Should Your Sidestays Break Before You Fly a Hull? No — Here’s Why There’s a piece of catamaran folklore worth debunking properly: the idea that your sidestays should fail before your hull ever flies clear of the water. It gets repeated as a kind of reassurance — as if a rig failure is the safer […]
Should Your Sidestays Break Before You Fly a Hull? No — Here’s Why Read More »
How to Trim the Jib Upwind on a Catamaran Most people’s relationship with a jib sheet starts and ends with a winch handle — pull it on when you head up, ease it off when you bear away. That gets you moving, but it’s a long way from actually trimming a sail well. Getting real
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Correcting Mast Rake: Why It Matters and How We Fixed Two Years of Too Much When we built and fitted Paikea’s new carbon front beam, we knew we were changing more than just the beam. The original beam, like most catamaran front beams, sat flat. Ours doesn’t — we couldn’t source a single piece of
Correcting Mast Rake: Why Rig Geometry is Critical for Boat Balance Read More »
Building Carbon Fibre Chainplates: Part Three — The Starboard Side The rudder project running through this same stretch of time wasn’t happening in isolation — there was a lot going on aboard Paikea at once, and this starboard chainplate rebuild was one of several things competing for attention in the same tight window. It’s worth
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Carbon vs. Fiberglass: Building for Performance and Reliability People ask often enough why some parts of Paikea are carbon and others are plain fiberglass — the rudder blade being the clearest example. The honest answer isn’t glamorous: it comes down to fit for purpose, what was actually available in the Caribbean at the time, and
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This content is for Youngbarnacles members. The technical library, forum, and downloads are available to members only. If you’re not a member yet, here’s what you get access to — 25+ years of grand prix composite and rigging knowledge documented in depth, one new members-only video every month, and a technical forum where people building
Carbon Fibre vs. S-Glass vs. E-Glass: Choosing the Right Material (Members) Read More »
