Cat Sailing – Part 2
Today, as promised, I will tell you how to properly sail a Hobie. The truth is that I didn’t know myself, but thanks to Steve, who’s back in London, we were prepared. Since last time we had problems tacking the Hobie Twixxy, I emailed Steve and asked him to tell me how to do it properly. He emailed me some instructions on how to tack a cat with skegs. So, we met with Thanasis and two friends of his (Antonis and Damianos), went to Porto Heli again and visited Fred’s office – a hut on the beach – to rent two Hobies. Last time he had told us he would give us a Hobie 16.
When we arrived he gave Antonis and Damianos a Hobie Twixxy and since the Hobie 16 had a torn jib, he gave us a Hobie 18, instead. The Hobie 18 has centreboards and not skegs, so the instructions that Steve had sent us were slightly obsolete. But, quickly, I explained them to Antonis, because they would need them with the Twixxy. Me and Thanasis jumped on the 18 and we made way. We decided to go out of the Porto Heli bay and towards Spetses. The wind was ESE around F2. We thought that if we would get to the channel between Spetses and Porto Heli we would get some clear wind. We ended up sailing close to Spetses rather than Porto Heli.
There the wind was slightly stronger but not as much as we would have liked. The other guys in the Twixxy were much slower than us. We manage to get the Hobie “singing” and this time I remembered to swap with Thanasis, so he was at the helm for quite some time. We were mainly reaching and beating. A cat will go much faster on a reach. Beating is fast. The worse is running. Actually you are better off reaching-gybing, reaching-gybing than running. Actually, Steve told me that we say reaching-tacking, reaching-tacking, although it is gybing.
Anyway, at some point we swapped boats with the Antonis and Damianos because the Twixxy was much slower. We brought the boats head to wind next to each other and while two of us were holding the boats together, two of was crawled from one to the other. Then the two others were holding the boats and then the others swapped boats. Me and Thanasis on the Twixxy managed to go as fast as the others on the 18 and even slightly faster. Thanasis has difficulty in recognising the wind because he is used to setting and trimming his sails in relation to true wind while on a dinghy you are dealing with the apparent wind.
We sailed for three hours, we really enjoyed and I left the beach with a bit of sadness because I knew I won’t be able to sail with Thanasis until, maybe, next year. We went to a Taverna and we looked through the photos that Lydia took with Thanasis’ camera. Hopefully he will send them to me soon. Next entry will be from UK waters.
Below is a copy of Steve’s “Hobie 16 Tips”
Tacking a catamaran is difficult because you’ve got two hulls to twist through the water, rather than one.
Tacking a catamaran with skegs rather than centreboards (like the Hobie 16, and most ‘holiday’ cats) is even harder because you haven’t got centreboards to pivot round – the lateral resistance necessary to sail is achieved by having skegs at the back of the hulls and the resistance of the hulls themselves. (but it does mean you can run them up the beach – my record’s 40 foot !)
Anyway, the trick to tacking a Hobie 16 quickly and not getting stuck head to wind is in the crew’s body movement during the tack.
Normally when you’re beating you want the weight of both crew close together and centralised to lift the stern as much as possible, but not risk burying the leeward bow (pitch-poling is fun, but it’s also pretty dangerous and tires you out!) and generally the fastest way to sail a catamaran is with the windward hull just out of the water – skimming the wave tops – don’t let it heel more than that; it might look good, but it’s very slow.
Try and start the tack with maximum speed, then ‘carve’ into the tack, never turning the rudders more than 45 degrees. As you turn into the tack both crew should move their weight to the back windward corner of the trampoline. This helps the boat pivot on the stern of the windward hull and also lifts the bows which the wind then blow through onto the new tack. Leave the job cleated (or held) on the original tack until the boat’s moved through the wind. Backing the jib like this is crucial to spinning the boat through the tack quickly.
Once you’re through the wind both crew should move to the new side and the front of the trampoline. This pushes the bows back down on the new tack and helps the boat get going again. And the jib should have been released from the original side just after you’ve turned head to wind.
When you’re on the new tack centralise the crew weight in the middle to keep the stern as much out of the water as possible, but not so much as to bury the leeward bow. You also need to bear the boat away from a close hauled course for a bit, with both jib and main off a bit till the speed’s back up then harden the sails and point up to a close hauled course.
It’s a damn sight harder than tacking a laser !
When gybing you want to be going as fast as possible – never slow the boat – this is true for every sailing boat of every description, not just Hobies or when racing – you want to be going as close as possible to the wind speed, then the boom doesn’t come across with a bang ! As with the tack, just carve into the gybe, never letting the rudders turn more than 45 degrees.
As the wind crosses the stern grab the main sheet between the blocks (i.e. grab 5 or 6 strands of mainsheet) and ease the boom across the boat. Don’t keep turning waiting for the wind to blow the sail across – you’ll be on a reach before it happens and it’ll crash over.
And if you briefly centralise the rudders as you’re bringing the boom over it’ll help the boom go. (then carry on with the carve).
If it’s windy when you’re on the Hobie don’t stop watching the leeward bow to make sure it doesn’t bury – they go very quickly because there’s so little buoyancy in the bows. If you see the bow burying let the jib off quickly – this usually pops the bow up again.