North American Cat Racing Association(NACRA)

David,

My history may be a little fuzzy but NACRA started producing boats (5.2) in Santa Barbara, California in the mid 70's. At the same time the North American Catamaran Racing Association came into being with small regattas being sailed...mostly in Southern California. After a fire destroyed the factory in 1978(?)... NACRA was homeless. It was resurrected like the phoenix when Catalina Yachts in Orange County bought NACRA and subsequently Prindle and Sol Cat to form Performance Catamarans as it is known today. I'm sure their are people out there who can fill in the rest of the blanks.

John Bauldry
Hobie Tiger #1317
Detroit, MI

NACRA was originally concieved as a professional racing circuit on 36' beach catamarans. The racing circuit didn't get very far, but they did build several one-design 36' boats for the North American Catamaran Racing Association. The story (myth?) that I heard is that the designer of the boat, Tom (I can't remember his last name) fell asleep on one of the 36's as it was cruising along at about 30 knots. After his nap he decided that, although the racing circuit was a flop, the hulls gave a very smooth ride. Smooth enough to let him sleep at a high velocity. He then decided to make a 1/2 scale model of the boat makeing it 18' feet long. Some marketing genius convinced him that an 18' boat wouldn't sell, so he lopped 1' off of the bows & came up with the NACRA 5.2. Named for the racing association of its origin and its 17'length in meters. The boat was smooth, but had a tendency to nose dive in a breeze.

I haven't seen a cat that doesn't nose dive in a breeze.

Set up your NACRA 5.2 correctly and it should be more stable down wind than a Hobie 14 or 16.

Tom Roland was (is?) the driving force behind NACRA.

D. Ho
TheMightyHobie18 1067

I've seen Tom Roland's 36 foot monster design flying at Hurricane Gulch in San Pedro, CA back in the 70's. All I remember was FAST with a lot of spray. The giant Playboy bunny emblem on the sail was hard to miss. Last I heard he was still residing in Santa Barbara.

John Bauldry
Hobie Tiger 1317
Detroit, MI

I believe that the Roland 36' with the playboy bunny logo belonged to Roy Seaman.

http://www.catsailor.net/images/2004%20Nacra%20Nationals/web/photos/photo_37.html

http://www.catsailor.net/images/2004%20Nacra%20Nationals/web/photos/photo_33.html

I was surfing Australia's catsailor.net and looked at the photo album from the Nacra Nationals. These two addresses should show two of the many pictures of a Nacra 36.