[quote=halfcat]Stress cracks can be anywhere, a lot depends on how carefully they've been taken care of. These boats were built to be light, some of the initial ones may have been a little too light but I don't have any hull numbers/years that I can point to, only observations from some people that have sailed in the class for a long time. We have probably the biggest fleet anywhere of Nacra 18s in NC, these guys chose the boat as a fleet and maintained a large number for many years but as cycles usually go the new trend is A-Cats. I would check the seams on the bottom of the hulls and the holes where the bolts connect that hold the straps for the crossbeams, these holes seem to crack and give up over time. The deck where the skipper sits to go out onto the trap is also where the hulls seem to be a little soft/under built, often resulting in leaking. Most of the boats around here have had a lot of inspection ports added and these ALWAYS leak.
I had a Nacra 18sqm and rebuilt the hulls and then sold it, my long term goal is to use an A-cat as a base and build an 18sqm from the hulls, 11' wide and a carbon mast, probably nacra 20 section and a spinnaker. Under Portsmouth we have an established rating for Nacra 18sq over 350 lbs and under, I think an A-Cat/18sqm w/ spinnaker could weigh about 225. I've been watching Whites Dragon on facebook and I like the work he did to the a-cat to reinforce the hulls and move the stress of the shrouds to the "frame" that he made w/ the crossbeams and the longitudinal additions, I think my A-Cat/18sqm would use a similar approach. My biggest concern w/ the A-cat platform is having enough buoyancy in waves to keep the boat moving since I'm bigger 100+kg and adding 40-50 lbs in reinforcing, crossbeams, more sail, more mast, spinnaker, etc may cause a lot of wave drag and slow the boat.[/quote]
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