Tortola 2003

Our Atlantic Catamaran sailing demonstrations in Tortola, BVI went very well. A number of serious prospects either flew to the BVI or sailed there in their own boats in order to check out "Synergy". the latest Atlantic 55 built by Bongers Marine, and "Flash", an Atlantic 42 which was constructed a couple years ago.

The weather was perfect of course, although the trade winds were somewhat lighter than I expected generally ranging from 8 to maybe 17 knots in the puffs.

Of the numerous sailboats in the area few are capable of any real sailing performance. While catamarans were everywhere in the Virgin Islands they are mostly the Moorings 45's, Lagoons, PDQ's, etc. and all seem to be stuck on rocks when sailing past them on the deck of an Atlantic 55. Over three days of sailing we never encountered a cat that we could not easily sail circles around, but that was expected. We did come across one performance monohull, a J-160, which is 52'8" long with nearly 9'of draft. It was going upwind with nice looking sails sheeted in hard and seemed to be sailing well. We were headed back to the harbor at that point but couldn't pass up the opportunity to compare windward performance. Dave Penfield took the helm of Synergy and hardened up on starboard tack about 50 yards behind and to leeward of the J-boat. Within a minute or two we were blasting through her lee, pointing equally high. That was pretty impressive to me, as the wind speed was only about 10 knots and cruising cats generally have a hard time sailing with good mono's upwind in light air. When a boat length ahead of the mono, Dave says "now watch this" and he turns Synergy sharply to windward pointing nearly 10 degrees higher than the J-160 AND STILL GOING FASTER. We climbed right across their bow, carried on a bit further to windward to make the point and then bore off for home. Wow, what fun.

The ability of the A55 to claw upwind is quite impressive. Beating to windward during a little rain squall the wind briefly increased to the high teens. Under the self tacking jib and full mainsail we were going a steady 11+ knots tacking through 90 degrees. I ducked inside the pilothouse to stay out of the rain and had some fun short tacking from the inside helm position. Look Mom, no hands! Later we short tacked up the channel into Gorda Sound, Dave was steering, pinching actually, and our boat speed was slow. I was watching the compass to get a sense of the tacking angle and I kept calculating values of 70 odd degrees between tacks. Gee this boat really points. Maybe there was a wind shift that made the numbers look better but Synergy goes upwind extremely well.

Reaching with the larger jib provided better speeds but due to the light wind conditions we never saw more than 13.5 knots sustained boat speed. We sailed outside of the islands where the ocean swell was moderate. Synergy felt very strong and powerful, and never once did water slap the underwing.

We took the Atlantic 42, Flash, out for a demo sail and also to get some sailing photos of Synergy. Dave Penfield was thrilled to get all of us off his new A55 so he could do some singlehanding. I was surprised to see that even in light winds the A55 flying the mainsail and self tacking jib was faster than the A42 with her proportionately larger jib. When Dave unrolled the larger genoa jib the A55 really goes into high gear and sails about 2 knots faster easily outrunning the A42 on any point of sail. Not unexpected but you just don't get a proper sense of how fast the A55 is going when sailing one. To get a better sense of her speed it helps to be onboard another boat and see the A55 sail right past going fast with barely any fuss.

Flash, the A42 owned by Kent and Connie Blasie is looking for a new home as the Blaisie's have a new boat under construction at Bongers Marine. Flash has been maintained very well and is in immaculate condition, in some ways better than new condition. After sailing the A55 the A42 seems so easy and docile to sail. It is still a great design (if I do say so myself) and the A42 owners are a happy and dedicated bunch. I'd like to sell all of them larger boats but most are so satisfied that they won't budge. Some recent photos of Flash will be posted on the web site soon. Anyone interested should contact me at 508-636-6111.

Atlantic 55, Synergy, performance facts reported by Dave Penfield.

1) Synergy will sail at windspeed upwind with genoa in under 10 knots wind with flat water.

2) Can short-tack through 70 degrees [26-28 apparent] doing 7 kts SOG in 9-10 true with self tacking staysail.

3) Top boat speed so far has been 24.8 kts in 18-20 kts breeze [and waves] with chute and double reef main. Multiple times above 20 on trip across S. Atlantic, with spinnaker, and also with genoa and main. These records are sure to fall if I get a 25 kt day.

4) Average wind during Cape Town to Virgin Island trip was 14-18 kts. at 160 degrees relative true [total wind time greater than 20 kts was less than 24 hrs. with a few brief squalls of 30- 35], we averaged 208 miles per day towards destination [more over ground] despite sailing conservatively and loaded to the max.

Atlantic 55, Atlantic 42, and Atlantic Catamaran are trademarks of ChristopherR.White