A shipping container transportable multihull

[bobg3723]

Ahoy there Meanz,
You know, I have heard reports that the possibility for the windward rig to blanket the leeward rig under certain points of sail and apparent wind might be the case. That would proly be the case with smaller sail areas to hull displacement ratios. In T. F. Jones book "Multihull Voyaging", he abandoned his two 26 foot masts after only two seasons due to "poor performance". In its favor, though, he also said they pointed high, were faster than a sloop under "working sails" whatever that means, tacked like a champ, and its low CE make reefing less frequent. But his catamaran couldn't keep up with monohulls of it's length racing against the fleet upwind.

He also surmised that the blade proportions on his cat were proly wrong. Now I've heard how rigs and hullforms have to taken into account together as a system. Different courses for horses. Which makes the accounts of biplane rigs a hit or miss depending on how well its worked in a system. I'll see if I can find this French stayed biplane rigged cat that I believe set a course record. And it is a monster. So maybe if everything from the tip of the rudder to the tip of the mastehead were optimized, you could very well see its strengths. A horse for a very specialized course, indeed.

Cheers,
Bob

[Meanz Beanz]

They where raving about the RB8000 but it seems to all fall apart above the 30 knot mark. They reckon that the blanketing was no issue and everything else was just great, faster, flatter, easier. In fact I had read nothing but good reports until this quite disturbing one. I think they where at sea as well, the conditions didn't seem to be helping thier cause.

Damn I can't find the report at the moment.

[bobg3723]

Couldn't find mention of breaking any records, but I found this link of another photo montage of that stayed biplane cat in question. Ain't she a beaut!

http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ph...322parliercat/

[bobg3723]

I came accross this discussion regarding performance of the Radical Bay biplaine catmaran. Intresting stuff.
Best rig for small catamaran circumnavigator?

[Meanz Beanz]

Yeah that's the post, Brain found it too I see...

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...0&postcount=41

I'd like to hear what Schionning thinks about that. Not sounding great on the surface of it.

[bobg3723]

The sea can throw you all kinds of curveballs when you least expect it.

And even though I'm looking towards a masthead cutter sloop, having abondoned the idea of a schooner rig, the fractional rig seems to be the most accepted idea to come along for both racers and cruisers.

Tacking a lightweight cruising cat doesn't have the advantage of forward momentum of the higher displacement mutihulls and monohulls (though a doublehanded crew can bet busy and pull it off, no sweat), so I need to see to it that my cutter sailplan can make use of maximum leverage backwinding jib or foresail while sailing singlehanded.

Too bad about that Radical Bay cat...it's one of the sleeker looking yachts I've seen and an unstayed biplane rig seems its tailor made for multihulls...

Bob