Getting a FastCat ready for action

[freetime]

Hi Andreas,

A FastCat...I am jealous...Good Luck

Where can i find your blog?

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by freetime

Hi Andreas,

A FastCat...I am jealous...Good Luck

Where can i find your blog?

Hallo Freetime

Andreas has send me a short mail with a few pictures and I am copying his mail here since he has no good internet connection yet.

Greetings

Gideon

Hello Gideon,

I promised you an email about the trip to Norway. First of all I want to say that the trip was excellent. Both Torstein, Frode and I really had a great time. Innovation performed VERY WELL and I was both happy and deeply satisfied to see this. I never felt unsafe or any huge discomfort. We didn't feel any dreaded bridgedeck slamming, even when we were sailing in short, steep waves. In short I was very happy with the performance heading up North, to the Northernmost point I'm guessing an African Cat has been (I hope it's the first of may records I set with her =)
I enclosed some pictures from the trip, so that you can see what you missed. I do hope you had a great time at home with Elske.

Talk to you soon,

Best regards,

Andreas

[freetime]

When do you think he will arrive Stavanger?

[fastcat435]

Andreas arrived in Stavanger last Sunday morning.

Greetings

[freetime]

Originally Posted by fastcat435

Andreas arrived in Stavanger last Sunday morning.

Greetings

Ok, then we wait for the report....

[SettingSail2009]

I'm back in Stavanger, Norway with African Innovation.

The trip from Ijmuiden to Norway took pretty much exactly 2 days (51 hours plus some change). We sailed around 415nm, so the average for the trip was 8,1 knots. An average I was very happy with considering that the wind was between 11 - 15 knots pretty much the whole trip. The wind peaked at 21 knots for an hour and we had a low of 4 knots for a few hours as well. It must be empasized that we were sailing with the wind on the nose the whole trip and had it between 30 - 50 apparent the whole trip. The best speed we logged was 14 knots, when the wind gusted to 21, but what I was most happy with was doing 11 knots in 13 knots of wind (something we did sustained for almost 4 hours off the coast of the Netherlands).

Prior to this trip I had only sailed an FP Athena 38 for a week, so I am by all accounts a novice catamaran sailor (though I've lived on and sailed monohulls for a number of years). Taking that into consideration I think we performed very well.

The pictures Gideon posted are from the trip (I sent them to him right after I made landfall in Norway). The top left one shows us doing 10.2 knots in 12.4 knorts of wind. This was right after we had done 11 in 13, when we realized we should have taken a picture. The top right is where I'm currently in Norway. The bottom left while we're in the middle fo the North Sea (I'm to the right). Bottom left is when we were moving into Stavanger (Byfjorden).

Another thing that impressed me. We stopped the engine when we hoisted the sail outside IJmuiden and lowered it 51 hours later, when the wind completely died when we passed to Håstein (right outside Stavanger).

In terms of bridgedeck slamming. I measured my boat before we set sail: 66cm at the lowest point. Not incredibly high, but not very low either. Throughout the whole trip we had no problems with slamming or wave slapping. The North Sea is famous for short steep waves and though we did encounter them, we didn't feel them. We enjoyed a nice smooth ride the whole trip. I will have to get used to the movement of a multi-hull, because it is different from a mono-hull. I don't think it's better or worse, but it's definitely different. Not as predicatble as a monohull, but not as dramatic either.

The big question is always: What broke or what went wrong? Not much. I tore a gennaker (When we experienced the 4 knots of wind, we changed course to get the wind off our beam so that we could use the gennaker ... naturally the wind picked up after a little while and though we enjoyed sustained winds at 16 for about 15 minutes, it suddenly peaked at 21 and we must have gottan a flap and wham bam ... I had a nice big tear.) Needless to say we switched back to main + genoa and had no more problems with the sails for the rest of the trip. Other than that we had no incidents worth mentioning. It was a brilliant sail and all three of us onboard had a great time.

[David M]

Congratulations Andreas! Keep us posted on how things progress.

David

[Madwand]

Originally Posted by SettingSail2009

An average I was very happy with considering that the wind was between 11 - 15 knots pretty much the whole trip...It must be empasized that we were sailing with the wind on the nose the whole trip and had it between 30 - 50 apparent the whole trip.

Does that mean 11 - 15 knots feels like it's 30 - 50 when it blows on the nose?

Originally Posted by SettingSail2009

Another thing that impressed me. We stopped the engine when we hoisted the sail outside IJmuiden and lowered it 51 hours later, when the wind completely died when we passed to Håstein (right outside Stavanger).

I'm sorry, what was the impressive part? That you were able to turn off the engine, or that you were able to raise and lower the sail? I feel like I'm missing something there.

[LtBrett]

Great job Andreas! I'm very happy to see some real world feedback from an independent party on the FastCat. I'm now a full-fledged believer. I hope a FastCat goes into charter somewhere fun so I can book her.

Madwand, take your heckling somewhere else.

Brett

[Madwand]

It's not heckling. The post doesn't make sense. Maybe it's a translation thing. There's no need to get bent out of shape because I asked a question.

[Grotius]

I assumed he meant that he didn't need the engine for all that time.

[Madwand]

I'm sure that would certainly be nice, but he said it impressed him, while describing the attributes of the boat. I wouldn't think the wind blowing for 51 hours would cause anyone to be impressed with a boat. Impressed with the location, maybe...

[Nordic cat]

Originally Posted by SettingSail2009;18933
Hi Andreas,

thanks for the trip report, I'm glad you are happy with the boat.


[QUOTE

It must be empasized that we were sailing with the wind on the nose the whole trip and had it between 30 - 50 apparent the whole trip. The best speed we logged was 14 knots, when the wind gusted to 21, but what I was most happy with was doing 11 knots in 13 knots of wind (something we did sustained for almost 4 hours off the coast of the Netherlands).

What sails were you flying, the asymmetric?

The top left one shows us doing 10.2 knots in 12.4 knorts of wind. This was right after we had done 11 in 13, when we realized we should have taken a picture.

This show SOG, and an angle of 60 degrees, is that relative wind? The area there is renowned for tides and currents, were these helping you along?

In terms of bridgedeck slamming. I measured my boat before we set sail: 66cm at the lowest point. Not incredibly high, but not very low either.

Was there any slapping on the 2 protrusions where the beds project outside the hulls?

Andreas have you correlated the performance you have seen with the polars that Gideon has published? How much difference is there?

I think that an 8 knot average for the trip is not anywhere near what I would expect after all the claims and explanations we have seen from Gideon. This is after all the best point of sail for a cat, a reach with the wind on the beam, so relative wind is just forward of the beam.

Did you get to weigh the boat before you left?

Keep us updated please.

Cheers

Alan

[fastcat435]

[quote=Nordic cat;189530][quote=SettingSail2009;18933
Hi Andreas,

thanks for the trip report, I'm glad you are happy with the boat.




What sails were you flying, the asymmetric?



This show SOG, and an angle of 60 degrees, is that relative wind? The area there is renowned for tides and currents, were these helping you along?




Was there any slapping on the 2 protrusions where the beds project outside the hulls?

Andreas have you correlated the performance you have seen with the polars that Gideon has published? How much difference is there?

I think that an 8 knot average for the trip is not anywhere near what I would expect after all the claims and explanations we have seen from Gideon. This is after all the best point of sail for a cat, a reach with the wind on the beam, so relative wind is just forward of the beam.

Did you get to weigh the boat before you left?

Keep us updated please.

Cheers

Alan[/QUOTE]

Hallo Alan

Since when is 30 to 50 degrees app. reaching
and since when is this the best point of sail.
I call, this pointing and not reaching and if you look at the polars you will see that the best angle is between 85 and 120 degrees .
The weight of this cat is a little over 8000 kilo empty so with 3 people full water and 250 liters of diesel the weight was around 9200 kilo
This is the first boat we build and it is substantially heavier than later ones.
The maximum current here is .8 of a knot and the speed thru water is also shown.

Greetings

Gideon

[Nordic cat]

Sorry, I didn't notice the speed through the water display, but zoomed in to see it. The wind display says 65 degrees, for me that is reaching if it is AWS, as I presume it is?

Cheers

Alan