18HT

Is there any 18HT activity in The Netherlands and is it doable to sail this cat by a single person (as an A-cat on steroids)?

Tikoes

yes, you can solo the HT but it can get interesting unless you are big. It has a crazy amount of sail area for a boat its size and weight. Anything above 7-8kn (5-7 for me) may be too much.

Saw one at the dutch open. (Ventillo)

That boat was Andy Lutz and Beate Käser, this year Steve Zehnder and his crew Verlinden came over as well ? They are from Zwisterland and Lutz/Käser have been coming over for Texel regulary over the past few years.

This is the only HT activity in NL however and it is only once a year.

Wouter

u can solo the HT. I weigh in at 230 so this is the perfect ride for us heavies. I think this is the breaking point for being able to right the boat by yourself. I went over twice yesterday and needed help the first time but i managed to right it on my own the second time. the more wind the better. this boat is all about depowering it in the mod to high breeze. as a friend of mine said it like taking a tiger by the tail. i rigged the spin to make it very skipper friendly to raise and snuff. what a great boat really. its an A cat you bring a friend on!

you mean I rigged it to be solo friendly.
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I sail a stealth 18ht platform with a f16 sized carbon mast and 16.35 m2 inc mast upwind with a big landy square top , platform was John Pierces own F18ht , but he had sold or used rig elswhere , he put package together as a new boat for fat gits like me 113 kgs (don;t know what that is in old money !) boat was optimised for single handed with powerfull main to take my weight , it origionaly rated same as H5.9 , but on a larger main that i now have gives time .

I considered the f18ht full rig route , but it would have been handicapped to hell n back , giving a new spec tornado about 6% !! plus you would be throwing your sailarea away above a force 1 , as it is I'm full maxed out on downhaul in a f2-3 . Its the dogs bollocks to sail , got JPs winged rudders on too so have Never nosedived in 2 yrs and sail it in any amount of wind , use a landy 17.5m2 kite and thats the bollocks too , keep thinking about going larger , but would only be small benefit in v light winds for big hcap hit . My two sons sailed it yesterday two up and it still seemed to go as fast as me solo , it would be a hcap bandit in this mode , but they're not getting it !!, its mine !

I have the F18HT Full Rig, and sail it on a small NH lake, 1/4 mile x 2 mile lake. It's been a great boat and perfect for what I wanted as a light to moderate air boat. I generally will single hand it up to 12-15 kn and will fly the spinaker without a scoop. I head deap and it tracks well enough to douse and then come back up. I can pick up crew from Dartmouth College pretty easily if the wind picks up, and yes we have dumped it a fair bit as we get all the kinks/old lines replaced and beef it up a little.