Excessive Rake

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by eliems

I think I read somewhere it is to compensate for not having a backstay....

Not needed to compensate for no backstay. No modern production cats I can think of have significant mast rake (certainly not as extreme as the Deans) and none have back stays. No backstay is necessary with the typical "tripod" arrangement of the standing rigging on a typical modern cruising cat. The side stays are far enough aft and outboard that the mast is supported just fine with no backstay.

The only cruising cats I know of with backstays are much older previous design generations of cats (like the Solaris I was on recently).

I think the most plausible reason discussed so far is simply to get the mast step more forward to increase deck house accommodation spaces. If so, then a bad compromise choice I think.

For example, I'm out on charter running a Voyage 50 this week, big deck house space, no crazy rake in the mast, no backstay.

[four winds]

Two or three days ago a big, new looking cat motored by on the ICW with another strange looking rig. I grabbed the binoculars for a closer look and didn't get a picture.

It had the mast stepped in the cockpit, well aft of amidships. Very strange looking with the mast maybe a couple or three feet behind the salon doors. The boom extended beyond the stern as well. The main was up and the foresail furled, motoring.

Didn't look like a one-off or homebuilt attempt. Looked like a high dollar, large, well built boat.

No idea what it was.

[eliems]

From the Dean website ... Dean Catamaran’s masts are raked aft by 7 degrees. This unusual feature assists both the yachts upwind performance, and its ability to tack through the wind without the difficulties associated with some of the other catamarans on the market today.upwind performance, and its ability to tackthrough the wind without the difficulties associated with some other catamara

Technical

[tamicatana]

Originally Posted by four winds

It had the mast stepped in the cockpit,

see this reference with pictures. the same?

Mast aft rig - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[four winds]

Originally Posted by tamicatana

see this reference with pictures. the same?

Mast aft rig - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That one is even more strange looking with the forward rake. And appears to have no boom (?).

The one here was not raked and stepped in an open cockpit. With a traditional boom as well.

So that makes two cat rigs I've not seen before.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

I think the most plausible reason discussed so far is simply to get the mast step more forward to increase deck house accommodation spaces. If so, then a bad compromise choice I think.

The reason for the mast forward of the salon is for support. There is a huge bulkhead (~3' tall) supporting the mast that runs from hull to hull. You'll also notice that most cats terminate the spreader lines to the mast (diamond rig), not the deck. They are trying to keep as much of the mast compression off the boat since there is no keel underneath to take the load.

I'm interested in how Lagoon has pulled off supporting the mast in their new 39 and 52. They must be using both the salon top and bridgedeck (floor) via the compression pole in the salon to transfer the load to the hulls.

[Sand crab]

Dean 441 sailing. They do have small tramps.

[bvimatelot]

Well - I dunno about the mast rake - personally I think its quite sexy! However, Dean cats have won the Cape Town to Rio race and the majority of them (all of them?) over in the Caribbean and East Coast got there from SA on their own bottoms.

I've personally taken a 44 from Charleston to BVI and an older one from BVI to New York and found them to be great sail-ers with nice accommodations. Yes, sure, they've got small tramps, but so have others (eg Prout, Broadblue).

As a Delivery Skipper, I'd be happy to take a Dean anywhere based on my experience with them so far. Tony