Nacra 17 : Rio 2016 Olympic Cat

Images: Marco Iazzeta. Full gallery at Saily.it. Full report to come later at  Vela e Motore & Saily.it —
Lots of searches during the London Olympic Games for “Nacra 17” or “Olympic Cat”, many didn´t knew we weren´t there this time. But Rio will see the full comeback of cats to Olympic Sailing.
If Sailing as a sport will remain at the Games is another story, although the re introduction of cats will benefit Sailing case, along Kites and boards (if they stay).

Top Italian sailors, Lamberto Cesari & Silvia Sicouri went to test the  Nacra 17 for Saily.it / Vela e Motore mags. Marco Iazzetta was there to take pics and film the whole thing.

Lamberto told me he liked the boat, that is challenging to sail (just look the liftoff image below) and the that dinghy/monohull sailors will catch up fast. How about Robert Scheidt on one??
The mainsheet loads are similar to the F18, as the overall dimension,  the key differential factor are: Weight, Carbon mast and mainly curved daggers.

The Spi a little smaller, 18,5m2 vs 21m2  to accommodate mixed sailing. Glad to know that Lamberto like the ride, as it is a good sign after the trials. I liked the concept since the cads, but honestly didn´t thought that Nacra was going to reach on schedule for Santander on a good shape.
Indeed they have an issue on the carbon mast there, but the rest went smooth as it was the main choice of the testers. Of what I’m seeing I would change the rudders/tiller rubber bars connection and use a more solid and sensitive/responsive and firm joint like the Wildcat/Tornado system.
For the rest it looks like a Weapon, some ordered already here in BA, so I will test it sooner or later.

The challenge now will be taking full advantage of the lightweight/carbon/curved foils combo. It seems having the boat asap it is a must to master the boat tendency to liftoff due to its powerful conf designed by Pete Melvin and MorrelliMelvin design team along with Vink/Larsen and the Nacra squad.
Check the size of the curved daggers below. The AC72 are going S, L foil conf and they will have this type of lift, the great diff is that they will have additional control with T rudders like ETNZ AC72 (or maybe L too).

Full specs for the Nacra 17 as per ISAF distributed Docs are:
– Lenght 5,25mts
– Width 2,59mts
– Mast 9,10 – Carbon
– Main Area 16,25m2
– Jib Area 4,0m2
– Spi Area 18,5m2
– Total Weight 142kgs

We have a promising platform, trials controversy is over, the boat looks good. Time to train for Rio 2016.