Broadblue

[muskoka]

Intentional Drifter,

Which boat did you finally select for your cruising?

We're looking for a cat designed purely for cruising. Whilst I think some of the charter cats are nice boats, I don't think many would suit our purposes even if retrofitted.

[redtwin]

Interesting reading and review on BB cats. I have been a fan of Prouts and was wondering how BB cats fair with them, since BB carried on from Prout designs.
It sounds like they have retained the Prout solid build practices and good to hear BB cats will be ocean capable like Prouts.
Was this 385 a Prout or cutter rig version, because they offer both the Prout rig as well as sport or performance rig versions.

[kcrane]

Ours is the Prout style rig, that is the mast is at the aft bulkhead of the saloon, rather than the front. We also have a prodder carrying a permanent gennaker.

It makes for an easily handled main (I haul it up by hand) but it does mean you need to get the genoa right as it is doing a lot of the work, but again, we can furl it quickly by hand.

[Moby Dick]

I see you have the cutter rig Redwin.

BB have the option of 'Easy sail' rig (rear stepped mast, large forsail) or 'Sport' rig. Forward mast, large roach, fully-batten main.

Neither are cutters, but the Easy rig has the option of a Screacher on another furler, so it becomes a twin headsail rig, a bit like a 'Solent' rig I guess. The Sport rig has an inner forestay, but not rigged for a sail.

[redtwin]

I think this "easy rig or earlier known as Prout rig" is the best for cruising. I would however change my wespar furling main with maxi roach, It would increase performance slightly if the main was fully battened.

As for sport rig, I would guess the BB385 would perform very well with this rig, but with such a big main is the beam wide enough not to sacrifice safety factor.

[Talbot]

I have a maxi roach main, and would recommend that you have one of these made by a different manufacturer. The vertical battens are great and really help the sail shape, but maxi roach cut the clew far too high so you lose a lot of sail area, and it really increases the risk of a jam when furling the sail due to the poor angle of the outhaul.

I purchased the sail to increase the sail area lost due to adding a behind mast system, and to lose considerably more below the clew does not help at all - furthermore, the roach has hardly any additional curl.

Wish I had gone to my normal sailmaker.

[Llamedos]

We have a BB42 and our rig is much the same as the 385 sport rig, ie the mast is stepped at the front of the saloon roof with a large fully battened main. We also have the gennaker (screecher) on a profurl furler fitted in front of the standard genoa.

The rig performs very well and is easy to handle short handed, although I have changed the mainsail reefing to 2 lines per reef instead of the standard single line to drastically reduce the friction in the system.

The genoa and gennaker are too close together to be able to use them together as a cutter rig, the genoa just flaps about. Also the gennaker is not designed to be used much above 55deg apparent wind angle, it is more for off wind sailing and it does perform very well in this role. We have used the rig as a twin headsail rig, poling the genoa out to windward with the gennaker set as normal, this works very well for downwind work and is very easy to handle if the wind picks up since both sails can be reduced independently on their own furlers. Although the gennaker is for off wind use it is hardly any lighter cloth than the genoa so can be used in pretty strong winds. The foot is marked with 3 reef points so obviously the sailmaker intended it to be used in stronger winds.

From what I have seen of the 385 I am sure the above comments apply equally to the 385 rigs.

Our 42 is very stable and feels very safe even when caught with far too much sail in strong winds. We have had full main and full gennaker up in 25 - 30 knts apparent and although you could easily tell she was overpressed with all that up she did not feel anywhere near being unsafe.

[redtwin]

I did notice BB385 Genoa coming all the way back to the stern almost, thats the one with easy rig, where as prouts genoa end just aft of main bulkhead. I could look at changing this.
As for maxi roach main, I have a mark on the topping lift, which I line up with an eye it feeds through.at this point main sail is lined up right so it wont foul up when furling in, its still not easy though.

[kcrane]

Originally Posted by Llamedos

From what I have seen of the 385 I am sure the above comments apply equally to the 385 rigs.

Our 42 is very stable and feels very safe even when caught with far too much sail in strong winds. We have had full main and full gennaker up in 25 - 30 knts apparent and although you could easily tell she was overpressed with all that up she did not feel anywhere near being unsafe.

You are right... the same does apply to the BB385. The gennaker is heavy cloth and we've used it in winds above 20knts. We haven't set both headsails, but intend to try. We have been caught in a squall with high 30knt winds and full sails (only for 10 minutes as it blew over), it was clearly overpressed, but as my wife didn't notice and carried on making a cup of tea the boat clearly didn't feel unsafe. Sea state was slight however.

[db8us]

Just my 2 cents:
I have seen the 385 in Ipswich and went into the local BB-"Shop".
I got a set of info-material and from i saw from the outside of the 385 and from the papers, the BB is a very interesting boat.
Too bad, i could not have a look inside.

Michael

[redtwin]

The BB range does look to be more suitable for charter work and we can see some similarities to FP cats. Lets face it FP are the biggest cat suppliers to the Charter market and have pioneered the designs required and best for charter work, and most modern designs tend to lean this way.
I hope to see BB cats coming down to NZ some day, that will be the true test of its ocean going capability. We had many Prouts come down to NZ while on circumnavigation, yet to see the new "best of British" range roaming this far!!

[Jeff]

Ooooh them's fightin' words to the Broadblue folks.

They're definitely not geared towards the charter market, in fact that was a major portion of their sales pitch. First they build few models per year secondly their construction is excessive for the charter market. Lastly they cost too much (in comparison to others) for the charter trade.

j

Originally Posted by redtwin

The BB range does look to be more suitable for charter work and we can see some similarities to FP cats. Lets face it FP are the biggest cat suppliers to the Charter market and have pioneered the designs required and best for charter work, and most modern designs tend to lean this way.
I hope to see BB cats coming down to NZ some day, that will be the true test of its ocean going capability. We had many Prouts come down to NZ while on circumnavigation, yet to see the new "best of British" range roaming this far!!