Racing Multihulls "Australian Sailing" article

[tonyquoll]

Hey,

The November 2010 issue of "Australian Sailing" has a cover story on "Racing Multihulls; America's Cup to off-the-beach" (pp.10-17).

Some class profile are included, with some very odd statistics. Eg; Paper Tiger weight 73kg. (Minimum hull weight is 50kg, and there's no restrictions on the rest).

Bad luck Maricats, Windrush and others; no mention.

One paragraph echoes the earlier thread on Yachting Australia; CEO Phil Jones is plugging media & spectactors at the Olympics to build popularity for the sport. OR you could get people sailing at local clubs, Phil?

Still any publicity is good publicity! Right?

[Emmessee]

WOW. Even the magazine is totally out of touch with what is happening in the multihull world.

I am surprised they did not feature an Australis or QB2 as emerging classes.

A waste of paper. Australian Sailing, you should be ashamed.

I am the publisher of a few magazines and I know how it works and this is just lazy. If my editor came to me with something that was not totally researched, he w

[QB2]

Austsailing

it seems that there's money to be made from monohull sailing and manufacturers are prepared to advertise which is why the focus is so narrow and cats get the flick more often than not

is there scope for a beachcats type mag? or does multihull world do enough?

I can write stories and feature articles - whether there's enough interest in online or print subscriptions to make it pay I'm damned if i know

[Emmessee]

There was a magazine a while back called Off The Beach that I used to write for which was cat based but did sailboards and mono's. Basically anything you rig on a beach and hit the water.

It didn't last long unfortunately (must have been the shoddy journalism). I have a few magazines at the moment and I can guarantee you don't want to start one. There is no money in it and it is basically a great deal of hard work with minimal reward.

To add a magazine section to the forum however would be easier.

[tonyquoll]

4th November 2010

Roger McMillan

Editor

Australian Sailing

By email to: rogermcmillan@yaffa.com.au

Supporting Cat Sailing

Hi Roger,

Please consider publishing the following, as either “Letter to the Editor” or guest column. I am happy to have my contact details published, for any readers who may seek further information.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

When my Dad told me that “Australian Sailing” had run a cover story on multihulls, which included Glenn Ashby talking about his days on a Paper Tiger Catamaran, I was very excited. I read the article with great interest, and was then surprised that it ended without really talking about sailing catamarans.

There’s nothing like the experience of being lifted up into the air as the windward hull flies, and then keeping it flying with the wind in one hand (mainsheet) and the water in the other (rudders). Cats go so fast, that when he spray hits you, it’s like being blasted with a fire-hose. All the more reason to keep the hull flying and stay up there high & dry. We wear sunglasses to have a windshield more than as a glare filter.

There’s a huge difference in the speed and feel of a cat, compared to a monohull dinghy. Cats can be equally responsive, and actually pull some G-force when they accelerate and turn. While some people like to characterise the racing of catamarans as a tactic-less drag race, this is not always the case. It’s because cats have such a high top speed, that the distance lost to an opponent when tacking usually makes tacking on wind shifts disadvantageous. This is especially true for the monstrous multihulls shown in your article. On the other hand anyone watching the YMCA Multihull regatta in Canberra couple of weeks ago would have seen great tactical battles between the 14 foot cats.

Boat speed derives from sail trim. On cats it is particularly important to adjust the sail settings for maximum speed. For example on one downwind leg at the Paper Tiger Internationals, I forgot to adjust outhaul to make the sail fuller, and had 12 boats overtake me! Cat sailors become expert at sail trim, and therefore sought after as hands on racing yachts.

The mulithulls article featured some very flash boats, but readers should be aware that the ocean racing multis and 18 foot cats are like the Bugattis and Porches of multihulls. Hatchback owners can be assured that they can afford and tow 14 foot cats, such as the Paper Tiger, Windrush, Maricat or Hobie, which offer great fun, fast racing.

Phil Jones, CEO of Yachting Australia, pondered “do we need to reinvent sailing”, and resolved to build popularity of the sport through spectators and media coverage of the Olympic games. This is quite contrary to the advice given to him by a yacht club commodore, that “we need to be more attractive and relevant”. Terry Wise, Chair of the Sailing Industry Association, has a better approach in his promotion of the annual Try Sailing Day, which he says offers “a chance for anybody to try their hand at sailing”.

The Wallagoot Lake Boat Club, near Bega on the south-coast of NSW, has been effective in building numbers by offering an annual sailing school and providing use of club boats to new skippers. In stark contrast to the medal-seeking YA, Club Commodore Arild Helland says “it’s not about who wins the race, it’s about much fun you have!”

That’s why Dad & I sail cats. We love the fun of flying the hull, going fast and having great races. While the responsiveness and lightweight (50kg) of the Paper Tiger suits me, now that he’s in his 70’s Dad likes the comfort of a trapeze on his Nacra.

Tony Hastings

NSW Paper Tiger Class Association Publicity Officer

Wallagoot Lake Boat Club Committee Member & Coordinator of Try Sailing Day

PO Box 130 Merimbula NSW 2548

tonyquoll@yahoo.com

[madboutcats]

I get Catamaran Sailor magazine from Catsailor.com it's cheap, it has bits in it they dont put on line and I would imagine they would print articles if you put them in. I always look at Australian Sailing and skim it but very rarely have I bought one since I got wise to the content. Give catsailor a go, your supporting a catamaran magazine that has a world section.

[tonyquoll]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the email. As you noted, the first article was about the boats. I'm hoping to run regular features on how to sail them. I think you'll also like the December issue, which is due out in a few weeks. It has a review of 2 trimarans. I'll run your email as a letter, but if you have any suggestions for specific articles you think we should run, I'm more than happy to follow them up.

We're working on a story about the difference between mutlihull sails and monohull sails, and that will appear in February.

Regards

Roger McMillan

Editor, Australian Sailing & mysailing.com.au

17-21 Bellevue Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010

Email: rogermcmillan@yaffa.com.au

www.mysailing.com.au

Ph: (02) 9213 8252

MOB: 0416 685 150

[Pointed Reply]

Trimarans ??????????

[yarra bay]

i was thinking the same thing pointed reply

[Emmessee]

Proof they dead set have no idea.

I was a journalist for a long time and often threw stories their way and they never got published. I had one roundup on the Nacra Nationals with a photo taken off a bracket off the top of the mast that was amazing and I didn't even get a response. The photo was amazing as the bracket was about 1m long and about 0.5m above the mast so it looked like a chopper took the shot up real close. It was blowing about 20 knots and the spray off the bow was amazing. That was the only one I got a response too thanking me for the pic (no mention of the words) and they used it up the back somewhere and said it was an amazing shot of a Tornado.

I should try and find that bracket again. It clamped to the very top of the mast and could be set up in about 5 different configurations. The best was about half a metre above the mast and about a metre out to it looked as if it was not attached to the mast in anyway at all.

Took me 4 weeks to make it.

[tonyquoll]

Telling you guys how great cat sailing is, is preaching to the converted.

When writing to Aus Sailing was hoping to convert the preacher.

Given the strong class loyalty sailors generally have, maybe our target audience should instead be the "extreme games" oriented yoof?

But you'd have to write, like, OMG catsailing - WTF? LMAO @ U cartwheel!

[madboutcats]

The press in general prefer monos, when we did the Lake Eyre regatta organised by catsailors, most of the bigger shots showed the small contingent of monos. They had colourfull sails as well, that may have had some influence as SA Life magazine August edition featured a big photo of my daughter on her pink Arrow which also made a couple of the news reports, my mates blue and pink sail also was used as a backdrop in a lot of shots including Dubai. I don't think we all want pink sails what else besides an action shot of a pitchpole will get their attention?

[Emmessee]

Then let's start an on-line magazine.......!

[madboutcats]

Would we have enough articles? Isn't it easier to hitch onto a magazine thats been going for 30 years, I know I havn't got the energy to write articles it's bad enough writing the weekly articles for our local paper and the crap I go through to get that published every week.

[Emmessee]

There is more than enough.

It does not have to be a 152 page magazine full of stories and ads. Just a few pages of articles by the sailors for the sailors.

[cruiser]

I'm in, not that I've got much to say.......

[tonyquoll]

The Paper Tigers have started their own magazine, and after some reader feedback provide copies for free at:

http://aptca.papertigercatamaran.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60&Itemid=53

[tornado]

WOW. Even the magazine is totally out of touch with what is happening in the multihull world.

I am surprised they did not feature an Australis or QB2 as emerging classes.

A waste of paper. Australian Sailing, you should be ashamed.

I am the publisher of a few magazines and I know how it works and this is just lazy. If my editor came to me with something that was not totally researched, he w

I just went out an bought it and I have to strongly disagree. It was a pretty good read. It may not have told us multihull sailors anythin new, who are reasonably up to date with the latest Multhihull sailing around the world but it gives other not so informed Multi sailors a bit of an idea as to what is happening and was a great peice advertising our part of the sport to other sailors.

Good job AUS Sailing.

[Pointed Reply]

Whenever I have sent an article on behalf of the Maricat association to AS they have published it. All magazines and papers like photos. I think it is up to each association and class to do their bit by sending material to AS. It should probably not be too date specific so it gives them some flexibility. I think getting Vanessa on a Hobie 16 at Port Stephens was a great idea. We were contemplating a similar thing for a Mari at the Manno 14ft regatta. Maybe we can work on Roger.

The point by Jeff about coloured sails is also good. A lot of the new Mari sails are now coloured.

[John Dowling]

I agree it was great to see an article on cat sailing in a magazine that has been mainly focussed on slugs. We can't expect them to get all the detail exactly right for each class when they have no background. They made some minor mistakes for the biggest OTB cat class in AUS on regatta numbers, but that was simply the class President giving them numbers off the top of his head. As said earlier you just have to make the effort to provide them with information and invite them to regattas. They attended the Forster regatta the year before last which resulted in some good articles. Feed 'em the stuff - they'll print it just like any regional newspaper or local TV station. They're desperate for content.