he b gb

Good one snags, this was on tv here a week ago. Seconds after this screen shot the plane crashed into a petrol tanker. Funniest scene I’ve ever seen in a movie, the tanker didn’t even budge an inch when the plane hit it and exploded!! Next thing Cary Grant steals an onlookers Ute and is of and away again. (Don’t know if he managed to throw the poo tickets in the back of the Ute before he got away though?)

Some mast detail

Thanks Pil for the compliment re ‘Cactus’. she is 45’ by 28’ and weighs 4.5 ton empty. Her rigs cost me $7000 for the two, this may sound cheap but I did everything myself and so you would have to add my one year of labour it took to build them (call me crazy but I enjoy mucking around with boats and don’t include my labour as a $ value). The extra deck and floor reinforcement did not add up to much as the mast conduits are situated at a major crossbeam which handles the transverse loads with maybe an extra 20 kg per side to handle the fore / aft loads (plus 20kg per side for conduits and bearings etc). The all up weight of each rig is 150kg for 14mtr length (1.8mtr bury, 12.2mtr above deck) . Would I do it again? No way, this is definitely my last boat. Would I do it again if it wasn’t my last boat, Definately!

It was ‘Team Phillips’ that planted the seed in my brain, and even though we all know how that ended I still thought it was the coolest cat ever. Yes Pil and Russell you are correct, when you say it would be cheaper and lighter to go with stayed rigs but to me the safety of the unstayed biplane rig overrides those issues many times over. With the low centre of effort you don’t get that leeward bow down/windward rudder up feeling you get in most cats when powered up and if you do get overpowered the ability to weathercock the rigs totally and quickly makes it a very safe option. Call me a wimp if you want to but I’ve done plenty of offshore racing and cruising over the years and seen plenty of capsizes, I just don’t want to join that club. (Ps. I am totally in awe of Russell sailing Jzerro to Australia and back!!)

Yeh @rustylaru, she folds and hangs off the davits on Cactus. I’ve wanted to get her sailing for a couple of years now but ended up building a new house instead. House is now finished but now I have to wait for another 3 or 4 months to be able to work on her as I’ve just had shoulder tendon surgery.

Yeh Rusty, I was wondering the same thing. I watched the vid you posted and I’m a bit surprised at the overall complexity of the UFO rig. I’m interested as I am in the process of getting Cactus Islands catamaran tender sailing (bi-plane rigged) and hope fully foiling.

Fore/aft makes more sense to me. On most bridgedecks the headroom is usually higher at the aft end of the bunk allowing sitting headroom while the lower height at the fore(foot) end allows sleeker styling to the decks.

Thanks Mrs O, I forgot about that photo sequence. That’s about as close as you can get to going over without going over!! Reminds me of a Bay to Bay I did on Exposure (ex Riverside Oaks) when we got that vertical clinging to the nets like Spider-Man (damn that endless spinnaker sheet it had). Probably the $2 rum and cokes the night before had more to do with our near flip though!.

There was one of these Tennant Wild Thing designs that used to regularly race out of Airlie Beach in Oz. Anyone out there ( paging Trispirit) know how she performed?

Wouldn’t be surprised if a major failure occurred when she landed that huge leap ! What an awesome photo.

Pissing myself, that’s got to be the funniest self inflicted atomic wedgie I’ve ever seen!!

That won’t work, it will fall off!

Yeh, great shot of the main, not sure about the jib!!

Thanks Skip, but what do you mean by ‘pilot in the foil bulb’ ??

That’s what I thought 44. Can’t wait till LB works this out.

Sorry Wayne but I haven’t heard anything about this podcat which is strange as I live quite close to where it’s based. Looks like the owner has spent some pretty big bucks on it and it’s pretty cheap for a well outfitted near new boat (launched 2018). The rigs look quite tall and along the lines of the mocra 60’ cat ‘Region Aquitaine’ but with half wishbone booms. Not sure about its anchoring setup way back at the main beam (also 2 anchor winches?) very interesting boat!

I agree that the AWS system would be excellent for bi plane rigged cats. I have actually thought about going down this road on Cactus Island as I could quite easily (and lightly) convert my round masts to “D” masts. What would be holding me back would be the expense of of the 4 mainsails and associated batten and track system.

Thanks Jamez, Cactus is my own design, she’s 45’ by 28’ and weighs 4.5 ton sailing and has 880 sq.ft of working sail area. I also designed and built the rigs which I built before starting the boat as I knew I probably wouldn’t have proceeded with after building the boat! (They were a shit load of work!)

Ha, I thought that was a flash graphics spiderweb thingy, not a rooted painted job!

Hi Shaggy, I was wondering if your boat can dry out between tides by sitting on rudders + centreboard? Nice yacht.

It’s obvious the f50 has finished her lap thrashing Defiant. The f50 is already back in her slip, sails packed away and the crew is celebrating with a few sherberts in the club bar.

Hi Mrs O, we left Bundaberg in September 2016 and had predominantly E/S.E.winds varying between 1 to 30 kts most of the way. Stopped at Fiji, Wallis Isl, Tokelau, then 4 months (cyclone season) at Kiritimati Isl before heading to the Tuamotus in March 2017. Was a great way to get a whole season cruising back to Oz. I definately don’t mind you posting the vid as I’m about as computer illiterate as they come! It’s a pretty ordinary vid taken by an old camera which really distorts the boats lines. I’ve tried posting better photos on this site but they get rejected due to too many mb’s

Very happy with my bi-plane rigged cat (Cactus Island) in all conditions after sailing her since 2012. No problems with flopping around in any conditions as she has a Balestron rig (ie. boom continues forward of mast to take jib tack and boom is solidly attached to mast) which can be easily prevented from either end of the boom. Her masts are round tubes so don’t give any drive at anchor or docking. Sure her Achilles heel is when the breeze is on the beam ( or around 15 degrees either side) but this is compensated by her excellent close and broad reaching ability, her square running speed without use of a spinnaker, and her fine windward ability. Her cruisability was well proven during our 5,000 mile beat to Christmas Island and French Polynesia and downwind voyage back to Oz in 2016/17. Must admit I was a bit surprised to see the height of the rigs on the 70’ Chris White bi-plane cat, the builders commented that this was to be able to get a similar amount of sail area as a una sloop rig but during test sailing had to be careful when bearing away (this is explained by the builders in an interesting article from Seahorse magazine). In comparison bearing away and jibing are completely stress free with Cactus Islands conservative rigs mainly due to the balestron rigs. She would be way under powered without her jibs. I would expect the White cat to be a great performer speed wise but seem to think she might have traded off some of the bi-planes intrinsic safety by going so high with the rigs. Just my 2cents worth, would love to see more about her, anyone got links besides C W’s website?

Different boat again Monkey, looks like Wahoo is a very popular name for Crowther cats. (I was even considering that same name for my Spindrift back in 1982! )