New Excess Catamarans!

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by Matt Johnson

It does talk about high aspect sailplan on the site.

I think they look pretty cool. Great visibility from the interior along with an inviting cockpit. If priced less than a Lagoon, I think it will be a winner.

Matt

We stepped inside the Excess 11 in Düsseldorf and it WAS fresh and cool! And with a great interior design.

My main worry would be: how does it sail? Can it go upwind? Is it compatible with waves?

[HighTemp]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

We stepped inside the Excess 11 in Düsseldorf and it WAS fresh and cool! And with a great interior design.

My main worry would be: how does it sail? Can it go upwind? Is it compatible with waves?

Define "upwind". Stub keeled boats usually don't sail all that well much tighter to the wind than 55 to 60 degrees.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

We stepped inside the Excess 11 in Düsseldorf and it WAS fresh and cool! And with a great interior design.

My main worry would be: how does it sail? Can it go upwind? Is it compatible with waves?

Based purely on weight alone, at 19,800 lbs light displacement the Excess is twice the weight of an old FP Antigua (9900 lbs) go figure. Even with 25% more sail area on the Pulse Line 80 sqm compared to 68 sqm this will not be a quick boat on any point of sail.

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by HighTemp

Define "upwind". Stub keeled boats usually don't sail all that well much tighter to the wind than 55 to 60 degrees.

Well, for this particular model their polar diagrams say that with TWA 50-55 and TWS 12 knots, a light version of the pulse-line boat should do 7+ knots. That would be 32-35 AWA, which seems too good to be real?

[marcok]

Hi all,
In case you're interested in an in depth review of the sailing performance and interior after sailing her 3000nm and 3 months; we've just made one: https://youtu.be/33ywQEwdLxc

https://youtu.be/33ywQEwdLxc

(note: we're not starting a YouTube channel, it's more that most reviews so far focussed on the interior only during a boat show walk around)

[HighTemp]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

Well, for this particular model their polar diagrams say that with TWA 50-55 and TWS 12 knots, a light version of the pulse-line boat should do 7+ knots. That would be 32-35 AWA, which seems too good to be real?

But what is the VMG?
7+ knots seems a tad high, but ok. My Saona will do around 6 knots at an apparent of 45 -50º or so, but the leeway is very pronounced. If you want to sail efficiently upwind in a Cat, you really need a boat with dagger boards.

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by HighTemp

But what is the VMG?
7+ knots seems a tad high, but ok. My Saona will do around 6 knots at an apparent of 45 -50º or so, but the leeway is very pronounced. If you want to sail efficiently upwind in a Cat, you really need a boat with dagger boards.

Yes, a good question, and I don't know. Their polar charts don't mention leeway ...

And 6 knots at 45-50 deg is one whole knot slower going 10-15 degrees more downwind..

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

Yes, a good question, and I don't know. Their polar charts don't mention leeway ...



And 6 knots at 45-50 deg is one whole knot slower going 10-15 degrees more downwind..

No polar diagram shows leeway - they simply show the (designed) optimum boat speed for any particular wind strength and angle. So if the polar shows 7.0 knots at 50* TWA, that doesn’t mean the polar is specifying a made-good tacking angle of 100*.

Any leeway will add to the polar-derived angle to yield the actual made-good tacking angle.

The polar diagrams provided by manufacturers seem to be created by their marketing departments rather than their naval architects. The polars published with new cruising designs often don’t seem to be related to real world performance - why is that?

[marcok]

Originally Posted by fxykty

No polar diagram shows leeway - they simply show the (designed) optimum boat speed for any particular wind strength and angle. So if the polar shows 7.0 knots at 50* TWA, that doesn’t mean the polar is specifying a made-good tacking angle of 100*.

Any leeway will add to the polar-derived angle to yield the actual made-good tacking angle.

The polar diagrams provided by manufacturers seem to be created by their marketing departments rather than their naval architects. The polars published with new cruising designs often don’t seem to be related to real world performance - why is that?

I agree on that comparing Polars is always a bit tricky. When going upwind (or downwind) we always have the up/downwind VMG on our displays. As you mentioned polars are about pointing (heading) but don't display VMG as leeway is not accounted for. If we sailed at max upwind VMG we generally see a 120degrees tacking line based on track on the plotter, quite good I would say for a cat without daggerboards.