THE Q-CAT - GEARING UP

The Q-Cat design, grew out of the desire of a passionate F18 cat sailor who wanted to get something bigger and more importantly a lot faster. The vision was inspired by the likes of the extreme 40's and the large cats as seen on the Swiss lakes. The goal was not just to build one boat but to aim for a one design fleet by building a cat that was going to be easy to handle by a small crew (2 should be able to sail it in light to moderate breezes) and easy trailer-able.(as there are a lot of nice places in Europe to go sailing) All this had
to be achieved in a cost effective way, specially in the light of the current economic climate which if anything else has made the client even more cautious and critical to get value for money.

The design is very much envisaged for sailing around the waters in the Netherlands and consideration was given to the often short steep waves as seen on the "Ijsselmeer" and the "Waddenzee" caused by shallow depths and currents. The hulls have an extreme fine entry to create a wave piercing effect with the centre of buoyancy being put far back. This ties in with the rig-plan which is also pushed further back in order to create a maximum "diagonal" moment against pitch-poling. (I like to call it a "diagonal moment", as most capsizes on these types of high powered cats are neither straight transversely or longitudinally) therefore it make sense to look what is happening diagonally and tune the design's parameters according to that.) To carry the rig and crew weight far aft the stern sections are made bit fuller than before. This combined with the light weight and minimal rocker allows for a high speed hull which can be driven hard specially if not over
canvassed.

The development of the design was done well before the new AC 72 rules and AC 45 one design were in existence but comparing them now to what we designed for Q-cats there are a number of similarities to be found such as in the mast position (further aft) and the beam length ratio of the boat ( 52% of L) with the AC 45 sitting at 51% making them both substantially narrower than for example the Extreme 40's which sit at 65% of L. Although not originally envisaged as a surrogate cat to be used for AC development, according to the current rules the Q-Cat could be a perfect platform for this fitting the criteria very nicely.

As the design had to be first and foremost easy to sail and practical, the beams are made with conical ends which fit in moulded pockets . They are mechanically secured with a single large size nut fitted to a treaded end on the beam which can be reached through an deck access close to the beam pockets. The trampoline tensions up between the hulls and front and aft beam to further tighten the structure together not unlike the way it's done on the smaller beach cats.

The goal was to ensure that no single component would weight over 150kg (average weight 14 to 16ft beachcat) so that the cat could be dis(assembled) by two people and put on a road legal trailer to transport. The mast-load is carried by the front beam which is curved and fitted with a dolphin striker to stiffen the structure. The wingmast is relatively big in area compared to that of the mainsail this was done to allow for a smaller sail area which could be set with a relatively deep draft for downwind sailing. Overall the sail area has been kept reasonable at the expense of some extreme light weather performance. On trials boat speeds between 3 and 4 times the TWS were easily reached from 4 knots onwards proving that this was a minimal trade off against making it more manageable in breezy conditions.