Nacra Sailing Help

Doug,
CONGRATULATIONS.... I'm not the one to help you since I live in exactly the opposite corner of the US but I'll be glad to chime in every once in a while with something I did wrong so you can learn from my mistakes.
There are A LOT of nice folks on this website who can help you along the way. I was a new NACRA owner this past spring and I spent some time reading quite a few of the old posts from people just like us who are new to catamarans. IT really helped alot. For instance, there is a pretty recent thread of a guy who is starting a rental business near you. You could stop by his operation and bend his ear I'm sure or just stop by to watch how he sets his Nacra up. The Nacra assembly manual is far from complete and I got more information from this website than from Performance materials. Overall, take it slow, ask questions when you have them and feel free to email me directly and if I can help I will.
Good Luck
Greg

I had an '84 5.0 and loved it. I'd be happy to help if you're willing to come a bit north to sail.

Hi, would love to help. have sailed a nacra for 15 years. But i need more specific questions.

Thanks for the advice and offer. I sure I'll have many question in the near future and will drop you a line.
Doug

Thanks for the offer. Are anywhere near Monterey? We lived there for a few years. My wife is always wanting to go back for a vaction.
Doug

Hey Doug -

Congrats on your new cat. I have a Nacra 5.5 uni which is slightly different, but I sympathize with having a brand new toy and not knowing quite how to set it up. I was there last year. Now I've been out 6 times and I can sail it a bit better; and know how to do (most of) the rigging correctly.

What do you need help with specifically? The hardest part, by far, for me was learning how to raise the mast.

-Aaron

Raising the mast is hard?! Dang, I am in trouble! I thought that would be relatively easy in comparison to actually sailing it!
-Doug

Doug, check out this group, one of the guys on here probably lives alot closer to you, and there are a few of them who could probably meet you in long beach some weekend, and get our boat all straightened out. there are little events organized from this site, they are called catapalooza, and generally i think there in long beach. Anyhow good luck.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/So_CA_Beachcat_Sailors/

It's not that hard if you have another person to help and you work smart rather than just "horse" it up. If you use a winch (attached to your mast support post on your trailer) and attach the winch rope to the forestay, you have someone lift the mast as you crank the winch and it goes up easy as pie. None of the set-up is hard, it is just time-consuming. Use your head and go slow. I created a pre-flight checklist (laminated it even!) so that I don't skip any steps /forget anything. That works pretty well.
Enjoy it and ask for help when you need it.
Greg

Rasing the mast just takes practice. You will learn the little tricks that make it easier. In a couple years you will be able show a novice how to to do it. They will be amazed how you raise and lower the mast a couple of times to fix their mistakes without looking like you are about to have a heart attack.

I really hate raising the mast on my 6.0. the thing weighs a TON. I like the idea of the pre-flight checklist though. A post-flight wouldn't hurt either. Do you think the winch idea would work with a 6.0? Anyway you cut it I don't think I could put the mast up by myself.

I think it would work for you..... I, quite frankly, can't imagine doing it regularly without a winch. I've done it without the winch solo and it is no fun. (A mechanical friend is redesigning my set-up with a 12 volt battery and winch mounted on the back end of the trailer and a line running to a block on the mast support post on the front of the trailer and then up to another block and up to the forestay. He thinks with a remote controlled winch I could stand on the ground with the mast on my shoulder and with one hand control the electric winch and solo winch it up. Sounds kinda Rube Goldberg to me.....)

I just re-mounted my winch down low on the mast support post on my trailer and attached a block up high so I can increase the angle of lift. I'll shoot you a picture if you think it would help you. I'll also shoot you a copy of my pre-flight plan if that interests you too. Yours will probably be different than mine but it would give you a starting spot perhaps...
Greg

Sailing the 5.5u proved to be an absolute cinch, especially if the wind is pretty light. True I'd rented cats before and the uni doesn't have a jib to worry about. But even aspects of uni-rigged-cat-sailing that people warned me would be "hard", such as tacking downwind, turned out to be pretty self-intuitive. In fact, in terms of how easy it is to sail, and how forgiving it was, it's much easier than my Sunfish was (and 3x faster)!

The reason I mentioned that raising the mast would be hard is that the first time we tried it, it took 3 hours. We made the mistake of attempting to raise it straight up instead of positioning it sideways. Then, raising it with the winch, the shrouds kept getting caught under the aft hulls. Sadly there was nothing in the instruction manual that told me this. So the best advice I can give you for your first time out on the boat is: attach the rear shrouds first, use a winch, make sure the mast is mounted sideways (until it naturally rotates forwards), and make sure the shrouds don't get caught!

The rest came pretty naturally

Enjoy!