Aquarius Sail Owners

Good day,

New owner of SuperCat 17, after getting the mast ball put back on with JBWeld, I have been able to go out and sail it a couple of times. Lots of smiles. Sadly season is coming to an end pretty quick with the weather, hope to get out a few more times; My wife was a little nervous going out in the rather brisk winds the first couple of times. Seems like we have no wind or it is blowing at 15 - 20 and gusting to 30 or more.

I stepped the mast using the factory gin pole that came with it, experience stepping the mast that on my Hobie 21sc helped a lot. Used the trapeze wires and self retracting righting lines that had been added to keep the gin pole centered. Found it relatively straight forward. smooth and safe. I will definitely be adding some carabiners and clips to the process to make setting up the gin pole much more efficient. Once I get that done, I can put some pictures together and measurements if anyone is interested. I will be adding a winch to the trailer to make the process even easier when on the trailer, used a mainsheet block from a Hobie which works, but coming up with a safe and centered mounting point when the boat is not on the trailer is a bit of challenge. The 21sc as a forward tramp bar that makes that really easy.

The SuperCat is much more responsive then our 21sc, working on breaking some bad habits accordingly.

My ultimate goal is to be much more competitive with the other beach cats in an annual regetta then the we have been in the past with the 21sc.

I will be taking it to Aquaris Sails at some point to have Matt take a look at it and tell me what I need to fix. Have one soft spot on one hull, some stress fractures to deal with, possible one compression fracture, etc. Hoping to get a few years out of it before the polyester resin becomes unsafe...already hoping to track down some newer hulls with epoxy resin in the mean time.

I have read everything on the forum at least once, some things a few times.

Questions:

What is the best way to become proficient at flying a hull on a SuperCat 17? Best/ideal conditions, crew position, where to have the waterline on the hulls, etc.

Do the factory pin stripes indicate a waterline that should be used as a guide when sailing a SuperCat 17?

I have a rudder that will not raise back up with the red line in the water, when I checked on the trailer both rudders worked just fine. It disengages, but seems like it will not get over the hump/fulcrum to pull it up. Lines are run correctly. Any thoughts on what to look at would be appreciated.

Does anyone know what applicaton was used to create the summary below? I can do the map or the speed average with Garmin Connect, but can not get the two on the same view.
Thanks,

Don

Hi Don,
I will try to address your question about sailing on the 17. The 17 really likes ot have the leeward hull driven bow down. Ideally, the leeward hull will be bow down with the water somewhere between the pinstripe and the deck, and the bottom of the stern will be well clear of the water. The windward hull should be kept just touching the water between the sidestay and the bow, with the stern well clear. With this attitude, the boat will be able to point well going to windward and have good boat speed.
In light winds, the crew will want to be on the leeward side and up front, sitting at or even in front of the forward beam with their legs/feet back on the tramp. The skipper will be on the windward side, sitting in front of the sidestay, possibly as far forward as the backside of the beam. As the wind increases, the skipper will first move back to being right behind the sidestay and the crew will move back onto the tramp, but staying forward. The crew can move to the windward side as needed with changes in wind conditions. When trapeezing the Crew will typically stand with one foot in front of the beam and the other just in front of the sidestay, The skipper will stand with their foot right behind the sidestay.

All of the above is in regard to sailing upwind however similar guidelines apply to going downwind. The difference being that both the skipper and crew will want to move back sooner as the conditions dictate. Generally speaking, you can drive the 17 much harder downwind than most other beach cats on the market.

Good luck and have fun

Good day,

Thank you Matt.

Looking forward to the next breeze of any kind, forecast is not looking promising.

I was able to figure out at least some of the issue with the rudder by comparing to the other, center bolt was to tight, the frame was scraping the rudder, looks like another winter project repairing/touching up the rudders.

Does anyone recognize the application or know how to create a map and average speed summary like what is in the original post.

Thanks,

Don