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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Hunter 426 in Cruising World

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/06/2003 : 19:03:00

The Hunter 426 DS is reviewed in Cruising World. Looking at the picture, you can see that there are no forward and aft lower shrouds and no backstay. How can only 3 lines hold that mast up? Headstay has the roller furling and there are single upper shrouds on port and starboard. Also they mention that the spreaders are swept 30 degrees aft and limit the ability to sheet the main out for a run.

It certainly looks like a deck-stepped mast as well.

Looks like a "floating gin palace" to me that should remain firmly tied to the dock in winds above 10 knots.

<img src="http://www.indiscipline.org/cat25/pictures/icon.jpg" border=0>Indiscipline 1978 FK #398

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John G-
Admiral

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793 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2003 : 20:25:16

This is from a sales pitch for the Hunter 50 at [url="http://www.bellamer.ru/hunterhc50_e.shtml"]Bellmar Yachts.[/url]

“The B&R rig is a design by Lars Bergstrom and Sven Ridder. The design was born in the 70’s and has been used on ocean racers as well as world cruisers producing tremendous success. The B&R rig is designed to eliminate inner forestays, backstays, and running backstays. The 30-degree sweptback spreaders and reverse diagonals support the mast sideways, fore, and aft and the shrouds are discontinuous. Weight is minimized and using a smaller mast section maximizes airflow to the main. The angles between the shrouds and forestay equal an even 120-degree triangle that evenly spreads the load of the mast.”

For more, [url="http://www.google.com"]Google[/url] Lars Bergstrom / Sven-Olof Ridder.

I use [url="http://www.google.com"]Google[/url] as a verb.

Underlined words are a HOT link.
Click on the “Peregrine” icon.
 

[url="http://www.peregrinefund.org/"]<img src="http://www.peregrinefund.org/images/intro_mid_image.GIF" border=0>[/url]
[url="http://www.catalina25-250.org/photo/peregrine2.jpg"]"Peregrine"[/url] C25-#4762 FK

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Dave B
Admiral

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Mali
863 Posts

Response Posted - 06/06/2003 : 21:32:24

The closest thing I have to personal experience with the B&R rig involved a Hunter 240 in our club. I helped the owner unrig his busted mast after he caught a shroud on a piling while backing out of his slip--snapping the mast like a twig. Looking at the broken extrusion, I was thinking that it resembled a twisted Coors can. Looking further at the aluminum "struts" Hunter adds to the base of the mast, I just had to shake my head.

In fairness, I can't say that my mast would survive a snag like that, where the shroud is trying to stop the momentum of a 5500 lb. boat. But I know the extrusion is at least three times as heavy, and I know it has 8 wires holding it up instead of 3. You can have the B&R.

Dave Bristle, 1985 C-25 #5032 "Passage" SR/FK/Dinette/Honda in SW CT

Edited by - dave b on 06/06/2003 21:33:57

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Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2984 Posts

Response Posted - 06/07/2003 : 10:17:45

Radio towers of course use 120 degree guy wires so that part of it is not a problem. The trade offs are significant and some of those are evident on the c250 with its modified B&R rig.

As all ready mentioned... downwind sail trim is limited due to the aft raked spreaders.

IMHO the greatest compromise of aft raked spreaders is that they preclude the use of a backstay tensioner and the ability to tune the rig for various wind conditions because the B&R rig has to be run firm. If no backstay tensioner... heck, eliminate the backstay as its unneccessary and just limits the roach size. And, aft lowers can't be tightened very much anyway without causing reverse bend... and they would preclude the purported dynamic abilities of B&R so eliminate them too by jointing the shrouds at the spreaders. It all makes some sort of sense...

The advocates of B&R claim that it provides dynamic tuning... in a breeze, increased forestay bend draws the mast head forward adding pressure on the shrouds which pushes the spreaders forward adding mast prebend which flattens the main but at some cost to a more powered up headsail. To enhance the dynamic tuning...the mast extrusion has to be light enough to yield. It all makes for a light rig and a cheap to build rig while maintaining a legitimacy that its done in the name of performance rather than being cheap.

Arlyn C-250 W/B #224
<img src="http://www.stewartfam.net/arlyn/rr.jpg" border=0>
N/E Texas and Great Lakes

[url="http://www.cox-internet.com/arlynstewart/"]Arlyn's C250 Mods n Cruisin Stories[/url]

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ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

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3072 Posts

Response Posted - 06/07/2003 : 11:25:29

Looks pretty much like a good ol' Macgregor-Venture rig. Aft raked spreaders, one set of lowers. The mast is stable without the backstay. With a fractional rig, the mast bend is very tunable.

IMHO, They work just fine... only real defect is not being able to swing the main out all the way downwind.

Perhaps not exactly what I'd want on a 'true' bluewater cruiser... but adequate to the task if designed properly.

Currently maintaining two holes in the water...'77 Venture 23 and new to the family,
'78 Catalina 25

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.