NZ 8.5 M box rule multihull designs.

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by oldsailor7, Sep 17, 2014.

  1. oldsailor7
    Joined: May 2008
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    Location: Sydney Australia

    oldsailor7 Senior Member

    The advent of this box rule design was based on the Malcolm Tennant GBE catamaran. This has raised the consideration of other multihull designs which fall within the scope of this box rule. If you have a small multihull and are interested in racing you might give this some consideration. :cool:
    Just google-- "New Zealand Multihull Club." & click on 8.5M box rule"
     
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  2. redreuben
    Joined: Jan 2009
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    Location: South Lake Western Australia

    redreuben redreuben

    So what is it that is stopping this awesome class going global ?

    Not enough sail area ?

    Have New Zealanders considered changing this in the interests of fostering proliferation ?
     
  3. jamez
    Joined: Feb 2007
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    Location: Auckland, New Zealand

    jamez Senior Member

    The sail area thing is a common misconception due to the low airdraft height in comparison to other non rule designs around the same size. But hot-rodding of cars and boats is kind of ingrained in Kiwis, so the rigs have developed out because they can't go up. Most 8.5s are carrying 50 - 60 square metres of working sail upwind. In comparison the Pescott Firefly 850 One design (an arguably similar design) has a taller stick with 47 sqs.

    There was a lot of interest a few years back with new designs from Australia -Grainger (Ice-box), Pescott (Spitzfire) and Nathan Stanton (Freeflow), but I'm not aware that any of these was ever built. There was a price list for the Icebox circulated at the time that suggested a pro-build sail away cost of about 140-150k. Probably too much for most people with cash when there are so many other options given the fairly defunct used sailboat markets on both sides of the Tasman. Anyone interested should check out the boat reviews on the NZMYC website.

    The boat in the pic (Dirty Deeds) carries 51 sq meters of working sail, and is plenty exciting in our conditions.
     

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  4. nzclipper
    Joined: Mar 2011
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    Location: Auckland

    nzclipper Junior Member

    Pretty sure the GBEs now have 32-34 sqm mains, and can have #1 jibs with nearly 30 sqm. Not sure how much sail mine has, but it was too much on the weekend.
     
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