Ninja Proa

[waynemarlow]

I have been wondering about an idea for a very long time that a proa style catamaran, particularly at around the 16ft mark, maybe a better racing boat than an actual catamaran. Ninja http://www.sail-the-difference.com/h...tamaran/ninja/ has sort of gone along these lines and a more racing version of this boat is what I mean.

Advantages primarily are weight, manouverability, but mostly the boat can always be sailed on one hull ( less drag ). Now a 2 up crew which can wire ( F16 ) will always be the optimum but as a single hander I think things change significantly. In comparison to say a Mustoo skiff which are just so difficult to sail well, it would seem the small Ama would be enough to prevent the constant "baths" and yet allow that training wheel to be held out of the water most of the time. On the one tack the additional flotation would increase RM and on the other the additional leverage should be enough.

Comments please or perhaps this idea has already been developed already.

[Doug Lord]

Wayne, seems to me that on one tack the ama could fly, on the other it gets wet? I don't think ,from a strictly high performance standpoint, that a small proa could compete with a powered up over square tri-just my opinion.
The Ninja spider on the site you referenced is one cool looking tri!

Here are pictures of the proa ad the tri:

[dstgean]

Originally Posted by Doug Lord

Wayne, seems to me that on one tack the ama could fly, on the other it gets wet? I don't think ,from a strictly high performance standpoint, that a small proa could compete with a powered up over square tri-just my opinion.
The Ninja spider on the site you referenced is one cool looking tri!

Here are pictures of the proa ad the tri:

Cool boats. I like the concept better than the Weta, but I can't imagine it'll be faster in most cases than an A cat or other similar singlehander cat such as an F16 (main & spin). these boat might be passed in extremely light air by a boat like the Ninja, but can fly a hull in 8 knots. Tons of development there too, while the little tris have not been tweaked for racing much at this size range.

It would be cool if someone with a similar skill set as a designer & sailor made a F18 tri to compete with the F18 cats just to see if it could be done. Some interesting conversation lately about it, but for cheap thrills in a trailerable package, the 14-20' cat will win out for convenience every time.

.02

Dan

[Doug Lord]

Originally Posted by dstgean

. Some interesting conversation lately about it, but for cheap thrills in a trailerable package, the 14-20' cat will win out for convenience every time.

.02

Dan

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If "cheap" is the measure you're 100% right. But from a high performance design standpoint, I think the tri has it if all its advantages are used.
And a high performance tri could have folding or plug in amas and be easily trailerable. For equal or faster speed the tri will be much easier to sail(sit on the side of a cockpit in the center) and much more comfortable. To beat an F18 the tri crew just stays near the center of the boat -no running side to side. But, if a square or over square configuration is used and two on trapezes you would have and incredibly powered up boat that no beach cat could touch.
See post 97 here "Thread Summary" 18' Trimaran vs F18 Catamaran

[waynemarlow]

I agree that an over square tri is cool but we have a 2.5m beam max to play with here ( trailerable + ramp space etc to launch ). But I still think that by having only ever one hull in the water ( most of the time until over pressed when the winds get higher ) then you get the benefits of 4 - 8 knots and then a mid section of say 8 - 14 knots of Ama and leverage ( depending on which tack you are on ) then from 14 > where trapeze on extended leverage will hold good until into the 20's.

I have been thinking about this for a long while and from sailing both the A's and the F16's most of the time you are trying hard to get one hull out of the water and then with the sail area, trying to hold it down. With this type of boat I'm sure we could back off on the sail area and get similar results with a much better handicap rating.

[Percyis]

You can also fly the main hull with crafty sailing, making this design type more powerful overall than a cat. It folds to trailer beam for easy launch, has loads of forgiveness on either side and is set to give fits to the trad cat crowd.

Go for it, Wayne and don't look back.

[Doug Lord]

Originally Posted by Percyis

You can also fly the main hull with crafty sailing, making this design type more powerful overall than a cat. It folds to trailer beam for easy launch, has loads of forgiveness on either side and is set to give fits to the trad cat crowd.

Go for it, Wayne and don't look back.

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Welcome to the forum Percyis! I'm not sure how you can say a proa like Ninja would be "more powerful overall than a cat"? Care to elaborate?