Anybody remember the Apollo Catamaran?

[Ed]

After digging out my 1971 copy of the 'Boat World Guide to Dinghies', I had a quick flip through....as one does....

And saw the Apollo catamaran, an A-class cat designed by Neil Coster in GRP.

Never heard of this cat and wondered if anybody else knew or remembered anything about them.

Always interested in early A class designs as they all seem to have disappeared except for the odd old Unicorn. I know we have mentioned the Australis, but did any of those ever make it to the UK?

What other early A-class designs were there?

eib

[cweed]

Other derivities.............

The A Lion, Sealion (may be the same as the A Lion), The Unicorn, A Cat 11............... plus a few other Antipodean variants.

... as per Catamaran Racing, Reg White & Bob Fisher.

[davidh]

For a couple of seasons there was an Australis based at Weston (in the days before the Unicorn reigned supreme there) - it looked stunning and went very well. It might have suffered from a little bit of fragility, the problem was that back then, my attentions were diverted by other (single hulled) classes. But I remember looking at it and thinking....wow!

D

[alan williams]

Hi I had the loan of an Australis for about half a season while it's owner was working in S.A. This was in Germany and the bloody thing was very difficult to sail compared to a Unicorn especially in the Short Baltic chop. Lack of buoyancy in the bow and stern meant that you had to be gunnel running just to keep it going.
Cheers Al

[PeterV]

A friend of mine had an A class which I sailed a couple of times. I remember it as an Australis but it wasn't canoe sterner so perhaps it was an Apollo. What I do remember was that it was very light and as a result the top sides were too flexible to stay attached to the wooden decks very well so it was always twisting and leaking. I think probably the main reason the Unicorn dominated was that it was much better built.