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The ARC-21

Product Overview:

ARC-21 ARC-21 ARC-21 ARC-21 ARC-21 ARC-21 ARC-21 ARC-21 ARC-21

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 in 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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