I first submitted this article on NACRA for publication in Wikipedia in the Aug of 2016. It took a lot of updates and editing, and three or four failed submissions, to finally get it approved. I'm hoping that some people here at the forums might be interested in it, or have additional knowledge to help improve the article now that it's up.

The "Hobie Cat" article linked in the first paragraph is also in need of TLC from beach cat experts.

Here's the link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACRA_(sailing)





Edited by dr0 on Jan 01, 2018 - 07:36 PM.

Cool. First thing I noticed is the 18 square is listed as have 2 for race crew. It's a solo boat.

It says the company was launched with the 5.2 but technically a handful of Big NACRA 36's were made and then the 18 square was the next boat they made. At first it had 17 foot hulls which later became the hulls for the 5.2. Then a few years later they took the boat to the max allowable length of 18'. Then they used those hulls for the 5.5 Uni and then 5.5 sloop.

So the 18 square with 18' hulls probably did come after the 5.2 but the technical intro year for the first square should before the 5.2.

Also, is the beam on a 5.2 really 8.2 feet? All the stuff I'm seeing just says 8'.

Heres a few random articles from an old book from the 70's I have. Just to add some information.







Edited by tamumpower1 on Jan 02, 2018 - 03:24 PM.

dr0

I first submitted this article on NACRA for publication in Wikipedia in the Aug of 2016. It took a lot of updates and editing, and three or four failed submissions, to finally get it approved. I'm hoping that some people here at the forums might be interested in it, or have additional knowledge to help improve the article now that it's up.

I know those are a lot of work to setup with all the markup and citations required, congrats on getting it published.

Matt, have you seen this flyer for the 5.5 based Nacra 18 Square? I thought I had a memory that Nacra marketed this boat with the name Coyote, but maybe not.



--
Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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DamonLinkous

Matt, have you seen this flyer for the 5.5 based Nacra 18 Square? I thought I had a memory that Nacra marketed this boat with the name Coyote, but maybe not.

Yea I saw that on the site. It's a little weird. It says 5.5 but shows a picture and beam specs for the square. I love how it says its 330lbs when my boat has had 15-20lbs taken off it and weighed 375 when I got it. 330 might be right if you dont include the daggers or rudders lol.

Coyote was another square manufacturer that I believe was in California like nacra was at the time.



Edited by tamumpower1 on Jan 03, 2018 - 01:39 AM.

tamumpower1

I love how it says its 330lbs when my boat has had 15-20lbs taken off it and weighed 375 when I got it. 330 might be right if you dont include the daggers or rudders lol.

Yea, "it's advertising", just like there has never been a Hobie 18 that weighed just 400 lbs.


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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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good info on the Nacra page too that could be added

http://www.nacra-na.com/about-us.html

The Nacra Story
(California) 1968, Geoff Prindle decides to get into catamarans. That year he founded Surfglas with his partner, Sterling Santley. He really got into the catamaran scene heavily and placed second at the USA nationals.



1971, Prindle 16 goes into production - light, strong and fast. The Prindle could cut smoothly throgh the water because of its fine bow entry and was not as susceptible to pitch poling as other similar designs.


All Rights Reserved.

For more info call: 608 628-9590

NACRA, Empowering sailors since 1975

Nacra proven and tested Olympic 17 Mixed catamaran


Two years straight, the boat won the "Most Efficient Catamaran Trophy" award at the Pacific Multihull Association's World Speed Trials. 1972, NACRA started out as an Alpha cat beside Prindle. The first boat was the Alpha 18 and then the Alpha 15, which was a single handed boat and went on to sail in the One of a Kind regatta in Newport Beach. Within this time frame, Tom Roland made a 18 foot cat that became the Nacra 18 square.



1975, Performance Cat Inc. came up with the NACRA 36 to promote the North American Catamaran Racing Association which is where the name NACRA came from. A 36 foot speed machine did lots of promotion and is still going strong. The NACRA 5.5 was born as a one up cat. NACRA in the early 80's developed the 5.0 to also sell cats in the recreational market and this was quickly followed by the 5.7 and 5.8.



1985, Roy Seaman made all the original NACRA hull plugs and also developed the 6.0 to be the ultimate boat especially for the Worrell 1000 Extreme race. The NACRA 6.0 won this race numerous times. The first NACRA 6.0's had a self tacking jib and spinnaker. At the end of the eighties the 5.5 rig was changed into a sloop.



1996, The formula 18 class was growing in Europe so NACRA launched the Inter 18. For the NACRA Inter 20, it was only a matter of time. Once in production, they were sometimes sold by the dozen. By now, importers and NACRA dealers all over the world were distributing NACRA catamarans an NACRA was super successful in racing and recreational sailing cats.



The 21st century - judge for yourself where the history of NACRA has led us to today. NACRA supplies boats and parts in large numbers through it's well established dealer network around the world. Whatever type of NACRA you might be interested in, we will always supply you with the best product available.



In May of 2012, NACRA reach the highest possible standard when it was chosen by elite sailors of the world as the exclusive Olympic Mulithull. We will soon witness how the NACRA 17 will shine during the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Jaineiro, Brazil in 2016.



In 2015, NACRA will celebrate its 40th YEAR anniversary!

dr0

I first submitted this article on NACRA for publication in Wikipedia in the Aug of 2016. It took a lot of updates and editing, and three or four failed submissions, to finally get it approved. I'm hoping that some people here at the forums might be interested in it, or have additional knowledge to help improve the article now that it's up.

The "Hobie Cat" article linked in the first paragraph is also in need of TLC from beach cat experts.

Here's the link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACRA_(sailing)

Edited by dr0 on Jan 01, 2018 - 07:36 PM.

This is awesome stuff... thanks.. wish I had the time to do something like this.. Do me a favor mate... PM your contact info.. I run into Tom Roland and/or Roy Seaman from time to time at one of our local events... I'll see if I can put you two together..



Edited by JohnES on Jan 03, 2018 - 11:30 AM.

--
John Schwartz
Ventura, CA
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Splendid article on the history on NACRA and I missed this when published in 2018. I hope the Wiki article can continue to be updated and maintained. Thanks.

--
Tom
NACRA 5.7 (1984 Sail 181)
Pennsylvania
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