally the daggerboards can be controlled during sailing by a rope system.

I saw it sailing yesterday and it did seem to fly quite well (he was way in the distance).
Up close the boat looks very well thought out.
Tomorrow the new foiling Nacra 20 and Phantom will also arrive at Texel so should be a good show.
According to the forecast there will be around 15kts during the race which should be enough to keep them foiling.

Nice Peter Pan at 3:27

Awesome! Foiling is definately happening, but I keep in mind Buckminster Fuller adage "evolution makes many false starts". This M20 on steroids definately looks awesome!

How many footstraps each side.

Yep and that will get these beasts into our price range sooner, I wouldn't mind having to put up with that boat at half price

Krikey those daggars are Huge-a! (to coin that Fusillo car dealer)

Team Flying Dutchman... classic

And if as you say the foiling cats will come down in price, what will that do to the used non-foiling boats that hit the market?

People are still sailing Dart15s. No worries about the used boat market.

I was hoping to get Matt's existing F16 for super-cheap when he makes a foiling version...

He can probably offer you a "nice price for you, my friend" deal anyway

He hit the sandbar. Instant stopping power.

Noticed that in another comment - perhaps on FB? Also noticed that the daggers seemed to be relatively unscathed. Close up inspection might be a different story (as well as the dagger trunks).

Just before and during the start

In terms of line honours....
1. Peter Vink/Mischa de Munk..........................Nacra F20 Carbon FCS (full foiling)
2. Xander Pols/Stefan Dubbeldaum..................Nacra F20 Carbon (curved boards)
3. Alex Noorstrand/Oscar Eelkman Rooda........Nacra F20 Carbon (curved boards)
4. Mischa Heemskerk/Eduard Zanen.................M20 Special (full foiling)

Handicap results not out yet.....

Results on handicap....
1st Nacra 17
2nd Nacra 17
3rd Nacra Infusion

Nacra F20 from first finisher Vink just after the start

Awesome photos on the Round Texel facebook site with great shots of tidy and untidy boats
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...1.203508649661856&type=1&theater

Amazing photo-serie.

I think the beachcat world has changed with this race.


(I'm very proud that this happened in my small country. )

The foiling looks cools, but i'm wondering about the beach cat aspect. It doesn't look like you could actually run one of those right up on the beach if there was some surf. It looks like the boards are still partly below the bottom of the hull even when they are all the way up?
Did anyone see them land in the small surf?

I think the boards are about 10-15cm below the hull, you shouldnt sail a cat straight onto the beach anyway unless you have to anyway.
Thats what cattrax are for :-)

There a lot more pics from the race over here: http://bootinbeeld.nl/index.php?page=galerij/sites/2014/rot14/rot14.php

One of these 4 photos shows the F20 FCS sitting on a trolley with boards in place......
https://www.facebook.com/NacraSaili...54/10152521510598554/?type=1&theater

My contention is that a $40,000 piece of carbon art that can be sailed off the beach with a dolly, where the conditions are mild is different than a beach cat. There are races like the 2 recent 300 mile races were the boats are driven right up on to the sand. That curved section of the main foils protruding from the bottom of the hull would be a problem in a hectic beach landing.
If the conditions at Texel were force 4-5 with a tough surfline, and on shore winds i think the landing would be tricky for one of these foilers. Even if you get through the landing, there is still the issue of sand getting in your fiddly bits.
Few owners of these high end cats would risk surf sailing.

Remove the cost from the question as that is relative to income/budget and motivation.

Consider that any modern racing cat will not take kindly to a landing like it was the big red one (1st infantry division) going all in on Omaha beach.

Consider that catsailing is far more diverse than using beaches as base or surf sailing (I would prefer a sailboard for beach/surf sailing. Perhaps even a kiteboard if I knew how to run those things)

What is left is a practical issue on how to deploy/retrieve the boat from a beach or any club with a ramp. Beachweels have been pointed to and I find that reasonable.

I believe foiling have enough momentum carry over into the short term and long term catsailing future. Interesting times and really exciting to watch what these guys are doing. In 5 to 10 years perhaps even I can afford to have a toy like this.

In the US, most of the distance races you have to start on the beach and you have to finish on the beach. Often times two or more boats will finish neck and neck with each other and requiring a beach dolly to land would simply not be safely possible in some of the surf here.

As for modern racing cats not taking kindly to being run up on the sand at full speed... Just last month we had a carbon 20, f18's, a marstrom 20 and a bunch of older nacre 20's running up the beach.. Seemed to fare just fine.

Ehhhh...I say it could be done gently unless you've got gigantic surf. Rudders up, boards up, main sheeted in tight and centered (jib loose). Sit on the bows and back the boat in through the surf. It works and is a really mild way to get the boat on the beach safely. It's certainly not the fast way to hit the beach - but it would be pretty easy to beach a boat like that with control.

There's also usually some angle to the breeze on the beach. With the finish line in knee deep water, I did a Tybee without making any significant sliding on the sand (right after I refinished the entire boat). My bottoms finished looking like they did when we started...granted, that's not the fun way to land on the beach (like the first landing Mosley and I had where we sailed all the way up to the dune between two parked boats) - but it's possible.

Certainly rough beach landings is an issue for foiling cats. The double rudder setup was there for a reason I suppose. I dont think rough beach landings is the norm for cats like this though. Launching from clubs (Europe) or ramps (US) would be close to the norm in my experience? Add relatively shelted beaches and how big an issue is this really for the "cat foiling movement"?

I think the beach landings/starts is a relatively minor problem for foiling cats when looking at the big picture and the majority of events and catsailing. Seeing them launching at Texel and the surf there is enough proof for me that it is possible.


Looking forward to hearing what our friends in the Netherlands have to say on the topic. Myself I have only launched from relatively protected beaches and ramps.

Foilers are line honors boats and only those that have the $$ to burn will play the foiling cat game. You heard it here first bitches!

Race report from Peter Vink.....

"Round Texel 2014 with the brand new Nacra F20 carbon FCS"

After months of development and hard work we finally received the new main foils on Tuesday afternoon before the Round Texel. The new foils where the last parts needed to complete the first official production model of the Nacra F20 Carbon VCS.

On Wednesday we decided to go to the Haringvliet which is a nice lake in the south of Holland to give us the hard needed training hours on this awesome machine. After one afternoon of sailing which started with a heart rate off 190 and finished with a relaxed crew, who could not get the smile of our faces, it was off to Texel the next day. 

 Unfortunately the wind was not strong enough to give us some more sailing hours on the boat. With the hours we had on the lake we were more than confident enough to sail her around Texel and go for line honours. The next morning we arrived on the beach under beautifully sailing conditions (10 to 12 knots with 1 meter waves). Below a report of the Round Texel race and how we experienced it.

Start to Lighthouse:

Our strategy was to start with clean air, just above the big group at the low end of the starting line. This all worked well with a good start and we had the boat immediately on her foils, sailing without spinnaker, blasting away from the rest of the boats. Edward and Mischa sailing the modified M20 just above us and Gurvan and Benjamin sailing the FP above the M20, all having a good start. I can't overestimate the fun and excitement of having these foiling boats around you. 

 Being in a learning curve to sail a boat like this in waves, we didnt have a constant boat speed in the beginning, which resulted in Xander and Stefan, sailing a standard Nacra F20 Carbon, managed to stay close. About one third of the run towards the first gate we found out that we had to lean in a bit more coming out of patches of wind. After this we were able to keep the speed constantly around 24 knots and our angle as lowest of the fleet, to extent quickly from Xander Pols and Stefan Dubbeldam just behind us. We lead the fleet at the first gate at the lighthouse with Xander and Stephan on our tale and the FP together with Eduard and Mischa just behind them.


Lighthouse to VC mark:

We extended our lead on the Nacra F20 carbon and the FP on the 5.2 NM reach to the VC mark. About 2 NM before the VC mark we slowed down to pull up our foils and rudders to sail the shallow waters around the VC mark. After a while, sailing in a slow mode we were overtaken by the Nacra F20 carbon and the FP. 

Xander and Stefan pulled up their foils just in front of us and also started to sail in a slow mode. We both sailed carefully through these shallow waters, keeping the boat to around 10-16 knots speed. The FP took a big risk by staying in full foiling mode, in not more than 1 meter deep water, to the VC mark leading the fleet at that time. Surprisingly, they managed to sail to the VC mark without hitting the ground. At the VC mark they needed to go upwind, the boat dropped down and hit the ground when sailing upwind. We quickly closed the gap between us and the FP and started our upwind leg, with Xander and Stefan leading the fleet, sailing together with the FP back to back sailing upwind with the rudders and foils up.


VC mark to MG-H mark:

After 1.5 NM we were in deep water again and put down our foils and rudders. We were extending from the FP in the upwind easily, for us this proved that our efforts to bring additional upwind speed and angle to the Nacra F20 proved to have worked well with the FCS system and design. After a while we didn’t see them anymore. 

We now had a new learning curve, because this was the first time we actually sailed against the fastest production boat, the standard Nacra F20 carbon, in a 12 NM upwind leg. In the beginning the standard Nacra F20 carbons where clearly faster than us and Xander and Stephan extended their lead on us. Oscar and Alex, sailing an Nacra F20 carbon, coming from behind and overtook us as well. After about 3 NM we managed to have the same speed as the standard Nacra F20 carbons. 

At that time Sascha and Dennis, with their Nacra F20 carbon, where close to us, so we could use them as a benchmark to find a better sailing mode. After a while of battling with Sascha and Dennis we lowered the boards more and more whereupon we managed to pull away with better boat speed and angle in foiling mode and subsequently where able to reduce the lead of the 2 leading F20 carbons Oscar and Alex and Xander and Stefan .

Mischa and Eduard managed to come in front of us, by making a long run to the mainland, which paid off really well for them. They were just in front of us at mark MG-H at the far south end of the island.

MG-H mark to Finish:

Here we had a reach on the south side of the island which slowly went over in a downwind of 6 NM. The first 3 NM was full reaching with super stable flight. 

This was the most amazing experience we ever had. We didn’t touch the water at all and where incredibly fast compared to all boats around us. Clearly we were getting better and better sailing this awesome machine. Going so much faster and fly above the water is a mind-blowing experience. The last 3 NM was downwind in waves, where we also found a much better mode than just after the start of the race. Stable surfing the waves, we extended our lead to the finish where we took the line honours of the 2014 Round Texel.

For Mischa de Munck and me it was the coolest sailing experience we ever had. It was also super successful for Nacra and Performance Sails. The Nacra F20 carbon FCS had line honours, the next 2 boats in were Nacra F20 carbons. We had the first 3 overall prices, the first 3 in the formula 18 and the first 2 in the formula 16. Not bad in such a big event.

Sailing around the island of Texel is a great experience. Not only it is great sailing, this event is also well organized with a laid back beach style atmosphere. Again, they did a great job organizing this event smoothly, so a big thanks for the sponsors and all the people behind the Round Texel. It is absolutely a don’t miss event. So set your start watches for 6th of June 2015.
We have tried to make a boat which is incredibly fast and profoundly easy to sail. We are very excited having felt that we have achieved that goal using the full technological potential available in the sport of sailing."

Peter Vink

*Race report sent to me by Peter Vink, but first posted as part of an article at catsailingnews.com

I can't think of a single venue where we didn't launch off of a beach of some sort. Even when we had a ramp, its just easier to use the beach.

At Lake Lanier we had a ramp we'd back the boat down on the trailer, but it would be only with the mast up. We'd tie a line to it and drag it around a jetty to where the beach was, drag it up and keep rigging it on the beat.

Kelly Park is just one big beach. The only time I can think that we ramp launched our cats is at Spring Fever and nobody will tell you that that situation was ideal... (at least I don't think they would)

Of course this is all anecdotal... beaches are just easier to launch from IMO.