SA’er Charlie P Mayer couldn’t get enough with one foiling cat, so he bought two. Here’s why, from the S9 foiling cat thread:
To me it’s like the difference between a pleasure boat and a yacht, a large boat and a ship, how much money does a rich person have – all subjective to me anyway, so here goes:
The UFO can be car-topped like most other dinghies, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a modern performance cat car-topped, but it may be possible.
Static stability: like any other dinghy, it is pretty risky to put a lot of weight on any end of a floating UFO – I can pretty much bury the UFO sterns or bows when docking or lowering the rudder – that said, it is much more stable than a Sunfish, Laser, or any other monohull dinghy I am familiar with, foiler or not. The S9 is the smallest cat I have ever owned, but I can stand on any corner and not worry about a capsize. So I guess stability at the dock is a difference for me.
Tacking: wasn’t one of my metrics, but I can blow a tack on any unirig.
UFO seems aimed at a hiking-happy dinghy sailor and a price point < $8,000. The S9 at trapeze-happy cat sailors at a price around $18,000. The dinghy market is much larger than the beach cat market – check any Club parking lot.
I do know I can leave the UFO tied up on the dock and launch it within 5 minutes after walking up to it. That’s why I bought it.
I bought my S9s to learn foiling with my friends – and darn glad I did.
Charlie
