Design
HH catamarans have moderately curved daggerboards to ensure good performance to windward and relatively high-volume hulls that are designed to carry a cruising payload without too much of a penalty in terms of sailing performance
vision when under way.’ He could carry on like this for a while, but we get the idea. Performance, on the other hand, is
seen by him as more than “just” sailing fast. ‘We have carefully designed canoe- hulls which offer a high payload without incurring many of the usual penalties in performance’, Hakes explains. ‘But performance also shows when we can sail in light air, while others are motoring. It all comes down to hull design, and keeping the weight out of the boat. The lighter we make it in the first place, the more payload it will be able to have. But it must also be robust and stiff. This goes a long way to delivering performance. Polyester boats are just too soft and flexible for top performance. All our catamarans are made in vacuum-infused foam sandwich composite using only epoxy resin, which is far superior to any polyester resin. Reinforcements like the bulkheads, beams, frames and
longitudinal stringers are all constructed with massive use of carbon-fibres, again epoxy-infused. The hull sides are E-glass infused, with carbon in high-load spots like chainplates and daggerboard cases.’ Defining the size of the 44 was a matter
of logic. ‘We wanted to go well below 50ft to create a boat that is easy to sail for a crew of family or friends, or even a couple. On the other hand, it still had to be a true world-cruiser which meant certain requirements in payload, stowage, and so on’, explains James Hakes, principal designer at HH. ‘And always keeping performance foremost in mind.’ One itemthat defines the boat are the
helmstations, which are located at the aft end of the hulls. This enabled the very sleek and sexy profile of the boat, and a large free area on the coachroof that is entirely covered in solar and also has the traveller running across it, safely out of the cockpit below. The huge array of solar
The cockpit of an HH catamaran is a large open-air living space with a layout that provides plenty of shelter from crosswinds and spray. The helms are aft and outboard
amounts to 4.2 kW, and is one key aspect in the overall concept. The other is again performance related: by lowering the boom, themainsail area could be increased, while the centre of effort at the same timemoves downwards. This enables the crew to putmore power into themain, without excessive heeling forces. Ben Galloway has previously worked
on large performance cats and is very impressed with the performance of the HH44: ‘I have been with the boat since launching and did a huge amount of sailing. We got the hull flying a couple of times, in test sailing we really pushed it hard to test the structure, all good, then I cruised with the owner and his wife down to Mallorca before coming to Barcelona. Remember, this is a 44ft boat, not big, so I am happy doing 8-10kts when cruising. But we have also hit 15-point- something, with the kite up. That’s very quick but it still felt nicely under control.
76 SEAHORSE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126
