Cruisers Forum
 


Reply
  This discussion is proudly sponsored by:
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on Cruisers Forums. Advertise Here
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 25-03-2008, 18:42   #16
Registered User

Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 19
Interesting that the Sea cart 30 was the fastest multihull in the fleet. Not a cruiser but a whole lot less money then the Gunboats
vegas is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-03-2008, 20:19   #17
cruiser
 
BigCat's Avatar

Join Date: May 2007
Location: Everett, Washington
Posts: 765
Gunboats have bathtubs-they are cruising boats, all right-cruising boats for multimillionaires.
BigCat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-03-2008, 22:56   #18
Marine Service Provider
 
fastcat435's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Amstelveen Netherlands
Boat: FastCat 445 Green Motion
Posts: 1,651
Images: 10
Send a message via Skype™ to fastcat435
Just about the best cruising cat money can buy,speed = comfort = safety.If you have ever done a long trip you will appreciate a fast cruising boat.
It is my feeling sailors are generally competative, every time I overhaul another boat or is I get passed I start fiddling with my sails to get the best possible speed out and I see others do the same.If speed is not your thing get a slow monohull or cat there are planty around. Very nice Video good for the multihull scene
fastcat435 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 04:33   #19
cruiser

Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 4,525
Quote:
Originally Posted by fastcat435 View Post
Just about the best cruising cat money can buy,speed = comfort = safety.If you have ever done a long trip you will appreciate a fast cruising boat.
It is my feeling sailors are generally competative, every time I overhaul another boat or is I get passed I start fiddling with my sails to get the best possible speed out and I see others do the same.If speed is not your thing get a slow monohull or cat there are planty around. Very nice Video good for the multihull scene
Now this is one impressive post from a vendor. If only all the vendors could be so objective...

This speaks volumes about Fastcats.

Seems like if you purchased a FastCat, you'd be getting a very realistically designed boat with a lot of concentration on the product, rather than marketing or marketing that puts down other vendors.

I have to say... I'm impressed.
ssullivan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 06:04   #20
Registered User

Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 35
Having FastCat435 on the forum makes a huge difference to me. I have yet to notice any other vendor provide such detail about parts, process, price, weight, etc. The detail is incredible and great info.
I also agree that Gideon isn't afraid to talk about the products he likes and dislikes.

I'd like to see more vendors cough up that kind of information.

Edit: How about the speed. They mention 32 miles in 4 hours. Is this normal?

Chris
Dreaming of owning a FastCat in 10-12 years. Hoping to arrange a delivery sail (ride along) at some point before then.
Turnone is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 07:23   #21
Marine Service Provider
 
fastcat435's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Amstelveen Netherlands
Boat: FastCat 445 Green Motion
Posts: 1,651
Images: 10
Send a message via Skype™ to fastcat435
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turnone View Post
Having FastCat435 on the forum makes a huge difference to me. I have yet to notice any other vendor provide such detail about parts, process, price, weight, etc. The detail is incredible and great info.
I also agree that Gideon isn't afraid to talk about the products he likes and dislikes.

I'd like to see more vendors cough up that kind of information.

Edit: How about the speed. They mention 32 miles in 4 hours. Is this normal?

Chris
Dreaming of owning a FastCat in 10-12 years. Hoping to arrange a delivery sail (ride along) at some point before then.
32 miles in 4 hours can be very fast we do not know the track or the wind conditions now lets say there was 10 knots of wind and they did a round St Maarten sail part was reaching , part was pointing part was for the wind not very optimal than an average of 8.5 knots is great.
we just fo not know but I know one thing the performance of a Gunboat is just about the best money can by in a perfomance cruising cat.
fastcat435 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 09:10   #22
Registered User
 
ldrhawke's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: St. Augustine, Florida
Boat: C&C 40
Posts: 193
Images: 7
Send a message via AIM to ldrhawke
Quote:
Originally Posted by fastcat435 View Post
32 miles in 4 hours can be very fast we do not know the track or the wind conditions now lets say there was 10 knots of wind and they did a round St Maarten sail part was reaching , part was pointing part was for the wind not very optimal than an average of 8.5 knots is great.
we just fo not know but I know one thing the performance of a Gunboat is just about the best money can by in a perfomance cruising cat.
The Gun Boat 48 is a beautiful cat, of course it should be at cost of over $2 mil. Everyone has an opinion of their favorite designs, and the Gun Boat is without question nice and a good performer. The problem is most owners start leaning toward making a cat into a condominium as it is being built, with AC, Washer/dryer, etc; and often take that Gun boat racing around St. Maarten making it into a over weight barge; no longer as fast as the stripped out cat they see in the Gun Boat video screaming past a large mono hull race boat.

My personal opinion, from both the dollars and cents as well as performance stand point, the Atlantic 57 is a lot more boat. At 2/3 rd's the cost of a Gun Boat 48, it is a bargain. Plus, when similarly loaded, it will out perform a Gun Boat 48 under all conditions. It is also all epoxy construction, and because of the larger displacement, it can be loaded up lot more than the Gun Boat 48 for cruising before effecting performance. That is probably why several sailors that had Gun Boats on order canceled the orders and are having Atlantic 57's built. Atlantic's are not stripped out racing boat, but rather nicely appointed very fast cruising cats.

Chris White, the Atlantic designer, posted these photos on his web site. He was curious as to how his personal Atlantic 55' would perform compared to the new Catana 50', whose brochure describes it as a very fast cat.

Right after the Annapolis Show this year Chris had a chance to see how fast a Catana 50 was, as one sailed past him out for a demo sail. He waited until it was well past him and then he turned around to catch up. The two photos were taken only 4 minutes apart as his Atlantic 55 caught up and went sailing past the Catana 50, at a rate nearly 50% faster in light air.

ldrhawke is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 09:18   #23
Registered User

Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 2,933
Images: 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by fastcat435 View Post
32 miles in 4 hours can be very fast we do not know the track or the wind conditions now lets say there was 10 knots of wind and they did a round St Maarten sail part was reaching , part was pointing part was for the wind not very optimal than an average of 8.5 knots is great.
we just fo not know but I know one thing the performance of a Gunboat is just about the best money can by in a perfomance cruising cat.
Hello Gideon,

The breeze was 22-27 and backed through the day, all three days. Sea state was 3-5 Caribbean chop with ~ 2-3 foot swell underneath. Simply lovely sailing.

Joli
Joli is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 09:20   #24
Registered User

Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 2,933
Images: 4
There was an Atlantic 55 in multihull 2 it seemed to match the Hanse 411 around the course. The Atlantic was a very pretty boat.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ldrhawke View Post
The Gun Boat 48 is a beautiful cat, of course it should be at cost of over $2 mil. Everyone has an opinion of their favorite designs, and the Gun Boat is without question nice and a good performer. The problem is most owners start leaning toward making a cat into a condominium as it is being built, with AC, Washer/dryer, etc; and often take that Gun boat racing around St. Maarten making it into a over weight barge; no longer as fast as the stripped out cat they see in the Gun Boat video screaming past a large mono hull race boat.

My personal opinion, from both the dollars and cents as well as performance stand point, the Atlantic 57 is a lot more boat. At 2/3 rd's the cost of a Gun Boat 48, it is a bargain. Plus, when similarly loaded, it will out perform a Gun Boat 48 under all conditions. It is also all epoxy construction, and because of the larger displacement, it can be loaded up lot more than the Gun Boat 48 for cruising before effecting performance. That is probably why several sailors that had Gun Boats on order canceled the orders and are having Atlantic 57's built. Atlantic's are not stripped out racing boat, but rather nicely appointed very fast cruising cats.

Chris White, the Atlantic designer, posted these photos on his web site. He was curious as to how his personal Atlantic 55' would perform compared to the new Catana 50', whose brochure describes it as a very fast cat.

Right after the Annapolis Show this year Chris had a chance to see how fast a Catana 50 was, as one sailed past him out for a demo sail. He waited until it was well past him and then he turned around to catch up. The two photos were taken only 4 minutes apart as his Atlantic 55 caught up and went sailing past the Catana 50, at a rate nearly 50% faster in light air.

Joli is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 12:00   #25
Marine Service Provider
 
fastcat435's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Amstelveen Netherlands
Boat: FastCat 445 Green Motion
Posts: 1,651
Images: 10
Send a message via Skype™ to fastcat435
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joli View Post
Hello Gideon,

The breeze was 22-27 and backed through the day, all three days. Sea state was 3-5 Caribbean chop with ~ 2-3 foot swell underneath. Simply lovely sailing.

Joli
I am sorry I missed that one, I was sailing with my 4 year old st francis 48
in 20 knots of wind with 2 friends and we averaged 13 knots all around in a 4 hour sail out and in to the harbour. It was below freezing but still great.
fastcat435 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 12:05   #26
Marine Service Provider
 
fastcat435's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Amstelveen Netherlands
Boat: FastCat 445 Green Motion
Posts: 1,651
Images: 10
Send a message via Skype™ to fastcat435
Quote:
Originally Posted by ldrhawke View Post
The Gun Boat 48 is a beautiful cat, of course it should be at cost of over $2 mil. Everyone has an opinion of their favorite designs, and the Gun Boat is without question nice and a good performer. The problem is most owners start leaning toward making a cat into a condominium as it is being built, with AC, Washer/dryer, etc; and often take that Gun boat racing around St. Maarten making it into a over weight barge; no longer as fast as the stripped out cat they see in the Gun Boat video screaming past a large mono hull race boat.

My personal opinion, from both the dollars and cents as well as performance stand point, the Atlantic 57 is a lot more boat. At 2/3 rd's the cost of a Gun Boat 48, it is a bargain. Plus, when similarly loaded, it will out perform a Gun Boat 48 under all conditions. It is also all epoxy construction, and because of the larger displacement, it can be loaded up lot more than the Gun Boat 48 for cruising before effecting performance. That is probably why several sailors that had Gun Boats on order canceled the orders and are having Atlantic 57's built. Atlantic's are not stripped out racing boat, but rather nicely appointed very fast cruising cats.

Chris White, the Atlantic designer, posted these photos on his web site. He was curious as to how his personal Atlantic 55' would perform compared to the new Catana 50', whose brochure describes it as a very fast cat.

Right after the Annapolis Show this year Chris had a chance to see how fast a Catana 50 was, as one sailed past him out for a demo sail. He waited until it was well past him and then he turned around to catch up. The two photos were taken only 4 minutes apart as his Atlantic 55 caught up and went sailing past the Catana 50, at a rate nearly 50% faster in light air.

Atlantics are excellent sailing cats if build well and kept light , Chris White is a designer that I admire very much , it is a pity that no shipyard brings out his line of cats . They are as fast as the Gunboats .
The Catana company must have chosen a different track , they used to have performance in their well built cats besides comfort and safety but the performance part is obviously gone down the drain.
It is not possible to compare a 50 ft cat with 160 squire meters of sail and 20 tons of weight with a very light weight (8 tons ) 55 ft cat with more sail area than the Catana. even so I think the exposure of the Gunboat wil do the cat scene good and these cats are very well constructed and finished.
fastcat435 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 12:16   #27
Moderator Emeritus
 
David M's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Eastern Tennessee
Boat: Research vessel for a university, retired now.
Posts: 10,406
That is interesting about the Gunboat orders being canceled. I'm adding the Atlantic 55 to my short list. I already have Gunboat, Fastcat and Catana on my list of possibilities. I can't wait to go shopping in a couple years. The greatest compromise is shaking out to be luxuries vs speed. I can just see the Admiral and I getting into big debates over this one. "Sweetie...we really don't need a full sized washer onboard". Like all good compromises that keep a marriage together, it will probably be something between a stripped race boat with pipe racks and a floating condo with four California King beds. Maybe the better way to approach it is to say if I can have a set of racing sails then she can have an oven...(a small one)
__________________
David

Life begins where land ends.
David M is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 12:25   #28
Marine Service Provider
 
fastcat435's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Amstelveen Netherlands
Boat: FastCat 445 Green Motion
Posts: 1,651
Images: 10
Send a message via Skype™ to fastcat435
Hallo David are you well ?
The Atlantic is now 57 ft and a great sailor , A friend of mine has one build in Chile at this moment and it will be ready the end of this year.
If you are looking for performance forget about the Catana 50 until they have lost at least 6 tons , a client of mine has sailed one in the Med a couple of weeks ago reaching with 27 knots of wind a top speed of 12 knots in ideal conditions .
Sound like a very slow cruiser to me. And believe me you do not have to compromise between luxury and speed all that matters is are you willing to spend the money to purchase both.

Greetings
Gideon
fastcat435 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 12:42   #29
Registered User
 
ldrhawke's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: St. Augustine, Florida
Boat: C&C 40
Posts: 193
Images: 7
Send a message via AIM to ldrhawke
Quote:
Originally Posted by fastcat435 View Post
Atlantics are excellent sailing cats if build well and kept light , Chris White is a designer that I admire very much , it is a pity that no shipyard brings out his line of cats . They are as fast as the Gunboats .
The Catana company must have chosen a different track , they used to have performance in their well built cats besides comfort and safety but the performance part is obviously gone down the drain.
It is not possible to compare a 50 ft cat with 160 squire meters of sail and 20 tons of weight with a very light weight (8 tons ) 55 ft cat with more sail area than the Catana. even so I think the exposure of the Gunboat wil do the cat scene good and these cats are very well constructed and finished.
Actually the Atlantic 55' has 159 sq.meters of sail (933 sq. ft. main and 778 Sq. Ft Jib). The Catana had a much larger jib up, than the Atlantic did at the time. I think Chris may have only had his self tacking blade jib up.

The Atlantic's spec. displacement is 25,500 lbs. Base on that Atlantic is heavier and has about the same sail area. The only advantage is the Atlantic has is 5 foot longer beam. Pretty equal, except for performance. Chances are the Catana was loaded down with AC, Washer, dryer, etc.

But look at the Atlantic bridge deck clearance and beam. A lot of African cats only a 2' plus bridge deck clearance and pound pretty hard.

Atlantic 55 Specifications:

Length 55' 6"
Beam 28'4"
Draft 3'8" to 7'10"
Wing Clearance 41" forward section
Masthead from WL 75'
Sail Area:
Main 933 sq/ft
Blade Jib 408 sq/ft
Genoa 778 sq/ft
Spinnaker 1,600 sq/ft
Displacement 25,500 lbs
Pounds per inch immersion 1,734

Construction:
Hulls, decks and pilot house are constructed from vacuum bagged epoxy resin and tri-axial glass laminate cored with ATC Core-Cell foam. All exterior surfaces are spray painted with AwlGrip polyurethane coating. A painted boot stripe in a contrasting color is included.
Crossbeams are built of uni-directional carbon fiber/epoxy with foam cored epoxy/glass bulkheads.
Extensive use is made of uni-directional carbon fiber reinforcement in high load areas of hulls and decks.


The last I heard, ALOPLAST listed it in their line up and had 5 atlantic 57's back ordered. Alwoplast S.A
ldrhawke is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-03-2008, 12:45   #30
Moderator Emeritus
 
David M's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Eastern Tennessee
Boat: Research vessel for a university, retired now.
Posts: 10,406
Hi Gideon,
The Admiral and I are doing fine thanks. We still have not given up the rat race just yet although it does help to think of being in the tropics on a big cat when sitting in bumper to bumper traffic going through Berzerkley (Berkeley).

Thanks for the tidbit on the Catana. For now I am keeping my eyes and ears pealed for what is currently out there and what designs are new and fresh. This forum sure helps. I really like your largest FastCat that is still on paper. Hurry up with that will ya? ...I want to see some pics of the real thing, probably see it in person and hopefully go for a sail. I do want to see South Africa, your facility, and the competition around the corner. A friend of mine just got back from South Africa...he and his girlfriend loved it.

I have been wondering, have you had any cats delivered around the Cape? How do these boats hold up in massive square waves? I have been reading some negative things regarding the Suez with respect to US flagged boats.

Cheers,
David
__________________
David

Life begins where land ends.
David M is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Gunboat 62 Blows Doors Off Reichel-Pugh 80 David M Multihull Sailboats 150 16-05-2009 12:38
Very cool video sailorgal General Sailing Forum 32 27-11-2007 16:17
Catamaran video Tnflakbait Multihull Sailboats 3 04-10-2007 00:53
Catamaran video Tnflakbait Multihull Sailboats 2 20-11-2006 20:25

Advertise Here


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 19:44.


Google+
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Social Knowledge Networks
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.

ShowCase vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.