I am way older than Dan Berger and just sailed my near-new eXploder in the WildCat Regatta at Lake Eustis, FL. It was light just like last year. An 81 year old guy won one of the races in light air. Laura Muma sailed very well & won 2nd place overall...she admits to 125 pounds. The winner, my buddy & boat designer& fixer OH Rodgers is over 60.
Every time I have to move my A-cat my back says thank you very much! 175 pounDs won't kill you if your beach wheels are present. The carbon mast weighs 22 pounds, which is wonderful to raise comapred to the cast iron ones. Hey these are 21st century boats- NOT FIBERGLASS 500 pound back-killers. I have been there, and these little boats are wonderful in comparison, making those slow cats look and feel slow. I have 2 beginner A-cats for sale cheap, my buddies here learned on them, so the masts come prebroken and repaired. This was a problem early on- after 2 years sailing, masts are RARELY broken. Both these boats were damaged by a big tree, but don't leak. I have pix of these at catcobblerdotcom also see dacarls-gmaildotcom. I will get these on line here if I can make this site work. Old guys need old boats to start. Everybody needs a buddy to sail with, as deployment of a drogue/ little chute is possible but I've never seen one used on purpose. Warren, one of our A-cat sailors, had his drogue fall out of the tramp and deploy at speed, and Warren went for quite a flight right in front of me.
DAve CArlson A-class USA 196, 747, 171, 54, one woodie Acat with hydrofoils, 1 Hobie16, 1 Hobie18.
