Thread: Boyer A Class cat

It is 18ft long.

The A-class cats are perhaps the most efficient of the regularly sailed racing catamarans.

Designed for one person.

Boyer is one of the best builders and has been very innovative with internal structures in wood. Definitely deserves to be considered a classic. His boats have always done pretty well at a world championship level.

The bent mast is possibly useless.

But the boat itself looks like a good buy.

I have a photoset of a DIFFERENT BOAT by Boyer in my photo collections - if you are interested in just how light and simple the interior of such a highly loaded and fast boat can be they are worth some study.

My pics below are probably a fairly early boat. The methods and finish improved as they went on.

Collection: Antique racing dinghies and other old boat stuff.

The foam required by the rules has become part of the structure and has been used to replace ply bulkheads and stringers to increase panel stiffness as well as preventing buckling failures in the skin. The ply hull skins take all the most important loads, so where there are huge compression loads (particularly the deck and the inside faces of the hulls the foam or stringers increase local stiffness so that the light skin won't buckle.

Its like standing on a coke tin (compression load) and tapping the side - tin collapses. Not so easy if the tin is full of foam!.



This next one is looking up under the decks - shows the timber beam the aluminium crossbeams are bolted to. Not how the middle of the timber beam has been cut away and tied to the thin ply bulkhead that distributes the loads into the hull.

Thanks MIK, I thought this one might catch your eye.

We have one of these turning up fairly regularly at Grahamstown Lake. It's in excellent nick for its age, but a lot of care is needed when sailing her. The biggest care needed is the decision to take her out at all, as big waves and high winds quickly load her up.