Prairie Mermaid - a Mana 24
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ธ.ค. 2020
- The Prairie Mermaid is a Mana 24 catamaran, built from a kit supplied by Wharram Designs in the UK, and designed by JamesWharram and Hanneke Boone. The boat was built over the winter of 2018/19 and has been sailing for three seasons on Lake Diefenbaker, on Treaty 6 Territory in the country known as Canada.
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Wow, what a great cat!
Thanks for sharing! ! Love a the different sail plan.
Thank you, Josh. Yes, the Mermaid's sail plan was a new experience for me.
Love the "Wet" part of the video with the driving metal riff, it adds just the right amount of anxiety. Good story telling. Very nice boat.
Thannk you very much, Owen. I am happy you enjoyed it.
you did a great job Rod building Mana24 and sailing it.... you can't imagine what it means to us followers
Thank you for the kind words, J.D.
Nice video Rod. I may just have to watch that a second time. I love your boat. The details while under sail help me better understand how the boat functions under various conditions and enhancing performance with the additional sails added. Thanks for the videos. Tim
Thanks, Tim. I would love to see another Mana being built on this side of the Atlantic.
Thanks for posting and sharing.
Thanks for watching and commenting
Excellent ❤
Excellent video Matey,
Very inspirational and heartening for those of us quite there yet,...cheers🍻🍻🍻
Thank you, Shaun. I am looking forward to seeing your project when it is completed - yours is also very inspirational.
Excellent 😊
Love the modifications especially the chairs.
Thank you for sharing your adventures.
Hope to see you soon posting videos of the catamaran you decide build. Cheers.
Nice to see more sailing of your fine craft. Your Elbow Run videos have taught me a bit more about Saskatchewan. Thanks. Didn't know a big lake like Diefenbaker existed. Having sailed in the Great Lakes we know that inland seas can make for some great sailing. Best wishes from Ancaster ON.
Nice to hear from you, Lee. Lake Dief isn't quite of the same scale as the Great Lakes but it does give us some good sailing and we don't have to worry about getting run over by freighters. :) If you ever feel the urge to try it out, we'd love to have you join us on an Elbow Run.
That`s a cracking looking Wharram you`ve got there. I don`t like cats, but ido love the Wharram cats, they just look right, and can, as you`ve done, be made into great seaworthy cruising boats. I`d love one, but my wife won`t do sailing.
Thanks, Neil.
Get a new wife or go on your own I’m sure you’ve earned it.
Excellent! Love seeing more footage of the Mana in action. Looks like it's working out well. Im currently making good headway on my Tiki 21 and hope to be sailing by this summer.
Thank you, Scott. I wish you an early completion and launch of your Tiki 21. Where will you be sailing? If by chance its anywhere close to here, consider joining us next July for the Elbow Run.
@@RodMcLaren thanks! I’m down in Southern California. However, my brother in law just moved to Idaho panhandle, so I’ll probably be spending some time up there. Would love to join you guys someday!
@@scottjones6528 It is a bit of a drive but doable. It would be great to have another Wharram boat to sail with. My Mana is the only boat of the lake with a gaff rigged soft wingsail - we could turn some heads with two of us out there. If you would like me to add you to the mailing list for the Elbow Rus, send your e-mail address to me at nkosuohene@gmail.com.
You have continued to do excellent work on the boat.
Thanks, Paul. Like everything we are passionate about, it is a work in progress.
@@RodMcLaren I think it is a fiddle thing. You seats with the swivel and back are nice.
@@paulmeistrell1726 The swivelling seats were a game changer this year. On the Run, we put in some long days and having support becomes very important. In the past I tried a bleacher seat which helped but the new seat allows you to "sit back" with no worries of tipping over. I am very pleased with them.
Hi Rod, Martyn here from Walkabout.
Really, really enjoyed this video. So good to see it all working well - also the adaptations you have made, including the new sails.
I personally have tried to get my own rig to point up better by adding a jib - seems to work, but i lose quite a bit in terms of ease of sailing. There is always a balance.
I sometimes take my boat out into the North Sea (actually just the Wash) - but only when the waves aren't too scarey. One problem is that I get seasick unless i am helming - i reckon your boat would be ideal for me as the motion must be completely different (no corkscrewing movement).
Also looks to be a good amount of space and the general layout seems very 'human sized'.
Boats aren't just some abstract ideal - they are complex machines, with everything there for a purpose, and with a lot of evolution behind them. With the 'twin canoes' idea, it all makes sense, which i love.
Thank you, Martyn. As you say, its all about balance. Even if it were possible to have a "perfect" sailboat, I am not sure we would want one. Trade-offs and compromises are healthy approaches to life, in my opinion, and that extends to sailing.
Hi Rod, I really have enjoyed your videos having stumbled on them recently! I grew up in Zimbabwe sailing on Lake Kariba in various boats including some Warren Design 28 ft boats! I am now in southern Saskatchewan and have been doing some sailing down here on Cypress lake. I would love to contact you and go sailing on Diefenbaker!
Morning, Tom. Great to hear from you. By all means we must get together this summer to do some sailing. Lake Kariba, eh? One of the items on my to-do list was to charter one of those Tiki's and sail with the hippos on Lake Kariba. That dream did not make it to fruition, nor did the one of commissioning Orca Boats in Harare to build me a Tiki 38, but I do still have the correspondence with Jeremy O'Connor. :-) I found you on Facebook and am sending you a friend request along with my contacts on Messenger so watch for that . Cheers, Mate.
I like the boat, but I'm not sure if the mizzen setup is worth the extra complexity
Every design has its pros and cons and this one is no exception. Moving the main mast forward, creating a cat ketch, opened up a much larger deck area, which is great for camp/sailing. The mizzen requires more rigging and has the benefit of enhanced tacking and balance for the large main sail.
Aye m8, really like your Canadian accent. Regarding the sailing (not storing or trailing) - from your experiences: would you like her to be some feet longer? Waking, course holding, steering etc. Or is 24’ the optimal length for your use?
Good question. As for sailing, this length is about right for me and for the conditions I sail in. It points well, holds a course well, and is easy to steer. Tacking has taken some learning but that doesn't relate to the length but rather the cat ketch rig. As I stated in the video I am still learning how to make the best use of the mizzen sail. I would really benefit from onboard lessons from a sailor experienced with this rig. Unfortunately of all the sailboats I have seen on the Canadian prairies, mine is the only one with two masts so there is no one nearby to ask for advice. Experience is my teacher and at times I am a rather slow learner. :-)
Aye, lone prairie sailing is in a special class of course. And with no more two-masters around you maybe could ask around where they are located. I was kind of curious about the length of the hulls and thought that maybe 27’ would give you more outcome. But as you say, it all comes down to your present needs and conditions.
@@RodMcLaren Hi Rod, I have a quite similar sail layout. But, it is on a much smaller scale, which makes it much easier to work out what is going on.
Forgive me if i am pointing out things you are already well aware of, but the dynamics seem to me to be:
The boat is essentially pivoting about some point (centre of lateral resistance CLR) - usually near to the boards in the water - where is/are yours by the way ?
The front (main) sail is operating it's force through a central point, somewhere 25% back from the mast. This should be in front of the CLR, so sailing just with the main will mean the boat should try to bear away.
The back (mizzen) sail is much further back so has the effect of pushing the boat up into the wind. This is really handy for heaving to.
Balancing the two sails up really comes down to setting the main for whatever course you are on, then adjusting the mizzen to leave you with a bit of weather helm.
Tacking is a particular problem (as you say), and running downwind is another.
Hi Rod. I just started watching your videos of the Mana 24. Thanks for all the work producing and sharing them. I currently sail the south shore of Lake Ontario in an O'Day 28 and am interested in the smaller Wharrum designs as possible next or replacement boats. I like that the cats can be brought home for winter, sailed at higher speeds than my 28, and sailed into shallower bays, but still have some accomodations for overnight. I saw you had a somewhat wet ride in one part of this video. What do you estimate the wave height was in that footage? It's not too unusual for me to be out in 5' waves about 5 seconds apart where I sail. Do you have any idea how comfortable you would be on the Mana in such conditions?
Good morning, Sean. Thanks for watching the videos - it is always good to hear they are appreciated and enjoyed by folks who are passionate about sailing. As it happens, the Prairie Mermaid is now sailing much closer to you, on Georgian Bay, and from reports from the new owner, feeling quite at home in the new surroundings. The Mana 24 is well designed for handling waves like you describe, which would be similar to the conditions you saw in the video. It gets wet, of course, on an open deck like that but at no point when sailing the Mana did I ever worry about her ability to handle the situation. The Wharram designs have repeatedly proven their seaworthiness in rough conditions over time - they are designed for safety first and then for speed.
@@RodMcLaren thanks for the reply! I'm surprised to hear you sold the Mana after such an investment. Do you mind sharing why you sold her?
@@seanmmcclain I was fortunate to find someone who appreciated the Mana 24 and was willing to pay a fair price for my "investment". I very much enjoyed sailing her when I had a crew but found the boat not well set up for solo sailing, which I occasionally like to do. Perhaps it was just me and not the boat - the new owner has been out by himself a number of times on Georgian Bay. I am building a new boat (an ECO 6 catamaran) which I feel will be easier for me to handle when alone.
Hi Rod, great boat how does the boat tack? I have a Wharram Tanenui and she is a little slow on tacking can’t quite get her over unless I am moving past six knots. Thanks
Thanks, Mike. It took me a while to learn the tricks but now that I have figured out how to use the mizzen properly, I have found the Mana tacks well. I still miss the occasional tack but usually it happens when I am not paying proper attention. Certainly speed is a factor, and on occasion a reverse tack is more effective.
@@RodMcLaren Thanks Rod, do you mean a reverse tack as being a Jibe?
@@StrawberryGarcia Not sure how to explain this. I mean reversing the tiller with the boat moving aft in order to get the sail to back and push the boat around.
@@RodMcLaren i’ve never heard of that one, I watch a lot of Wharram videos not too many have I ever seen something like that nor do most people post a tack.
I’ll try that one next time I’m out there! Thanks again
@@StrawberryGarcia Reverse tack is a back up plan that every beach cat sailor quickly learns... if you miss your tack and get stuck facing the wind, allow the boat to move backwards and reverse the tiller.
Beautiful rig. What would the masts and sail costs?
Thanks for your comment. I don't know the price of the sails,. They come came as part of the kit, unless you do not want Jeckyll sails, and I can't imagine why you would not want them. I sourced the masts locally and found a supplier who was willing to bring in the schedule 10 4 inch pipe with another order. For 2 x 20 foot lengths of 4" schedule 10 and 1 x 20 foot length of 3" schedule 10 aluminum pipe - CDN$672 in 2017. I still have 12 feet of 4" pipe left over, and I used the 7 foot left over 3" pipe to make a gin pole for raising the main mast, which is quite heavy.
@@RodMcLaren Thanks for the reply. I'd love to have the Wharram wingsail but on a non-Wharram boat. Is it messy to tidy up the sail after reefing? Do you think it'd be helpful to have a lazyjack or boom on the mainsail?
@@wishfull9036 Messy? not any more than other sails I have reefed, If anything it is easier. It is a boomless sail so a lazy jack would not be useful. The sail is made with reefing ties which make it quite easy and the results are quite neat. The double reef is not as neat but I've only double reefed that sail once so perhaps with practise even that would be neater. I installed lazy jacks on the WindRider trimaran I sailed prior to the Mana and I can't say the jacks made it any easier to reef. What boat design are you thinking about using this on?
@@RodMcLaren Great then. Thanks for sharing your take. I'm in the beginning stage of learning about boats and aiming to eventually cruise on a light displacement catamaran about 36' eg. K.Hughes or B.Kohler perhaps. I fancy a bi-plane configuration if it is possible.
Without the boom can the mainsail stretch out during running?
@@wishfull9036 Nice. I have never studied Hughes designs. I like Bernd Kohler's designs - he has some very cool ideas, including bi-plane. Like all sail designs, boomless sails have pros and cons. I like them. There is not as much control over sail shape as with a boom, but then there isn't a boom to duck under each time you come about. If you get a chance, go sailing on one.
Rod how does the mana sail compared to the tiki?
The Mana main sail is the same design as the Tiki wrap around gaff sails - just a different size. Compared to the Tiki 21, the Mana main feels much larger although I don't know how much. The Wharram page provides the sail areas for the different designs.
10:26 on trailer
:)
Kia ora from New Zealand love the build just fyi in te reo maori "mana" is pronounced "munah" not manner,
cher bro
Thank you for the correction, Paul. I very much appreciate you telling me. It is good to respect the Indigenous origins of names, and do so with correct enunciations. Going forward, I will try to do better with this word.
@@RodMcLaren ka pai mate!