[MHml] Fusions

[Paul Nudd]

Bill Gibbs wrote:
> Paul,
> In browsing a Multihull magazine from 2006, I noticed an article on the Fusion cat, Shellac I think, racing against XL2 and even
> beating you once on Elapsed Time (out of multiple attempts).  Quite an accomplishment for a full bridgedeck cabin cat.  Did you get
> a good look at her and if so, what are your thoughts?
--------------------------------------
It was Easter 2005 at the Seawind (sponsored) Easter Regatta on Botany 
Bay. It was XL2's first outing for a couple of years and we were using 
our new small jib and no spinnakers. Mostly just Barbara and myself 
sailing XL2, we wer late for the starts which allowed us the pleasure of 
passing the entire fleet in each race. In each race except the last we 
won on elapsed time by a considerable margin, although Shellac always 
had a considerable margin over the rest. In the last race the wind was 
light and we were very late for the start (20 minutes). To make it 
interesting we decided to continue using the small jib and no spinnaker. 
We were travelling faster than Shellac throughout the race but the 
distance was not quite enough to catch them in that configuration. Had 
we used the big jib we would have caught them for sure.
It is somewhat misleading to say they beat us on elapsed time and claim 
that as an indicator of the performance of Shellac or even worse of the 
Fusion 40 in general. Although technically true, we were still at anchor 
with the sails on the deck when they started. The time it took us to 
sail the course was about 20 minutes less than Shellac.

That said, Shellac's performance was very good.
There is however a full bridgedeck cabin cat which performs as well or 
arguably a little better than XL2. That is the Crowther Supershockwave 
BD40 from Geoff Cruse, example Free Spirit.

My opinion is that the standard Fusion 40 would perform about the same 
as the average 40 foot bridgedeck cruising cat with mini-keels.
It has a lot more space inside than the average 40 foot bridgedeck 
cruising cat and may be cheaper to build.

Then we have Shellac, with performance somewhere (about half way?) 
between the average 40 foot bridgedeck cruising cat and Free Spirit. 
Fusion advertised a daggerboard option but the owner had tremendous 
trouble getting daggerboards and ended up doing it himself. Same goes 
for the twin aft steering stations and the big rig.
Don't try to order a Fusion 40 'just like Shellac' as you can't get one.
If that's what you want you will have to order a setof mouldings and do 
the rest yourself, or get a good boatbuilder/shipwright to do it for you.

The internal space in the Fusion 40 design is a 2 edged sword. Most 
cruisers will fill it up with heavy stuff. Shellac is not filled up with 
heavy stuff, has daggerboards and a big rig and a performance orientated 
owner who insisted on what he wanted and when he couldn't get it, did it 
himself.

Having said all that, the Fusion 40 is a fine cruising cat.
If I was in the market for something like that, it would be worth 
considering. If I wanted a high performance cruiser/racer bridgedeck 
cat, a sistership to Shellac would be excellent (so I'd order the 
mouldings). If I wanted  a ultra-high performance cruiser/racer 
bridgedeck cat I would convert XL2 or buy Free Spirit.

The lesson is, Bridgedeck doesn't necessarily mean poor performance 
(example Free Spirit) but is does mean you can easily kill performance 
by filling it up with heavy stuff.
PN