Gato Especial Catamaran Adventures

[Alexis_greece]

Hello everybody!

Before 9 months we begin to build the Gato Especial 21 Cruising Catamaran in Athens, my and my father. I start this thread to share with whoever wants my Catamaran Adventures. In the bulding and the next, to the sea.

I have upload a site with the bulilding. The photos there is not the newest but you can see a nice slide show. I will update as yet.
You can ask me any you want. The link is www.gatoespecial.host22.com or www.gatoespecial.us.tt is the same site.

Aslo.... i want to find the designer :))) the Chris Ostlind. Hello Chris... i think you read me.... please contact us. 2,5 months i try with the mails. Not leaving us now at the end. We need the next plans to finish.

Best regards to all

Alexis

[redreuben]

Hello Chris... i think you read me.... please contact us. 2,5 months i try with the mails. Not leaving us now at the end. We need the next plans to finish.

Lordy lordy lordy who'd a thunk it! Don't you just love irony!

[ddavis]

I'm really enjoying watching your progress on this boat. You seem to be doing a very nice job. I'm looking at small trailerable cruising cat designs and the Gato looks very promising. I'll be very interested in hearing how she sails when you get her on the water.

Hopefully Chris will be in touch soon so you can finish construction...

Good luck!

[bill broome]

wonder what became of the designer? do you suppose he has been overtaken by the builders? one of the good things about woods designs is, he builds one before selling the plans.

fortunately, this boat is far enough along that the builders can complete with their own ideas and experience.

[Manie B]

Not good

i want to find the designer )) the Chris Ostlind. Hello Chris... i think you read me.... please contact us. 2,5 months i try with the mails. Not leaving us now at the end. We need the next plans to finish.


Alexis_greece i hope this will not be your fate as well, there are just too many sharks out there selling lousy plans, its a disgrace:mad:

[basildog]

Alexis_Greece,

Don't be too surprised if you don't hear from the man. Having endeavored to get commitments on other plans from him in the past I suspect he's one of those guys who supply renderings of a huge number of boats but never gets around to drawing the plans. Pity really, as most of his stuff is pretty good

[Manie B]

my suggestion is that you bug him everytime you see him post anywhere

the last time he posted was on the

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailboats/sailing-directly-upwind-29981-5.html#post313726

so keep watching his profile and you can see that he is still around

pour on the pressure until he responds

[Alexis_greece]

Stay cool guys. After this theard the Chris contact me with e-mail but the result is the same. For various personal reasons don't have complete the plans for some elements of the boat like the rudders and the centerboard.

Without his complete the cenderboard, i don't complete the cabin :(

For someone who wants to finish the boat in 2-3 years the rythms of Chris might be okay. For me reached a great adventure. Certainly I can speak for irresponsibility from his side. I never imagined so long time for the plans.
You imagine to can't put the boat in the water for two rudders and the cenderboard? Very funny!
But the violence in the forum there is not the solution.

Anyway.... Let descuss only for the boat.
I don't know what to do to the future.

If i don't receipt plans maybe to change the setup for the centerboard and the rudders. From the designer the Gato has one centerboard in the starboard. Yes one in one side... is this right?
Aslo have two rudders.

I do not know whether it is necessary the centerdoard and under what conditions the sea. It can be replaced by two keels on the hull? If not mount anything?

The two rudders can replaced by one? With one rudder in the center of the boat the outboard should be placed in left or right. Is this right? I want good performance from the outboard.
If i use two rudders i need mechanism to union them. Aslo i need mechanism for the flip-up of the rudders.

What do you think? what is the more correct and easy setup?

Manie B. you are the more experienced. You can help me? Any view or example is welcome.


Best regards to all

Alexis

[Manie B]

Alexis i am not the right person to ask for advice because i dont like small cruising sailing catamarans at 2.4m wide, they are potentially dangerous.

As you know i actually started to build a version of a "Jarcat" and stopped half way, after many discussions and consultations with my good friend Wynand

http://www.steelboatbuilder.com/

i decided that it was way too risky for our South African conditions, both inland and coastal. But i must stress this a personal opinion and not an attack on Chris. Chris is a prolific writer

http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&client=pub-3913451939716508&channel=6541832537&cof=FORID:1%3BGL:1%3BS:http://duckworksmagazine.com%3BL:http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/images/08/header200893t.gif%3BLH:50%3BLW:343%3BLBGC:FFFFFF%3BLC:%230000ff%3BVLC:%23663399%3BGFNT:%230000ff%3BGIMP:%230000ff%3BDIV:%23336699%3B&domains=duckworksmagazine.com&sitesearch=duckworksmagazine.com&oe=ISO-8859-1&q=chris+ostlind&start=20&sa=N

with a lot of experience, but i cannot seem to find any details or study plans of the gato

http://www.lunadadesign.com/gato-goes-upright.html#more-522

On Boatdesign.net you will find MANY guys that are very good at rendering beautifull boats that look absolutely fantastic, from small kayaks right up to 40ft=12m catamarans with gold taps that can be folded up in 10 minutes and trailered around. I see these beautifull pictures on a regular basis. Very seldom do you see actual CAD engineering drawings. To draw a pretty picture takes an artist. To draw a detailed CAD drawing usually takes an engineer and always A **** LOAD OF TIME

We had a very close look at small catamarans and also took into consideration the excellent work done by Terho Halme of which i include a copy "How to dimension a Catamaran"
Our conclusion was that even a "beach cat" at 5m long could very well be 2.8m wide which is not really trailerable. So having said all this let me offer you a couple of giude lines.

the centerdoard and under what conditions the sea. It can be replaced by two keels on the hull?

After reading as much as i could find

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/rhturner1/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jarcats/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jarcatjarboree/

and looking at what i could find on your boat it seems like twin fixed keels NACA63-012 is not sooo bad, i even did it myself. Main reason was i preferred it over the intrusion of a centreboard case and its complications in the cabin

At this point i must say that the big attraction for me for a mini cat, was that it is really a very nice "caravan" on the water, that can sail a little bit, standing headroom in the hulls and a double bed, its a cute concept and its got potential for fun for a mini weekend cottage.

having a centre board in one hull only - was done and i could not find any bad reports on the concept, it seems to work fine

two rudders YES - read a bit more and you will find many good ideas, look for mini transat, they ALL have two rudders with links

and i would rather go with the outboard in the middle - because please believe me with this kind of boat you motor A LOT, it is not an adverse weather sailer.

Your build at this stage looks good and you simply cannot turn back, you are in too deep. Please start a thread here on BD.net and post pics (compressed 200to400) start at the beginning so that these folks can see how you built and hopefully they can advise on what would be structually sound

Your website is painfully slow and arty farty - get down to basics and leave the fancy web tools behind, also give details of what your plans indicate.
In general it seems that with the crash in the world economy the guys aren't selling plans anymore so the inspiration for doing the hard work of completing plans is just not there, so yes you may have a problem, who knows?

I think your boat can give you many days of fun on the water, the basics are there and i am sure that you knew from the start that it was intended as a fun project and not a serious sailer.

Start your thread and we could post pics suitable for the application as you go along my library is 3.5 MB of boating

[Manie B]

something went wrong with the links lets try again

[catsketcher]

My little cats have one centreboard and it works very well. I cannot tell any difference on sailing on one tack or the other. As for rudders, I am big fan of big rudders and two of them as well. Many poor sailing cats of this type have very small rudders which means that the rudder is always acting at high angles of attack and so has lots of drag. In fact you can easily get more drag by having rudders that are too small. Go the normal two rudder set up.

May you get sailing soon

Phil

[DarthCluin]

You need an artist or designer to create the concept.
You need an engineer to do the math.
To do construction drawings, either by hand or using a drafting program, what you actually need is a draftsman.

[Manie B]

I am big fan of big rudders and two of them as well.

yes yes yes:D

[redreuben]

Ostlind is posting on Yahoo where he posted the recycled catamaran thread, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/multihull_boatbuilder/

[Doug Lord]

And on SA yesterday: http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=99290&pid=2573279&st=0&#entry2573279 post13

And here today 11/18/09: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailboats/lifting-spinnakers-does-lift-bow-14842-8.html#post316481

And,again, here today : http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=98255&st=400 post 417

Alexis, have you received a satisfactory response yet?

[Alexis_greece]

Doug Lord...... hip that I wrote above .... said he will make the plans ... but still nothing.

Manie B. ..... you have right. My sait is too slow. Not suitable for dial up connection but is a gift of a friend ..... I intend to change.
I will try to upload and here.... the building consumes all my free time. Aslo my Gato is 2.6 meters width not 2.4 :)

Thank you all for your response will come back if I have some news .... or something to upload..... or something to ask:D

[Manie B]

Not suitable for dial up connection

that i agree with - but i have ADSL broadband and 7.5 gigs per month

and your site is still SLOW :D :D :D

stay away from the fancy tools to load pictures go "primitive" :cool:

[rayaldridge]

Chris and I have had some unpleasant exchanges, but it's hard for me to believe he's deliberately stiffing the builder. He might have some personal issues that are slowing down the progress of the plans.

I have some sympathy with his situation, because I also began offering plans for Slider before they were finished. I'd been sailing the prototype for a few months, and writing about her online, and a number of folks had asked me about plans. I really hadn't decided to draw formal plans at that point, but there seemed to be a lot of interest in the concept. So eventually I did the first couple of sheets, and told the interested parties that I'd sell them the plans and send what I had, with the rest to follow when finished. Anyhow, I ended up selling around ten sets of plans before they were completely drawn.

A couple of builders got ahead of me a little, but I was able to provide enough information to keep them going while they waited for all the sheets and the building manual. But I can tell you that it was with great relief that I finished all the sheets and manuals and sent them off to the builders, who had been very patient with me. The plans ended up taking about 5 months to draw.

If the little cartop cat I've been building turns out to be a nice boat, and I decide to draw plans, I think I'll finish them before offering them. The other way is too stressful.

[Chris Ostlind]

This has been an interesting journey; my work in boat design, as well as reading this thread.

Ray has made the most cogent of remarks when he suggested that there might be some personal problems with which I am working to overcome. I've always thought it important to be completely honest with my life and how I deal with others. To that end, I will openly share with the members here that I have been struggling with some things for a very long time.

Recently, I went to the doctor and after many tests, have been told that I'm dealing with clinical depression. I have been given a prescription and it is having a positive effect on my outlook on things, especially my design work and the way in which I interact with people. This is a serious condition and not a simple, "well, just get on up and dust yourself off", kind of issue. If it were that simple, I would have long ago changed things for the better.

I have written a long letter to Alexis explaining the situation. I have also supplied him with six new sheets of drawings specifically dealing with the design, layout and operation of the centerboard for the Gato Especial, as well as how to construct the centerboard from raw stock. There are more plan sheets on their way.

I'm not going to get into the process, or history, of how I handled my work in the past when things did go sideways, as I can't go back and make it any different than it is. I can make things different today, as well as in the future and have already taken steps to do so. Suffice to say, I wish to apologize to any and all persons who have been inconvenienced in the past by my inability to fulfill your expectations.

I look forward to doing a proper job of my commitment to my craft and ask that you give me a chance to set things right, now that I know what is going on.

Thanks,

[redreuben]

Chris,
by going to your doctor and getting a diagnosis you have taken the hardest but most positive step you could have. Depression is in my family, my sister lives with it and diagnosis turned her life around, unfortunatley my father went undiagnosed and in retrospect we all wonder what could have been.
It is clear from your renderings that you have a wonderful eye for design, so hang in there man.
All the best,
Redreuben P.S I am told this site is among the best for quality info http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx? Cheers.

[Tiny Turnip]

A courageous post, Chris. You have my respect.

Adrian

[Chris Ostlind]

Thanks to Adrian, RR and all who have sent offlist letters expressing your kindness.