Aquarius Sail Owners

I'm having a great time with my 17 but as I live in an area that is not populated with many, make that any, Super Cats other than the two I own, and am relatively new to sailing, I have some questions.

1) The self tacking jib seems quite a bit smaller than the old style, wouldn't this make the boat slower?

2) The mast rotation limiter is a piece of rope that goes from the tramp to a pulley mounted at the base of the mast that is then run into a jam cleat back on the tramp. How do I use this? What is the correct setting for various winds?

3) I have yet to see a Supercat with an intact tiller crossbar. I currently have a stainless steel tube as a crossbar. It works, but it doesn't look quite right. It does look better than the piece of galvanized conduit I saw on the other 17 though....

4) There are reefing points on the mainsail. If one were to reef the main how would you cleat the sail?

Everyone at the club is jealous of the simplicity and dry ride of the Supercat.

Good morning,

Let me see if I can address your questions:

1) The self-tacking jib is slightly smaller then the stock jib, but not by much. Because the luff of the jib is longer it makes up for the area that was taken off the leach of the older overlapping jib. The self-tacking jib is much more efficient then the overlapping jib thus that boat will point higher and will be faster with the self-tacking jib.

2) The SC-17 never had a mast rotation control device on it. This must be something that was added by a previous owner and is unnecessary in our opinion.

3) The tiller cross bar on the 17 was originally made from a piece of aluminum tube with a small adjuster at the end or in some cases the middle. Currently we offer a much more robust aluminum cross bar with the means to adjust it in the middle.

4) Reef points were not a standard offering on the Supercats, this must have been added by a previous owner.

Hope that helps a bit.

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your reply. So If I am understanding you correctly the mast on a 17 should be allowed to rotate freely to the fullest extent of rotation. Interesting. I have two jam cleats on my tramp. a plastic one for the roller furler and a metal one. I wonder what the metal one is used for?

A poor repair on the bottom of the port hull let go while sailing yesterday, so the 17 is on the beach for a while. At least until I get a new hull or hulls. The old repair is on the bottom of the port hull right on the seam. If I can find an inexpensive hull I may just replace it rather than fix it.

I bought a 15 last year that needs a transom repair so I guess I will be sailing that boat for a while.

Correct, the mast should be allowed to rotate freely. The tension in the side stays will limit the rotation. Looser side stays means more rotation and tighter side stays will limit the rotation. You usually want the mast to rotate freely about 180 degrees.

Originally they used a plastic jam cleat for the roller furling, then it was replaced by a metal on on the tramp. Later on the metal cleat was moved to hull here it was attached on the tramp track. I am guessing that both cleats were for the roller furling, just an upgrade over the years.