Copyright TheBeachcats.com
News
[
|
News categories
| News archive
|
Submit an article
]
|
News categories
| News archive
|
Submit an article
]
Is a Fully Foiling Beachcat in Your Future?
After watching the Americas Cup last year and seeing the big 72 foot cats fly both hulls, many of us daydreamed about flying over the water on our own (smaller) catamarans.
Discuss this subject in the forum.
But the question was, is it possible? Will the technology "scale down" to the point that some manufacture would be willing to go into production with a fully foiling beach launched catamaran? We now have the first answer to that question with the Flying Phantom from Phantom International of Saint Lunaire, France.
This all-carbon 18x10 (see full specs at end of article) uses an simple yet ingenious set of foiling boards to reach claimed speeds of 30 knots (34 mph) already. These claims are made more believable since during the last Little Americas Cup the foiling C-Class catamaran Groupma C that dominated the competition used the same system and proved to be extremely fast and stable.
Here is the latest report from Phantom about their new flying boat.
FLYING PHANTOM: A ROCKET 2014 START
After a successful launch of the Flying Phantom One Design during the 2013 Paris Boat Show, Phantom International starts this new 2014 year with a high pace to ramp up the activity and prepare the future of the world’s first production foiling catamaran: sailing sessions to test, prepare and optimize the boat; a new website to present products, media and latest news; launch of the production of the first units and preparation of the Dusseldorf Boat Show.
Flashback on these last weeks with Gurvan Bontemps – Flying Phantom Test Pilot
“I’m very happy with the new boat, the one we presented during the Paris Boat Show and that is the first production unit. The last two weeks were dedicated to sailing sessions with the new One Design Flying Phantom. The 4 sailing sessions were very instructive in order to discover the boat: we have new mast, new foils, new sails and the boat is much lighter than the prototype boat.
We continuously optimized the settings and L-shaped foils and T-shaped rudders were validated. We experienced different conditions with a range of wind speeds from 6 to 20 kts including flat water and moderate sea.
The new boat exhibits more stability, as compared to our prototype without any impact on performance, furthermore
Hurricane 5.9 Nationals edition 26: “The Hurricane way of life”
Hurricane5.9 Nationals edition 26: “The Hurricane way of life” -- Weymouth Olympic course, GBR.
What better season finale for the Hurricane59 fleet, than GBR's pinnacle location Weymouth and the 2012 Olympic course…
Class secretary Maxine Oliver, organised a blinding combo of international quality racing facilities with social events to match. World class race officers, Olympic facilities, the band Super Massive, an RNLI benefit race night, Hog roast and more…. Did you see the prizes waiting for every competitor? Thanks to Typhoon, Hyde sails and AWSailboats J
The fleet however out shone all of this with a huge show of camaraderie and mutual support on 'big Sunday'….. This is really what Hurricane sailing and its sailors are all about, sail with us and you become part of the family…. It's the Hurricane way of life baby!! (By the way there are no secrets either, have you seen the tuning guide link below?)
Day1 Races 1-3:
Beautiful Weymouth bay, glorious sunny conditions and a 10knt offshore breeze greeted our contenders, in what turned out to be ''do or die" day for nationals 2013.
There was no chance for slow starters as competitors fought to make their mark on the score board in this soon to be truncated 4 race series, but no one knew that yet…
Nacra 17 World Championships 2013 (Wednesday)
The Hague, Wednesday July 24 -- Today was an excellent day of racing at the Nacra 17 Worlds just off the coast of The Hague.
Yesterday the blue fleet managed to sail two races, the yellow fleet none. So in order to get five results in each fleet the yellow fleet today had to sail five races and the blue fleet three. That was a challenge for the race committee, as well for the sailors in the yellow fleet. They had to stay focused all day and race five times.
But everything went well. There was enough wind, between 15 - 17 knots, all day. The committee started race after race. So at 6.30 PM all the boats were back on the beach. Tomorrow the 65 teams out of 24 countries will be sailing three races in the Gold (top 25) and three in the Silver fleet. First start will be at 10.30 AM.
The most trying part today again was the current, which at some points was about three knots. Not many sailors are used to this kind of current and struggled to beat up against it. After five races the Dutch team Mandy Mulder and Thijs Visser are in the lead with seven points. French Billy Besson and Marie Riou are in second place, also with seven points, but in the last race they were third and Mulder/Visser first.
Page 11 / 124 (31 - 33 of 370 Total)
