At Antares Catamarans we’re always striving to improve on the tried and tested success of our catamarans. We’ve seen this in the evolution of our Antares 44 throughout the years. Now, with professional sailor Memo Castro at the helm, we have made several modifications aboard the 44GS that enhance both performance and safety.
These updates reflect our ongoing commitment to the overall safety and usability of the Antares Catamaran for the cruising couple. We made the following three modifications to the running rigging and sheet management aboard. First, we’ve relocated the screecher furling line, secondly we rearranged the genoa sheet management, and thirdly, we’ve placed line clutches for the halyards at the mast.
Similar to the genoa furling line, we placed the screecher furling line in the built-in conduit under the deck. The furling line runs along this conduit to organizers at the aft winch pedestal and to the powered winch.
By moving the location of this line from the perimeter of the deck, we have not only cleared the decks from any potential entanglement with cleats and spring lines, we’ve also improved the management making it easier, more convenient and most importantly, safer for captain and crew.
By placing the genoa tracks on the hardtop, we have improved the sheeting angle by bringing it close to the center-line. This delivers a significant benefit when sailing upwind.
This new sheet management configuration leads the sheets directly to the cockpit through the hardtop’s steel supports, through a block and directly to the winches.
This has shown significant benefits to the upwind performance. It also clears the deck of potential trip hazards, prevents the sheets from chafing against the windshield, and allows you to keep the enclosure closed when sailing in adverse weather conditions.
A small soft shackle on the hardtop secures the sheets when not in use, keeping them away from the windshield and ensuring an unobstructed view for the helmsman.
While we use low-stretch Dyneema line for the halyards aboard the Antares, some stretch is inevitable. We’ve minimized this by placing the Spinlock rope clutches directly on the mast for the in-mast furling mainsail halyard, as well as the genoa and screecher halyards. This reduces some of the stretch and translates to less adjustment, bringing the halyards closer to an ideal trim.
By placing the line clutches on the mast, we align these loads with the mast that can easily support the static and dynamic loads, alleviating much of the stress from the vessel. Our real-time field studies to collect data on the loads confirm this. Using a special sensor, we measured the static and dynamic peak loads on the halyards and sheets to validate the actual working loads, leaving no loose ends in our calculations. It is precisely this dedication to details that allows us to continuously improve and deliver the world’s best liveaboard catamaran.
