International Formula 18 Catamaran Association

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You know when you've met a HAWK sailor because they grin a lot and tell you how fabulous this cat is to sail. In fact, their eyes glaze over a bit and you can't leave them until they've tried to convert you... Actually, since it was launched here at the beginning of last year, the Hawk has caused quite a stir in the cat world. With a string of top results in the Formula 18 circuit, for which it was designed, the Hawk is already gaining a foothold in Britain (and on the Continent) as one of the most exciting one-design fleets to emerge in years.

But is it as good as all the converts say ? To find out, we enrolled the expertise of Barney Sandeman, a top Dart Hawk, Dart 18, and Tornado sailor, who's also been a J/24 and Ultra 30 national champion.

The plan was to take the Hawk through her paces in Poole Harbour, which we did. Conditions were sensational - flat water with 25 knot winds, gusting 30. A cat sailor's dream. After carrying out manoeuvres to give me a feel for the craft, we peeped over Poole Bar to see big rollers marching into Poole Bay. Now that, we agreed, would make for a truly challenging boat test. It had to be done...

There aren't many cats which would inspire you to head into such a maelstrom. The Hawk, however, was born out of rock solid cat sailing experience ...

Design pedigree
Yves Loday, Tornado gold medallist and a French sailing super-star, designed the Hawk for the new Formula 18 cat racing circuit on the Continent. [...] "I try to make an 18ft cat easy to sail and not too expensive, taking all the best bits from the Tornado".

To this end the tramp layout, beams and rudder configuration are straight off the well proven Tornado.

The rounded, almost egg shaped hulls are high volume to prevent pitch-poling, or at least, says Yves, "when you pitch, you pitch slowly." The square top mainsail was developed from his experiments in A-Class catamarans: "To make the mainsail easy to open with not too much trimming on the mainsheet."

Spaghetti is kept to a minimum, again to make the boat easy to sail: "You can trim the rig with just the downhaul. That's the main control, and it's not complicated."

He teamed up with Reg White (who was Tornado gold medallist in 1976), and together: "We worked and tested the boat over two years, trying various resins and fiberglass."

Reg developed the monocoque fiberglass construction using coremat as a sandwich material. The oval shaped hulls are extremely stiff, helped by reinforced stringers inside to prevent the bows from pinching too much when the mainsheet is graunched in tight. For extra stiffness, carbon is used in the daggerboards, and I understand from Tim Swinburn, our national champ, that the bulkheads are so strong you can crunch your daggerboards without wrecking the hull (he's tested that one for us). This is a big fear among cat sailors looking at daggerboard boats.

Reg took the mast off a Hurricane 5.9, and sails were developed at Hyde, using a Mylar polyester laminate for the main, and long wearing Dacron for the jib.

The Formula 18 Rule was designed to keep exotic materials and expensive layup processes to a minimum, to keep prices down, and the two-part (instead of three-part) Hawk hulls come out as stiff, reasonably light and not too expensive.

Reg White and Dart ?
Some readers may be querying Reg's loyalties in developing a Dart catamaran, since his White Formula factory in Brightlingsea, which turns out Hurricanes and many of the Topper range of dinghies, is in direct competition with Dart/Laser.

Well, Reg and Rob struck a deal which breaks the mould in this business by selling the tooling and production rights to Dart. At the time, Rob said he was happy with the deal, because they had their hands more than full with their Topper commitments. For Dart/Laser, this boat was the winning design they'd been looking for after experimenting with the TSX, 6000 et al.

Dart now makes the Hawk to exactly the same specs, and Reg says he's very happy with the quality control. Funny old world...

Handling the Hawk
Back on the water, Yves' dream to make the boat easy to sail comes true. It really isn't a handful. My overriding feeling on the Hawk, as we blasted about Poole Harbour, was of a smooth and stable ride, with plenty of power on tap. The Dart 18, with its sharp bows and skegs, can flip over if you don't react quickly. Catch a gust on the Hawk, though, and the hull rises as smoothly as a Citroen's suspension. You have aeons to react. Much of the stability comes from the fact that the Hawk, at 2.6m, is a foot wider than the Dart 18, and about half a foot wider than the Hurricane 5.9. This width is why you may have seen the Hawk on one of those weird looking tilting trailers. Twin-wiring upwind, the boat felt so solid that I turned to Barney and said : "Blimey, we could have our lunch out here". "Yeah," he grinned, "we probably could". The jib cleats are neatly attached to the toe-strap configuration. The powerful 8:1 downhaul quickly depowered the mainsail in gusts, and the rounded deck made for comfortable (and solid) trapezing. Taking the helm, the boat had a direct and responsive feel. Upwind, I could almost leave the extending tiller resting on my shoulder, the balance was so good. The only problem I had on the helm was heaving so much line through the 12:1 mainsheet system, which uses massive Harken blocks. Even with 12:1, the last few inches needed a bit of grunt, but it wasn't in arm wrestling territory. A Dart 18 helm would get used to it quickly, and a number of Hawk teams have the crew working the mainsheet.

Tacking in 25 knot winds was no problem al all. We didn't need to back the jib, or even harden up into the tack. We merely centred our weight over the daggerboards and shoved the tiller round to turn. No doubt in light winds the manoeuvre would need more finesse.

Back in the crewing position, we bore off downwind for a burn. Barney invited me to leeward for a bit of Wild Thing, which would have been hairy if I hadn't felt so confident in the craft, and Barney's competence. By God it's wet down there!

Using the kite we experimented with leeward hoists and windward and leeward drops. The kite is hoisted up and out with a single line, which the crew can manage easily. The spinnaker sheets go aft to blocks on the rear beam, then forward to ratchet blocks on the forward beam. The loads on the sheet are not at all excessive. Trapezing with asymmetric kite sheets in your hand must be the 20th Century equivalent of riding a chariot. The raw pulling power takes you to the brink of disaster, and it takes skill and guts to hang on to that speed. Ben Hur would have loved this!

The Hawk ripped along under kite. It burned! The exhilaration was intense. Since crews are in control here, I know they'll enjoy this rollercoaster ride.

Gybing the kite from wire to wire was fairly smooth - there isn't much to tangle you up through the manoeuvre - and we left the jib unfurled. If you're racing towards a leeward mark, you need to be able to drop that kite as late and as fast as possible. The Hawk system worked smoothly, without the tangles I remember from Dart's previous asymmetric big cat, the doomed Dart 6000.

Again, I would say that crewmen with little experience of asymmetrics will not be overwhelmed.

Surf's UP!
For most tests, our blasting around Poole Harbour would have been enough. We could have gone back to the club, written up our notes and given you a reasonable picture of a pretty classy catamaran. But not this time. Cat sailors are a mad lot, and we're no exception, so how could we resist those tempting rollers and the chance to clock up some airtime? Time for the real test.

Zooming past the chain ferry between Sandbanks and Studland, we were met by powerful, swirling rollers whipped up by the south-easterly. Richard Langdon, who was taking these photos from his RIB, kept disappearing. "I don't think we'd be racing in this", I said to Barney. "Hey", he replied, "let's think about survival!" Cool !

Creaming over the first few rollers, out on the wire, my feet kept bouncing off the deck, leaving me suspended in mid-air until we crashed down the back of the wave. After careening into Barney a couple of times, we both got the hang of anticipating the waves, using our legs as shock absorbers.

Our confidence grew, and Barney began to push the boat a little. Well, there was a photographer there! We'd build speed up a wave then leap off - a wicked sensation - and cream down the back. The hulls were taking a pounding, but they didn't budge or bend. As we screamed down a wave, the bows would occasionally tunnel into the following chop. Most times they simply popped up, no bother. We did slam one badly, ploughing into a wave almost up to the front beam. I thought, this is it, time for a paddle. But the bows somehow popped out again.

I really can't tell how fast we were going, there was so much spray coming off the hulls. It was a hairy ride, and I saw Richard's camera get a complete soaking - ouch! - but the Dart Hawk performed outrageously well. Even in this chaos of foam, the boat felt solid, stable and manageable. The bulbous and voluminous hulls, the width, the controllability of the mainsail, the reliability of the sheeting systems; all these factors helped keep us upright and in control well, almost).

In short, blatting up and down the Bay, we gave the boat a hammering, and it held up well. [...]

Conclusion
When Barney and I pulled the Hawk up onto the hard at Parkstone, wringing the water out of our hair and wiping the salt from our eyes, we had slightly whacked out, mad grins on our faces. To me, that's what cat sailing is all about, and for a boat test, it means a big thumbs up.

So, it a Hawk sailor at your club grabs you and starts raving about this boat, at least now you'll know why.

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Last update : 2010-02-03