The other week (2026.03.11) we became the new owners of a 1993 Mystere 6.0 (8.5' beam) that requires a lot of TLC.
This page will document all the work that I'll be putting into this cat, and any questions I may have for other Mystere/Nacra owners -- specifically about the decks that both brands are somewhat similar in construction.
Once I make more floor space in the shop, I'll put both hulls (sans beams) on some dollies.
Yeah, she's a dirty little girl:
I've found that the tops of the centerboard trunks are not well attached to the decks. The sides of the trunks seem to be detached from the underside of the decks. Plus, a previous owner appears to have tried to cover up some gelcoat cracks with more gelcoat on the deck seams. Which leads me to think that there are plenty of leaks going on below all that mess.
But the first thing before trying to pry off the decks would be to remove the aluminum trampoline support track/rails. Simple, right? Merely drill-out the rivets holding the aluminum track down to the decks. Maybe not so simple.
I saw a page on FB detailing the transformation of a M6.0 into a trimaran. Anyway, one photo made me think that the aluminum extrusions are not merely riveted down. Check it out:
"https://www.facebook.com/people/Trimaran-%C3%A0-partir-dun-mystere-60/100063559689415/"
The extrusions might be bonded in place with something like 3M 5200, or some other type of polyurethane adhesive.
Any ideas on a method of removing these aluminum extrusions that likely cannot be replaced if I bend them?!?
Thanks.
Ps. I'm still diligently working on the F18 C2.... I'll update that page soon.
Ha! Last night, looking around my shop for implements of destruction, I had forgotten that I have an old can of DeBond on the shelf that I had used eons ago. It's almost gone and has very little pressure. I'll have to get my hands on a new can of the stuff.
Good News!
I contacted Yannick Sansoucy of Mystere Composites at yannick@voilesansoucy.com the other day about new standing rigging and a new trampoline. He responded the next day!
So yes, all that is available.
...AND! The previous owner of the Mystere called me this morning indicating that he found the bridle wires! Awesome!
I'm kinda interested in the idea of getting some synthetic standing rigging made for the Mystere, as per Mike Krantz indicated that he could provide for my F18 last November. Lighter weight up top!
That is good news...thanks for sharing. I may soon be somewhat involved with finding a new home for a friend's Mystere 4.3 (that needs a trampoline if nothing else) and was wondering if Mystere Composites was still kicking these days.I contacted Yannick Sansoucy of Mystere Composites at yannick@voilesansoucy.com the other day about new standing rigging and a new trampoline. He responded the next day!
That is good news...thanks for sharing. I may soon be somewhat involved with finding a new home for a friend's Mystere 4.3 (that needs a trampoline if nothing else) and was wondering if Mystere Composites was still kicking these days.
I've heard that the M4.3 is a really fun, fast and cool little cat.
Mike Fahle had imported a bunch of them (around 60 units?) for Ohio area sailors in 2001, many OCRA sailors purchased them. They are far faster and more fun than the H13/F13/wave, are lighter-weight, and were less expensive likely due to Mike's huge efforts as well as not having the big, expensive 'H' on the sail. Bonus... the M4.3 is a higher quality, more technically-demanding cat that derives more fun and excitement compared to the plastic hobie.
There we go again, stepping on those wave sailors' toes. Cat Scratch Bad!
Why not get that M4.3 back into trim and sail her rather than sell her?!
https://mystereowners.wordpress.com/
Kinda looks like the racing class has hit a wall, sadly. Such a cool little cat.
I'm pretty sure this Mystere 4.3 came from the Ohio area via John Williams (AKA Little John) when he lived in FL. It's indeed a cool, fast, and versatile boat. Anyone who knows John knows he's an accomplished sailor...he could really make that thing go. My friend has a million different hobbies, interests, and projects at any given time and a yard full of rolling stock (campers, trailers, vans, etc.). Sailing just isn't on the list anymore, and The Boss says it's time for something to go. Hoping to get another nearby sailor on it at our local club.
Good news!
Larry (the previous owner) found and sent the lost bridle wires! Received yesterday!
So... today is standing rigging measuring, mast raising and sail-bending day! Woo Hoo!
I better get on it!
P.s. Larry has been in the hospital for the last week or so...
He is a very interesting guy with many, many sailing miles under his belt in many types of craft, BIG and small... his wife Karen too.
Please pray/wish for these two sailors well in your own way.
I'm pretty sure this Mystere 4.3 came from the Ohio area via John Williams (AKA Little John) when he lived in FL. It's indeed a cool, fast, and versatile boat. Anyone who knows John knows he's an accomplished sailor...he could really make that thing go. My friend has a million different hobbies, interests, and projects at any given time and a yard full of rolling stock (campers, trailers, vans, etc.). Sailing just isn't on the list anymore, and The Boss says it's time for something to go. Hoping to get another nearby sailor on it at our local club.
Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16
Clinton, Mississippi
Jerome, I looked-up that boat ad in the classifieds here and confirmed that is was my first Mystere 4.3 which I sold to John Williams a few months before we got the 2002 boats delivered; John could not wait for the new boats for some forgotten reason, so I sold him mine and got one of the new ones. I made the jib pictured in the ad, so that was a surprise to see that it is still with the boat since that was a long time ago. I did a lot of sail (and forestay) development that first year which led to a much faster mainsail which I gave to Yves Sansoucy so that he could make the new ones like it which were included with the 2002 boats and then he offered that faster mainsail to the 2001 boat owners at cost (John got one and it is with the boat in the ad, also) so that all the boats could be equally fast. We did a lot of racing for the first 10 or 12 years in Ohio (OCRA) and it was a lot of fun and it really developed our spinnaker handling for the big boats.
Mike Fahle
I'm not sure to which ad you are referring. The boat here in my area has the lime(?) green graphics and is named "Two Over Easy" (by John, I presume).Jerome, I looked-up that boat ad in the classifieds here
I found some good info on the old mystereowners.wordpress.com site but not an owner's manual or such. Was there ever one published? Any idea about parts availability these days?
We'll figure it out one way or the other. Helped the new owner pull the boat out of the weeds and get it to his home yesterday. He already has an F-18, but this one will be great for him to take out when crewless....especially on big wind days. He's also hoping it will become the trainer boat for his grandchildren.
I'm not sure to which ad you are referring. The boat here in my area has the lime(?) green graphics and is named "Two Over Easy" (by John, I presume).
I'm not sure to which ad you are referring. The boat here in my area has the lime(?) green graphics and is named "Two Over Easy" (by John, I presume).
Hi Jerome, Apparently, there is not an ad for the boat you are referring to - the one I found on this site I got to by typing "Mystere 4.3" into the Search function at the head of the Classifieds section. That is actually my old 2002 boat. The 2001 boat had a green decal down the side for the length of each hull. I assumed that you had put an ad for that boat on here since you described being involved in helping your friend get rid of it. The ad for the one I found on here is dated 2023 so it probably was sold some time ago but is still listed. In any case, now I know the whereabouts of both of my old boats, at least as of 2023. I have not looked at the Mystere 4.3 website for a few years but everything about the boats was stored there, so read through that when you get the time. It is as close to a manual as there is.
Mike Fahle
@ekimelhaf Thanks, Mike. I know you put a ton of work into the class!
Hey Mike....
I've been throwing around the idea of converting the M6.0 to an M6.0XL (10ft beam).
What kind of tilt trailer did you use to transport your M6.0XL? Any details?
Thanks!
@cat-scratch I never used a tilt trailer as I learned that they had many disadvantages. We always traveled with the boat disassembled and then put it back together at the regatta site. It would take about 3 hours to do that and about 2 1/2 hours to get ready to travel again after the regatta. It was probably only a difference of 2 hours over the times for the standard width and it eliminated buying and using a tilt trailer (I had the parts for both widths). I purchased an aluminum snowmobile trailer with a custom length tongue for boat trailer usage many, many years ago and used that for all of my boats. It has also been used to haul lumber and everything else I have needed to completely rebuild my lakefront decks and seawall as well as several friends' various hauling projects so it was a very good decision. By spending some more time with the boat at the regatta sites, we often would be able to "visit" with our racing friends as we set-up and took-apart the boat, so it really was not so bad and it saved a lot of money on better fuel economy and travel stress than what the tilt trailer arrangement would have produced. BTW, the trailer still looks great and I have only had to replace the marine ply deck twice in all those years and the tires only once, even with lots of mileage. The axle is a torsion bar with the wide tires and it helps a lot to produce a good ride with various loads and works better on softer surfaces.
I am interested in this boat. Does it have a trailer? Does it have beach wheels? Does it have anything else besides what is listed? What condition is it in? Do you have any other photos showing close-ups of the hulls, trampoline, etc.? Any other info like when was it last sailed? Thanks, Mike
Thanks Mike!
I've been looking for examples of tilt-trailering M6.0XL's, and the pictures and vids I've found make it all appear kind of sketchy, with an overall height of about 10' or so. Traveling like that with a tramp in place as a sail would be stressful.
My M6.0 came with wings, but the wing platform design is not without glaring problems and also requires re-welding, probably bigger diameter compression tubes substituted in as well. Maybe a whole new design. Looks as if someone could easily have been injured while trapping on the things if a wing pivoted inwards on the main wing bolts.
I need to re-stitch the tramp, and/or get Yannick to make a new tramp. I think the old tramp may last a summer if it's re-stitched.
Time to get the ol' behemoth Consew triple-stitch machine out and purring.
Welding, stitching, grinding, 'glassing, gelcoating, longboard sanding, polishing......... Sailing a boat brought back to life = priceless!
So ok... let's continue on our path of getting this lil' beastie of a cat back into the water.
The other day I raised the mast to address any possible rigging-length issues, sails, etc.
It was a little fun since I didn't have the trampoline on.... I was a little concerned about the tramp letting go with the leverage of the mast on me on the ol' tramp with skeptical stitching conditions, so the tramp was removed.
The hulls were on the ground, two aluminum folding benches to stand on in place of the tramp, but much lower than what the tramp would offer.
Crew was on a line attached to the forestay. Directions before the action were provided and thought to be clear enough. Guess not.
I powered up the mast on the narrow benches and then at about a 70 degree angle to the horizon, it just stopped it's upward travel.
"PULL, PULL, PULL!" I yelled to the crew.
Nothing....as the mast started swinging to one side of the boat!!
"P U L L !!!"
Finally!
Good thing I pointed the cat on a slight downward slope. That helped keep the mast up without giving the crew much to worry about once the mast was vertical.
She thought that I had said 'Pause!' What?!? 🤣
Yes. I'm Batman.
Anyway.
I tried out the trapeze lines.... make sure they're good and ready.
Got the sails up!
But couldn't get the dang halyard hook disengaged from the halyard ring. Gotta modify this ring a bit, more like my F18 C2's.
So had to flip the cat. We did this all the time with the P18 and H18 for adjusting battens prior to sailing, with relative ease... but this cat is another kind of animal to flip onto it's side.
I think the halyard's attachment on the ring is too high, and therefore doesn't allow for enough hoist of the ring to clear the hook.
Ok. Gotta get on with repairing the cat.
So now we get to lower the mast.... without the aid of a tramp. Not going to trust the multiple bench scenario again.
Yesterday I fabbed some gallows out of 10' long 2" PVC pipe, then fabbed-up a gin pole from some 2x2" x 12' aluminum stock I had collecting dust since 2011. Finally, a good use for it!
I welded on a shaped aluminum foot for the mast end of the gin pole, and padded it with some epoxied-on pvc that I thermo-formed to fit the mast. Welded a 0.5" ID aluminum 7075 tube for secure lashing to the mast base. That old busted-up hang glider that I crashed down through trees from 200 ft above a mountain a few years ago came in handy yet again. 😆
This is the second time I started to lower the mast.... first time the winch strap was just too short and the mast ended up about three feet above the gallows. So, raised the mast back up, and added a longer forestay extension to the gin pole.... that did the trick.
Everything worked far better than I had expected. Always nice to be pleasantly surprised after expectations are kept low, with detailed planning and double checking.
The gallows poles are about 13' long, with a 3rd leg support of 10', all lashed together at the apex, which is roughly 9 ft above the ground.
Base triangle width is 8' secured by rope. I rigged a simple line-retraction system so that my feet wouldn't become tangled while folding the contraption and trip again and land on my face on concrete. Oops. 😳 Broke the concrete. 🤣
Ok.... Enough horsing around, Doug. Time to work on getting this cat ready for it's first race on April 25th.... Warp Speed!
Next time we'll be....
Re-stitching the tramp!
Well, I'm not going to be able to race or sail the Mystere this coming weekend.
Too many little problems, and it's spring-time on the farm so lots of farm-work to be done as well.
But I did remove the hulls from the beams, placed the hulls upside-down on some roller-dollies, and then removed all the ~15 yr old painters tape on the starboard hull's bottom! Probably two hours consumed there. The heat gun and putty knife worked somewhat, then xylene removed the gummy residue.
I took the DA sander to the exposed 'glass keel to smooth it out for 'glassing in new reinforcement 'glass/epoxy.
From the looks of the keel structure, the hulls were laid-up in a half-shell configuration, then adhered together with some sort of light-weight bondo-type of adhesive, then the seam was gelcoated. I haven't seen any evidence of any exterior 'glass tape as seam-reinforcement as the original construction. Likely why a lot of Mystere owners have commented on seeing center-line gelcoat cracks.
While rolling the hulls over, it sounded like a bunch of broken pieces of bondo were rolling around inside. That's gonna sound like two of those percussion instruments made of gourds with beads inside, while sailing in active conditions.
Cha cha cha!
Hmmm.... Decks will likely be coming off! Can't have a cha-cha cat. Nope.
I was hoping just to brush on some neat epoxy on the exposed 'glass surfaces that the previous owner had exposed to seal any crevices from water, at least very temporarily until I could do a proper job of it. Then re-stitch the trampoline, put it all back together, and go racing this coming weekend, just to get a good feel for the cat. Then get the F18 C2 sailing and tear the Mystere back down to do the job properly.
Like I said... ain't gonna happen.
So what's the plan now for the M6.0?
I'll likely grind off a bit more of the gelcoat adjacent to the keel line to give a little more surface area to bond some 1708 'glass/epoxy to. Vacuum bagging it all down is the surest method of perfectly wrapping the 18-oz glass around the sharper keel and stem corners. It's still going to be a little tricky getting the 'glass and bagging materials to conform to the corners before the vacuum is turned on. Maybe.
Maybe not.... a nice little V-baggin' plan just popped into my noggin.... make everything like a pre-assembled 'pack' ('glass/epoxy + all vac-bagging materials) that is applied and taped-down all in one action. It should work well. Right?
After the keel reinforcements are in place, fair and sand, then gelcoat and sand. And sand. And sand. Then buff.
.... Or should I paint her?
Lately I have had a hankering for a reddish-orange color, maybe with some black accents. Hmmm.
I think she'll be a fun cat.
@cat-scratch Big job! Of course everything done on a boat will cost more and take longer than expected. LOL
Yeah, Damon.
But, I can do a little bit at a time. No big rush on this M6.0 cat, though I have a bit of a 'crush' on her. Don't really know why.
I've even been throwing around the idea of getting the 10' beams/tramp for her and rig her with composite rigging that I probably could make myself. But, that's my 'BIG' lake/ocean sailor in me thinking about this. Too bad nothing like those big conditions are within a couple hours' drive right now. And with an active farm with livestock, it's kinda hard to think about taking a few days to drive six hours to the coast and play.
I'll likely just stick to the ol' 8.5' beam and eventually try rigging up some robust wings. The wings that came with the boat and their design are quite suspect, with cracking aluminum welds and poor geometry for supporting a full crews' weight, and especially poor for trapezing unless reinforced and the attachments to the beams are redesigned. More-simplistic wings fabbed from CF tubes might be an option. Something along the lines of the Hobie wings for the Fox/Tiger/FX-One. Welding aluminum is always suspect if it's not post-weld heat-treated.
(example pix's)
I like the angled/curved aft part of the wings for blasting downwind with a kite.
I'm kinda liking these wings shown on a couple of H-Tigers. Maybe with a locking mechanism that keeps the wings down, but also allows the leeward wing to be lifted a bit for less wave interference.
Though, simple, light-weight wings like on an 'eighteen' skiff (using my best Aussi accent) would work well, too.
This M6.0 will likely make for a good long-distance race boat. Especially in a 10' beam configuration. Yeah, that's on the 'bucket list.'
She's a lot lighter-weight than I had imagined. I haven't weighed the hulls yet, but I'm betting they're lighter than the F18 C2's hulls, merely by man-handling them around individually. The mast is most definitely heavier than the F18's even though it's only about 1.25' longer. M6.0's mast is thicker extruded aluminum, but much shorter major-axis of the foil section with similar minor-axis width.
What I REALLY need to do is to clear out a larger space in the workshop so that I can have both the M6.0's and the F18's hulls on dollies ready for any free time that I steal to work on one or the other. That's what I really need to accomplish in the next few days!
Ok....work work work.... I'm out'a here!
Ok.... here's a cool Lake Erie Race that I've always thought would be fun. Of course these are a figment of my desires since no one else has ever made these public, as far as I know. But, I've sailed all parts of these courses in a variety of boats of ours.
Navigation is fun through these islands, and there are some areas with rock out-croppings and sandy shoals, but most of the dangers have small light towers on them. A hand-held plotting GPS would be absolutely necessary, as well as comms.
CRAM sailors would be somewhat within driving distance.
It would be cool to have just a scheduled 'impromptu' race rather than all the hullabaloo and crazy price-tags of entry-fees, etc, just for a friendly race. Plus, Dock's beach is a great place to launch/land a cat, and the restaurant is decent enough for cat sailors to relax and shoot the shiit with libations. I'm betting the restaurant owners would love some colorful beach action to attract more patrons.
Just some crazy thoughts.....
It'd be a long drive for me from down in Northern NC. But it would be worth it just for the fun experience.
Whadya all think?
Ok, Ok.... Here's another possible race/cruise.... let's call it a 'Bragging Rights Cruise'.... you know, it's not really a 'race,' just a 'cruise' among competitive, close friends. BYOI... Bring your own insurance.
Possible starting points:
Nor'Banks Watersports in Duck, NC. They've hosted other multihull races/raids, and I think Hardy Peters of East Coast Sailboats, Inc. was promoting those past events. I haven't seen any 'race' events for the past couple years, though. Kinda appears that they're more into power sports these days.
So the start *could be* at Nor'Banks, then sail South, under the Wright Memorial Bridge and then round Point Harbor for a long, 45-mile beat sailing West.
Then make a right turn into Edenton, round a buoy, then head on back on the downwind leg.
This 'cruise' would be *only* 120 miles.
Of course, there's a second starting option.... starting at the *Sound Park*, located in Point Harbor just a quarter mile or so SE from Hardy Peter's East Coast Sailing World Headquarters. Nice park, but don't believe there are any beaches there.... so you might want to bring along an anchor and buoy (fender) to anchor your cat at the finish, or just get her on the trailer, quickly.
Same halfway point, so the cruise would only be 105 miles. We'll call it the 'Albemarle BR Cruise 100.'
It's quite rare that the Albemarle Sound doesn't have nice winds.
I crewed on a friends 31' monoslug racer/cruiser for the Colington-Edenton race back in 2010 or so. The winds started easy from the SE at about 6-7 knots late morning with the chute up.... life was too easy. Then it picked up very nicely from noon through the finish in the early morning of the next day. Oddly, it was a very broad reach on the Westerly leg, that turned into a nice reach to close-reach in the early afternoon that lasted throughout the remainder of the race. Too bad we lost our mast just past the Albemarle Sound Bridge on the return leg sailing East. That was fun.
The owner and I went out the day before the race-start in 25-30 knots of pressure, 100 degrees F. to tune the boat. I noticed a strange bend in the top half of the mast and tried to even out the cap shroud tensions to no avail. Worked great in those winds, though. But when it came crashing down during the wee hours (about 2am, ~16 hrs into the race), the winds were at least 25 knots and the skip (not the owner) was pushing it. He was told that the mast may not take harsh punishment before the race. I'm pretty sure that he cranked on the aft stay to get the forestay and jib luff nice and tight. Oh well. Not his mast. Not his boat.
Anyway. This could be a cool 'event,' racing or merely 'cruising,' depending upon insurance BS, or the lack thereof.
There's yet another option that I kinda like.... only 65 miles round trip, but with a restaurant/bar stop in Elizabeth City at the half-way point.
There's a nice park with a boat ramp.... and a big grassy area. Just would need someone to transport a couple of Cat Trax to roll the cats up and onto the grassy area. Nice restaurants and stuff in Elizabeth City.... lots of cruisers that transit the Intercoastal Waterway stop in Elizabeth City for some R&R.
I like playing cheap. Back in the 1990's, races were very inexpensive -- almost free, other than the time and gas to get around, maybe $20 at most for the entry fees.
Today, seems like it's normal to be paying $100 - $300 for an entry fee. Sometimes more. Someone's making out.
Here's a pic of my tilt trailer that I built for my 10ft wide Nacra 20. I towed it all over the country in all kinds of conditions and never experienced any sketchy issues. Lot's of times I also carried my a-cat on the roof rack if we were doing back-to-back regattas.
I built it using a large pontoon boat frame as the base, and fabbed everything else together with off the shelf parts.
It had gas struts to take the load raising/lowering.
If you remember, what gauge of steel beams did you use for the lifting sections? I'm guessing they are 2"x2" stock. 0.125" thickness?
Thanks!
And once you build it. Send over a basic geometry drawing to easylift.com, they will spec out the strut and attachment points for you.
Mike
Been a while since I posted anything new on the Mystere 6.0 refit.
I decided I had better get the trampoline squared away by re-stitching the whole thing. The original polyester thread is rotten. Easily fails with just a little finger-nail scratching! Pretty sure it was tex 90 polyester thread. I measured it with calipers and compared to new tex 90 polyester thread it measures about the same.
I perused SLO sailmaker's trampoline construction offerings, and they indicate that they use tex 135 thread in either polyester or Gore Tenara PTFE threads, the Tenara option being the best option (lifetime thread!) with a commensurate price.
I haven't used my Consew 199R 3A since around 2002, back when I was sewing and re-stitching yacht sails... it's been well-mothballed since moving the household and boats multiple times. I opened her up from her encasement and her deep, long slumber last week and everything was in perfect order.... a little oily, but good!
So the other day I receive an 8-oz spool of Aruvo PTFE tex 90 (Denier 1350) along with a good bunch of needles in case the machine's timing needs a bit of re-tuning.
Yeah, no wonder SLO demands a higher price for stitching tramps with PTFE thread.... it's not the easiest stuff to get the machine stitching happily and consistently, plus the thread is over three times as much $$$ as UV resistant polyester thread. Most of the time it's around six times as expensive if you purchase from most retailers like, um, Sailrite. Sailrite will gladly overcharge you for everything they sell.
This Aruvo PTFE thread is extremely slippery stuff! But also quite tough to cut. And I swear that it has much higher tensile strength than what it's rated at 12-16 lbs.
So after some time of tuning, re-tuning, and re-re-tuning the timing on this triple-stitch ziggy-zag Consew 199R-3A (R is for RACE!) and breaking a few needles, she began humming right along like a well-oiled sewing machine. Hmmm. Yeah.
No, she doesn't have a walking-foot. Dang. But she happily hums right along with a little care by her operator.
Yeah, I gotta re-sew the WHOLE tramp -- every single seam. The tramp material looks very good, but the original stitching is.... falling apart at the seams.
Now here's something for your viewing pleasure....
The inverted Mystere 6.0 hulls in the background, waiting for their turn in the re-fit process.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing that.
Coincidence that I have the same Consew, only white color and I swapped out the original motor for a servo motor and different pulley to slow it down and increase the torque. Made a huge difference when sewing the tramp of my 21se. I had the same problem with the ptfe thread- spent 3, 2 hour sessions trying to get the damned stuff to sew. I think I ended up with a ridiculously high top tension and still had issues here and there. Biggest was keeping the feed rate constant with the huge, heavy tramp and the non walking foot. No way to get the presser foot tension right to feed that much by itself.
Something that worked really well for me is to get those fold out, 6 foot plastic tables from Wally World and set the height of your sewing table to match. Then you have a slippery surface with a huge outfeed and infeed that you can fold up and put away. I came across several from a friend and now I can cover most of my garage as a loft or use them for parties in the back yard.
Who are you using for suppliers? I’ve been happy with Wawak, Seattle and go to Sailrite for a few specialty things but get needles elsewhere. Using those gold colored, sharp higher quality ones (sorry forget the German sounding name) made sail repairs and tramp sewing way easier.
Keep it coming-man, I’d sure like to take a swing at building a sail sometime, but that five letter word gets in the way of what’s important…
Chuck