Bill Gibbs 28 Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 Afterburner is a 52' x 30' Tennant racing sail catamaran I raced in California from 2001 to 2015. She was sold a couple times before the current owner decided to sail her to New Zealand this year. I heard she arrived Fiji with a broken beam, just as a Cyclone hit in April. Anyone know what has happened to her since? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Roleur 527 Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 Still in Fiji according to a friend that get that far with her. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bill Gibbs 28 Posted July 5, 2020 Author Share Posted July 5, 2020 Which beam broke? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ex Machina 238 Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 In Fiji 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meat Wad 776 Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 That must have been a miserable sail in that boat. I did not think it was a boat designed for long voyages. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Evan Fullerton 6 Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 Kiwis and Aussies are crazy. Our Boat Broker in Pittwater (just north of Sydney) when we sold our boat there in 2017 was a bit of a local legend as he had sailed a Hobie 18 to Hobart and his own home built engineless 31ft Catamaran (similar to a Reynolds 33) to San Francisco with his wife. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Keith 1,528 Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 Whats the problem with taking a 50 foot+, non bridge deck, dagger board cat across an ocean.... Probably sails very well, and with a turn of speed, when wanted. Ill bet its fun Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zenmasterfred 565 Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 Yup, just strap yourself on, have lots of water and Tater Tots and away you go. No thanks for me but I am of a certain age now. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bill Gibbs 28 Posted July 5, 2020 Author Share Posted July 5, 2020 The boom, mainsail, and bowsprit are missing in the picture. Looks like Cyclone preparation. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fat Point Jack 291 Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 I need to dig out my old Multihulls Magazines. It was real dreamy, cool to read about your exploits with her. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hobot 4,438 Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 5 hours ago, Evan Fullerton said: Kiwis and Aussies are crazy. Our Boat Broker in Pittwater (just north of Sydney) when we sold our boat there in 2017 was a bit of a local legend as he had sailed a Hobie 18 to Hobart and his own home built engineless 31ft Catamaran (similar to a Reynolds 33) to San Francisco with his wife. Let's not forget those Kooks that went to Kauai to get that unfinished trimaran and motor it back to Australia on its own bottom! (Couldn't even begin to figure out how to use the search function to find the story) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BGeff 285 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 I had wished she came here to the Great Lakes as the new "Nice Pair," but it wasn't meant to be. Here's to hoping her new life back in her birth waters is a good one. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rasputin22 3,508 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 18 minutes ago, Geff said: I had wished she came here to the Great Lakes as the new "Nice Pair," but it wasn't meant to be. Here's to hoping her new life back in her birth waters is a good one. Geff, You could have been that guy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BGeff 285 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 18 minutes ago, Rasputin22 said: Geff, You could have been that guy! Ha HA! No, not me. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AnotherSailor 453 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 12 hours ago, Keith said: Whats the problem with taking a 50 foot+, non bridge deck, dagger board cat across an ocean.... Probably sails very well, and with a turn of speed, when wanted. Ill bet its fun Fun for a day, not for crossing a significant part of the pacific ocean. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Keith 1,528 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 16 minutes ago, AnotherSailor said: Fun for a day, not for crossing a significant part of the pacific ocean. Actually it would be a great run. Cali,Hawaii, cooks, w Samoa,Fiji, getting into NZ would be the tricky cold part. it’s a very nice sailing cat. Actually, it’s a sailors cat. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SCANAS 585 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 6 hours ago, hobot said: Let's not forget those Kooks that went to Kauai to get that unfinished trimaran and motor it back to Australia on its own bottom! (Couldn't even begin to figure out how to use the search function to find the story) & here is RAVE now https://yotclub.com.au/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mookiesurfs 124 Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 On 7/5/2020 at 12:53 PM, Keith said: Whats the problem with taking a 50 foot+, non bridge deck, dagger board cat across an ocean.... Probably sails very well, and with a turn of speed, when wanted. Ill bet its fun Oh you are oh so farqed if a puff puts it on its side a thousand mile from anywhere. Ugh. I don’t even want to think about it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Torsten 17 Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 On 7/6/2020 at 6:27 AM, SCANAS said: & here is RAVE now https://yotclub.com.au/ Wow. Fair play to them, that is quite the build and quite the transformation! Sad to see a big tri end up like that but at least she's not in landfill. Where do they moor it? Original link post for refernence. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SCANAS 585 Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 44 minutes ago, Torsten said: Wow. Fair play to them, that is quite the build and quite the transformation! Sad to see a big tri end up like that but at least she's not in landfill. Where do they moor it? Original link post for refernence. Yep. Would have been cool to see it sail once! Poor bloke that built it. At least it wasn’t chopped up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Keith 1,528 Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Ya sure, A Malcolm Tennant 53 foot excellent sailing, non bridge deck, dagger board catamaran, like Afterburner, would be just fine crossing oceans. and noo you don't need to drive it like a racing machine, she would be quite capable for crossing an ocean. look at all those bridge-deck slamming, four electric heads, charter party design catamarans, that get across safely, and they are not even designed for ocean sailing. Yes it might be a wetter ride, but handled properly, no problem. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
he b gb 265 Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Maybe we should ask @Bill Gibbs if he would have enjoyed sailing Afterburner from the USA to NZ. It would be interesting to hear his comments. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bill Gibbs 28 Posted July 8, 2020 Author Share Posted July 8, 2020 Well since you asked, Afterburner isn't all that miserable at sea. 6' headroom in the hulls, 4' wide taper down to a narrow sole. A forward berth pretty unusable at sea due to pitching. An aft berth that was favored. We'd sleep 6 (full race crew), 1 in the aft berth, then 2 on the cabin floor, single file. Same in both hulls. Sleeping bag pads on port, sails on strb. Narrow enough you didn't get thrown around. Wet sails were a bummer, but spin bags were soft. Single burner and sink on strb. We boiled water for freeze dried, which was quite good. It was wet out on the fishnet. The cockpit sheltered the hatch and gave some shelter to the crew, less for the helmsman as I'd sit aft up on the coming for a view. You could slide your butt in a bit and brace your feet against the other side of the cockpit for a secure position, main sheet in one hand, tiller in the other just like a beachcat. The preferred position for sailing powered up and flying a hull. All sheets held at all times. For short crewed night transits we preferred to reef down, avoid wind and waves, and motor upwind (outboard ventilating) when we could. We didn't have an autopilot which made the night watches grueling. When I first got Afterburner I ran around looking for other multi's to do the Transpac with me. After failing for 3-4 years, I gave up. I had learned a lot about sailing Afterburner, and a lot from people who had done the Transpac. Racing under full sail on a dark night and dealing with squalls just didn't sound like fun at all. My 15 years racing Afterburner was mostly day sailing, and that got hairy when the winds got up. Longest race was 120 nm N2E, and longest transit the 200 nm back to Ventura. I thought these were long until I brought Wahoo 4,000 nm back from Tortola. Now 200 nm is a short leg. To answer the question , no, I would not enjoy sailing AB to NZ today. I find I like more comfort and safety in my life. Sailing AB prudently isn't what made her fun. I suspect she isn't in the best condition of her life these days, always a concern at sea. At her peak, she was lightly built, and wracked a lot. Do something wrong and something broke. I spent as much time fixing her as sailing her, all part of the hobby I loved. 9 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SPORTSCAR 920 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 On 7/6/2020 at 2:43 AM, Evan Fullerton said: Kiwis and Aussies are crazy. Our Boat Broker in Pittwater (just north of Sydney) when we sold our boat there in 2017 was a bit of a local legend as he had sailed a Hobie 18 to Hobart and his own home built engineless 31ft Catamaran (similar to a Reynolds 33) to San Francisco with his wife. Ah,. that would be Rod Waterhouse, top bloke! Father of Jason Waterhouse, NACRA Olympian (Silver) and AC sailor. The apple didn't fall far from the tree there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wal' 146 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 Had a great day on the 'Burner in the Bay of Islands many years ago. ......... but the best day was beating it in the 1990 Coastal Classic by 54 minutes in the old Pink Pig (Split Enz) 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bill Gibbs 28 Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 Where is John Hughes these days? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
he b gb 265 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 Thanks for your reply Bill, I remember racing against a sister ship called Matchless (may have been a bit smaller) which was based on Lake Macquarie (NSW,Australia) back in the 1990’s. She was super fast and after having a look on board I couldn’t believe how lightly she was built. Everyone used to wonder if she would ever do a Brisbane to Gladstone race (which we all thought she would easily win) but she never did. I heard that some time after she broke her mooring in Lake Macquarie and was wrecked never to sail again. Anyone out there know if she ever competed offshore? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wal' 146 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 14 hours ago, Bill Gibbs said: Where is John Hughes these days? He's floating around. I haven't seen him for a few ...... well.... quite a few years by now. I wandered off from the multihull scene in the early 90s. Much of it was on a Ross 40 'Jesse James' ( renamed Pangaia sp? ) which sailed out of Marina Del Rey for a while. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rasputin22 3,508 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 On 7/6/2020 at 12:27 AM, SCANAS said: & here is RAVE now https://yotclub.com.au/ No Fucking Way!!! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carcrash 506 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 11 minutes ago, Rasputin22 said: No Fucking Way!!! Rave now the platform for raves! Suitable! Creative insight by the new owners. Really looks like a lot of fun! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rasputin22 3,508 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 10 minutes ago, carcrash said: Rave now the platform for raves! Suitable! Creative insight by the new owners. Really looks like a lot of fun! Earl Edwards must be rolling over in his grave. Jim Antrim introduced me to Earl's widow Jody shortly after he died to do some nice renderings of the big tri as it might have looked if completed as designed. He was trying to help her recover some of the small fortune that she and her husband had spent over the decades in which they had built the beast on the beach. She was pretty devastated and didn't really want to spend any more on marketing such a white elephant and I did some detailing sort of pro bono but it never accounted for much. I don't think I could ever come up with what the crazy Aussies did though! 400 passenger party barge now and not half bad looking. Those guys who motored her down under from Hawaii must have had some stones! Brilliantly designed by the late Earl Edwards, MIT-trained aeronautical engineer, 114’ Rave presents an unrivaled addition to the luxury trimaran or charter markets. Every inch of this sleek, hand-crafted composite tri wants to fly. Worthy of her own novel, Rave’s story began at the mouth of the Nawiliwili river on the island of Kauai, over twenty years ago. Built entirely by hand by Edwards and his co-owner, Jodi Gardner, Rave is a legend in the waters off Lihue with tourists and locals alike long-marveling at her evolution. After the death of Edwards in 2014, Gardner completed one of the final components of making her sea-worthy: the incredible 140’ carbon-plank mast. The next chapter of her remarkable story is yet to be written. USCG permitted for 49 passengers and four crew, Rave’s chartering opportunities represent a substantial revenue stream. Alternatively, she could be finished as an elite luxury craft capable of world-wide travel in unsurpassed style with unbelievable speed. Gardner will entertain various models for Rave’s future, including investing partnerships or direct sale. Construction: Composite/Carbon Design: Earl Edwards Length Overall (including rudder): 114’/35 m Length Main Hull: 101’/31 m Beam Overall: 75’/23 m Displacement (empty): 43K lbs./19.5K kg. Displacement (full): 56K lbs./25.4K kg. Mast Length: 140’/42.6 m Height Above Water: 146.5’/44.7 m Gross Tons: 45/40,823 kg Net Tons: 13/11,793 kg Naval Architecture Antrim Associates Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SCANAS 585 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Rasputin22 said: No Fucking Way!!! I had magazines with her featured & build updates when I was a teenager. I’m sure she wanted to fly a full at 25 knots just once in her life before being turned into this. But at least she wasn’t scrapped. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bigrpowr 268 Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 wasnt AB parked out front of Gladstone's in Shoreline for a long time? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bill Gibbs 28 Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 Yes, probably 2016 until she left this year for NZ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john Bennett 0 Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 If you'd like to know more about "Afterburner" feel free to contact me. John Bennett Lami Suva, FIJI Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bill Gibbs 28 Posted May 1, 2021 Author Share Posted May 1, 2021 3 hours ago, john Bennett said: If you'd like to know more about "Afterburner" feel free to contact me. John Bennett Lami Suva, FIJI What's the best way to contact you? I'm [email protected] Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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