Comanche 32

Some interesting theory here Ray. On a monohull the boat has to heel in order the increase the righting moment and the more the boat heels, the greater the righting moment and at the same time the projected area of the sails and their efficiency reduces and so equilibrium is reached.

A catamaran sails at very small angles of heel (if all is going well) so the leeward keel will not be producing any heel correction and the windward keel has its righting moment mainly influenced by the distance of its centre of gravity from the leeward hull. So for half the time, one of your keels is doing nothing except providing its share of lateral resistance. I wonder therefore if a central keel would be more efficient but of course a lot harder to construct.

Most full size catamarans are unballasted and the stability governed by their relatively enormous beam.

I will be fascinated to see the boat sailing and wonder if it could take a substantially larger rig for lighter conditions and I have been wracking my brains to think of an unloading mechanism to take care of gusts. Fast cats transfer gusts into acceleration to absorb the energy but cruising cats don't have that luxury. Interested on your thoughts.

Tim R

Hi Tim,

It will be a good basis for experimenting 😄

I have sailed a Hobie 16 cat, wicked fun 😎 went out once without the bungs in the hulls 😯

Regards Ray

Hi Tim,

Your last post made sense to me, the cat being basically a flat platform to work with, there are many successful racing cat & tri designs for racing models even foilers 😄, but I'm fairly sure the big old cruising cat has not been modelled very often if at all ?

Using the foam & depron route has been a great result weight wise which I couldn't have achieved building a scale model with balsa & ply my usual medium.

Good news on the flying front, I'm hoping to join a local club the New Hay Flying Tigers near Paddock Wood Kent 😎

Regards Ray

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 02/06/2020 07:07:43

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 02/06/2020 07:08:56

Hi All,

Getting close to having a sea worthy cat to sail 😎 just fired up my new wireless set and all is well, it's actually the Planet TS2+2 with the normal 2 function sticks plus 2 more proportional functions, only 4 AA's in the transmitter 👍 I have quite a few of this type of budget sets, the Duracell batteries will last for ages.

Regards Ray

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 05/06/2020 13:05:10

Hi All,

This has been a long drawn out build over the last couple of years, and is relatively experimental.

The fin keels and rudder extensions are removable for static display.

If she sails ok as I hope much more scale detail to add 😄 if not Deep Six and move on to a Trimaran 😉

Regards Ray

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 07/06/2020 11:58:25

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 07/06/2020 11:58:48

I have the upmost faith Ray.

2 years isn't long!

Chris (decorating the landing)

Ray, the Comanche 32 looks really nice. Reminds me of a series of 'cats' produced in UK many years ago. I think the name was Prout Catermerans. Maybe the Comanche is a 'Prout'? What's the total displacement with the keels fitted?

George

Hi George,

She was first launched in 1978, they were built by Sailcraft in Brightlingsea by Reg White I believe, who went on to produce the Olympic Tornado cats.

They are all over the world now if you look at the second hand market and still command a good price 😄

My model is based on the original works drawings and weighs in at 4lbs without keels plus another 4lbs for the keels which I will remove at some stage after the handling is known with them on ✔

The original had a mast head float to stop it turning turtle, I may do the same.

The Prout cats were more of a cruising cat I believe.

All the best, the Comtessa looks great

Ray

Hi Ray

Every time I see your post come up I think whoopee! It must be in the water by now.

Can't wait to see how it goes.

I've said it before but I'll say it again, very interesting project and very nicely carried out.

Tim R

Hi Ray,

I was going to mention a masthead float -just for added safety- while you are testing out the Comanche 32. I thought it may spoil the looks a bit so I refrained from the suggestion. Seeing that the original had this feature there's no problem with a bit more blue foam aloft , maybe disguised a large radar head? The displacement seems pretty light to me but then I have no model yacht experience at all to refer to -so I'll go back to mixing some 'heavy epoxy' for the F34 hull finish.

I see on the web that Prouts still exist in all shapes and sizes. They were very 'beamy' and probably had plenty of iron in the keels. Typical for a 'cruising cat' -as you say.

George

Edited By George Edward Connery on 14/06/2020 15:20:34