Aquilon 265/800

[earagone]

Hello!

Does anyone have any experience with the Aquilon 265 (also known as the 800 in europe)? Ive found little information on the internet about it minus the boatyards spec sheet and then one or two articles.

looking for known issues, pros/cons.

Thanks!

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by earagone

Hello!

Does anyone have any experience with the Aquilon 265 (also known as the 800 in europe)? Ive found little information on the internet about it minus the boatyards spec sheet and then one or two articles.

looking for known issues, pros/cons.

Thanks!

There were a few of this "type" of cat in the 1990s Aquilon, Shuttleworth Cheetah, later Dandee, Woods Strider, Wharram Tiki 21/26.

Anyone thinking of buying a cat in those days was considered to be terminally deranged so builders and designers were concentrating on entry level. As cats were "too" wide to be sensible, so having ones that "in theory" could be put on a trailer made good sense. Once the buying public were hooked manufacturers concentrated on bigger more profitable boats.

Because of limited materials tech bigger cats tended to heavy and slow so a small light nibble cat offered good performance and could be produced for reasonable cost.

De-mountable does make sense if you want to try different sailing venues without making long passages and is very cost effective if you have storage space and are willing to put in the time for assembly at beginning of each season which is not quick.

They are more camping than living but provided you don't over load them offer good performance.

Mostly solid or core-mat construction so check for serious cracking although on this size boat pretty much anything is fixable.

In this size folding tri's offer arguably "better" accommodation and performance but at a cost.

[earagone]

Tupaia,
Thanks for the info!

[GordMay]

Greetings and belated welcome aboard the CF, eragone.

[Kitester]

Does anyone have any time aboard or sailing experience with the 265. Any info on mast stepping or assembling this boat? Thanks in advance.

[Kitester]

Hi there to all. Just learning my way around the forum. I too am looking for more information on the 265. Any bit of info would be good. I saw the page with the old advertisement for the boat. I did some quick numbers. I would guess the standing rigging at about 400 lbs. I bet the bridge deck is close to 500 lbs. If you subtract and divide by 2 the hulls would be around 450 lbs each!!?? That seems very light for a 27 boat. Info on line says the boat weighs in at around 1800. If the front striker has not been included as part of the standing rig I bet the hulls could be even lighter. Does that sound right? I did a search for the builder. They have not produced boats of that design for years and seem to have gone out of business. I also searched for info about the designer, Paul Stanek. I would guess he is very old by now or ...... The boats were built into the early 90s and he had been a designer in Finland before that. If he was close to 50 by that time....in his 90s now? There was a Paul Stanek in the SF Bay Area that did video work on the “kite boat” several years ago. Same guy? It seems like too much coincidence. The boat builder built the 265 in the Bay Area. The video edit credit for a Paul
Stanek’s work on the kite powered boat was filmed in the same place years later. Same guy or son?

[Kitester]

So just recently there was a YouTube video of an Aqulion 765 for sale posted. The owner speaks French on the video and the boat is located in Europe. Does anyone know what if this is a prototype or just another model by the same designer?

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Kitester.

[Kitester]

There appears to be one that was for sale in Mexico..... It sure would be nice to find an owner or someone who had one in the past.