Thought I would share an experience I had while evacuated from LA for Hurricane Gustav. I stayed in Gulf Breeze, FL and while there had the opportunity to sail Cliff Farrah's new Weta trimaran (www.wetamarine.com) at FWYC.
The Weta trimaran is a 14' FG/foam/epoxy platform with a carbon mast, carbon bowsprit, carbon beam tubes, carbon rudder and daggerboard, full battened boomless mylar mainsail, mylar jib, and a roller furling spinnaker/screacher. The main and jib are combined around 100 ft2 and the screacher is 60 ft2. The overall weight of the boat is 200 lbs.
I was pessimistic in my expectations of this boat so the actual sailing experience was a big surprise. The best sailing experience is when it is fun and easy. This boat does both extremely well and feels quite
sophisticated
. I sailed with my girlfriend on the boat in 6-14 knots of wind on two afternoons. Our combined crew weight was around 265 lbs. In over 8 knots of wind, the center hull (which is very skiff like) started to plane upwind. The boat appears to have a tacking angle around 95 degrees. We had a Velocitek GPS on board and in 10-12 knots, we were doing 8-9 knots upwind. Downwind with the screacher, we were seeing 9-11 knots, our top speed for the two days was 15 knots. The builder advertises a maximum crew carrying capacity of 400 lbs. I would think it could be raced competitively in the range of 240-300 lbs which potentially makes it a great teenager, guy/girl, parent/kid, or spouses boat.
You can sail seated on the trampoline with your feet in the center hull **** or if you want to avoid the spray, move out to the weather ama. You don't have to hike. The epoxy construction makes the boat very stiff (I saw no appreciable flexing). The finish quality was excellent. Some of the running rigging was a bit lame but it could be easily and cheaply upgraded by the owner. The total cost of the package with a launching dolly and yard cover is right at $10K.
The boat can be sailed/raced double- or singlehanded. In New Zealand where it was introduced, they race both single- and doublehanded fleets separate.
The Portsmouth rating is 81.2 singlehanded and 87.2 doublehanded. That's pretty quick for a 14' overall length boat and faster in comparison to the majority of monohull dinghies raced in my area. Some might think it would feel too small for two adults at that length but it does not seem that way at all and I think that is because the trimaran width makes it feel bigger.
My girlfriend and I are really too light for a doublehanded beach catamaran. She has a desire to race some type of doublehanded dinghy and this boat seems much more fun (and easier to sai) than a Snipe, V-15, or JY-15. The price seems like a great value considering the carbon content and the epoxy construction. We may be very interested in getting one.
The boat currently has only one distributor in the US and they are selling each one they bring in so far.
Sounds like fun, and you two at 265 are about the same weight as the fastest F16 crew, Matt and his wife Gina McDonald. Have you sailed one of those yet?
Yes, they are quote a neat little craft...want to try one myself.
Cheers!
this is sweet... if I weren't already too busy....
![[Linked Image]](http://www.catsailor.com/bb_files/158706-multi23.jpg)
I like F-16 but I am not sure my girlfriend would like it. She loved the Weta and I think a lot of dinghy/monohull sailors would be intrigued by the boat because the center hull is more like a skiff/dinghy. Weta should consider trying to market the boat as an alternative to established one design dinghy classes as this boat is lot more fun than a Snipe, V-15, or JY-15. It is also very cost competitive against these boats.
Not to knock the Wave, but this boat is a higher performance yet as easy to sail alternative. It is more expensive but that hit could be softened if the fleet grows and a used boat market develops.
I believe the Weta is something that has been needed for a long time. I really hope it is successful.
Hey Bob,
Thanks for the writeup - it is a great boat, and I'm really happy with it...glad you both enjoyed it. You both looked good out there.
If anyone is going to the GYA at Key Sailing in early October, the boat will be there and I'll make it available for test sails when there is time.
C.
hey everyone.
i am a weta owner and am able to sail it by myself. we get a lot of wind in the river where i sail and have nearly capsized it a few times. i was wondering if there a trapeze option. if anyone has any ideas, please email me.
@mac.com">cate.blackburn@mac.com
Has anyone tried out the French built Astus 14.1 tri? It's a bit smaller than the Weta & apparently less expensive with no carbon fiber elements. I can find no tests in higher winds, but it has a quickly planing hull.
Ron
http:/
There is one of those at my sailing club, I've seen it on the water 4 or 5 times. All I can say about it is that it is slower than my 5.2 on all point of sail and it took forever for the safety team to bring it back up when it capsized the only day I saw it in more than 10 knots of wind...
I have an Astus 14.1 that I sail in Cornwall and righting it has never been a problem for me. The floats are quite small and it's fairly easy to right the boat by standing on a float and making it sink.
What I like with the Astus is that it's very light and goes like a go-kart. It does accelerate quite quickly with the genny up.
Cheers,
Pete
What about the Astus 16? Anyone have experience?
Because it has no dagger board it would be more user friendly for our shallow water. No dagger board, kick up rudders and plastic hulls in a Hobie Wave/Getaway becomes a trimaran would be a great package. Sadly the Astus 16 is glass
The Weta will be at the Baltimore Boat Show on January 21-25. Tell us you saw this post on Catsailor and we will have a free gift for you. Stop by and see us!!
Jon
Fun boat, my father in law had one and we would go out in 15 mph plus and have a ball while the other boats were on the beach watching. A trap would have been very cool. our total wieght was 360lbs. good times. he told me he wished he never got rid of it.
Sounds similar to my Windrider 16 (just not the same).
I'll be by to get my free gift friday or saturday. I was wondering if any other beach cats would be shown, I'll just have to wait and see.
Scott
OOOOOOOOOps! Guess I should have paid attention to the first postings...Sorry
How confident in that rating on the Weta? Currently US Sailing has it listed in the
Inactive
multilist as 78.5 Portsmouth...putting faster then H14 but slower than H16.
lots of new youtube videos including a review by Meade Gougeon
http:/
If you are looking for performance check out the TMS-20 that I am building.
http:/
This is the basic design I started with then we modified it. Working on the prototype now.
LOW 20'
Beam 17'
Mast 31' carbon
Construction: Foam / carbon fiber
Est. dry weight <500lbs
Looks interesting!! So can everything be done sitting done? Sheeting in. Spin set? Estimated cost and would you sell them?
Doug
The rating we are using for the Weta is 78.5. It is probably a little low. We don't have enough buoy racing records against other catamarans to have a feel for it. In an upwind/downwind course, it will probably do very well as it points well, tacks on a dime and has the reacher for downwind. It loose the waterline battle on a reach. It will do better if it is breezy as the Weta can handle heavy air very well.
Doug,
That is the design to be sailed from the *. Original design was for the Worrell 1000 when it was an open class all out non stop race.
I'm taking it one step further. We are adding 4 inches of freeboard to the ama's so they will be around 22
tall max and 13
beam max. I'm thinking about rigging it so it can be sailed both from the * and from the windward side, at least get the crew on the wire. Once the prototype is done and raced some I'll see what I'll do next, modify or make a mold. My plan is to go into limited production. I have not figured out the cost yet. The prototype cost just went up when I went from an aluminum mast to carbon fiber and the hulls from E-glass to carbon fiber, but that is half the fun.
I don't want to stomp on this posting so I'm going to do an update on the TMS-20.
hi everyone, my first post here!
I've been looking for a new boat for a while now ..... I'm getting to be too much of a codger for the laser after 30 years sailing that fine little dinghy.
thought I might go to a H16, but I want to be able to sail single handed, and trailer the new boat as well. There are no drysailing facilities for dinghys here in Comox, on Vancouver Island. the Weta looks like just the ticket.
Does anyone know the best setup for trailering for the Weta? Too bad the included beach dolly isn't a road legal trailer!! Would be a lot easier in my opinion.
Hey Eric,
Check here: http://www.norbanks.com/ If you call ask for Jon. I believe the dolly integrates( sits on top of the trailer with the boat on the dolly as it should be) with the trailer that he sells, so it's almost like a road legal dolly.
You'd need to ask him for sure.
Todd
I believe any locally available small utility trailer can be adapted to take the Weta & dolly. Saves having to ship the trailer with the boat from the dealer.
That is exactly what I did with my Antrim Wing Dinghy. It only came with ply/glass dolly. I picked up a Northern tool small utility trailer, took the casters off the dolly, and bolted it down. Light and very easy to do at a nice price.
thanks for the replies regarding the trailer,
will be checking it out.
just brought the 1st two wetas into japan, will keep the resort version with dacron sail and roller furling jib in tokyo, as a demo, and have brought the standard version with mylar sails up here in the mountains to be sailed on our local lake
was out the other day and trying to use the gennaker as a super genoa?, as the swiss do on those light air lakes. very nice in light air to get the jib nicely shaped to to the main and then pull the big gennaker around the whole lot and bring it as far back and close to the rear of the boat as possible
even found a convenient cleat on the hull back there to hold it!
and then, just like on those swiss mountain lakes, while i had my head in the boat a big gust came swooping in, grabbed the genny, stuck the ama bow and proder in and then started lifting the stern, fortunately slowly enough that i had time to climb to the highest part of the boat and lever the whole lot back flat again
quickly pulled in the wildly flapping genny with 1 hand and lay across the back of the windward tramp with feet on the hull leeward hull inner and we were off blasting through a channel between island and shore
my 1st spinnaker? boat so i was steering around to find the best point of sail for speed and was pleasantly surprised to find that planning downwind on a skiff-like hull meant i could pretty much go where i liked
so that's what i did and 2 wake boarding boats coming out of the channel were concerned enough about my speed and directions that they both went WELL wide of me
i didn't look that much out of control i hope
around the other side of the island and the white caps were still forming so it was back upwind with just the mylar main and jib. spent a little too much time in the main hull during 1 tack and must have rounded around to a broad reach as suddenly the leeward ama was a full foot underwater!
fortunately the weta beams are like arms in a press up positions so there wasn't a huge amount of drag and i had plenty of time to steer back up to close hauled and scamper back up the tramp and find a seat just behind the stay
from there you are actually further out than if you were on trapeze from the hull
back up to the head of the lake while the wind was still good and then my first long crazy drag downwind under spin
all in all a great learning day and i think future owners of bigger tri's like the multi23, farriers and cosairs wcouldn't go wrong by spending some time building confidence and skills on these baby tri's before splashing out on the bigger sisters. certainly it was less intimidating that soloing my slightly faster but almost twice as heavy nacra 5.2 in similar conditions
found a july2009 video of a guy blasting through auckland harbour on his weta, every now and then you see the plumb amas doing some wave piercing
http:/
anyone know of a weta dedicated owners group or forum yet?
Nice write up... glad you enjoyed the ride. We have a couple here and they look amazingly fun in 30knots (and less i must admit)
I guess you can count that as your first spin run,... but there is still a big difference using a monster asymmetrical beast...
There is a Weta forum over on Yahoo Groups.
I took my first extended ride on one a couple of weeks back with owner on board (at my insistance!).
My impressions...great little craft. Took me quite some time to adjust my steering response coming off the Tornado. The Weta felt quite sensitive on the helm...more like I would expect a small dinghy/laser to steer like. The T tracks well and while the helm only needs fingertip control and is well balanced, I found myself constantly over steering the Weta. Boat would turn up/down so freely compared to the T. This made finding & staying in the fast groove quite challenging.
I found the gennaker sheet loading to be quite high with only the one auto-ratchet block setup. This made hand holding for more than a few minutes at a time quite difficult. Loading on the hand seemed higher than we get on the tornado in similar breezes (we run two ratchets...one auto load sensing, one manually switched...per side in 10+ knots). I would definitely look at adding a second ratchet on the weta setup (might violate the class rules though...could lobby the class for this option).
We saw a best speed on the gps of low 12 knots. Not bad for 10 kts wind and two big guys on board.
Mike.
Thank's for that info, our club has just purchased its first one to run off the beach sailing for the disabled correctly titled
Sailability
and I'm the rescue boat driver for that. What are your thoughts regarding righting and returning people to the Weta?