WOW

nice lines, good stiff beams... pretty boat, even from that angle.

Great advertisement for catamarans!

..talking about a wind shift..

...is that the driver,...the little red speck in the water next to starboard bow?

Now there is a picture to build up my confidence in my new A-Class! I better learn quickly! I heard today that my mast has arrived at the dealer!

Those A-Class boats are really LIGHT, eh?

I hope the mast survived

Looks photoshopped to me. The hulls are way to high up in the air, they are also extremely bright for the lighting.

It does look a little fishy, what's the story on this pic, anyone know?
Robi, why is your blade down for the count?

Trey
N20 314
Layline Rigging
www.velocitysailing.com

I don't think so. I think the funny color of the hulls are a result of the color correction and brightness change to the digital image. The splashing and water being thrown about is all consistent in frame speed (i.e. right amount of blurriness).

I suspect that the cat just took a dramatic nose dive, the skipper flew off (and forward) and the 165lb A-cat popped back up out of the water like a cork and the wind propelled it forward. The sail angle is right, the hiking stick is right, the sailor in the water is right, the splashing angles and timing is right....me thinks it's real.

Besides, where how would you find a picture of a catamaran at that angle from which to begin photoshopping?

Fake. (photoshopped)

1) Look at the port hull and how it is larger, closer than starboard hull. Now look at the angle of the mast.

2) The amount of tripping force required would send the lee bow much farther down into the water.

3) Look at the forces applied to the other boat!

GARY

I looked at the image a long time before I decided it was real. When boats pitchpole they do "pop out" sometimes. Ive seen it happen to Hurricane 5.9. The shadow looks right for the sail, as said above the boom looks right. The helm is in the right (wrong) position, the tiller is in the right place.

When I looked at your photoshop, I could tell instantly it was a fake, the lighting is wrong for starters.

Dear All, The photos are real they are from the French A class
site, training with Glenn Ashby. http://www.afcca.org/

Agree - look at the water coming from the port bow - it definitely just popped out of the water and judging from the water coming off the trampoline and such, I assume the boat was really deep at one point. I've had a cat get airborn like that before on me (a Nacra 6.0) and there were witnesses.

I found the image in the gallery (good lord what a lot of flashy stuff going on there!). I couldn't figure out how to view the entire image, but here's the less adulterated version of the image:

Is it just me or do the rudders look odd?

About as Photoshopped as this.......

See attached

Jake,
On the French website pictures, if you place your arrow over the file name an option to open the file in a popup window is displayed.

This chap has broken the golden rule of sailing A's, never ever let go of the boat, the boat will drift faster than you can swim, but I’d say he had no choice.
Regards

everytime I see that T pitch picture, I cringe. Dude is about to get bridles to the ribs

And encounter a few days of pain!

As far as staying connected to the boat, I wonder if anyone can use a surfers leash?

I don't know; look at the shadows on the water. Seems legitimate to me...

These A cats are not like my TheMightyHobie18 magnum.

Wyatt

Now that's what I call A pitch pole. Couldn't resist.

I'm gonna have to agree with Jake. I do digital imaging for a living and can usually spot a fake. I think the angles are right, the port hull looks bigger but that's just the slight difference in perspective due to the beam width. And with a fake you can usually spot some aliasing around the placed image. Also I've done pretty much the same thing on a hobie 20 second day of steeplechase '03 with 18 - 20 knts of wind (I know 'cause when the crew and I walked in knee deep water back to the boat, the bows had never touched bottom but that starboard daggerboard sure had!) so If a 400 lb boat can do it so can a 165 lb'er.

That's Forbes flying through the air. He came out of it ok but Bundy struck something on the way down and injured his arm..... Just before heading to Europe to start the season there. Took quiet a bit of physio before he started.

I/we did something similar in SFBay in middle 70's on a Sailcraft of Canada T w single trap-no spin. No pics but two witnesses stated we were airborn. My crew landed out side the boat and I landed under the tramp and watched the boat turtle from the water. Dull story I'm still here...

thom