Hi Bruce, Just my 2c, as we sail 16ft cats called the Mosquito, essentially a scale-version of a Tornado, in Cape Town, South Africa.
Wind is often 15-18 knots, sometimes 20-25, sometimes 55-60, but then it`s raining as well so we don`t sail.
The boats we sail have 12,5sqm mainsail and a 13sqm jib, seems like the ideal ratio of main to spinn.(ie almost equal)
Problem with more modern cats is that the high-aspect ratio mainsail is great for light to medium wind (up to 18 knots), and then turns the boat into a pitchpole-machine after that. If you sail in high winds I`d reccommend a lower aspect rig, especially in short choppy conditions. A low-aspect ratio spinnaker with a reasonably full shoulder might help lift the bows, but will make close-reaching difficult. Also need to have a balanced rig. Long tall mainsail with short fat spinnaker might not do the trick.
Regarding roller-furling vs. snuffer : Ever had a jam on a roller-furling drum ? You`ll do 100 miles downwind before you can figure out how to get it sorted. Snuffer goes up & comes down in 2 sec. if running smooth, use mylar for the chute, slides really well.(single line tack & halyard.) Go deep for the hoist & retrieve, and you`ll swim less often.
I`ve found the kite holds the bows up in plenty wind, makes it safer than without. Just beware the nosedive in short chop, you sail so much faster than the waves that a wave hitting the back beam slows you enough to pitch the bow under. Bear off more, stay back & sheet IN (break the airflow on the kite depowers it, easing it will power it up !)
Sailing it is a process of cleating mainsail & traveller close to centreline & steering with one hand, the other 5 white knuckles on the spinn. sheet, out on the wire, just steer deeper when overpowered.
That`s all I know, and I still swim with it.
Cheers
Steve
Hello,
I sail an A-Cat and I have installed a Guck snuffer and I am very satisfied with this system. As the A-Cat is very light and the Guck snufferbag, although half the size of the Nacra snuffer, is a little baggy you will lose some upwind capability due to windage. BUT you will win a lot on the downwind leg. Enough so you can keep up with the Inter 20 and the Tornado.
On an A-Cat there is limited use for a spinaker as the spi will lift the boat out of the water with a lot of wind. I will use the spi till about 3 Bft. It is very good to check if you have any heartproblems. I believe that 3 Bft. is about 10 knts. Correct me when I am wrong.
I have a 15 m2 spi, so not a very large spinaker. On my Taipan 4.9 I had an EO snuffer and the much longer snufferbag pushed me away much more than the shorter Guck system.
Regards.
Arjan de Bruin
A-Cat 074
Hey Stephan,
...check out the reply from Arjan........looks like the A cat + spin is starting to happen,.........I checked out your site,......nice.
regards,
Bruce
St Croix
USVI
John,
Checked out your site,....real nice!
Ok,...I do not have a fax,...maybe we can get to use Mary's at CatSailor,....and get her to post,......hey Mary,..you see this???
I am going to e mail you direct,... I believe HArper already has!
regards,
Bruce
USVI
Sorry, we are moving, and our fax number and the machine have already been moved to the new location -- but we are not yet at the new location ourselves. It is very chaotic here right now.
Stephan,
I sailed with a crew from Capetown, Steward was his name,..It was about 10 years ago and I had a H-18 magnum,....well, the winds were getting nasty in one particular race,..and I told him we I was going to back down the rig,...he blurted at me in that S. African english,....."if you touch that bloody mainsheet,..I will break your arm!'.......
....well,..we then fell off a large wave and our combined weight broke the wing clear off,...as we scrambled back on the boat and got things clear I said,...'...I never touched the mainsheet Steward...".....called it a day.
So, I know you all are great in big air.
I had a new main made by Ullman. Charlie Olgletree listened to what I needed and made it 6 inches smaller on the leech,...foot to top......I was in some 20+ winds last month and I never touched the mainsheet,...never added more than enough downhaul to get the wrinkles out.....it was all the power I needed,.....upwind and downwind....at one point downwind, the rig achieved a goal I was trying to hit.....sailing at 170 degrees,...main only,...the telltales reversed for about 30-45 seconds(both hulls down),..I looked around...thinking that the wind shifted....but the boat was rocketing over big seas.....the boat was going windspeed...
.you are correct,...downwind,...the faster you go,..the more stable the rig!.....honestly,...with a 1 person rig,...deep is good and increasing CMG is the only concern.
....thanks for the interesting tips...
regards,
Bruce
USVI
John,
You can fax it to me. I'm emailing you my fax number.
Here's the sketch from John at Stealth Marine.....perty cool (I sketched on the computer).
JAke and John,
Thanks for the specs.
I understand the handle........I can follow the line,........one of you explain the elastic and the rest,.......John,...you mentioned that a part of this would be inside the crossbeam.........which part?
Looks interesting....
Bruce
USVI
Bruce
The elsatic and the blocks take up the slack line.
Have you checked inside your beam yet to see what's in there?
I am away for a couple of days now, but if you want more info you might want to call me to discuss it next week.
John
John,
1. Inside my front cross beam,..other than the beam-to-hull support bolts and the mast bar,....is nothing.
2. For the interested parties John,..using the diagram attached to Jakes posting,...walk us through this one more time......thanks 
regards,
Bruce
Right, the rope starts in the horizontal position, the cleat is stopping it moving from right to left, when you pull the handle vertically, the rope is pulled from the left, as the handle is moved down, the elastic draws in the slack, then the process starts again.
Have you seen the spinnaker fulrer setup on the Marstorm M20? It's a snail-shaped shell with a roller drum inside, all mounts just in front of the mast. The roller is parallel to the front beam and the snail opening faces towards the front. Though I've not seen it up close, it must have a line to roll the roller and spool in the spinny. Has the advantage of being extremely compact, low windage and fast (perhaps faster than a snuffer).
Looks real Wiz-Bang with the fancy snail shape made from Carbon. From thinking more about how it works, one could likely be fashioned out of an old plastic bucket. Heck, you could even do away with whole shell completely and just run a snuffer-style hoop (mouth) at the front to feed the sail onto a horizontal roller drum.
Mike.
mike,
Sounds interesting,.........anyone have a pic or a link?........i went to the Marstrom site,........did not see this..
regards,
Bruce
St. Croix
I think there are some pictures of the M20 'snailhouse' in one of the PDF files on their web site at http:/
The M20 snailhouse was tested on one of the swede tornadoes, but it was to hard one the fabrics of the gennaker. They did not believe that a gennaker would survive a whole regatta.