Kat is a type of oblique sailing weapon , in which a ship (usually a yacht ) has only one sail mounted on the mast itself. The mast of the cat is strongly displaced in the nose. Usually there is no standing rigging with a “cat” weapon. A sail can be rigid - in the form of a wing.
Kat is the oldest, simplest and very effective weapon. When other sails do not interfere with the grotto , it gives an unusually high thrust per unit area. In addition, the cat is very easy to manage. In the past, the cat had a limited distribution in Europe, but was very popular in the USA and Canada. Here they were armed mainly with sailing dinghies , exceptionally wide. The 30-foot-long American cat was 12 feet wide. Nowadays, these weapons are also used, as a rule, on dinghies, although sometimes they are also equipped with small keel yachts.
The centering of the hafel cat did not cause any problems, since the center of the sail was close to the center of lateral resistance of the underwater hull. In the Bermuda catboat, centering is provided by tilting the mast to the stern, and in modern light sailing dinghies, also by bending the mast.
The disadvantage of the classic hafel and Bermuda kets is the increased water resistance to movement at full courses due to the asymmetric location of the grotto.
Examples of modern types of yachts with “cat” armaments are Finn , OK Dingi and Optimist , in the latter case the cat is sprinted , in the rest it is Bermuda.
Literature
- School of yacht steering. 3. Differences of yachts by type of weapon. / E. P. Leontiev, total. ed. Edition 2nd rev. and add. M., FiS, 1974.
- Epov G.S. Sailing ships. - St. Petersburg: "Elmore", 2005.