Double Barrel

Finally a day of 'light' winds here in Cape Town. 20-25 knot SE. We set out into Table Bay to sea trial the first GUNBOAT 48, 'CREAM'. SHOSHOLOZA does a fly by, and we wave to friends. We're in search of calmer winds around by Clifton for the first rig check. We find 10-15 knots, and hoist the 3dl marathon main and solent. A few tacks, sheet in hard, everything looks fine, and North have outdone themselves with an AC style mainsail roach, and perfect shaped and fit sails.

Cape Town is a rugged place to sea-trial a boat, and we're here to test this first GUNBOAT 48 to its limits. We have good people aboard including Steve Meek and Rick Nankin from North in Cape Town, Phil Lee from Cay Electronics in RI, and our master builder Jan Rossa. We do things here during sea trials that one just does not do to a cruising cat.

We're itching to give this carbon cat a real go, so we sail back towards the bigger breeze in Table Bay. We're plodding along at 8.5-10 knots upwind, when the first gust hits. In seconds, the gps is showing 14.5 knots of speed over the ground....upwind. The apparent windspeed builds to 29 knots, and the weather hull begins to fly. CREAM has no wheel. All steering is by joystick. Small movements of the joystick lead to instant movement of the bows up or down into the breeze. As the hull lifts, we feather towards 19 degrees apparent, and as it kisses back down on the water, we steer to about 22 degrees apparent. We tack and repeat the exercise. For good measure, and to make our bar stories believable, we take photos of the weather hull flying from the leeward hull's escape hatch.

We bear off for a blast reach with the main and solent. The speed builds with every gust. Jan is not happy with me pushing the boat on the first day and tells me so. And he is very nervous about the GUNBOAT tradition of the lead builder drinking a beer for every knot of boatspeed. We hit sustained 22 knots. The rudders instantly respond to the stick. Out the back are twin contrails stretching a quarter mile, or more. It feels like we are flying. Even at these speeds, Jan is everywhere checking the structure. On our earlier boats, you could see the e-glass structures move a bit. This carbon structure does not budge. The bows do not deflect a millimeter. Every ounce of energy is converted into raw speed. The Marstrom rig package looks awesome. Integral carbon martinglaes and a feather-weight forward crossbeam show no deflection. The mast is straight side to side on all points of sail. The carbon standing rigging gives nothing away. The leeward shroud remains firm. This is a tight package.

Everyone behind GUNBOAT races smaller cats. Pete Melvin raced Tornados in the Olympics, and continues to win in the A-class. Jan Rossa races Hobie 16's here in South Africa. Duncan Ross races Tornados and F18's in Europe. And I have been poking around in 18HT's and A-class. When we were sitting on 22 knots, there was not a single vibration or hum on the whole boat. It was quiet, except for the roar of water going past. The foils appear to be perfect. The hulls are perfectly fair.

This first day of sailing is the most memorable sea trial I have experienced.


Best, Peter

Peter Johnstone
GUNBOAT Company

4/14/05