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Engineering:International A-class catamaran

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The A-Class Catamaran , often abbreviated to A-Cat , is a development class sailing catamaran for singlehanded racing. [1]

• 1 Background
• 2 Specifications
• 3 Current situation
• 5.1 World Championships
• 6 Class websites
• 8 References

The class was founded during the late 1950s and was part of the 4-tier IYRU (now World Sailing) approach to divide up the sports catamaran sailing scene into 4 separate groups. These A, B, C and D classes were governed by a very small set of class rules to which each design had to comply. [2] In the beginning it was just:

• Maximum hull length
• Maximum overall width
• Maximum sailarea

All boats designed and built to these specs would be grouped into one fleet and race each other for crossing the finish line first.

The A-Class is the largest remaining of those 4 main classes. The ‘B’ class was a 20 ft twin hander with 235ft2 of sail and developed into the Tornado and a few offshoots such as the F18.  The ‘C’ class was another twin, but at 25 ft with a 300ft2 rig, has become a super sophisticated monster and the pinnacle of small cat design that races for the Little America’s Cup.  The ‘D’ Class was 32 ft and a sail of 500ft2 with three crew, but rapidly dwindled away.

Specifications

The official organisation for the A-Class catamaran is the IACA (International A division Catamarans Association).

The A-Class rules were expanded over time to prevent the cost of these boats from rising too high and to ensure fairness in racing.

Currently the main A-Class rules are: [3]

• Min overall boat weight : 75 kg / 165.3 lbs
• Max overall boat length : 5.49 m / 18.3 ft (= still the old IYRU rule)
• Max overall boat width : 2.30 m / 7.5 ft (= still the old IYRU rule)
• Max sail area incl. mast : 13.94 m 2 / 150.0 ft 2 (= still the old IYRU rule)

In handicap racing, the A-Class catamaran uses a Portsmouth Yardstick of 681 in the UK [4] or a D-PN of 64.5 in the USA. [5]

Current situation

The A-Class design has over time converged to a single sail rig using a lightweight carbon mast of about 9 meters length and using lightweight pentex or Kevlar sailcloth. The hulls and beams are often made out of carbon fibre as well, although homebuilt wood or composite materials are still seen on the race circuits.

In the decades since their foundation, the A-Class has gathered a significant international following and it has class organisations in many countries around the globe. Their world championships often attracts around 100 boats and sailors. It is also a class that still contains a significant portion of homebuilders, although their numbers are decreasing with every year due to the skills required to make a competitive boat. However, nearly all A-Class sailors tinker with their setups and boats. As it is a developmental class and the rules do allow so much variation, it is paramount that a top sailor keeps experimenting with new setups and generally tries to improve the design even more. Because of this general character of the class, the A-Class is often leading over other catamaran classes in terms of design development. Over time these other classes copy new findings for their own setups. Examples of such developments are: the carbon mast, the squaretop mainsail, the wave-piercer hull design and in general the use of exotic materials.

In 2017 with the advent of practical foiling designs, the IACA divided the class into an Open (Foiling) division, and a non foiling Classic division for boats with straight or C-shaped foils, and with different class rules to prevent foiling. The two have slightly different SCHRS handicaps, the Open being 0.978, the Classic being 1.008. This allows close racing to continue, and many older boats are still competitive on the Classic circuit particularly.

Apart from the list below of some of the commercial builders, the A-Class catamaran can be home-built:

• Bimare (Italy) ( https://web.archive.org/web/20120823064200/http://www.bimare.org/ )
• Aicher-Egner Technologie GmbH (Germany) ( http://www.flyer-acat.de/ )
• Marstrom (Composite AB Sweden) ( http://www.marstrom.com/ )
• Scheurer Design & Eng. (Switzerland) ( https://web.archive.org/web/20130424015358/http://www.d3-a-cat.com/ )
• Scheurer Bootswerft AG (Switzerland) ( https://web.archive.org/web/20120705062433/http://www.scheurerwerft.ch/scheurer/ )
• VectorWorks Sail (USA)
• Wingfox (Poland) ( http://www.wingfox.pl/ )
• DNA (Netherlands) ( http://dnaperformancesailing.com/ )
• Vision (Netherlands) ( http://www.catamaranparts.nl/ )
• Nikita (Germany)
• Exploder (Poland) ( http://www.exploder.info/ )

World Championships

Class websites.

• International A-Division Catamaran Association (IACA) ( https://www.a-cat.org )
• Australia ( http://www.a-cat.org.au/ )
• Austria ( http://www.aaca.at/ )
• Belgium ( http://www.baca.be )
• Brazil ( https://web.archive.org/web/20131214165019/http://www.abca.esp.br/acat/default_por.asp )
• Denmark ( http://www.a-cat.dk )
• Germany ( http://www.a-cat.info )
• Great Britain ( http://www.a-cat.co.uk )
• France ( http://www.afcca.org )
• Italy ( http://www.classeaitalia.it )
• New Zealand ( http://www.a-class.org.nz )
• Netherlands ( http://www.a-cat.nl )
• Poland ( http://www.katamaran.sopot.pl/aklasa.htm )
• Sweden ( http://www.a-cat.se/ )
• Switzerland ( http://www.saca.ch )
• Spain ( http://www.adecat.com )
• United States of America ( http://www.usaca.info/ )
• List of multihulls
• ↑ "BACCA - BACCA British A-Class Catamaran Association" . http://www.eyeforlife.com/acat/?file=kop1.php .  
• ↑ "Australian International a Division Catamaran Association" . http://www.a-cat.org.au/history.html .  
• ↑ "Danish A-Class Association" . http://a-cat.dk/prog/class_rules.asp?Language=&Menu=2 .  
• ↑ "Portsmouth Number List 2012" . Royal Yachting Association . http://www.rya.org.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/technical/Web%20Documents/py-general/2012%20listv3.xls .  
• ↑ "Multihull Classes" . US Sailing . http://offshore.ussailing.org/Portsmouth_Yardstick/Current_Tables/Multihull_Classes.htm .  
• ↑ "Home" . http://www.aclassworlds2015.it/ .  
• ↑ http://www.acatworlds2016.nl/
• ↑ "A-CLASS WORLDS 2017 – A-Class World Championship 2017 Sopot" . http://aclassworlds2017.pl/test/ .  
• ↑ "Sailwave results for A-Class Catamaran World Championships 2019 at Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy17th to 21st August 2019" . https://www.sailwave.com/results/wpnsa/2019_A-Class_Worlds/results.htm .  
• ↑ https://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=23423
• ↑ https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/Aclass#!/results?classId=Acat

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Class rules

In this section you can find the A-Cat Class rules and measurement guidelines.  

World Sailing Plaques ( Open link here )

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What modern cities look like - Moscow-City

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• Moscow-City

I visited Moscow in 2018,2019 multi times while i was studying in Penza City of Russia some 650km... read more

This district is a great modern new addition to Moscow with a lot of modern high-rise buildings... read more

What modern cities look like

This is a great experience of what future cities might look like and it feels great. Still, you will only walk around.

This area will not seem particularly special if you are accustomed to visiting places like Dubai, Doha, Singapore etc. There are a handful of impressive skyscrapers to see and a decent-sized mall to visit. If you are a long-term resident of Moscow, however, it does offer a change of scenery from the grand buildings of the inner ring or the Soviet-style high-rises of the suburbs.

It is not so impressive after the whole cities looking like this island of business in the center of Moscow, but you can find there nice cafes and restaurants and amazing view to the city. The best time to visit is sunny evening. You can book the sightseeing site view in advance or right there.

I visit this place today and is very easy to reach it through metro. The area is full of skyscrapers like an imitation of Dubai and more are going to be built, so around them there are a lot construction areas. Although is very facinating unfortunately is a little bit confussing and comparing to the rest of the city that is clean here you see a lot of garbage around and not disposal bins. It is very good spot as there is the tower where you can see Moscow from the 89th floor. I recommend toeveryone to visit it in their stay in Moscow.

When you think of Moscow you think or Red Square, St Basils and The Kremlin. This remind you Moscow is also a corporate powerhouse.

Historical Moscow's center is wonderful. But you must go and this this absolutely modern Moscow city! Amazing views around. Go upstairs to the bird high and check moscow from the roof!

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Moscow's High Rise Bohemia: The International Business District With No Business

• Written by Dario Goodwin
• Published on March 17, 2015

The Moscow International Business Center (Also known as Moskva-City ) was meant to be Russia ’s ticket into the Western world. First conceived in 1992, the district at the edge of Moscow’s city center is intended to contain up to 300,000 inhabitants, employees and visitors at any given moment and, when completed, will house over 4 million square meters of prime retail, hotel and office space to create what the Russian government desired most from this project: an enormous financial district that could dwarf London’s Canary Wharf and challenge Manhattan . Twenty three years later though, Moscow-based real estate company Blackwood estimates that as much as 45% of this new space is entirely vacant and rents have plummeted far below the average for the rest of Moscow. The only press Moskva-City is attracting is for tenants like the High Level Hostel , a hostel catering to backpackers and other asset-poor tourists on the 43rd floor of the Imperia Tower , with prices starting at $25.50 for a bed in a six-person room. This is not the glittering world of western high finance that was envisioned back in the post-Soviet 90s; but what has it become instead?

As one might expect from a project of this sheer ambition, Moskva-City has a troubled past. The economic crash in 2008 hit Russia hard enough to evict the previous Mayor of Moscow , Yuri Luzhkov, who had been a cheerleader for the district, and replace him with the considerably more austere Sergei Sobyanin, who famously declared that the whole idea was an “urban planning mistake.” But as recently as 2013, the Wall Street Journal was triumphantly claiming that Moskva-City had risen from the dead, citing 80% occupancy rates and glowing quotes from industry insiders claiming that Moskva-City was the "place to be." Driven by record highs in oil prices, Moscow looked poised to become the next Dubai .

Instead, Moscow is now in the grip of an economic winter prompted by western sanctions and drops in the price of oil. The large financial groupings that Moskva-City was meant to shelter have been warned off by their inability to issue credit to international markets, for example - but Moskva-City isn’t just an Empire State Building left empty by the Great Depression.

A fundamental problem that is holding Moskva back compared to the rest of Moscow is the simple fact that currently, getting to Moskva-City is nigh-on impossible at peak hours. Moscow has long been plagued with transport problems, ever since the government failed to match the dramatic expansion of the city with a dramatic expansion of the transport system after the Second World War. Despite being only 2.5 miles from the Kremlin , Moskva-City is only just inside the ring road that bounds the city center and which acts as the only real transport link to it (and as a result, is clogged by construction vehicles.) A railway and metro hub has been finished, but so far only runs a one-stop shuttle service to the closest Metro station that is actually integrated with the rest of Moscow Metro. The isolation of the outer districts is a large, negative part of the Moscow psyche, and it’s not surprising that this is driving away the globetrotting financial elite this project was meant to attract.

The project is managed by architectural practice No.6, which is a constituent part of the large Moscow based practice Mosproject-2 , which is itself a public corporation headed up by Mikhail Vasilyevich Posokhin, who is apparently the “People’s Architect of Russia.” Despite all this state involvement, the project has still managed to become bogged down in bureaucratic infighting - each lot is managed and developed individually, which has led to developers competing for occupants by slashing rates.

Much has been written about the way modern financial districts and towers that inhabit them can be unwelcoming, forbidding or even hostile by design, but the skyscrapers of Moskva-City seem even less friendly than usual. The site - a former stone quarry, chosen out of necessity as the only place in the city center where a new district could be plausibly constructed - is isolated both physically and visually, leaving the cluster a stark anomaly on the city skyline. Even the names seem more imposing than optimistic now: Imperia, City of Capitals , Steel Peak.

The Mercury City Tower , so far the tallest completed building on the site, is officially “a strong reference to Russian constructivism, [which] gives the tower a strong vertical thrust similar to the one found in New York's Chrysler building .” It would be easy to criticize the Mercury City Tower for picking ‘inspirations’ that are so totally opposed to each other - The Chrysler building the defining emblem of American pre-crash confidence and Constructivism created with the express purpose (especially architecturally) of extending the Bolshevik revolution into a social revolution - but the way they smash those two inspirations together is almost beautifully ironic.

Even though the High Level Hostel is less an asset to a financial district than it is a PR problem, it’s been a huge success since opening in September, already ranked 27th out of 766 hostels in Moscow by TripAdvisor. According to the management agency for Moskva-City , 58% of the new occupant signings this year have been non-financial, including a number of small to medium size businesses. Other areas of office space have been occupied by a restaurant and a culinary school, while another space has been redeveloped into a 6,000 seat theater.

While Moskva-City is failing to be a financial district that could take on the world, it’s inadvertently becoming a humanized space catering to the very groups that the Russian economic miracle left behind. Taking advantage of rents lower than the rest of Moscow , the world class facilities and the sheer desperation of the developers, the humanization of Moskva-City could well create the world’s first high-rise bohemia.

Of course, these are not spaces designed for a community, or even for people: these are spaces designed for money, and there’s little scope for changing something that seems so baked into the design of Moskva-City . The High Level Hostel is trading off of the irony of being a hostel in a banking tower, but it’s perfectly possible that at some point people will no longer find this joke funny (especially in a building that seems hostile to the very idea of humor). The isolation of Moskva, even though it allowed this community to spring up in the first place, is just as detrimental to a humanized district as it is to a financial one: even bohemians need to move around the city, or the district risks becoming a black-spot instead of a hot-spot.

Moskva-City’s isolation won’t last forever. The end of construction will open the roads up to traffic, and plans to properly integrate the spur lines of the Metro in this area into the wider system are well under way. The integration of the district will inevitably push up rents, and the Russian economy will eventually boom once again. When that happens, Moskva-City is prime territory to be reconquered by the giants of international finance, and it seems unlikely that the municipal or national governments would want to step in to protect this accidental district. For now, though, the towers capture perfectly this moment of Russia ’s schizophrenic understanding of its place in the world.

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Association Française des Catamarans de Classe A

Présentation du classe a.

A son début, la jauge de classe A ne comportait pas de limitation de longueur pour ses bateaux. Ce n’est qu’après le succès du "A- Lion" dans diverses épreuves de type "Un par série", organisées aux Etats Unis et en Grande Bretagne, que l’I.Y.R.U choisit les dimensions hors tout de ce catamaran (5.49 m pour en faire les limites de la classe. Le  "A-Lion" est donc l’ancêtre du Classe A actuel. Il fut dessiné par Jerry Hubbard, en 1963.

A l’époque, ce nouveau catamaran connut un grand succès aux Etats Unis ; il apparut en Angleterre en 1964 pour participer à la confrontation "d’un par série". Outre Atlantique la série tendait à la monotypie autour du A-Lion, elle ne faisait que vivoter en Grande Bretagne, tandis q’un engouement important pour le Catamaran solitaire naissait dans l’hémisphère Sud. Graham Shanton, à la tête d’un groupe de néo-zélandais passionnés, se battit une réputation presque légendaire avec son premier bateau nommé Scal; il ne pesait que 68 kilos tout gréé…

Les règles de Classe tiennent en quelques lignes ; voici les principales :

Le Class A est un Catamaran en solitaire.

Longueur maxi : 5,49 m.

Largeur maxi : 2,30 m.

Surface de voile maxi : 13,94 m2.

Poids minimum : 75 Kg

Cette liberté de manœuvre fait du Classe A un formidable laboratoire de recherche au niveau des formes de carène et du profil des voiles.

De nombreuses innovations (voiles à corne, mâts carbone, coques inclinées) ont d’abord été mises au point ou généralisées dans cette série avant d’être adaptées sur d’autres bateaux.

Pourquoi le Classe A ?

Pour le plaisir de régater en nombre

Pour le plaisir d’aller à 12 nds au prés et de dépasser 20 nds au portant,

Pour le plaisir de posséder un catamaran high-tech à la finesse de barre incomparable

Pour le plaisir de pouvoir choisir entre planer et voler,

Pour le plaisir d’être entre copains qui font l’ambiance de cette classe,

Pour en finir avec le manque d’équipiers, la complexité du montage ou du transport

Pour toutes ces raisons, rejoignez les Classes A. Vous êtes les bienvenus et on vous attend !! L’AFCCA est l’association de tous les Classes A: anciens, modernes, bricolés, personnalisés pour peu qu’ils répondent aux règles de la classe.

Le Classe A, régie par la IACA elle-même adhérente à WORLD SAILING, est une classe à développement basée sur des restrictions simples (ce n’est pas une monotypie), où toutes les innovations sont le bienvenu pourvu qu’elles respectent la jauge.

Les évolutions techniques et de navigation

Depuis sa création, le Classe A n’a cessé d’évoluer d’un point de vue matériel, mais aussi dans sa manière de naviguer. En effet, ces dernières années ont vu apparaître de nombreuses évolutions majeures :

  • années 90 : mât carbone à la place d’aluminium, coques inclinées   • années 2000 : voile à corne, étraves inversées et dérives courbes   • années 2010 : foils sur dérives et safrans, voile decksweaper, gréement court   Le Classe A a toujours bénéficié ou été précurseur de ces évolutions; et c’est ce qui en fait son attractivité auprès d’amateurs ou de professionnels.   Ces apports technologiques ont permis de rendre le support plus accessible à tout type de profil : gabarit, âge,... budget Mais également de faire évoluer la manière de naviguer et plus généralement son approche par rapport à la voile. Par exemple, la manière de naviguer au portant est assez révélatrice : • années 90 : tout le monde sur le caisson • années 2000 : portant sur une coque, plus connu sous le nom de “bootherie” • années 2010 : portant au trapèze pour déjauger, puis vol   En 2017, au vu des changements rapides sur le matériel et la pratique du Classe A, l’International A-Division Catamaran Association (IACA) a défini la discipline Classic, sans modification de jauge mais avec des restrictions supplémentaires. Non pas en opposition avec le vol, mais pour stabiliser un type de bateau et de pratique associée. (Cf document de classe pour en savoir plus).   Ainsi, conformément à la définition IACA, l’AFCCA reconnaît cette pratique par la mise en place d’un double classement : Open et Classic. Aucune jauge supplémentaire n’est mise en place.

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FEIG ELECTRONIC: Moscow-City Skyscrapers Streamline Parking Access and Control with Secure RFID

Feig electronic partners with isbc group to deploy ucode dna rfid security and parking access control solution in moscow business district.

Weilburg, Germany  — December 3,  2019  —  FEIG ELECTRONIC , a leading global supplier of radio frequency identification (RFID) readers and antennas with fifty years of industry experience, announces deployment of the UCODE DNA RFID security and parking contactless identification solution in the Moscow International Business Center, known as Moscow-City, one of the world’s largest business district projects.

The management of Moscow-City not only selected long-range, passive UHF RFID to implement in its controlled parking areas, it also chose to implement UCODE DNA , the highest form of secure RAIN RFID technology, developed by NXP Semiconductors.

Panoramic view of Moscow city and Moskva River at sunset. New modern futuristic skyscrapers of Moscow-City – International Business Center, toned

“Underscoring NXP’s innovation and leadership in developing advanced RAIN RFID technologies, our UCODE DNA was chosen to be incorporated with the FEIG and ISBC implementation of the contactless identification system in the prestigious Moscow-City,” said Mahdi Mekic, marketing director for RAIN RFID with NXP Semiconductors. “This exciting project represents yet another successful deployment of NXP’s contactless portfolio, and showcases our continued ability to meet the high-security requirements of highly demanding applications without compromising user convenience.”

“UCODE DNA is considered the only identification technology to match the physical protection of a barrier with the cybersecurity necessary to truly protect entrances from unauthorized access,” said Manuel Haertlé, senior product manager for FEIG Electronic. “As a respected contactless payment technology company, FEIG applies security know-how from its payment terminals, which are fully certified according to the latest high-class security standards, into our RFID systems. FEIG vehicle access control RFID readers incorporate advanced secure key storage elements, supporting various methods for secure key injection.”

FEIG’s partner ISBC Group provided the knowledge and support for this successful implementation using  FEIG’s long-range UHF RFID . The resulting system enables authorized vehicle entry into areas reserved for private residential use or corporate tenants, while also allowing availability of temporary, fee-based visitor parking. Thanks to the cryptographic authentication of UCODE DNA, both the tag and reader must go through an authentication procedure before the reader will validate the data from the tag, which is transmitted wirelessly. This level of authentication is typically used in the most secure data communication networks.

“The system’s two-step authentication means that only authorized equipment can handle the secure protocol and the data exchange with the UCODE DNA based tag. Without the required cryptographic secrets, other readers would query the tag in vain, because the tag’s response cannot be interpreted or understood,” said Andrey Krasovskiy, director of the RFID department at ISBC Group. “On top of this, each data exchange in the authentication process is unique, so even if a malicious actor were to intercept the communication, the transmission is only good for a single exchange and the tag’s unique identity is protected from cloning.”

Established in 1992 and still growing, Moscow-City is the revitalization and transformation of an industrial riverfront into a new, modern, vibrant and upscale business and residential district. A mix of residential, hotel, office, retail and entertainment facilities, it is located about four kilometers west of Red Square along the Moscow River. Twelve of the twenty-three planned facilities have already been completed, with seven currently under construction. Six skyscrapers in Moscow-City reach a height of at least 300 meters, including Europe’s tallest building, Federation Tower, which rises more than 100 stories.

Partnering with ISBC and deploying FEIG Electronic RFID solutions, the Moscow International Business Center is delivering security and access control to its city center today, as it grows into the city of tomorrow.

About FEIG ELECTRONIC

FEIG ELECTRONIC GmbH, a leading global supplier of RFID readers and antennas is one of the few suppliers worldwide offering RFID readers and antennas for all standard operating frequencies: LF (125 kHz), HF (13.56 MHz), UHF (860-960 MHz). A trusted pioneer in RFID with more than 50 years of industry experience, FEIG ELECTRONIC delivers unrivaled data collection, authentication, and identification solutions, as well as secure contactless payment systems. Readers from FEIG ELECTRONIC, which are available for plug-in, desktop, and handheld applications, support next-generation contactless credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, NFC and access control credentials to enable fast, accurate, reliable and secure transactions. For more information, visit:  www.feig.de/en

Founded in Moscow in 2002, ISBC Group provides knowledge and support to integrators for their successful implementation of RFID and smart card-based solutions. The company specializes in the distribution of smart card equipment, contact and contactless card manufacturing, smart card and RFID personalization services, and information security.  Its Research and Design Center is focused specifically on RFID, primarily HF and UHF solutions with NXP tags, and software development for the smart card industry. For more information visit:  https://isbc-cards.com/

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