A friend gave me an old sail he said was from a 18 foot cat. The bag said it was called 'Ariel class'. There is no more boat, just a sail left and a few odds and parts. I laid it against our Solcat 18 main, it is about 18" taller, and extends a few inches beyond the end of the boom. Thinkiing it came from something about 20'. He said it had to be slanted on the trailer to be legal to tow.
Any clews?

could be off an 18m2 class cat.

they were very wide and limited to 18m2 sail area. just the main sail was used so that meant they were pretty big mains on tall masts

what's the bottom of the sail like?

the nacra 18m2 sail went all the way down to the tramp at the luff and then angled up just enough for the solo sailor to get across under the boom in tacks

do some searches for 18square

here's 1 site to start you off

http://www.geocities.com/mec_coleman/18square.htm

Are you sure that it is from a cat? The Ariel class was a one design started by Pearson Yachts in the early 60s.

http://www.pearsonariel.org/

the sail bag could easily be from another kind of boat, the give away if it is a cat sail would normally be that it has full length battens, for that size about 10

in which case you would normally roll it up

does the sail have any markings?

The Pearson Ariel wouldn't have a full batten main, but many racing mono hulls do.

My friend and his buddy sailed the boat, he said it was a cat. The logo on the sail is a lower case script "a". it is fully battened, looks like my sol cat sail but bigger. The foot comes out at 90 degrees from the luff, so I don't think it was intended to angle up, could be wrong on that though. The bag is a Neils Pride bag with "lickity split - ariel class - jib"

lower case script a...could it be an alpha?

if so it sounds like an 18foot alpha cat from about 1974

that's the boat that tom rolland made before the nacra 5.2, apparently it shares many parts with the early 5.2's so an alpha cat sail probably looks very similar to a 5.2 sail

there's an early 5.2 in the classifieds right now

have an old nacra add from way back when that shows some 5.2's on a beach with some alpha cats

the sails look to be; all white, loose-footed, 10 batten, elliot and patterson, less roach than a 5.2 (or any modern cat sail) and the boats look to be 10foot beam which might mean higher mast, taller sail and of course would have needed a tilt trailer



edited by: erice, Sep 10, 2009 - 11:45 PM

Thanks erice, I'll pass the info on to the guy that gave me the sail. It looks like it's in good shape, anyone want it?

pics on this site

http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=62453&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=62450&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

looks like in the alpha18 tom rolland worked out the sail plan etc. but wasn't happy with the hobie type hulls

the plumb bow hulls came the next year in 1975 with the 5.2 and it took the rest of the cat world 20 odd years to catch up

Hey,

I am interested in your alpha sail, as I have a 75 18' Tom Roland Alpha-Cat with a fairly worn out main sail... Please contact me at 303-941-5626

Brian

Matt,

Thanks for the sail, it looks great! The tapered foam battens that are in it are a very nice upgrade to what I had. Let me know if you have access to the rudders or dagger boards from that Alpha 18.

Thanks

Brian