dont forget the flippers!
Yes, last year he built a 35' g-cat power boat... (its for sale)
He is now building a few F-16's for this years nationals.
He has been doing some pretty cool R&D last weekend too...
Such as??
hydrodynamic flow controls
Hope he gets them done and tested before the Global Challenge at Gulfport Yacht Club running from 9th till 14th November. Would be great to have a new design there.
Andrew maybe he was a small guy....;-) to pitch pole.
I'm sticking with the original (modified) design for the TMS-20 we have a lot a re-design time and $$'s invested. I could change my mind if I get overwhelming evidence but it seems to be more of personal taste.
I have Mark’s A-Cat at the shed and looking at the design I see the lower and “flat” waterline carried forward to the bow.
I spoke to Hans some time ago and he was messing with the F16’s but I’m not sure he is following through with it. He is fish farming and doing very well. The power cat has been around for some time and first started as a sailboat I think he is messing with the power cat some on the side.
Few years back my buddy and I where flying air-borne off of short stacked 6-8 footers off of Smathers Beach in Key West during an annual spring break spring camp out. I went block to block as we launched. We ended up digging into the face of the wave in front of us instead of landing on the crest. Forty-five degree bow first clear up to front beam at about 15 knots. The boat, not us, the boat stopped and popped backwards, surfaced and took off again surfing the wave trying to pitch pole. I’m standing on beam climbing up and back to cut the main sheet. Good thing the crew was hooked up but not out. I went flying like a rag doll body slammed him hard. It’s nice to have a good crew!
He has been doing some pretty cool R&D last weekend too...
I spoke to Hans some time ago and he was messing with the F16’s but I’m not sure he is following through with it.
It would probably be best to re-post this under its own thread but I'll start it here.
Like Andrew, I've seen Hans working out details on his new F16 project. Now he is quite vocal that he will be producing as many as 5 GCat F16s in time for the Global Challenge in November in Gulfport, FL. If you visit his www.g-catmultihulls.com website and go to News you will find that he is looking for TEST PILOTS for his new boats! Whether or not you think a boardless boat can compete with a Blade or Viper, here's a chance for Florida sailors to warm up on Hans' new ride and help him out with your opinions. Experienced only need apply.
I did not see an email to submit information for test skippering.
Ooops nevermind.
Robi, you'd be a good choice. You know the F16s, F18s, the local waters, and you need a chance to rebuild your karma with the GCat. Good or bad, Hans is staking his money on his design. Find some big air and rip it up!
Wow. Hans is making some some pretty big claims. If he can match current daggerboard F16's I would think that would be quite an accomplishment.
Not so sure about the lack of spray claim. The 5.7 on a reach in over 15 knots created a fire hose straight up the side of the hulls as you went over every wave. I was trapped out, wearing an old Douglas Gill dingy foulweather, one piece suit and the spray was hitting my ankles hard enough to soak me up the legs to my chest.
I sent an email. I proposed to Hans to bring one down to GYC to compare against the F16 fleet there.
The wave piercing bow is the end result of moving more volume down to the waterline while keeping surface area constant (or reducing it.) The Acat designs did this because once you've moved the volume down to the waterline you need to remove surface area or you will end up with a boat that is too heavy for the box rule. Other designs moved volume down to the waterline in an effort to reduce wetted surface area that generally results from loading up traditional multihull shapes. Traditional multihull shapes have always suffered from adding weight as the surface area increases quickly as compared to a traditional mononhull shape.
So the net effect of moving volume down to the waterline is a pear shape with the topsides being thinner than the waterline. Once you take this shape to the bow, your classic bow shape is upside down and becomes what is being referred to as a wave piercing bow. That description is a bit misleading because even though the bows may seem to pierce a wave, the rest of the boat doesnt actually pierce the wave and the boat if affected by the wave at some point in a way thats pretty much the same as a boat with regular bows. The designers were/are more concerned with the waterline shape/volume than the bows and the bows are really just the end result of moving the volume down to the waterline.
The side benefit (and I own a wave piercing Acat) is that you can submerge the bows and the boat wont pitchpole as easily. See the recent BMWO trimaran shots for illustration. Sailing around with submerged bows like BMWO probably isnt fast, but if this happens in a gust, or during a bear away its a nice feature to have the bows keep moving underwater with little or less drag than traditional flat top bows. The boat doesnt really pierce a wave, the wave affects the boat in basically the same way. Think about a H16 and how the bows slow dramatically when they are submerged, this is what the wave piercing bows resist/avoid.
The downside of a bow with a pointy topsides is that you lose a bunch of utility, you cant walk on it, you cant attach hardware to it easily, etc.
So when you ask the question, you really need to talk to the designer and see what he thinks, and look at how he has the volume in the ama's and what the whole picture looks like. Having ama's that dont pitchpole as easily is a good idea for a 20 ft tri and something that I would consider having.
Deciding on the bow shape should be done in concert with the rest of the hull shape and boat design and not as a separate design decision.
Bill
Excellent description of the theory involved Bill! Thank you!
Dave
Yeah, what Bill said !
All the other talk about the
wave-piercer
bows is just BS.
Wouter
Looks like Hans is on the move again. Great news it will be interesting to see an new era for G-Cat.
You sail the old G-Cats a little different in good wind it does not need the dagger board with the full knife-edge of the keel you may loose a few degrees - maybe but on a reach, off wind, chop, waves and the rest of the points of sail it's fast and cuts though the water. No bouncing, slapping, and pounding. You sail speed not the rhumb line.
So with an updated model that will be competitive with current market boats it will make for great chat on the web.
Just a thought I wonder how many of the current State of the Art cats will be around still sailin' in 28 years like the G-Cat 5.7?