18 Sq plans

If I'm not mistaken, I thought the 18sq was just n5.8 hulls on an 11' beam with of course, beaucoup sail area.

Nacra 5.5 hulls.

Back in the early 80's didn't John Lindhal of Michigan have plans for either an "A" boat or an 18 Sq. Maybe Carl Roberts knew of him.

It was a development class.

Yes. Jon Lindahl brought two of his 18-squares to Bay Week in Ohio one year. I haven't heard anything about him or his boats for years, though.

Actually, now that I think about it, I am not positive it was 18-squares that he brought to Bay Week. It could have been A-Class cats.

Hulls, of course, are the same length for both A-Class and 18-squares, and in my file I found that plans for building A-class hulls are available from Gougeon Brothers in Bay City, Michigan and also from Greg Goodall in Australia.

The only plans I know of are Lindahl Mk II or III. Try searching. If you can't find them, let me know and I will try to find someone who has a set.

The 18 sq is a box rule class 18 ft waterline and 18 sq meters of sail. I have forgotten about the width but normally they do not go over ~12.

The nacra 18 sq was an early 18 sq and a 1 design. The first version used 5.2 hulls and the 2nd version used 5.5 hulls.

There are 3 catagories in 18 sq.

Cat 1 - unlimited
Cat 2 Nacra 18 sq
Cat 3 Nacra 5.5 uni

Very few 18 sq have been built in the last 10 years. The ones that have been built, have been very very fast. They have about the same upwind and downwind speed (hullspeed).

Keep in mind these boats are top quality with carbon or carbon wood hulls; carbon mast and beams; top quality rudders and boards and custom sails.

Good Luck

There was or is a fleet of 18-squares in North Carolina. If you want a couple of contacts, e-mail me. Maybe somebody there has plans or knows where to get them.

Mary, I know of one old 18sq sailor around my parts, Claude Summers. He offered to coach our sailing club team. He no longer sails them though.

I just raced against Claude and several other 18sq's last September at Catfest on Lake Norman. He is still sailing from time to time.

Well I stand corrected then.

When I spoke to him, he spoke of the 18sq days in the past tense as in "we used to sail boats called 18 squares because they had 18 square meters of sail."

I inferred that this meant he no longer participated. Glad to see I was wrong.

Plans are available (I think) through Gougeon Brothers plan service, but hull is really an "A" Boat design - and needs a bit more displacement to support wider beam and bigger rig. John Lindahl lives in Fennville Michigan and you can probably do a search and contact him directly. Denis Palin from Houston Texas is another who had recently build an 18 Square. Bobby Bergstedt in New Jersey might still have contact with Brad Johannson who was also a custom builder. NACRA ended 18 Square production in the late 1980's - early 1990's due to slow sales and an influx of "custom" boats. Originally they were SolCat hulls, then they moved to the 5.2 hulls at 10 feet of beam, and as the class grew, the Roland Brothers started building their own hulls called NACRA which eventually were bought out by Performance Catamarans (Frank Butler). Class sails were made by Skip Elliott, Henry Bossett and Randy Smyth - with a few home-growns ones included. Coyote molds were purchased and produced for a short period of time in Texas by Chris Kilbourn (last phone number I have for him is 214-224-8441 - work number). Not sure what he did with the molds. Gino Morelli and a few other west coast sailors did some one-off's back in the early 1980's - but never knew if they kept the molds or not.

The 18 Square IS NOT a 5.5 - or a 5.8 set of hulls.

They are specifically designed 18 foot long and the beams started at 10 feet and grew to 13 feet, then settled back at 11-12 feet. Masts were usually 30-32 feet and mainsail was 18 sq. meters or about 194 square feet. Weight of boats ran from ultra-light 260 lbs. up to about 400 for glass production boats. Class had Category 1 and 2 and raced together. Solid Wing sails were allowed and WILD TURKEY owned by Craig Riley of Calfornia was our class "poster boat". Lack of new builders also contributed to the decline of the class. Boats were either taken apart or tilted for trailering. Large fleets were located in the North East, Michigan, Virginia, Florida, Texas and California. A few others were scattered around the country - Tennessee, Carolinas, and even South Dakota ! There was also a bit of 18 Square activity in Australia and in Europe for a time. Germany, specifically, had a group of Squares as did the U.K.

As former Class Secretary I welcome any questions.

Dick Lemke
18 Sq. US 194

Hi D L hi Steve and all

REALLY a good definitive post on the 18 SQ .thanks DL saving that one.
Would reiterate contacting John L ON THE HULL DESIGN and const. techniques and numerous aspects of any 18 sq project any sailor wanted to build or undertake.
With 194 sq ft on taller mast section and the carrying power and resulting forces of added beam it takes more hull volume forward to counteract the greater sail forces produced . An A Class type hull would generally become overpowered in the upper wind range and tend to drive its bow down and into waves.
John's LDC design and the Coyote 18 sqs had very flat full hull sections and plenty of volume forward for good reason .
One problem they had with 10 or 11 ft beam was the boats tacked so fast they could never get across quickly enough.
Followed John's development over a few years of building them , He tried a taller mast and sail in earlier years before winning the 18 sq Nationals finally . The taller mast he found was not ideal in gusting conditions were others with closer to 30 ft masts excellerated through gusts while he was up and down too often , beam was increased in earlier years also ,but found the boat designs that flew a hull earlier with less beam were faster , It was really a trial and error process in finding the right combination of beam mast sail componants to work together for average targeted wind speeds.
John said that the biggest change since he was active in the A Class and 18sq is not hull building technique ,but all the great lightweight hardware and rigging componants that are available now. The CF masts and sail materials have improved as well .
John developed a combination alum and top portion C F mast , a great innovation back then for the class.

Steve -recall your a larger sailor 220 plus ,like me ,so an A Class cat is not ideal ,-Interestingly John and others started in A Class cats then moved to the 18 sqs , they liked the unlimited beam aspect and thought the 18 sq formula had a wider appeal to a variety of sailors light or heavy.
There are however very few 18 sq s being actively raced ,though a great singlehanded class concept.

have fun .

Got a feeling I probably know you sail6000 !
Might want to compare this attachment with the one form my earlier post. The one in above post is a "stock" NACRA 18 Square.

This attachment is one of the Category 1 boats built by Brad Johanson.

Identified in the photo -
At the bow = Fred Lemke (Then Michigan - Now Wisconsin)
At the stern left to right:
...Duane McDaniels (Pontiac Michigan)
...Chris Cordes (Jacksonville Florida)
...Bobby Bergsted (Toms River New Jersey - and the "pilot" of this square

I think I have a set of line drawings at home that I will post later. One is the NACRA and the other is the COYOTE.

A look (attachment) of the deck of the Johanson boat. Note circular plywood plate for mast rotation, and also the steped, secondary tramp with curved traveller. Red & White stripe hulls peeking upper left is bow of Johns "old" 18 Square.

And of course, the 18 Square that became (more or less) our official class symbol -

Craig Riley's WILD TURKEY solid wing boat, that John finnaly managed to beat with his softsail LCD boats.

Hi D
looks like the pic was taken on Lk Fenton ,

Thanks again for all the interesting posts
and pics .
A poster above -Kantz- mentioned me in a post so thought I should respond with added insights for Steve .
You can click on a posters forum name and see their bio ,many inc their names etc etc .
You can also send a private e -mail to another via forum ,-its a nice feature here as well ,-

Good to hear from you, pretty cold out there today ,just goofing off at work here on a TGIF afternoon, dreaming about sailing and racing ,as usual.

all the best
Carl Roberts

MauganH17,

You know Claude? He's my bud. I'm going to tell him you said he was old.
Actually, he has Dennis' old 18SQ that Dennis built and he (Claude) still races every year at CatFest.

Tracie

There is an 18sq Fleet at the Lake Norman Yacht Club near Charlotte, NC.
They have 10-15 boats. They usually only have 4-6 racing.
They used to travel to Regattas, but they quit several years ago. That is why I got rid of my 18sq.
The boats are all Nacras. They have all three different 5.5 hull constructions represented(stringer hulls, foam hulls, long tramp hulls).
Nacra made 18sqs from their standard 5.5 uni hulls, or vice-versa(their website says so).
The uni hulls have the bridle tangs on the outside of the bows.
I have never heard of a third category. The portsmouth only has 2 listed.

You could build a Category 1(light) 18sq with A Class hulls.
An F18HT could be converted to an 18sq.

This is another Class with no Class Association and unknown, missing Class rules.

It is a great sailing boat. When you are on the wire the visibility is terrific. The width makes it very resistant to flipping when hit by puffs.
I trailered mine disassembled. I could assemble it alone, and be in the water, in less than an hour.

I have always wondered how they managed the wing sails. I would surely be afraid that a capsize would damage the wing.
Also, if it was parked on the beach with the wing up, did the owner get any sleep at all ? I would be very afraid that a gust would hit the boat and capzise/damage it. Raising/lowering the wing every time like the C class ?

WOW !! ask a question and get a bunch of info. I love this site.

Carl, its good to see that your still alive and kicking.

TO all that has posted above thank you also.

Recently, my family has been struck with some medical issues and I have been thinking about a project to work on with my father. My grandmother just succumb to pancreatic cancer and my mother has bone cancer. Her prognosis is not good and she has requested that I spend quality time with my father. What better way than to build a boat??

My concept was to take and build an all carbon (or as close as I can) 18 sq with some rig mods (Carl, you'll love this-- a snuffer and spinnaker. Much like the insane stuff we did in the first of the 90's worrell's too much sail and hang on)

I have just realized that I no longer want to worry about crew and training them but yet still have the urge to go insanely fast with the occasional fear that I may be going to fast for my own physical good. Remember that I learned how to sudden stop a boat going 25+ knots a few years back with just a small amount of damage to the calcium deposits in my body (bones).

I also thought that there maybe just a few more truly nutso people out there (like me) that may get a kick out of a boat like it so..........

Any thoughts??

Steve

Mistake. Dennis corrected me. He did not build the boat Claude has it was another one that he sold and he thinks a guy named Mike now has it.

Tracie

Sorry Carl, there are only two categories of 18sq:

Cat. 1 is all up boat weight less than 330 lb
Cat II is 330 lb and over.

There is a website for 18 Squares, Mike Coleman's excellent reference:
http://www.geocities.com/mec_coleman/18square.htm

He describes the class rules &c. for Squares.

There are Lindahl plans available, and there is a guy named Dennis Palin who might be able to help you - Dennis built an ABSOLUTELY gorgeous, fast, Sq, but I think he rather designed it himself. His addy is dpalin@ev1.net

sea ya
tami
ps. The NACRA 18sq is not onedesign, either. The newer models have the 31' mast with laminate higher-aspect sails, the older ones have 30' mast and lower-aspect Dacron sails. Good luck with your endeavour and Welcome To Squaredom. I absolutely love mine!

I wouldn't say know him,

I met him once at his house here in Cary. At the time we were discussing hiring a coach for our sailing team, but then a nationally ranked laser sailor decided to join the team and, well, we didn't need a coach after that

Definitely a nice guy though. Tell him, that if he remembers me, that I said hi.
-Tad

That looks incredibly uncomfortable. 😛

How hard is it?

New beams and tramp
New tiller crossbar
New mainsail (want a sq top anyway...)

Anything else (New rigging obviously)

There is also a NACRA 18sq at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron....

The "wing boat" never (to anyone's memory) came close to tipping over. While the softsail boat masts ranged in the 30-32 foot length, the wing was right around 28 feet. Also with the controls, Craig could "power up or down" simply by changing the camber in the wing. Given the platform weighed less than 300 lbs. the wind forces simply were translated in forward speed.

Between races at regatta the wing was allowed to swing free. Since it is symetrical, equal pressure on both sides, so no violent thrashing about like a soft sail. Remember, the thrashing on your softsail takes place because the wind is on one side, then the other causing camber to flop back and forth!

In the evenings, the boat was simply laid on it's side with sail tip on an old (ugly green vinyl) kitchen chair. If weather report indicated bad weather or rain, the sail was just detached from the platform and stored in the covered trailer used to haul wing, hulls, etc.

The Square - both wing and softsail "loves" to park between races. Travel out, sheet in and push tiller away. The boat just sits there. When ready to bail out to start, simply pull tiller towards yoou, the bows swing away from the wind, and sheet traveller in. While parked, it was an enjoyable platform to sit on between races. No banging around on the waves, no flapping jib or main, and no bouncing around with the hulls. Until you have sat on a wide platform, it is hard to describe.

Here is a set of line drawings for the CLIMAX 18 Square. Also will post similar of the NACRA.

Sorry - no info on how I got these or who needs to be credited for drawings.

Lines for the NACRA 18 SQUARE (circa - 1980-1985) Solid glass, no foam.