I agree: Having to lay horizontal on a trapeze on a twitchy acat boat wouldn't be fun at this stage in my life. I do that now on the laser without trapeze using stomach muscles! The reason I don't take the laser out much. The super cats look interesting but are hard to find. I have fundamentals. It's movement on the boat, on any boat, that takes getting use to. (I sat two chairs facing each other and practiced, arm and hand movements moving back and forth from chair to chair simulating tacking to get use to laser etc. Lot easier than doing it in the boat... Being on a trapeze has its learning curve too, that I hope one day to master.
-- Goodsailing
Laser-Standard Rig (Sold 6/15)
H18 (Sold 7/15)
Building 19' Tacking Outrigger
Balt-Wash Area --
Actually the wave isn't that heavy, only about 250 lbs but its only 13 ft long. Where it really falls down is that it has less than half the sail area of a Nacra 5.0. The N5.0 is considered a little underpowered for a 16 ft boat...
Nice, at 58 seconds there is a demonstration of that it is possible to completely pitch-pole a Wave even with two aboard! I was watching the boat on the left nearly lose it and almost missed the Wave on the right slap it's mast in the water.
Cool video, but the wind is honking. If you're looking for a fast, exciting ride, you'd probably be better off looking at a different boat than the Wave, unless of course you have 15kt winds all the time.
We are having the Raven "Rookie" Race on July 11 in Va Beach, there is a sailing seminar on how to tune/setup/race your boat before the race. It's a great opportunity to ask questions and check out the other boats.
You can leave the boat with the mast up on the beach for the weekend if you want to. Let me know if you're interested and I'll email you the details.
I see 3 potential reasons for this;
A) you have 800lb of water in your hulls.
B) you have no idea of how to trim sails.
C) the wind was actually 5 kts.
There was a recent thread where a poster showed an H18 hull well up, with only 10kts wind, & two adults onboard.
Our N5.0 & 5.7 will fly a hull, & can be flipped in 9kts, The Mystere will fly one in 7.
Something is seriously wrong if a noob Cat sailor is bored in real 15kts,(17mph). On any decent water, 17mph equates to solid whitecaps.
-- Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap --
Wind was 14-15 mph. My bad. Only flew the main. Jib was furled. I was block to block, block in center. Full on for outhaul and full on for cunningham heading perpendicular to the wind and the hull did not rise. Is there any more trimming needed? Perhaps with jib deployed would have gotten there. We'll try again believe me.\
OH, no white caps. ?? not sure that would happen at 15kts. 70's boat, perhaps heavier than 80's models.
-- Goodsailing
Laser-Standard Rig (Sold 6/15)
H18 (Sold 7/15)
Building 19' Tacking Outrigger
Balt-Wash Area --
White caps form at approximately 12kts of wind on open water, and by 15kts you'll have significant white caps.
As Edchris said, my Nacra 5.7 easily flies a hull in anything over about 8kts when I'm solo. If I'm solo at 15kts of wind, I have to travel out and depower to keep from flipping the boat. It's a handful at 15, but still fun. At 20 you'd better REALLY be on your toes or you're going swimming.
Your 18 must be seriously overweight if you're having trouble flying a hull. One suggestion is to find a local truck scale and weigh your boat. Drive onto it with boat on trailer, once again with trailer empty, then figure out boat's weight. At least you'll have an idea of the boat's weight and we can go from there in figuring out what the problem is.
If there were no whitecaps chances are you were under 10 mph wind. Sound like you did everything possible to 'de power' your boat. If you want to fly the hull you need more sail shape! Less Cunningham less main sheet less out haul and full jib. Then you will be flying. If everything is super tight then your sail will be super flat and you will get very little lift.
Guess it really depends which way you are pointing.
Here's from the sheet you supplied. Fact is: I was in the water 3 hours on multiple tracks, with multiple sheet adjustments and the hull never left the water. Again, the jib was not deployed. Last week with crew, and wind the same, the hull never left the water. How lightweight are you guys? I was also not out on the trap.
Moderate Air
Main Mast rotation Point at leeward shroud.
Downhaul Tight (set with main sheeted normally).
Outhaul Bottom batten 0" to 1" draft.
Traveler Centered.
Mainsheet Tight.
Jib Luff Tension Just tight (set on beach with main sheeted for conditions, see above).
Traveler Near the rear of the traveler to open the slot.
Jib Sheet Tighter in smooth water - Ease in choppy water.
Tiller Steer so that leeward tell tale below H is flowing but on verge of stalling.
Balance Crew and skipper on windward hull and forward, boat level.
Notice: BOAT LEVEL
-- Goodsailing
Laser-Standard Rig (Sold 6/15)
H18 (Sold 7/15)
Building 19' Tacking Outrigger
Balt-Wash Area --