Gemini or TomCat ?

[Therapy]

This is an old thread but here are some numbers from a 105Mc owner.

In loaded cruising mode
All components raised - 23.5
Engine down - 33 (I think that means the drive leg down )
Rudders down - 42


On my boat.
The boat will sail to windward with a board down half way - 30-35 in.
Boards up to windward = fuggedabowdit.
Rudder up steering is no problem.
I am not so heavily loaded so draw 4-5in less.

So that means one needs 3ft to move the boat. I try to stay in 5 or more. Chicken I guess as I have not been able to see whether it goes from 5 to 3 fast enough. If it was 3 to 2 I would not be happy at all.

Those sand banks would be easy and just fine if one was sailing down wind only. If one was motoring up wind I suspect dropping the stern off a wave could impact the drive leg. The drive leg will not operate well in "partial tilt" (lose steering of leg).

[SearenitySail]

Originally Posted by chichester

OK, from my experience in owning the TomCat for 4 years...Here are some of the problems I've had with my TomCat...

The centerboard mechanism does not work...it will break or seize. Although the builders of my Tomcat know about this problem, they have done nothing to help me as an owner or to change the set up.

Upwind the boat really needs something to prevent leeway, but since the centerboard mechanism sucks...well, you get the idea...

I guess my impression about the centerboard (see post #20 in this thread) after spending an hour on the TomCat at Annapolis in 2006 was correct.

I am surprised this design choice hasn't gotten more discussion--even the Stiletto 27s had some problems with centerboards.

Marshall

[chichester]

Probably not much discussion about it because TomCat has only built 13 of those boats. I can tell you that when the centerboard was working properly and we could lift it up and down, it did work well. It creates good lift and helps prevent leeway well.... but as I mentioned before the design of the lift mechanism is flawed as just about every Tomcat has had problems with it working. Right now mine is stuck all the way up so is unusable.

[SearenitySail]

BTW, thanks for posting the picture--looks real good! Sorry you have had problems!

Thanks for the input.

Marshall

[beiland]

Originally Posted by chichester

OK, from my experience in owning the TomCat for 4 years:
...big excerpt
Here are some of the problems I've had with my TomCat:

The centerboard mechanism does not work...it will break or seize. Although the builders of my Tomcat know about this problem, they have done nothing to help me as an owner or to change the set up. There are also problems with the mechanism to raise and lower the rudders because the slot they fit in is cut too small. Another problem was that the rudders kicked up anytime a little bit of seaweed was caught on them.

I'm looking for more details here,...any photos, drawings, etc??

[beiland]

Originally Posted by chichester

Probably not much discussion about it because TomCat has only built 13 of those boats. I can tell you that when the centerboard was working properly and we could lift it up and down, it did work well. It creates good lift and helps prevent leeway well.... but as I mentioned before the design of the lift mechanism is flawed as just about every Tomcat has had problems with it working. Right now mine is stuck all the way up so is unusable.

Anywhere I could find more details about this board arrangement