RaceCat RC-16

This is an interesting bit from their website:

theres more intresting than that ,

they are selling at $4500 us , that 2250 £quids over here !!!!!

Downside they got skegs

upside would make a very cost effective trainer youth cat with addition of kite if some one could import them by the container load

There are yachts being imported into uk and its viable .

Well found!

Color is attractive and it's an affordable price! No mast spreaders though. <img src=

alt=

/> Somewhat along the lines of the GCat F16, which I thought was a tremendous design, because it could be an entry level boat, then upgraded to full F16 compliance.

Wonder what it weighs?

This photo sure shows why you need a boom. Yikes!

No spreaders, no boom, no jib, no spin, and only 5 battens in the main.
No wonder they can keep the price down.

Not F-16 ready then.. or at least it looks that way <img src=

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Sad really, it would have been fantastic for the class to have a builder and activity in Latin America. Would probably have been good for the builder as well. When that has been said, it dont look like it would be that hard to convert the platform and make it F-16 compliant. It already have a bridle, so the hulls should be able to take the load. With the prices they are operating with, it could make for a bargain. Anybody up to chatting with the builders? (Probably need to do it in spanish?)

That boomless main dont look very good, unless he sailing some really funky course, but why put the traveller in the middle then..

Further proof that you get what you pay for.

Can't be expensive to add a boom and spreaders really.

B.O.A.T =

Break Out Another Thousand

Hi all

I've just answered some mails from USA regarding our 16 feet (F16-ready platform)

So I will transcript it, please fill free to ask anything about the boat:

Hi John

Didn´t answer before cause we were sailing the RC 16
with 20knots till 9pm today. (Thursday Jan 31)

The RC 16 complies with the Formula 16 dimensions:

Lenght 5mts
Beam 2.40mts
Mast 7,60-8mts (recreational model with 7,60mts mast
Weight 140kg

Fixed feel.

The cat also has a revolutionary design especially
flat stern with concaves and channels.

The boats planes like a windsurf board, awesome speed.

We don´t have a dealer in USA yet.
The recreational platform here is sold for $5000usd
with monofilm main sail. 12m2 aprox.

Full racing rig is totally supported by the platform,
was design to race. But now we are focused on
developing the F18 class in South America

Some photos...

Regards,
Martin Vanzulli

F18 Argentina
Former Hobieclass member Hobiemex
Noriegas family disciple <img src=

alt=

/>

Yes, thats the big problem about the F 16, everything you have to buy is is costing it's weight in GOLD.

Gato,

is it your opinion that F-16 parts are more expensive than other beachcat parts, or are you comparing to something else like

big boat

parts?

Easy guys...

We've never promote the boat as F16 breed ...YET...
as our main focuse right now is promoting F18 in South America.

That´s why is called now

RC 16

and no RC F16 like our F18.

These photos are from our standard recreational cat. Delivered in Uruguay to our first client (60 years old milloinaire that I can assure you it doesn't give a damn that she has no boom!! jeje)

Right now the boat comes standard with

Nothing

for the recreational market.

That main sail is even the 1st prototype made with

window clloth

provided by error by DP.

Here you have a better look to the hulls.
I've design the boat with the F16 in mind, she is full capable of supporting an F16 full racing rig.

Wait till march-april, after supplying local overdemand for our F18 we'll POWER UP the baby.

Regarding prices:

We are selling our new version F18 for $10.600USD. With full Harken, Flex 4oz Main and Jib (no photos at the site yet as we are delivering 6 new F18 v2 right now)

So for I think for $7000-8000usd we can have a full F16 boat, could be less, I need to make some numbers.

Eeeassy, when we have it F16 ready , we'll contact the class and promote de boat.

Just take a look to THE hull... full planning machine.

http://www.catamaran.com.ar/images/rc16/index.html

The RC-16 looks like a neat little boat.
The person sailing the boat in the picture above sure looks like he is having a good time. Hope the F-18 project succeeds and catsailing see a boost in the area. Perhaps it is possible to buy parts like rudders etc. from RC as the exchange rate looks good.

ROLF
PLEASE READ MY POSTS ABOVE....

Really sorry Martin, your latest post came while I was typing so I did not get to read it before I had posted. I'll modify it straight away!

Comparing to what it costs to build them yourself. Normally when building you can save about 30% and here you can save about 70%.
Is it not the same reason why you are thinking of making the most your selfe?

Ofcourse we also planned to suit up with daggerboards to race F16, but right now we are more than satisfied with the boat performance. So we'll leave it that way until we have some specfic demand, although we are going to power up rig soon as speed is too good, so we are wondering performance with a full racing rig.

Will keep you guys informed,
Cheers.

If you can sell the complete cat for that price it's great!!! You don't even get the rig and sails for a Blade F16 for that, not to speak about the tramp, rudders and boards.

Personally I think that having a skeg is attractive. I see a market share for an inexpensive F16 boat that is very performant but not totally geared towards racing. I do get quite a number of inquiries from people wanting an F16 because of its low weight, good looks and versatility but for which 14.500 Euro's is too steep. We try to get these people to second hand boats but there are only so many around of these. Always too few !

The Nacra 500 is selling well overhere without any class structure or racing precisely for the reasons of it being good looking, reasonably performant and inexpensive at 10.000 Euro's. I can see the RC16 fill that gap from the F16 side of the market.

And of course when these recreational sailors want to race once or twice a year then having a set of well designed skegs will not be an objection to them; afterall a well designed set of these will maintain a pretty good upwind performance relative to boarded cats. The difference is not more then 1 minute per 45 minute windward/leeward racing. These recreational racers will already loose in the order of 5-10 minutes in such a race due to lacking sailor skills, even when the are relatively skilled.

Yes, I do see some market potential for the RC16; but ONLY if it is lightweight enough. That is critical !

Also, if I may, the deck on the hulls can be tidied up a little bit to improve the looks. Also this is very important in making the sail. A smooth well curved deck is halve the sale in my experience.

Also F16arg, we as the F16 class have a class deal on the Superwing wingmast design. You can have a set of these masts for cost price. This is an excellent lightweight mast that has stood up to any abuse extremely well. It will need diamond wires but that is not a big cost factor if you make your own glass or carbon fibre fixed length spreader arms. That two is cheap and lightweight. The bare 8.5 mtr section weights 14 kg's and is the lightest mast on the market for 16 foot boats.

If you are making an official F16 then you can use this mast. With this mast and a 15 sq. mtr. mainsail a lightweight boat will start to approximate A-cat performance. Of course with such an F16 mast you can make use of the sail development that has been done so far. Several sailmakers are offering custom F16 sails, optimized for that setup. The right sails are halve the performance !

There are also lightweight F16 optimized beams available for any F16 builder. These are custom designed and extruded beams of high yield stress aluminium for the F16. They weight 4.1 kg per beam if I remember correctly and are as stiff as 90x2 round alu sections. These also have integrated trampoline tracks and have flat bottom and upper sections so it is easier to fit spacers inside the beam and fast fittings to the beams.

I expect it to be pretty good.

Looking over the pictures I like the use of the spray rails along the hulls. From the Spitfire sailors I hear this works well to keep the crew more dry then usual.

Best of luck and please do keep us informed.

Wouter

The only picture with a clear deck view is the orange ones and that´s the male model with decks cutouts.

Weight is around 140Kg need to confirm, but we have a really heavy mast section and beams.
Construction is made in Coremat to reduce costs.

Thanks for the offer, I'll keep it in mind.
For Sails, again, this sail is a recreational one.
I also have a deal with Andrew Landenberger for F18 sails, just received our first set.
So Landy´s could be a nice option in Europe... I don´t know better performance sails <img src=

alt=

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So as told after march we'll make a full racing version prototype, the F16 Class Assoc through some of its members can have the boat at cost so you can have a 1st hand

look

Super dry ride! and we made the spray rails all the way.
Main features of the 16 along rails is volume, outofthebox concave-channel stern, looks and performace.

Sebastien Magnen was in San Isidro working on his boat for several months and he was really interested in the stern design, sadly he couldn´t sailed her. This cat is dedicated to him and his custom and amazing Cat designs.

What the hell is THAT???? You built a beach cat with a TORPEDO TUBE??? What do you intend to do with that?

You are taking the Malvinas/Faulkland Island revenge thing WAY too far - you have to just let it go.

What the F.. has to do Falklands with cat sailing?????????
You greatest ignorant? War is no joke David, is clear you don´t have a clue.

If you mean that we use grey in our cats to resemble Super Etendard squadron and their great pilots you're right.

Judging your photo ABOVE sailing your

Viper

????... yikes! my god!!

Our

torpedo

with full racing rig beats that cat you´re riding any day!

You have my word on it.

When you don´t know to whom you're talking to is better not to get off the road joking about other topics, even more regarding war themes.

In my family we have one of the greates naval pilots and commanders of all time and current Commodore of our F18 Fleet.

Off Now, thought we were talking about cats here.

Cheers,

Martin,

In this image, about 1/3 aft from the bow, low on the hull, is an elliptical shape that you may say looks like a...torpedo tube. Sorry for David's comments.

Thank you for replying to my email questions and thank you for posting the photos and contributions on this site. It is always good to hear from builders. Please continue posting of your progress. Hope to speak with you again soon and best of luck in your endeavors.

So you REMOVED the actual photo of your boat that showed AN ENORMOUS FLAW in the lower hull that looks like a torpedo tube in the bow of a submarine? And what's wrong with my photo? You might learn about a proper boomless main sail by looking at its stiff, flat foot instead of your soft shapeless blob of a main.

And as for the Malvinas? Twenty-six years later, we certainly do remember the 907 dead soldiers. (long rebuttal deleted)

So back to your boat. What can you say about that HUGE flaw in your hull that you've now chosen to hide from view? Things like that can happen in prototypes, I guess. It's OK with me. Let's laugh because the hole DOES look like a torpedo tube. And try to stiffen up that mainsail, OK?

Peace, and in our lifetime.

Its interesting how easily text and its context gets misconstrued at times. So I wont discuss Tango!!

Anyway welcome to the F16 family ... Im a little curious as to the weight . Its a tad heavy at 140Kg..

Good luck with your projects.. It will be fantastic to see a Tango F16 !!

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David,

what on earth are you doing. Please dont mix politics into the forum or we might as well close it down.
If I see what I think is a flaw in sombodys work, I try to ask about it in a non-offensive way if I want to know about it. Builders put a lot of work and parts of themself into boats and that should be respected. Same for giving advice.

Hope you succeed and get an F-16 to market Martin! That would be fantastic. I dont know what the potential market is like in Latin America? For the F-16 class it would be a major leap forward to have a builder and active class in Latin America!
If you need a source of revenue, there is always demand for good rudders.. Homebuilders frequently need daggerboards as well.

I'm not sure what you are playing at David, but bringing up that conflict is NOT smart. Also the wording itself is lost on me, doesn't even sound much like a joke.

Sorry,

Wouter