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Thread: Beach Cat in Singlehanded Transpac?

  1. #11
    pogen's Avatar
    pogen is offline Sailing canoe "Kūʻaupaʻa"
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    I'm not sure how easy it would be to right a turtled beach cat with sails up, in a seaway, especially including the weight of the required water, food, comms gear, etc. I'm sure it's physically possible, but would likely require a number of specific exemptions from the rules. A trimaran like an F-27, with an enclosed hull is of course an entirely different matter.

  2. #12
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    Never thought about trying to right an F-27, thought it wouldn't be possible without a lot of help. I also thought a F-27 would be a heck of a lot harder to turn over and therefore be safer than a monohull.

  3. #13
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    Your last thought flies in the face of years of sailing history. Most monohulls that turned turtle came back with the help of wave action...unless they had turned turtle due to loss of their keel. A few of the racing specialized exceptionally wide monohulls like to stay upside down once flipped...but they are harder to flip in the first place since their width gives them a lot of form stability and their heavy keel fights against overturning. Big multihulls have often flipped...they just don't return to an upright position on their own. I can see no way for a singlehander to right an F-27 or F-31 that had flipped. One reason that special sheet release systems are required of multihulls. Also why removable hull sections ("doors") are specified to enable escape from a flipped cat or tri. But, of course, up to the "point of no return" they are more stable that a monohull. Different strokes for.....
    In another vein, multihulls in the SHTP rarely have anyone to compete against, since there is really no fair handicap system, in my opinion, which would allow true competition between the types. I'm sure there are those who would argue that point, however.

  4. #14
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    Brian, I don't know if I am familiar with the design that you are referring to.

    Ryan Finn however is attempting to put together a Bieker-designed Proa to establish a solo non-stop NY to SF record, going east to west around Cape Horn in a proa. Ryan is one of my friends and a great inspiration to me. http://2oceans1rock.org/

    Thanks for your story about sailing a beach cat in hairy conditions. I just did a delivery from Hawaii to SF and constantly evaluated the sea state asking myself "would I want to be out here in a beach cat?". The answer was usually no, but for some reason i'm still drawn to the endeavor. This is the magic of SHTP - a bug light for weirdos.

  5. #15
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    Thanks for all of the other contributions to this thread, it's turned into an interesting read.

    thanks for your kind words Bob and I understand where you're coming from on bending rules, but I like the idea that Brian expressed of allowing exceptions if they're deemed to be seaworthy by a naval architect. Before setting out on an endeavor such as a beach cat SHTP, it would be probably be very wise to sit down with a respected naval architect and come up with a design and build strategy. that would be a neat process.

    Spot on as usual General. Flipping and not being able to right the boat are the single greatest concern of any ocean racing multihull and that will be an area of intense focus if i were to pursue this endeavor.

    multihulls are just so much faster than monohulls though and i'm beginning to really see that multihull light and become very drawn to them. approaching the SHTP from a poor man's perspective as I generally do, the beach cat is compelling to me because i think it may offer a realistic chance to be first to Hanalei (on a typical year with non Open 50's) in both the smallest and cheapest boat in fleet. i wonder, could a 21-foot Hobie purchased for a few thousand dollars and widened and re-inforced with a beefed-up rig and reefable main, reefable jib and a screecher and kite get to Hanalei first?

    auto sheet release systems could be neat to have, but not sure how feasible this would be. perhaps Brian B could help engineer one maxi-trimaran Lending Club 2 had an extremely cool set up called "Up Side Up", as in keeping the up side up! The system had about 4-5 knobs that would allow the user to plug in maximum angles of heel, acceleration, etc. When any user-input value was exceeded, the electronic box would activate a solenoid that shot air pressure out to two nipples that were under the rope as it was cleated in a cam cleat on both the main and gennaker sheet. boat heels too much = air pressure pushing nipple up and blowing both sheets. neat-o.

  6. #16
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    Some good thinking there, Ronnie. Seems to me that the sort of cats you're talking about are very light and therefore have the potential to be affected badly by some of the wind and sea conditions that can arise quickly in the open ocean. If you are awake and alert, I'm sure you could cope with most conditions when they come up. But one must consider that sleep is necessary and the speed at which the skipper must react might well be impossible to achieve. Double handed, one thing....but singlehanded...??? I would bet you could do it, but I think the odds would be against the bet.

  7. #17
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    my plan was manage my sleep so that i am easily woken by changing conditions and remain semi-awake for the entire trip. i pretty much did that on the Moore. by extending the hulls forward with more volume in the bows and an easily reefable sail plan and being widened with gear stowed on windward side, i think flip risk will be minimal, but if i go the beach cat route, i want to be fully set up to self-right if i go over.

  8. #18
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    I think the risk is more from digging the hulls in and pitchpoling, especially in a 0200 tradewinds squall. You can't even see those coming unless you have radar. More volume in the bows would help but 35 knots against a lightweight, unballasted boat is still 35 knots.

    Quote Originally Posted by ronnie simpson View Post
    Ryan Finn however is attempting to put together a Bieker-designed Proa to establish a solo non-stop NY to SF record, going east to west around Cape Horn in a proa. Ryan is one of my friends and a great inspiration to me. http://2oceans1rock.org/
    Some of us were sure the new Bieker proa would run away with the R2AK but even at the high level that project was conducted, they couldn't get the weight and balance issues resolved. I assume Ryan's project is a bigger boat?

    I was impressed with how the F-25C did in that race, to the point where I would consider one as a future boat. Sailing that fast (and relatively level) is indeed appealing! However (and as The General suggests) they weren't racing singlehanded. With three people aboard there was always someone on deck to blow the sheets, plus the heavy sailing in that race was upwind where pitchpoling wasn't a risk.

    Have you talked to Gary Helms? I'll bet he has a solution for singlehanding a multihull offshore solo. I still wonder if a fuse on the sheets, like we've talked about for boom preventers, would reduce the risk to an acceptable level.

    I learned something about the SHTP when Chris had to standby the Kirby for so long in 2006. He did the right thing of course, but his own SHTP race experience was screwed. All the redress in the world doesn't get you to the awards dinner and all the missed tree times in between. If I thought my bleeding edge SHTP experience might put a fellow competitor through that, I wouldn't do it. (But I'm repeating myself.)

  9. #19
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    Having never sailed to Hawaii (or more than a couple miles beyond Pt. Bonita), I don't know what kind of conditions one typically faces. Sounds like pretty nice downwind trades and easy water from what I gather.
    But I suspect at some point you must get a few hours of big and/or steep swells, and enough wind to move a light multihull at double-digit speeds. The first few Evel-Knievel airs might be exhilarating, but I for one am sure I'd be waterborne in short order!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWBvVedo9QU

  10. #20
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    You may be surprised if you head out for Hawaii expecting "nice downwind trades and easy water".

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