In 2009, A Class catamarans appeared to be in short supply. A handful of builders could only produce less than a few dozen boats per year. Long time A-Cat sailor Pieter Jan Dwarshuis realized this was not enough to ensure a healthy growth of the class, and decided to team up with enserinkdesign.com to develop his own boat.
As founder of Holland Composites BV, building boats wasn't exactly new territory for Pieter Jan. In order not to interfere with HoCo's large scale facade and building projects, he started the A-cat build as spin-off operation, only in 2015 to be merged with Holland Composites under the DNA Performance Sailing brand. By then, well over 200 DNA A-cats had been build.
Being the boat of choice for a selection of stellar sailors like Glenn Ashby, Mischa Heemskerk and Peter Burling it's not surprising that 5 out of 5 world championships were won on a DNA A-cat. DNA can be credited with the explosive growth of highly competitive A-class racing, attracting more sailors and builders to join the scene. Since the introduction of hydro-foiling catamarans in the prestigious 2013 America's cup, many individual sailors from this circuit find A cat racing a great way to familiarize with hydro-foiling sailing.
Where the design of the DNA hull was modern, with integrated beams, a flat and slightly hooked aft underwater section and a bit more volume than older boats, the outstanding performance was mostly due to the ever improving appendages. The DNA design team designed and tested C, J and Z daggerboards, and various types and shapes of rudders, winglets and foil sections. As a result, the DNA design team gathered crucial knowledge on stable hydro-foiling flight.
The 2010 DNA A-cat is replaced by the DNA Performance Sailing F1 in 2016.