Reg White’s latest catamaran design, the Shadow, on display at this weekend’s Sailboat and Windsurf Show at Alexandra Palace, looks set to do some serious business on the cat scene.

Reg has teamed up with fellow Olympic gold Yves Loday to produce an easy to handle, high-performance, fully battened singlehander with asymmetric spinnaker.

To ensure the boat is suitable for a wide weight range of sailors, the designers have worked hard make the rig totally adjustable with all the vital control lines including the diamonds and cunningham led back to helmsman area. The 10sq m spinnaker is hoisted from a chute in an easy, one-step pull system.

As a singlehander where ease of handling off the water is of prime importance, care has been taken to keep the weight to a minimum with her Kevlar foam sandwich hull weighing just 95kg all up.

According to White, the Shadow should appeal to a wide experience range of sailors from those who’ve never stepped foot on a cat before to those who want some serious racing. “Because this boat tacks very easy and is manoeuvrable,’ says White, ‘and we have a great capsize righting line system, I believe we’ll get all sorts of sailors involved including windsurfers. It’s also seriously fun to sail because you can fly a hull in a Force 1-2 with the spinnaker up.’

The price tag of the Shadow is £6,950 ready to sail. And with three boats sold within the first two days of its launch, expect to see a reasonable fleet on the racing circuit soon.

For details, contact lodaywhite@whiteformla.com