Design and Construction
The 5.8’s hulls are moulded white foam-sandwich vinylester structures with solid fiberglass elsewhere, and the builder gave them large volume so the boat can be driven harder long after lesser catamarans have been backed off large volume hulls. Non-skid decks, round cross beams, and a grey mesh trampoline complete the structural picture above the waterline, while carbon-reinforced rudders and daggerboards speak to the loads a racing dinghy-cat generates. At 407 pounds per Multihulls World, with an 8-foot beam and a 19-foot overall length, the platform is light and narrow enough to be trailable yet stable enough for double-trapeze sailing.
Rig and Handling
Seaman’s rig centers on an exclusive bridle foil system, which lets the jib run larger but lower, cutting heeling motion and keeping the boat flat and fast bridle foil system. Anodised spars, coated shrouds, a captive mast ball system, and adjustable wing-shaped spreaders with Sta-master diamond wire adjusters give the mast precise control, while mast spanner controls, a 10-1 main downhaul, and a 3-1 jib luff system let a crew tune and depower in all conditions. The sail plan itself pairs a new Pentax square-top mainsail with a vertical-cut racing Dacron jib and racing battens. Period specifications note a Harken mainsheet system and traveller, a Barber hauler, and a double trapeze, and the boat is very easy to control even when depowered — a function of the positive Ackerman steering and adjustable kick-up rudders as much as the foil-driven balance.
Accommodations
There are no accommodations in the cruising sense. The Nacra 5.8 is a racing catamaran: the grey mesh trampoline spans the cross beams, the hulls are volume carriers rather than cabins, and every listed feature — traveller, trapeze, diamond wires — serves speed. A buyer shopping the 5.8 for liveaboard space is misreading the design entirely.
Known Issues
No structural defect, systemic failure, or class-wide weakness appears in the available material. The manufacturer note on standard features and safety cuts off before detailing any safety equipment, so nothing about emergency gear can be stated. What the sources do establish is the presence of carbon-reinforced rudders and daggerboards and kick-up rudder adjustment — components whose wear would be a used-boat concern but whose failure modes are not described.
Refits and Ownership
Ownership of a 5.8 is straightforward in the way of trailable one-design racers: the sail plan is built around tunable, replaceable elements (square-top main, vertical-cut jib, diamond wires), and the bridle foil and Harken hardware are standard-class items. Roy Seaman’s plugs date from 1985 onward for this model line, placing the 5.8 in the early hand-laminated Nacra generation rather than the later vacuum-infused foam-core era that began with the F18 Infusion in 2006.
The Verdict
The Nacra 5.8 is a purpose-built racing catamaran with a long one-design history in Australia and a rig engineered for controllable power. Its large-volume hulls and bridle foil make it forgiving at speed, and its tunable deck hardware suits a serious club racer.
Pros
- Large-volume foam-sandwich hulls that sustain pace in heavy air
- Bridle foil rig lowers heeling and eases control
- Fully tunable rig with Harken mainsheet and diamond-wire adjustment
Cons
- No cruising accommodations of any kind
- Earlier hand-laminated construction, not the later infused build
- No safety-equipment inventory beyond the cut spec note
