G-Cat Back in Business with new 5.0.

Rick,

The new G-Cat looks interesting but its hard to read the text in the link, is there any way to improve it or do G-Cat have there own site with the info on it.

Gareth

IT was the only way I could put the Press Release up. Sorry.
Rick

It's old news anyway. I had it in the magazine a month and a half ago, and there was a thread on this forum at about the same time. It's the thread titled New G-Cat 5.0 Mk III!

Hans told me back then that he was going to get on the forum to answer questions people were asking about the boat, but he didn't show up. I'll give him another call.

Okay, Hans says the website is up.
The url is www.g-catmultihulls.com

I spotted Hans with his new G-Cat 5.0 at the Dunedin Causeway yesterday. Test driving the new design was Robbie Daniel! The boat looked impressive being well sailed in about 10 kts of wind (no screecher rigged). Quick acceleration, fast tacks, and a great looking Calvert squaretop. I even saw Robbie do a smooth tack but stumble on the reset and nearly go over...W-A-Y up but not over! After a quick recovery he was back on the wire, hull up, and off like a rocket. Quite a show! As a squall blew in and I ran for cover from the rain I looked out to see Robbie trapped out and flying out the pass directly into the oncoming bigger air. As I ran FROM the weather Robbie ran AT it. I'd say Robbie was having big fun on the new G-Cat! With Hans and Robbie working on this platform it should be a winner!
Pictures may follow...

thank you david for the post with robbie and myself,looking forward doing more sailing with the new 5-cat 5 meter turbo.i'm looking for all the people who have g-cat sailboats.

specifications? Just wondering...it is so close in many ways..Did you feel the rules stifeled your creativity? It would have been great to have a US maufacture who was turning out a quality F16HP. Have you considered a modified version of your 5 meter boat that would fall within the F16HPrules? Or was it not even a consideration at it's inception?
Thanks for the feedback...

Bob

Hello Hans, it's good to see you posting here. Any chance the 5.0 Turbo will get trapezing bars (like wings but with no seat) so it can be pushed harder by single-handers?

brian ,wings are to many problems {to many parts and also windage.the boat has 8'6" beams this is more then any other 16' catamaran on the market

thank you mary for all the good work you doing for catamaran sailing

bob wath are the specifcations on the F 16 HP ????? hans

Hans,
Scroll up to the top of this page and in the bar across the top, click on "Main Index." In Main Index scroll down to the Formula 16 High Performance forum. Click on that forum to open it up. About the third post down on that forum is a new post with a diagram showing all the specifications for the Formula 16 HP. You can't read it on the screen, but it is fine when you print it out.

Hi Hans,
Nice seeing you post on the forum. And, as always, nice seeing you at the CSWY and your taking me out for some wild rides on your 5.7.
Dave (P19MX)

Wings and windage?

If you were worried about windage, you could have put boards on it. I seriously doubt a pair of bars will make that much of a difference.

When the apparent wind is forward, anything that presents drag without making power is going to slow you down, especially when you have a fast boat (like a cat). Wings are great fun for cruising and yahoo sailing, but I took them off my 18 for any kind of racing. Weight, air drag, and water drag. It's the main reason the 18 magnum and 18 carry the same rating - any increase in hiking capability is offset. Of courrse, that's all relative to the full-style wings.

They may slow you down, but without them, I wouldn't be able to keep my boat pointy-end-up.

Then you're really going slow.

Maugan, I'm really worried about you. I think you've been sailing too much on big monohulls. On beach cats windage is a really big deal. I used to get mad at Rick when he didn't shave before we went out to race, because his whiskers were making more windage.

Mary, its not that I've been on monoslugs to much, its just that I can't stand people who make excuses as to why they don't "win" or why their boat "isn't as fast." Really irks me. Granted, I'll accept rational notions such as "I have a pile of lead bricks in my sterns" or "the nickname of my boat is titanic." But seriously, if someone is worried about a set of bars that weight about 5 lbs each and are tubular in shape (not all that aerodynamically hindering) slowing their rig down, then they need to:

A) lose weight, all that pudge is slowing you down.
B) lose 5 lbs somewhere else on the boat.
C) learn to make your boat go as fast as the other guys' somehow... whining about such a miniscule thing isn't going to make it better.

And no, I don't have any ground to stand on, I am talking completely out of my butt.

Pet peeve.

EDIT: my pudge comment was not aimed at anyone in particular... just in general 😛

Maugan, I think you have it backward -- if you need wings to keep your boat upright, it means you don't have enough pudge.

Ouch!

My comments were about full 18 (or 17) style wings, not little hiking bars, but...

Yes, without your wings your 17 would be hard to keep upright - the sailplan was designed that way.

Your wings, and the 18 wings, weigh significantly more than 5 pounds. The magnum wings add about 40 lbs with tramps to the 18. They catch waves when you fly a hull - it didn't take much to do that.

And, in the "find a way to make your boat go faster than the other guys" mode - if you don't routinely have enough wind to trap from the wings, they're a waste. Simple observation on the 18 shows that trapezing from the hull offers more righting moment than hiking on the wings. Trapping from the wings gives a lot, but is rarely needed with adult sailors (at least on the Chesapeake) - it was fun when it did happen.

So, simple logic pointed to removing them for racing. I dropped the weight too, by the way. But the 30 lbs I lost would have been only 30 lbs and I still would have been dragging the wings around mostly for nothing. So I took 70 lbs off the boat...

Through the years I've done ok in our club racing with and without the wings so I've got no whining to do. But, I did do better without them...

http://berean.org/sc15/awards2001/PHOTOGALLERY.HTML

Thanks, Keith, for defending yourself and me and Hans.

And, Maugan, I think I remember you saying that you don't race your 17, but that you crew racing on big monohulls. Maybe it is the mono sailors who are doing the whining?

And, Hans, after being out of the boat-building business for a while, you can see how tough it is to be a designer and builder these days. Everyone is a critic. Personally, I am very happy to see another builder back in business in the United States. But, also, personally, I would have liked to see your new boat fit into the Formula 16HP class. See, there we go again -- another critic.

I think I will send Hans an e-mail about the Formula 16 specs (F16 HP).

Hans look into you mailbox !

Wouter

wen you ready for your 5 meter g-cat i talk to you abaut the wings. hans

good word keith abaut the wings..hans

this is a good one mary. hans

remember the everage windspeed were you sailing,and howe many times you using the wings. hans

i only buildet one new g-cat 5 meter turbo for testing if ther is a market for the formula 16' i will think abaut making changes. hans

thank you wouter for the specs. hans

I Don't think the wings weight any more than a couple pounds each. I can pick each one up with my pinky finger, and I'm by no means a rock climber or body builder. I've sailed on a 18SX, and I know where your consternation comes from, those things are huge, and heavy. The 17 wings are little more than a tube with a small piece of cloth on them. What I'm talking about here is a bar for trapping out, not a huge 18sx style wing.

And to keep my windward hull skimming the water in anything over 10knots, I'm trapt out.

The only reason I haven't raced yet, is because shite keeps breaking at the most inopportune moment, and the 17 sailors have been sailing in the class for years, and theres no way I'd get a place amongst those guys.