Test Drive

When I arrived at Lake Zurich the weather was beautiful. The owner, let's call him H. was well prepared and showed me the boat standing on it's trailer. When folded, it really looked strangely futuristic.
The general condition of the boat was very good. Apart from some repaired cracks at the beam / outrigger crossing of which I have read is a typical weak point of the Catri's I could not see anything suspicious. The interior looked superb. Of course this boat was only six years old!

I noticed that in my head, the decision was already made and I witnessed myself asking detail questions about rigging, not because I was just interested, but because I wanted to know how to do this myself when being back in the Netherlands with the boat!

The Catri rig is relatively complex: there are many lines and stoppers and it can be confusing in the beginning. Many question rose: How do I rig the mainsail? How do I fold the boat? And even more worrying: We would have to prepare the boat to be transported to the Netherlands. This means removing rudder, daggerboards, stepping the mast, removing all sails, and on and on.

Will I be able to get it all back together back home?

I asked H. to explain the boat while I was recording it on video. He agreed and it turned out H. to be a true talent! Systematically he explained rigging, folding, slipping and other stuff in a very clear and quiet way, and when appropriate, he gave directions to zoom in with the camera on specific details.

Excerpt of movie: moving the Catri into the lake

After filming more than an hour of material, I felt a bit more confident and we were ready to go for a little test drive.

There was little wind but this would be an ideal opportunity for H. to explain the improvements he made to this specific boat. Normally Catri's need a lot of wind because of the drag generated by the foils and wings. After some thorough analysis, H. changed the shape of the rudder and the ailerons on the back of the outriggers in a way that they don't drag so much but keep generating stabilised lift at higher speed.

Modified: winglet instead of twin ailerons for less drag

Original Catri ailerons

The effect of these modifications were immediately clear during the test trip: the Catri moved very light through the water and reacted very quickly to rudder movements.

On the water H. continued his lecture: exercises like reefing the mainsail and tacking were added to the video collection.

Beautiful day but not much wind

It was a wonderful afternoon on the water, although of course I had hoped for some more wind to feel the sensation of speed I had read so much about. However a strange feeling in my head told me I've fallen in love with this little trimaran already. So I told H. I would take her and we shook hands.

She's mine!