The Taipan 5.7

5.7 with 10ft beam and carbon rig:

Mast and self tacker

mast close up at hounds

I have just purchased one of the three T5.7's in the US. I have not sailed it yet but I have done a lot of research on the boat.
From everything I have read the Taipan has the ability to keep pace with the Tornado and most of the other 20 footers with sailing ability becoming the deciding factor. The biggest problem with the 5.7 is keeping it depowered enough to be effective when the wind starts to blow. The boat was designed specifically for a heavy crew (over 150kg/330 lbs). The new F18 Capricorn did trounce the 5.7's in the Aus Taipan Nationals, showing that hull design is more important than being lightweight in this case, the Capricorn being 80 pounds heavier to meet class specs. Everyone that I have talked to that has sailed one has really liked them and the speed that they produce. I am very excited and proud to own one and can't wait to put many miles on it.
AHPC's Taipan 5.7 page
TAIPAN CATAMARAN ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA

There were actually a few Dutch sailors at the Taipan Nationals this year. I overheard one of them commenting on both the 4.9's and 5.7's. Comment on the 5.7's, that were beaten by the F18's, is that the sail plan is outdated. The spinnaker cut used on these is still pre 2000. Which means rather full and with a long foot. Also the 5.7's were sailing with class legal sails, meaning very small squaretops. The overlapping jib doesn't help on a spi boat; selftackers are better. Also the skill of the 5.7 sailors in these racers there was not considered by this sailor to be of the same level as the F18's. Comment on the 4.9's was that the skill level there was impressive and that they had trouble getting away from the 4.9 while these were sailing without a spi that the 5.7's were using.

This sailors also said that with a new sail wardrobe the 5.7's would probably be a monster speedwise in light to medium air. From other comments I gether that teh 5.7 becomes a handful in strong weather. The newer large squaretop sails with a straight leech may help out here.

As always the path to succes was for the 5.7 class to renew herself. However, fear gripped the class and any chance was frowned upon and actively discourage. One-designess would garantee survival, it was thought. Reality showed that it didn't.

It is hard to say but T5.7 OD class is dead, without a change to revive. So forget about the OD rules and modify that sweetheart in all she can be and it will be a real killer in her new cloths. Tornado's and I-20's should be easy meat in anything but the really rought weather.

Don't look at the US portsmouth numbers, these things are all-over the place when it comes to rare boats. T5.7 especially has never been raced seriously in the US so its ratings are completely undependable. Look for the Australian VYC ratings to get a feel for what is can do. But with new stuff and new suit of modern sails it should be able to do several % better again.

Jimi, hope over to the Formula 16 forum and learn what you can there. The Taipan 4.9's and 5.7's are rather similar in setup and how they should be sailed. The mods to the Taipans to make the full F16's will largely have the same effects on a T5.7

10 ft beam would make the 5.7 do well in strong winds but at some hit in the light stuff as she is a boat that is said to benefit alot from doing the wildthing (getting luff hull out of the water at all times)

15 kg for a carbon mast that length sounds about right for a low estimate. The 10 mtr F18HT mast is supposed to be 18 kg's same and is the same as the I-20 masts. Tornado carbon is 15.5 kg if I remember it right.

Wouter

Hey Lance,I heard you bought the T5.7. When are we going to see it at the causeway?

Probably not for another month or so. I still have to get a new trailer for it and I will probably be replacing most of the lines and all of the bungees for sure. In the meantime I will probably keep it at GYC. I can't wait to get everything done. Once everything's done I plan to spend a lot of time on it so you will be seeing a lot more of me out there.

Thanks for so many useful tips! Macca, have you tested your Super T5.7 in heavy weather yet? Would have been interesting to get some feed-back! How has it done against other high-tech
boats?
I do agree with you Wouter that the sail robe for the T5.7 is outdated. My dad has already made a self-tacking system and bought a new jib that obviously does not overlap,though we have not had the chance to test it properly in a fair breeze. Also my dad is working on a kevlar/carbon- snuffer as we speak. These two modifications would do some good for the boat, don't you think? As far as the spi goes, would it not be necessary to change the whole rig in order to make it flatter and more "narrow" without loosing overall area? If you just shortened the foot, the whole spi would be smaller. I noticed that the new Hobie Tigers, even with almost a meter or so shorter mast, has the head spi point attached higher than the T5.7. This despite the fact that the Tigers have 2 sq.meters smaller spi's! Which truly underlines what you, Wouter, said, the T5.7's spi is too full and seems out-dated. So how make it more modern and flatter without changing the entire rig?

With the exception of the spinnaker the sail plan of the 5.7 is not far of the pace. Could realy benifit from a self tacker.

Re 5.7 Vs Tornado...... No contest. T is bigger and a lot more powerful. Macca's super Taipan is yet to see water but when it does it should be VERY quick in light to twin wire conditions. When the wind builds and the T's find their legs the Super 5.7 should still be quicker but as the breeze increases, this margin should reduce.

5.7 class is now dead. AHPC have ceased production with not many built. Those that are left should move on and modify thier boats to cater for the kite as the class was never initialy designed to run it. Maybe also a 10 foot beam and carbon mast hey Macca .

Macca, have you done any changes on your new carbon mast to make it match a flatter chute? Or do you use the custom 23 sq.meters spi?
My dad and I are now considering a carbon mast? We therefore wonder who made the mast for you? As we live in Norway, Marstrom would be natural choice.
Also, have you planned on entering any specific races, or is sheer blasting the main thought behind you upgrades? If so, have you logged any good speeds with this beast of yours?

The boat should hit the water next weekend (21 May) and we are expecting it to be quicker than a Tornado in nearly all conditions.
The carbon mast was made by an Aussie manufacturer who makes yacht masts and used to make A Class masts. It is the same section as the normal 5.7 alloy mast and weighs just on 15kgs rigged. The mast is really stiff compared to the std mast which suits our wide boat.
The kite Halyard attaches a little higher than a std 5.7 and we have the pole a lot lower, this gives us a kite luff length a little longer than a T, Kite area is 26 sq meters.
I would get Marstrom to make a mast but they are not cheap, another option is the Fibrefoam mast from Scott Anderson, he can make a mast to suit and they are pretty cheap. We are planning on doing the long distance races here in Australia, there are quite a few of these races spread through the season. We just wanted to make the 5.7 perform as it always should have from the start.

OF course as Steve says the current 5.7 rig is close in pace but it must be seen as in the light of the difference of a 1998 Tiger rig with respect to a 2004 Tiger rig. The 2004 Tiger rig with the STX mainsail (very large head) is just quicker. Same with the 5.7 standard rig. It was very good and good for the 90's but not for the 00's. F18 class has really stimulated alot of development in this area. The 5.7. should benefit from it.

With respect to the spi :

Don't work yourself up over the total area. This is unimportant. Important things are the modern cut and the luff length. Optimize these two without any regard for the total area. So if the modern cut can only be 20 sq. mtr. in the given setup than go for that. There is no point in trying to sqeeze 25 sq. mtr. in and thus compromise on the cut.

Can you mearure the height of your spi gate with respect to the bottom of your mast for us. The same with the hound fitting and the overall length of the mast ?

I think you can put the mast gate higher on the T5.7 than it is now. We did the same with the Taipan 4.9's and have no problems. The mast is holding up well under the F16 spi. So I feel a similar thing can be done on the T5.7

What is he sheeting point of your current spi ? Both along the hull and perpendicular to the centreline ?

Some mods can be in order here as well.

That is easy. You will have to buy a new spi but apart from that the mods are both easy to do and inexpensive.

Wouter

Macca,

Finally some good minds working on the Taipan 5.7 design.

What are the specs on your mainsail. How big is your head. Do you pics of the boat with the rig on ?

Wouter

The Main head is less than the new tiger mainsail heads, I have a number of reasons for this and most of those I will keep to myself, but suffice it to say that there is little point having a massive head if it is always hooked when you want it breathing. There are factors other than the visual head size that help the new tiger mainsail outperform the older versions.
The head of the sail on the new rig is stepped so that at the second batten it is much bigger than the tiger sail.

I guess some pics would help! I will get some this weekend when we are doing the final setup of the boat. That should keep the interest up a bit

New super taipan mainsail head

funky new sails

shot from the middle of the foot with a little downhaul tension and some sheet tension but not max.

Are those sails Kevlar fiber?

Wouter

The cloth is new from Contender, it is called MAXX. really cool stuff. allows you to make a cross cut sail with correct load paths. So you end up with a lighter sail (less panels) and with correct load paths. The sail is very smooth too.

The cloth I am using in these sails is MAXX carbon which is about 30/70 carbon and kevlar.

KICKA$$

Robi, thats your sailmaker in the bottom pic! On a Sunday.... so his hair isn't done

Is he the Arrow Head guru? Damn! tell him I said
whats up!!!
Nuthing but work of art

Have to say that the MAXX sail cloth works really good. My old Taipan had one mainsail with that material made by Steve Brewin and it was heaps lighter than the dacron main.

I see that Macca has taken my idea of the battens not extending past the batten pockets a bit further. Keeping the fastening internal. Looks heaps better than having stubby ends sticking out and using rope to tie them up. Plus less windage (marginal though). My fastening system used a velcro flap which went around the end of the batten.

About time Macca got the 5.7 sorted. Now to go sailing.

Attached a couple of pics of the batten pocket system I used on my Taipan.

JC

Another pic

Totally wicked conversion, Macca !
Can`t wait to read the report on your first sail. With that setup it looks to be the boat to beat, I can`t imagine even the T holding you off. And that mainsail looks like it was poured onto the mast, can`t find a wrinkle.
Our reinforced mylar sails are much heavier than Dacron, is this MAXX cloth much more pricey than regular reinforced mylar sailcloth ?
Boat looks like a winner - have fun blasting.

Steve

The Maxx pentex is approx double the price of high-aspect woven dacrons. The carbon varity is about 1/4 more expensive than the pentex variants..
The price should not be too different tough, as the sailmaker can build the sail faster (due to fever seams in cross cut layouts), less time on the cutting machine and less scrap material. I dont know how well the Maxx range have been tested for catamaran application, but we are putting a Maxx jib/main on our T this season.

Agree with Steve, the boat looks very fast and clean! Your sailmaker obviously knows his cloth as well, with some different (heavier) Maxx cloth at the luff to take downhaul loads. Is it a continous tape, or is it glued/stitched?
Now I am dying to find out why you went for such a rounded top on your main.. It was tried on the T in, I believe, 2002? But everybody are back to regular square tops now. Hmmm..

Care to tell us how your batten end-fittings are buildt? Velcro?

I don't think the MAXX cloth is double the normal price but it's certainly more than normal cloth. The Labour time to make the sail would be a lot less than a radial sail but we countered that by building new batten end tensioners. I can say that it not velcro that holds them in but that is all at this stage. The solution has a big future when mass produced.