An Improved Meerkat!
by John MacBeath Watkins
I've been messing about preparing Meerkat for this season's sailing, but I've also been mousing about in Freeship/Delphtship working on an improved Meerkat.
The new design is inspired by the fact that I've discovered a cheap source of good new sails. Intensity Sails advertises a Laser 4.7 practice sail for $125, which is less than I paid for the awful rag of an El Toro sail I designed Meerkat around. It's about 10 square feet more sail area. To make Meerkat fast with a small sail, I designed most of the stability out of it. The Meerkat 2.0 is more stable, has a flatter run, and is a foot longer, so that it's more practical to bring a companion with you when sailing.
The mast has to be farther forward to make the rig balance with the short hull, so if the boat has a foredeck the mast will step through it. I'm thinking the boat can be built lighter by omitting the air tanks and relying on flotation bags.
Although the new Meerkat is a foot longer, it's still designed to fit in the back of my little Nissan pickup truck, so it's only 4 feet wide.
I might also switch to a daggerboard to save weight, although I must say, the combination of a barn-door rudder on a skeg and a centerboard is quite nice for working off a beach.
The boat still has a flat bottom and slack bilges, based on the same faceted midsection I used on the original, but the run is straighter and the deflection angle of the bilge panels is less, so this one could be prompted to plane with a light crew and a good wind.
I think this design would be better for the novice sailor, relying more on initial stability than on crew reactions as in the original.
I've been messing about preparing Meerkat for this season's sailing, but I've also been mousing about in Freeship/Delphtship working on an improved Meerkat.The new design is inspired by the fact that I've discovered a cheap source of good new sails. Intensity Sails advertises a Laser 4.7 practice sail for $125, which is less than I paid for the awful rag of an El Toro sail I designed Meerkat around. It's about 10 square feet more sail area. To make Meerkat fast with a small sail, I designed most of the stability out of it. The Meerkat 2.0 is more stable, has a flatter run, and is a foot longer, so that it's more practical to bring a companion with you when sailing.
The mast has to be farther forward to make the rig balance with the short hull, so if the boat has a foredeck the mast will step through it. I'm thinking the boat can be built lighter by omitting the air tanks and relying on flotation bags.Although the new Meerkat is a foot longer, it's still designed to fit in the back of my little Nissan pickup truck, so it's only 4 feet wide.
I might also switch to a daggerboard to save weight, although I must say, the combination of a barn-door rudder on a skeg and a centerboard is quite nice for working off a beach.
The boat still has a flat bottom and slack bilges, based on the same faceted midsection I used on the original, but the run is straighter and the deflection angle of the bilge panels is less, so this one could be prompted to plane with a light crew and a good wind.
I think this design would be better for the novice sailor, relying more on initial stability than on crew reactions as in the original.
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