[MHml] Catamarans

[Roy Mills]

At 12:33 PM 9/7/06, you wrote:
>And here, I was going on the rather pedestrian viewpoint that a striker of
>either family was actually an extension of one of the horizontal beams and
>not the sprit at all.
>
>Apparently, it is also referencing any vertically aligned structural element
>that gives triangulated strength to any given beam component. Note to self:
>fix terminology filings.

         Well said Chris. I was going to have chipped in to say that 
a dolphin striker in my experience is a downward pointing pole, with 
a mast step on top and a wire or other metal bracing element 
underneath, the pole taking the pressure from the mast and 
transfering it down to the metal brace underneath, which in turn 
transfers the strain back up to a strongpoint on each hull.  Dolphin 
strikers originally were found on old time ships which had a pole 
pointing downwards underneath the bowsprit or jib boom to give a 
better angle of resisting pull to a line leading from the end of the 
sprit or boom back to the bow. The bowspit or jib boom was being 
pulled upwards by tension from stays or halyards from foresails 
fastened to it, so the dolphin striker helped resist that upward 
pull. Since dolphins played around the bows of ships and the downward 
pointing pole often plunged into the sea as the boat  pitched, it 
became called the dolphin striker, in joke.

          Catamarans need a similar triangulated structure to brace 
the front crossbeam against the pull of the foresail and jib halyard 
. In this case the pole points upwards and presses against the centre 
of a wire bridle leading from one end of the front crossbeam to the 
other, so it is called a seagull striker.

         And no, I don't think we automatically call a cruising 
catamaran ugly, it is just that to get all that accomodation and 
standing headroom into the available dimensions they tend to look 
somewhat clumsy in comparison with one which is not built for charter 
but for greater speed and can look more graceful.

          You will soon get the hang of the names of the sails and 
rigging, most of them go back hundreds of years to rather different 
boats, but tradition being what it is, the old names still get used, 
like dolphin striker.  Seagull striker is a newly coined name based 
on that old one to suit something sticking up into the air rather 
than down towards the sea.

         I can't comment on Rolly Tasker sails these days. Some years 
ago their reputation was for quite good sails at a low price, 
therefore good value for money on that basis, but not the best sails 
for a more demanding sailor.

         Roy Mills


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