Good history lesson -Herreshoff's cat

Nice find Joe!

That, and Dennis Connor's 1988 AC Cat's destruction of the bigger mono, is the reason why I transitioned from racing mono's, to cats.

I can't help but think these mega cats will inspire other mono racers to try cats as well.

The general sentiment towards cats hasn't changed a bit. I had a 12 yr old kid tell me his dad said that catamarans can't point. I just shake my head.

When I was a mono racer (30 years ago), I would only see Hobie 16's reaching back and forth across the harbor, until they flipped. Naturally we assumed that without dagger boards, they couldn't go upwind. It did not make me want to get on a Hobie 16 (in NH the ocean water is about 42 degrees in July!).

Then I got a ride on a Hobie 20 (thanks Craig!) and that really opened my eyes to what a well sailed, well designed, high performance cat could do speed wise, and pointing. Oh, and we didn't flip!

I still have trouble convincing non-sailors, or mono-only types, that cats really can go upwind, and go like a bat out of hell downwind with a spinnaker. I passed a couple of pontoon boats out on my lake last weekend when we had nice wind. The look on their faces was pretty funny.

Hi Tim, Hope you're all keeping well. I haven't been on this site for a while now. I come back and find that

Someone on the internet is wrong

<img src="<>/shocked.gif" alt="shocked" title="shocked" height="15" width="15" /> . Actually the first catamaran that was launched and raced in the Western World was Sir William Petty's

Simon & Jude

. It raced in Dublin Bay, Ireland in 1662 <img src="<>/cool.gif" alt="cool" title="cool" height="15" width="15" />.
I'm heading to the Inland Champs in Blessington now. Talk again <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

Google is our friend - you can find a short writeup about 40% down the page here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31179/31179-h/31179-h.htm

FTA

The use of catamaran hulls, or “double-hulls,” has been periodically popular with ship designers since the time of Charles II of England. The earliest of such vessels known in the present day were four sloops or shallops designed 1673-1687 by Sir William Petty, who was an inventor in the field of naval architecture and received some attention from Charles II and from the Royal Society.

The first Petty experiment, the Simon & Jude, later called Invention I, was launched October 28, 1662. She was designed with two hulls cylindrical in cross section, each 2 feet in diameter, and 20 feet long. A platform connected the hulls, giving the boat a beam of a little over 9 feet. She had a 20-foot mast stepped on one of the crossbeams connecting the hulls, with a single gaff sail. In sailing trials she beat three fast boats: the King’s barge, a large pleasure boat, and a man-of-war’s boat. This [Pg 153]“double-bottom,” also called a “sluiceboat” or “cylinder,” was later lengthened at the stern to make her 30 feet overall.

Interesting. Almost fits the B-Class dimensions

Hey Dermot! Great to hear from you! Glad to hear you are still alive, and well I hope!

Have fun in Blesso, tell them I said Hi. I wish I could get back there. We fly right over every time we go to Dubai, which was just last Monday for me. I keep hoping the airplane will break and we can divert into Dublin.

I hope the weather Gods are good to you all this weekend.

Have fun!

Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, RI is worth some time if you're ever out this way.

Mike

Timbo, which Craig are you talking about? Not too many of us sailing.

Scroll down here and read the full story of the Simon & Jude re-build by Hal Sisk in 1991: http://www.romseynet.org.uk/civicsociety/news/1992/1992autumn45.pdf
I visited the workshop during the build and saw her sailing at the Tall Ships event in Dublin.

The one who popped my Catamaran Sailing Cherry, on his H20 back in about....1995? That was Craig Hackett, he's up in New Hampshire, sailing a new Nacra F16 now.

Yeah, and cruising cats (aka floating condo-zillas) don't help with that argument,

pointing

at 50 degrees TWA.

The rest of the multihulls, however, probably point just as well as monos once they're up to speed (apparent wind, etc).. or if they don't they can outperform on VMG....

How many cannons could she carry? Long nines or eighteens?

http://www.runningtideyachts.com/multihull/Amaryllis.html

In form the entry seems to have been perfectly fair, since the yachts were taxed only according to length, and were permitted as much extension in all other directions as their owners chose. But in fact, it is clearly unfair to race boats of radically different models, and built for entirely different purposes, against each other. The model of the Amaryllis evidently would not do for a sea going vessel, and nothing in the way of the practical 'improvement of naval architecture ' which yachts and yacht clubs are supposed to promote, can come out of a flying proa. But on the other hand, none of the boats engaged in the race with her are supposed to be good for much except to engage in such races. The tendency of yacht-racing is everywhere to-produce 'racing machines;' in ENGLAND by narrowing, deepening and ballasting yachts out of all reason, and here by making broad and shallow 'skimming-dishes.' In either case the result is not a good type of sea-going vessel. So the owners of racing-machines have really no reason to complain that somebody should invent a racing-machine to beat them. This the inventor of the Amaryllis has done. It behooves the owners of the large schooners, however, to take counsel together lest somebody should build an Amaryllis a hundred feet long and convert their crafts into useless lumber. It is a matter quite as important as keeping the America's Cup, and may demand quite as ingenious and elaborate devices as were put in force against Mr. ASHBURY.

Talking about catamaran history, reminds me on the

patin a vela

which I owned and sailed twenty years ago in South-France.

The story is that the first protypes of these cats were already tried by spanish munks between 1800 and 1900.
Later-on in the beginning of 1900 the rump shape as it is still today, was developed in the northern part of Spain (catalonie).

The special thing about this cat is the lack of rudders.

You have to move the lateral point of the hulls with your weight and you can shift the point of effort of the special shaped sail a bit with the sheethandling.

So tacking means going forward with all the crew weight and sheeting in. While jibing means sheeting out and going with your weight as far as possible to the stern. (And helping with a feet in the water for passing the dead-point).

So far before windsurfing was

invented

, the used steering mechanism, was already existing and used for more then 100 years on a cat design.
The only real invention on the windsurfboard was the mast-joint to the board, which could be directed in every direction.

I have to search for some old holiday pictures

We have a sales agent for our company based in Spain that is very proficient in these boats. I think he won their nationals a few years ago.

don't understand why it will not show up

So click on:
flickr.com

and also for the next:
flickr.com

What is the Ashbury rule?

Mike

Originally Posted by northsea junkie

don't understand why it will not show up

So click on:
flickr.com

you need to get the final jpg file to link to. (view all sizes, then right click and copy the image url). Flickr makes hot-linking tough.

okay thanks Jay. I will add another

I just can't imagine making a beach landing without rudders.

That's a lot less to break in the surf, that's for sure. Getting out is probably no picnic, especially if going forward makes it want to tack.

Mike

The photos are taken in Cap D'Agde South France about 20 years ago. In the biggest nudist village from Europe.

So, imagine the problems going out and landing again on the beach between, in summertime, 50.000 tourists on a beach of about 1 mile.

I've learned to steer without rudders overthere, that's for sure.
And my French is adequate with regard to shouting things.

And I have a loud voice. And Frenchmen respect sailors and there boats. I had a tekst on the side of the hulls:

patinavoileapoile

" which was a jokingly corruption of: patin-a-voile a-poile.

Meaning : skate with sail in total nudity.

Remember the Spanish name for this cat is Patin a Vela which stands also for skate with sail.

I would like to add that despite my sturdy talk above, steering a patin-a-vela isn't so difficult as it seems to be.

Most of you do not realize that this cat has a very small beamsize. Original I believe it was 1.5 m, but I narrowed it even further down to 1.2 m.
That's because I replaced the original wooden beam-planks with two sawn-off old nacra beams (broken at the dolphin striker).
So, the cat was also transportable on a normal luggage trailer

flickr.com

You can imaging that manoeuvering between swimmers is now simpler.
(the same applies for righting the cat after a flip!).

Finally the very special hull shape makes the cat very sensitive for weight distribution (far more then on a normal cat).

Sitting and sailing is a peace of cake:

flickr.com

Am I seeing this correctly? No trampoline???

Mike

Yep, that's right Mike.

Only at the stern behind the rear-beam I made a very small cloth to sit on when jibing.

And I will tell you: no tramp is sensational to sail. You see and can feel the sea just under your legs.
It's an awesome experience and inspired me to sail with a open net tramp on my latest cat.

Before I forget: the open gap between the hulls on my Patin was even more acrobatic to cope with, because for the steering you had to walk (yes walk!) often over the hulls forwards or backwards!

Great article to read, but what a clutter of advertizing on that site. Less than 1% RAM for the article and +99% for the advertizing. When the end-of-the-world comes, it will be the fault of the Marketing Departments!