I found the 49er's over all PN number and remembered the past discussion about the speed of this sailboat versus multihulls. Its number is 71.3 with a spinnaker for those who care.
Has anyone tried a 49er chute on a small (16-17 ft., not a 6.0) cat? Seems like it would be a cool comparison. I had actually considered getting a 49er or I14 chute and doing that for fun, to see how it worked. Any reason not to do this, aside from breaking stuff? BTW, what's the mast height on a 49er?
Michael
Yes, In australia a Taipan 4.9 was fitted with a 16 foot skiff genaker about two weeks ago. I think this is comparable to a 49-er gen. It worked fine, they had a blast especially downwind from the eye withness report I got. The setup was thoroghly inspect by other Taipan 4.9 sailors and a comment was that the foot of the genaker was to large. This would be in line with what I personally believe, that genakers on cat should be high aspect with a long luff. The skiff genakers are rather square with less lufflength than is possible on a higher cat mast. 49-er mast length (a quick check in my leaflet database) 8,5 meters above sheer (?) Source : http:/
That is more than I expected and more than I would estimate after having sailed the boat (and looking at it for two weeks) a month ago. Well bethwaith most know.
When I was at the cat/skiff camp in Greece I've sailed the 49-er (a little bit) but also a good match between the 49-er and a hobie tiger both well sailed. Tiger was manned by Joe Barness (26th at world championship tiger this year I believe)
The 49 -er was manned by two light boys , one aussie one brit. The aussie was the guy on teh 49 at the camp with an ooo and a aaaah.
The courses in the light air were short triangles with one loop around c to a mark ( windforce 2 beaufort). The 49-er beat the tiger of barness convincingly. In the heavy air (6-7 beaufort with gusts up to 8): I've never seen the 49-er again (and I got in third outright on a H16).
I sailed the 49-er in 1 beaufort to nothing and it moved alot faster than the cats. Not fast in absolute sense of course. cats don't do light air like this.
I feel that the 49-er is faster in light air than it's rating and genaker boats like the Hobie tiger F18. But than again a 49-er is fully powered up at only 8 knots of wind (Bethwaite). Once the wind start blowing and the cat can be made to lift than it is bey bey ! i found this to be true for all the skiffs 49-er and laser 3000/4000/5000 and laser 1's. In light air they are unbeatable on the UK handicap portsmouth system. I did alot of sailing on the laser 4000 (and 3000), skiff look alikes. In a distance
race
(a long distance tour became a race very quickly) I could keep up with two tigers upwind and beat two h16 by a big margin. The rest of the 25 boat fleet of mixed skiffs and cats were unable to get out of bay in time in the light air. The skiffs point like crazy. Downwind I had to let go of the Tigers and could keep up with the two H16.
And then after 3 hourson a skiff in a big swell with hardly any wind I got a little green.
I hope this answers a few questions.
Wouter
Another linmk
http://www.49er.org/49er_org/49er/49er.htm
Your right on Wouter when it comes to winning a H16 up wind in light stuff, but we do beat the 49er up wind when the wind is blowing, and beat them down wind when we use our spinnaker (the H16 spinnaker used for Trapseat sailing). The 49er is a lot of fun in the light stuff and not so much fun in the heavy stuff (wind).
I assume the 71.3 is the D-PN. Do you have the Wind HC for each of the Beaufort Ranges (0-1, 2-3, 4, 5-9) ?
Thanks
You can get the other numbers on the US Sailing web site as this is where I found the official PN #'s. When at the US Sailing web site go to search and type in PN or the full spelling of the word and then you will be able to look at the numbers your self.
Cheers!
Need to be a member.
Wouter