MiniCat 520 "Explorer" prototypes.
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- Опубліковано 8 жов 2024
- Following on from our epic first sea trials of the new, soon to be released MiniCat 520 "Explorer" expedition boats in Norway, now we get to see how they behave in light winds...or in this case, almost no wind.
These two boats are the very first of what will shortly be an addition to the already meg MiniCat fleet and these we`ve designes with a specific expedition goal in mind in East Greenland.
So far we `ve been blown...literally...away by how good these boats are in heavy weather. In Northern Norway, we experienced some horrendous winds and waves and found these boats perform,ed well and safely and this was a huge confidence boost to take these into the remote parts of the globe we have plans for, the first being East Greenlnad later this Summer.
Here I`m out just for a float. Each hour on the water gains a huge amount of feedback and develops familiarity. I make no pretence in really not liking light wind sailing, I love the big winds and big waves of the ocean, but here is something I`ve actually found fun in, in almost no wind !
This looks interesting. I’m going to look into the 520 explorer
If you love being on the water, sailing & adventure, they are an epic tool and open up all sorts of waterborne fun !
I`ll be hosting a demo/training week in Norway with the new production models in late May 2025 and two follow on expeditions with a fleet of them, also in Norway, Yukon & Greenland again (check out the vids from sailing these boats in East Greenlnad this past Summer)
Thanks for the interest !
This boat looks amazing!! Looking forward to more videos. What is the weight of this boat? How many travel bags are used to pack this boat? Already on the list to be notified when available for purchase!!
Thanks ! You can check out the first of some videos from Greenland and see how they performed there. Our expedition versions for Greenland weighed in at a little under 90 kg per boat, we had added some additional rubbing material on the pontoon bottoms as we knew we`d be dragging a lot on rocks, this added some 15kg per boat and in retrospect we felt we could have managed just fine without. Each boat packs into three bags (easily) and we managed to stuff a lot of additional gear and smaller items into each travel bag as well.
Can`t wait for the next expeditioin with Explorers (already planning a 2025 return to East Greenland as well as a Yukon River expedition !)
Nice lake, nice weather, nice cat.
You've mentioned reefing lines on the main sail - is it going to be a standard feature on the new Explorer model? Haven't seen those on Minicats before.
Yes, we have two reefing points on the main and as far as I know the plan is to keep thse reffing points as standard on the production boats.
We found that throughout the sea trials and both expeditions in Norway & Greenland, having these reef points greately added to the security & confidence when sailing offshore and allowed us to adapt to a greater wind range. The reef system is simple to use, set and unreef.
Hopefully will start and produce some specific tutorial videos on the MiniCat Explorers once they get cloiser to final production.
@@daveking1009 Fantastic! Thank you!