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The ARC-21
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Product Overview
As the New Millennium arrives, the ARC-21 is ready to enter the 8.5ft. wide beachcat
market. If speed is the important criteria to you, here's your boat. Three
things make a beachcat of the same width faster than the competition: longer waterline
length, lower weight, and a more powerful and efficient sail plan. The ARC-21 has all of
these features and more. The ARC-21 with its longer waterline length, lower boat weight,
greater sail area, and tall, slender, low drag hulls are the perfect combination to
dominate the trailerable beach cat market.
The ARC-21 utilizes
Bill
Roberts "Shared Lift" concept in conjunction with low drag, high
lift daggerboard and rudder designs that not only improve the ARC-21's windward
capabilities but also produce a balanced helm off the wind even when flying a
spinnaker. Coupling the ARC-21's "Shared Lift" daggerboard
design with its high-efficiency and powerful sail plan produces a combination that will
sail higher and faster to windward than any other 8.5ft. wide beachcat on the market. No
other beach cat is designed like this, the daggerboard is forward of the main beam
and is smaller in area than the rudder, thus the basis for "Shared Lift".
If sail-ability is an important criteria to you, here's your
boat. Sailing the ARC-21 you find a feather-light helm as you step out on the
trapeze and head to windward. After the main and jib are initially trimmed the
skipper's task becomes helmsmanship and tactics to weather while the crew trims the
boat flat using the ARC designed "Forward Main Traveler Control."
Both the skipper and crew are in effortless symmetry as they pass the rest of the
fleet. As the skipper pushes the tiller over for a tack, they both scramble to the
other side and climb out on the trapeze because the tack was completed, sails filled,
before they crossed the tramp. Tacking is as effortless as sailing to windward thanks to
the ARC-21's fast-tacking hull and daggerboard arrangement coupled with the ARC designed
"Self-Tacking Jib System." Once the jib is trimmed for a given
point of sail, it is not necessary to make another adjustment except when a new point of
sail is undertaken. The ARC-21's Self-Tacking Jib System utilizes a Harken
traveler and an 8:1 mechanical advantage jib sheeting arrangement which makes
trimming almost effortless, like power steering on your car.
After passing the fleet going upwind, why wait around for them as you head downwind.
With the spinnaker up, the crew trims this sail with a 2:1 mechanical
advantage, using a jam cleat to hold on for a ride downwind. The competition watches the
gap open up as you sail away downwind. The skipper on the ARC21 immediately notices
that something is completely different from other spinnaker flying beachcats. THERE IS NO
LEE-HELM EVER! The helm is balanced just as it was going up wind thanks to "Shared
Lift". When the first gust hits, the crew and skipper start to move back,
but soon realize that it is not necessary due to the tall, slender, low drag hulls and rig
location of the ARC-21. In wind conditions of up to 25+ MPH and 6 months of
spinnaker testing, submersion of the leeward hull has yet to be documented. From our
experience on the ARC-21 and comparing its performance to the
ARC-22, we feel that it will be extremely
difficult to submerge the ARC-21 hull and nearly impossible to pitchpole this boat. This
is something that CANNOT be said about any other beachcat on the market!
For additional functional use and creature comfort, the ARC21 comes with a
front
trampoline distributed it a triangular shape on each side of the spinnaker pole. It
is lightweight, keeps the spinnaker from falling into the water during take-downs and
makes it easy for the crew to sit forward in light winds without doing a balancing act on
the forward hull. As other boats are rigged more complex in an attempt to go faster,
the ARC-21 is rigged in a very simple no nonsense fashion, ie. automatic mast rotation
control. Removing the complexity of rigging and controls allows the sailor to spend
more time focused on making the boat go fast and less time trying to decide which
unnecessary adjustments to make. Getting the sailors head out of the shadow of
complex rigging and into the clean air of simplicity will not only produce a faster
sailor, but a better sailor.
Compare these mechanical advantages to those on other boats and you decide which one
takes more force to control, 'more beef to sail'.
ARC21 vs. Other boat
Mainsheet advantage .... 10:1 vs. 8:1
Main traveler control
.... 4:1 vs. 2:1
Jibsheet mechanical advantage .... 8:1 vs.
2:1
Jib traveler control .... automatic vs. manual.
Mast rotation control .... automatic vs. manual
Spinnaker sheet mech. advantage .... 2:1 vs. 2:1
Integrated righting system ..... Standard vs. N/A
FINAL SCORE 640:1 vs. 64:1 and sore muscles
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