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Where and when did you start M/catting?


berny

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I bought my Maricat in 1992 at a car auction of all places, for $600 on a trailer and raced it that season at CRSC getting lapped on several occasions.

I soon got it going ok and did my first State titles over the '93 Easter break.

I had some great racing at all sorts of places in three states over the next seven odd years and had a fantastic time overall with some of most wonderful people I've ever met.

Bern

Sailing rocks!! biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by berny (edited 08 June 2004).]

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April 82 purchased 1st Maricat at a boat show on the Gold Coast, what I didn’t known was

a) What great life experience this purchase would turnout to be

b) The company selling the boat was bankrupt

c) How to even sail a Maricat.

The life experience has allowed me to enjoy a great sport in the company of many great friends. Started out at the Gold Coast Cat Club, and over the years have also been a member of the Tweed River Aquatic Club, Richmond River Sailing, Great Lakes Sailing Club, Tuross Head Sailing Club and lastly CRSC. In the early days spent a lot time traveling the various regattas at Rathmines, Lake Liddell, Foster, Taree, Tuross Head, Eden, Jindabyne, Batemans Bay, Trial Bay.

Quickly learned how to sail the Maricat albeit to this day still find Cat rigged extremely difficult. Started using trapeze in 1985.

Have owned 2 boats both purchased from new.

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I've only just taken up the sport in the last two years,although my father sailed a H-14 in the eighties.

Finally found the time(busy running my own business) to buy a cat which lucky for me was a Maricat 4.3 called Midnight Lara.She had been sitting on a surf beach,unused for 5 years,purchased her for $750 with trailer.

My first sail involved getting Lara inverted and not being able to right her,sat on the hulls floating for a couple of hours until Someone came to rescue me.

Great start.

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Matty and I had a bet to buy maricats for no more than $800, suprisingly we found two good boats easily. we even got beach rollers with our boats, never used them though smile.gif

So after almost ten years without owning a boat (although I always had excellent boats to sail, thanks Forbsey smile.gif ) I now have a maricat, a T5.7 which is soon to be 10ft wide and with a carbon rig and all the nasty bits, and a Capricorn F18 on order. I think it is the whole binge and purge scenario to blambe for my recent purchases....

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Macca, you can't have everything.

Where would you put it???

It is good to see that there is a resurgence in the Mari's as they are a top little boat.

REV YUKKA II.... Look after my old boat as she looked after me and won me plenty of races back in the 80's.

I broke her mast one day at Port Stephens. I think it was the fist Nacra 5.8 mast to break.

She was called Indulgence back then.

Matt

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I started in Maricats with sail number 414 when I moved to Hobart in 1978. Had experience in dinghys, Paper Tigers and a H14 in Victoria. Maricats were the big competitive class for about 4 or 5 years and we had some great racing and social functions. Many of the original Hobart Maricaters are still my mates now.

Old 414 was super strong but not a great performer.

My second Maricat was sail number 1368 and was ultra light and fast but fell apart. Current maricat is number 2227 and is what seems to be called a Mark 2. Lots of hairline cracks and a bit of a leak in the port hull (can't find the leak) but sails well. The boat looks like it has been to hell and back. It lived on a beach for years and a few years back fell off the trailer on a rough country road.

These boats are tough. Oldest boat in our club has the original sail number in the low 600s, and newest boat is in the 2600s.

Numbers and interest on the improve but as sailors move up to bigger cats (makes no sense to me) we will still probably struggle to get 6 starters most weeks. We seem to be destined for mixed fleet sailing.

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It's $123 and your Jib is in my sail box somewhere... I think the Orange looks pretty good with my sky blue and red mainsail.

Stuffed if I know where I am going to put all these boats, The Taipan will live at Kurnel I reckon, as I will only have a Tornado trailer on odd occassions. i'm thinking that the Taipan will be a perfect boat for the long distance races like the bridge to bridge, cock of the bay and any other races that someone comes up with, If the Whitsunday classic ever gets off the ground, the Taipan will the first entry for sure!

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Pete,

for that leak you can't find....

1st change the bungs to new ones and reseal, even if they look ok due to wear and corrosion of item they will still leak.

2nd check all the rivets on tramp track, with tension they will allseem ok but the tramp may be lifting the track up a bit and allowing ingress of water there through rivett holes etc

3rd maybe look at the vent hol up under near front beam. maybe a loose fit....

4th check beams underneath the washer/bolt heads... due to corrosion on these old boats now there may be no alum. left then allowing wate past...

failing all these usuals.... get the vacum out and put it on blow etc place length of garden hose in bung and in vacum hose and presurise hull, walk round with detergent mixed with water and try on any suss spots... also feel and listen for leaks

as ther mar gets older....tlc ....is needed

cheers dave

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Thanks Dave

I have tried the reversed vacuum cleaner technique, but only with my daughter helping me, and it was inconclusive. Warrior and I will try again before our seson starts.

I have replaced most of the trampoline rivets (fell through when they failed, and the hull doesn't leak in light winds.

Never thought of the breather tube - mine is quite loose in the Port hull.

Never wanted to remove the main bolts but I think the time has come. I need to replace the dolphin striker wire in any case. What product do you use to seal the main bolts and how do you do it? Also do the bolts undo easily? My experience with SS bolts into alloy blocks is all negative.

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PETE,

My recent experience with beam bolts was positive, my boat is a mk2 circa 1985?

I had to replace the front beam for peace of mind when I noticed a compression crease on the underneath side, recieved new beam from catsailor.net.(thanks Andrew and Dale)

They undid easily (bit loose actually) and that is when I saw the large slots caused by electrolisis under the pad washer.

Did the usual clean the thread on bolt, clean the nut thread with a tapp and blew excess material out, ran bolt up and down, then used a waterproof marine grade grease on thread to prevent seizing.

before seating beam, measured up to ensure parallel hulls then sealed around beam bolt holes etc and bolted home firm?

just take it easy, any resistance stop and think and seek further advice.

As to replacing wire for d. striker, the tangs should be accessible without removing the beam?

cheers dave

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The other place you might look Pete is under the deck flange at the bows where the fore stays are anchored. These take most of the mainsheet tension and they've been known to lift the deck away from the hull. It's a place you wouldn't necessarily look and it's not allways obvious until you sheet on and the gap opens and gulps in water while you're sailing.

Similarly, the deck also tries to lift away at the shrouds so you might also check there.

Bern

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Oh and by the way Pete, and everyone else too for that matter, if you decide to pump the hulls up with the vac, make sure you have 'O' rings fitted to the hatches, (a good idea to stop water leaks too) BUT!, and this is important, make sure you do not put too much pressure in the hulls or you can split them apart. 3 PSI would be about a maximum safe pressure, (21kpa?), any more and you can do more damage than not.

A bike tube valve (tapered) fits nicely into a hole drilled in the middle of a hatch cover to allow the use of a bike pump and gives much more control over the pressure generated. Plugging it is easy using a bit of silicon and an auto upholstery plug.

Bern

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Thanks for the tips on all the spots where the poor old girl may be leaking. I certainly wouldn't have looked at some of those spots. When the weather improves I shall do more testing.

Actually the weather is spot on for the Maricat worlds. Top temperature of around 12 degrees with the Derwent at around 10 degrees. Plenty of cloud and more than a little rain. Interestingly not much boating activity to interfere with any racing. Also plenty of parking in the beachside car parks.

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bungs bung and bungs, keep them in good nic and you should get no leaks, also nip them up with a pair of pliers is a good move. My boat is 18 year old and no leaks, always been bone dry. Another area is to check to seam along the keel. With all the dragging on the sand and then the banging on the trailer not unusual to find a split seam, often found when boat sitting on trailer and you see wet areas when away from the boat ramp

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Don't think it has been mentioned here as yet. A number of the maricats now do away with the rear bung and use a hatch on the rear deck instead. This is also done by Wayne Barry. It stops the leaks there and also removes the problem of forgetting to put the bungs in smile.gif

Another advantage is that it is easier to rake the rudders under the hull to cater for mast rake. I have seen many of the rudders pushing against the rear bung which makes the angle unreliable (dependng how much bung is turned etc.

I have also sealed the front hatches now and the boat does not leak a drop.

John.

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Seem to have gone off the thread a little..

I aquired my first maricat new in 1980 sail number 1828 from Ron Sumner in Terrigal. Had been sailing monohulls prior to that time but liked the look of the maricats at a boat show in Sydney.

Used the boat for recreational sailing as well as racing. Managed to win the NSW State Title in 1984 with this boat, then again in 1985 and again in 1986 (all in cat rigged class).

I introduced mast rake to the cat rigged fleet at the state titles held at Rathmines (copied from hobie cats of course). This was after the new "race sail" was introduced (which I could not afford at the time) I used mast rake to make my boat competitive with boats using the new sail. It was quite effective and by the end of that series almost all cat rigged maricats were using extreme rake. I managed to win that series with a reasonable margin. the mast rake at that time was the same that is used now by Wayne and others. So it was not a progressive introduction.

The following year I raced sloop rig at the states and again introduced extreme rake to this class. I turned up a day late for racing but managed one second place and the rest first places. So extreme mast rake was effective also in sloops. Ended up 6th in that series, more boats racing back then.

I know that others including Graham Bundock used mast rake on maricats prior to me trying it, but the time that most maricats (cat rigged) changed over was at the Rathmines State Titles.

I gave racing away soon after sailing sloop at the titles.

Then bought a maricat at the Toukley National Titles for $500. raced the series then sold it again. the boat had no trailer so was difficult to transport.

Bought my current boat, number 16 out of the factory for $400 (on trailor), just prior to the Munmorah State Titles. Broke a front beam there but managed to place 2nd to Wayne in the Nationals at Mannering Park in January. Sweet16 seems fast smile.gif

It is also now fitted with a spinnaker to play in F14 division! Not expecting to be competitive, but fun.

wish the water was a bit warmer smile.gif

John.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I sailed my first Maricat at Waltons Boatshed at Balmoral Beach.

I was only about 11 and went out with my dad in a 20 knot nor-easter.

It was magic.

It is a special day as it was when my dad and I decided that we should maybe sail together as skipper and crew, even though he knew nothing about it at all.

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  • 4 months later...

Today was my first sail on a Maricat. I bought it about 6 weeks ago and have had it set up a couple of times, but today was the first time in the water at Balmoral Beach. It's an old cat, sail #1125 but in ok condition. Took a while to set up (cat rig), but once on the water, a great experience. The cleat for the traveller broke, so that made me work a little harder. Thanks to the community on this forum for providing some great info, and to the Concord/Ryde sailing club for letting me set up the cat there and having a look over it for me. At last I'm on the water and looking forward to a great summer of sailing. Thanks all.

Mike Skinner

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Hey Mike,

Do you have a blue, red and white sail???

If so, I was watching you thinking how nice it must have been out there on such a beautiful day.

I pick up my A-class next week so the following weekend I hope to get down there for a spin.

THe guys on the Hobie Wave looked like that had a good day too.

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