The New Fastcat 405: Please Comment and Help Us Make the Perfect 40-41' Cat

[Alan Wheeler]

So there is a line, thank you very much.

Dang it. I hate lines. I always seem to be at the back of them.

[cagney]

I can't see any toe rail on the pictures/drawings. Many cats lacks this feature, while for example Erik Lerouge put it on his designs. I consider it an essential safety feature.
Is there any provisions for an inner forestay/storm jib or trysail?
What about the engineering of the davits.Will they stand up to a swamped dinghy?

Although most sailing is done in light/medium conditions, I like to be prepared for heavy/survival conditions.

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by cagney

I can't see any toe rail on the pictures/drawings. Many cats lacks this feature, while for example Erik Lerouge put it on his designs. I consider it an essential safety feature.
Is there any provisions for an inner forestay/storm jib or trysail?
What about the engineering of the davits.Will they stand up to a swamped dinghy?

Although most sailing is done in light/medium conditions, I like to be prepared for heavy/survival conditions.

A 1 inch high toe rail is mandatory fo the CE aCertification and so yes this is standard and a stormsail is a standard item to.
Davits that are build light weight will never stand up to a swamped dinghy that might weight as much as 1500 lbs full of water In our light weigth RIB we have made valve provisions this cannot happen.
making the davits so strong so they could take this weight it would ad at least 500 lbs for the davits alone , far to much for a performance boat.
Greetings

Gideon

[schoonerdog]

Gideon,

It seems like you have a good electric motor system. Have you also thought of offering up a service for retrofitting other boats? With your experience, facilities and quality standards I imagine it would be successful. I know that a lot of people when their boats hit the 15 year mark often are looking at expensive engine issues.

Doug

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by schoonerdog

Gideon,

It seems like you have a good electric motor system. Have you also thought of offering up a service for retrofitting other boats? With your experience, facilities and quality standards I imagine it would be successful. I know that a lot of people when their boats hit the 15 year mark often are looking at expensive engine issues.

Doug

Halo Doug
we are preparing to build 2000 units a year starting in 2009 most of these will be installed in other monohulls and cats both build by factory,s and for private builders or refitters.
We are presently testing the system for durability running it day and night at different power settings, liftig the system out of the water a couple of times a day to simulate 10 years of use. the system will have 3 years of warrantee and no hour limit in this period.we have also developed the system for monohulls and the first 2 monohull builders are presently installing systems for testing purposes.

[SeaKing]

Gideon,

will that fit into my Voyage 470. I like the idea, I was thinking of something like that after I saw your first drawings you sent me last year. It is big enough to handle the weight

staying tuned in on this one
and Howdy doug

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Gideon,

will that fit into my Voyage 470. I like the idea, I was thinking of something like that after I saw your first drawings you sent me last year. It is big enough to handle the weight

staying tuned in on this one
and Howdy doug

I do not know if your bridgedeck is high enough to use the retractable type , otherwise you could use the inboard motors that we also produce see picture

[David M]

I don't know about the European laws concerning distance, but I do know the international and US laws. Two miles would be WAY better than one mile. The white lights must remain proportionately brighter than the sides.

Also, don't rely on being seen by radar. In heavy seas, the Sea Clutter filter will be turned up so that you will probably be pretty much filtered out on the radar screen at a range of somewhat less than a mile...depending on the sea state. Sea clutter extends out a greater distance as the radar antenna gets higher off the water.

Obviously, we did not have nearly as many ships typically going over 20 knots when the distance standards for lights were adopted.

Also, if it is pretty ambiguous if a ship needs to turn right or left to avoid a collision, they will typically turn to their right.

[schoonerdog]

Gideon,

2000? Wow! Who have you chosen as an integrator for refitting to older boats?

Doug

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by schoonerdog

Gideon,

2000? Wow! Who have you chosen as an integrator for refitting to older boats?

Doug

Nobody yet I first want to see 200.000 miles without any problems.
It is not a car where if something is wrong just bring him to the garage to get it fixed, it has to be 100% safe with all build in redundancy same as in Aircraft. There are overheat protections build in in case a plastic bag fouls the prop and many other safety items, the system is computer controllable and we can set the prop output or regeneration with a laptop
all this needs to be thruly tested first.

Greetings Gideon

[OldSarg]

Is there a site that has videos or pictures of the boats?

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by OldSarg

Is there a site that has videos or pictures of the boats?

African Cats: comfortable lightweight performance leisure catamarans

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by schoonerdog

Gideon,

2000? Wow! Who have you chosen as an integrator for refitting to older boats?

Doug

Hallo Doug we do have a nautical engineer working for us to draw different
installations for the retractable system

[Silverback]

Smart looking cat!
Is there an option to extend the hard cockpit top over the helm station?
Otherwise wondering how convenient it would be when trying to fold the mainsail into the sail cover, unless the mainsail is to be self-furling.

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by Silverback

Smart looking cat!
Is there an option to extend the hard cockpit top over the helm station?
Otherwise wondering how convenient it would be when trying to fold the mainsail into the sail cover, unless the mainsail is to be self-furling.

The carbon bimini top will extend over the helm station and we standard use a dutchman sail flaking system combined with a lazy bag and you can walk on the bimini