Malcom Tennant Sailing Cats

[Col Boardman]

Here is a link to a blog by some cruisers on a Tennant, good read.I also owned, cruised and raced a Tennant Turismo 10 for 4 years, loved it.
Catamaran Moonwalker

[44'cruisingcat]

In Aus probably his most popular design would be the Great Barrier Express range.

[wmoizer]

I'm a Malcolm Tennant fan in Canada, I own a beautiful wood GBE (a picture is on his website) and recently a Turissimo 9m, also cold moulded wood, but a painted boat. I think we will graduate up to a bridgedeck boat in the next few years for a little more creature comfort. The GBE is shockingly fast and the T9 is no slouch either; we typically match wind speed with the larger boat.

[can603]

I just set up a turrissimo 9 m here in montreal. I was wondering if anyone here could help me with a few rigging questions.

First off. We went for a sail and upwind in about 12 knots of breeze the b oat had a huge amount of helm, the rudders where exhausting. my thoughts Where: try to me the CLR aft, so up goes the board a bit. It didnt help much, and the boat had tons of leeway then. The My next move was to depower the main as much as possible. I strapped the wishbone and outhaul and cunno. It helped a bit, but not much.

So my question I guess is there much rig tuning involved in getting these beasts balanced? or is it just an inherently "helmy" boat. I am pretty sure the shrouds need to be tuned, as the mid mast was yielding alot. so I will tighten the lower shrouds and diamonds. But I dont know how much that can possibly help. the rudder is really heavy!

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Mike,

[Laidback]

What Condition are the sails in ?

[can603]

Actually pretty good. old but pretty much unused and stiff. From what I can tell as of now. the forstay is too long. The turnbuckle is bottomed out and with the cap shrouds tight, the lower shrouds are slack. This causes the mast to yield alot upwind(mid mast yields to leeward). If i can get the forstay tighter (will tighten lower shrouds as a result) the mast will stay straight in the fore/aft plane yet bent as it should to flatten the main. I think.. but Im not really sure, this rig is totally new to me and not what im used to tuning.

Do you turissimo 9m owners suffer from alot of helm?

[Laidback]

Originally Posted by can603

Actually pretty good. old but pretty much unused and stiff. From what I can tell as of now. the forstay is too long. The turnbuckle is bottomed out and with the cap shrouds tight, the lower shrouds are slack. This causes the mast to yield alot upwind(mid mast yields to leeward). If i can get the forstay tighter (will tighten lower shrouds as a result) the mast will stay straight in the fore/aft plane yet bent as it should to flatten the main. I think.. but Im not really sure, this rig is totally new to me and not what im used to tuning.

Do you turissimo 9m owners suffer from alot of helm?

Check the Back Stays - too loose
Check Fore stay swage

[can603]

Well, the lower back stays are fixed length, and the cap backstays are adjustable, lowers are too loose and would tighten up with a tighter forstay. I think ill have to reswage the forstay a bit shorter. How much mast bend do you have when yours is set up?

[Laidback]

Originally Posted by can603

Well, the lower back stays are fixed length, and the cap backstays are adjustable, lowers are too loose and would tighten up with a tighter forstay. I think ill have to reswage the forstay a bit shorter. How much mast bend do you have when yours is set up?

From memory the mast should be straight and vertical - that was the reason for asking the condition of the sails -- The main specifically, it may have lost its shape - so that the draft is now far too far aft, thus getting excessive helm. To bring it forward to get more drive all sorts of adjustment have been made. Maybe a trip to a friendly loft is in order to examine the sail and if possible to recut . Not sure if shorten9ng the fore-stay is a good thing. To stretch the wire so that at least 5 inches has been increased in the turnbuckle, is very unlikely.

[can603]

do you have any rig tension numbers? because it seems really slack.. Im pretty sure the main isnt blown. its in really good shape. Is yours a wishbone rig?

[Laidback]

Originally Posted by can603

do you have any rig tension numbers? because it seems really slack.. Im pretty sure the main isnt blown. its in really good shape. Is yours a wishbone rig?

Unfortunately I don't have a Turissimo - I sailed one for a couple of weeks out of Opuah. I spent some time with Malcom deciding on a bigger cat.

Could I suggest that you support the mast with halyards - then slacken off all standing rigging -- then centre the mast until it is 90 degrees fore and aft
vertical to the plane. Then tighten up the stays until they are drum tight.
The fore-stay turnbuckle should be about half full'
If the above procedure does not rectify the slack -- then check the chain plates and the hulls.

[bad kitty]

Originally Posted by pacificcat

I have just bought one, based on the pacific40 design
Any other tennant cats or home builders out there?
Comments welcome

Hi there, Bad Kitty was drawn by Malcolm as a design called an "Alfresco" which we changed a lot at design stage with Malcolm into what he then called an Alfresco Sport.
Dropped out some of the accomodation, bathrooms & made the wingdeck smaller, took some weight out all with the aim of making more of a performance cruiser. Great boat, based in New Zealand but in Fiji at the moment for the winter.

[dennisail]

That's the type of multi I like kitty. Nice one. I have always liked the GBE and Turrismo designs. I am also surprised many have not heard of Tennant. The GBE is a sort of benchmark cat to which others are often compared performance wise. What an awesome performance camp cruiser!

[spiritcat]

Can603,
Have a look at the rudder set up, when the GBE and Turrismos were first designed the rudders ran doen the transom which was sloped towards the rear of the boat. Most GBEs now have the rudder vertically mounted off the transom, see photos above fron dennisail. I used to own the moulds for the GBE in Australia and built a couple of hulls from those moulds before selling them to a bloke in Tasmania, I presume they are still down there.

Peter

[Laidback]

Originally Posted by spiritcat

Can603,
Have a look at the rudder set up, when the GBE and Turrismos were first designed the rudders ran doen the transom which was sloped towards the rear of the boat. Most GBEs now have the rudder vertically mounted off the transom, see photos above fron dennisail. I used to own the moulds for the GBE in Australia and built a couple of hulls from those moulds before selling them to a bloke in Tasmania, I presume they are still down there.

Peter

Hello Peter,
I understand the info re the rudder design, However, how would that contribute to having a slack fore-stay after after the stay turnbuckle has be screwed down to its minimum length?

Richard