Radical Bay 8000
For the Radical Bay 8000, I have chosen a simple hull form, with a vee section forward to stop slamming running aft to a flat exit to reduce hobby horsing. The asymmetric hull shapes as used on most of our designs benefit the boat in a number of ways.
Firstly, the internal space is far more useful as the galley tops, lockers etc are set to the side out of the normal walkway. Secondly, the bunks are much wider because of the chamfer type panel. Thirdly, this panel is carried right forward adding large reserve buoyancy forward to prevent the bows being driven under. Mostly though, a fine waterline beam to length ratio is maintained giving very low drag ratios making for a very fast boat. The flared inside panels also give reserve lift in rough seas and breaking bars, which help keep the beams well above the surface eliminating slamming. The layout is surprisingly comfortable for such a small cat especially with good speed being kept in focus: the fwd bunks are comfortable and an aft "double" can easily sleep two friendly people. I have added a cockpit in each hull, the cabin offers some protection but mostly to have a comfortable sitting position with good visibility protected from those annoying unexpected splashes that sneak up through the tramps now and again. The cross beams are simply alloy tubes to keep costs down and also allow the cat to be dismantled for transport. There is a hard center deck section to carry the motor bracket, anchor chain storage box and main sheet cleats. There is a tramp each side of this and a net tramp fwd between the main and fwd beam. The hard deck could be omitted creating a serious weight saving. |
Costs are kept very low needing only one winch on the fwd beam, this for halyards reefing and outhaul, the main "sheets" is a simple 2:1 purchase on each boom carrying no downhaul loads, the two booms are controlled together from either cockpit or by locking the centre clutches each can be controlled separately. This would be used if you ran down wind wing and wing.
Steering is by tillers connected with a link bar, a tiller extension on the bar reaches to each cockpit. Rudders are our usual kick-up type with the blades set under the boat to increase efficiency and avoid aeration as much as possible. Shafts can be stainless steel or carbon. Daggerboards are used to achieve the best windward performance. The masts are two strip carbon tubes with pre-bend built in, easily built at home. The sails are two square head mains with battens run on a simple track for batten ends with the sail forming a sleeve around the mast giving a very good aerodynamic shape. Halyards are external but run in the sleeve, simple tidy system. The motor set-up is a little different and has been well proven on our 10.3m racing cat. It uses a bracket made from 100mm tubing, one end has a 19mm ID tube about 400mm long welded cross wise to form a hinge, this is pinned to a composite fitting under the central hard deck. The tube is about 2 metres long on the other end is the transom on which the motor is clamped. The motor is lowered to the correct height and retained with two wires fixed to the underside of the aft beam. There is a canvas type cover to protect the motor from spray. The tricky bit is that not only does it store the motor high up when sailing, the tube is the fuel tank holding about 16 litres of fuel. |
Accommodation is surprising: we touched on the two singles and one double bunk before. In the port hull is a single bunk fwd, table and seats midships, head and shower aft. Entry hatch is in the mid section. Stb hull has single bunk fwd., Double aft, galley in mid section. Galley has a two burner stove plus sink and lockers. She has two water tanks, 12v power for cabin lights, Nav lights and cockpit light.
With her big deck area she is ideal in the tropics, by adding a large awning run between the booms the tramps turn into a huge lounging area, add a few bean bags and wow you have the biggest saloon in the anchorage. We will experiment with a reacher run off a bow and sheeted between the mains to the aft beam, we also feel that by using a light type of cloth for the awning we can use this run on twin halyards as a huge downwind sail in light airs with the mains winged out the sides. Exciting concepts. She is definitely the future, an amazing looking, fast, exciting, simple and cheap to build cat. No such thing? True until now. She is a very safe, easy to handle coastal cruiser, a little cat a couple could live on for months at a time and yet easily demounted to transport anywhere if sold. Best yet, in sports mode she can be up in the top 10 hot boats at a regatta. We are making her a one design class that we feel will grow to an exciting racing class world wide. This will guarantee good competition and bullet proof resale value. Being offered in the fully pre-cut kit format will make her easy to build and also guarantee the one design aspect of all boats being exactly the same. RADICAL BAY PHOTO GALLERY STUDY PLAN - Free download. (A4 - Main Design Information) (3.24 mb) STUDY PLAN - Free download. (A3 - Drawings) (1.49 mb) |
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Side View - Radical Bay 8000
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Iso View - Radical Bay 8000
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Layout - Radical Bay 8000
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Radical Bay 8000 - Specifications
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Radical Bay 8000 Article
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Radical Bay Article 2
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