Beach cat building

[sailinaggie]

I have an old 18 ft sol cat. I really like the boat but the hulls are very old. I've been lurking on these forums for awhile, trying to read as much as possible. I'm experimenting with the idea of building new hulls and re-using everything else from the cat, so I would design around existing hardware. The only thing I don't like about the design of the current hulls are the daggerboards. Are they absolutely essential? I don't have any design or building experience. Can anyone recommend any books regarding glass boat building? Any other recommendations? Thanks for the help.

p.s. I'm looking at going with foam sandwhich construction.

[abbman]

sailinaggie,
How bad are the condition of your hulls? I ask that because if it is merely a deck or hull delamination there is a solution to that problem. I discovered it on the hobieUSA forum. I had major delamanation issues on one of my H16 hulls that I have repaired with their recommended method. The Sol Cat and the H16 both used foam/sandwhich construction. There is a method of injecting thickened expoxy, namely "git rot" into the foam layer between the layers of glass that will re-adhere the layers of glass to the foam, eleminating the delamination area and adding structural stability. Before you go to all of the trouble of building new hulls you may want to try this repair method. It will add a small amount of weight to your hulls however, but it is strong. Here is the link to the repair:
http://www.hobiecat.com/support/tech/delam.html
James

Or, if your just trying to build new hulls for the experience I'd say go for it. You may want to try one of the beachcat forums such as catsailor.com and ask them about construction methods. You can also try the Hobie forum but be prepared, we'll all probably try to talk you into selling that sol cat and getting a Hobie

[sailinaggie]

Abb,

The hulls were/kinda are still in bad shape. I took my boat to a glass shop to see what they might be able to do. They suggested add flotation foam inside the hull to add some reinforcment behind the glass, so I went ahead with that. The foam made the soft areas very sturdy, but I've noticed that the hulls are being distorted by the foam. I had seen the epoxy injection idea, but the area of weak hull was pretty large.

[abbman]

Even with the foam being added inside the hulls. The stresses being placed on the hull would still be compressing the sandwich, which is what you don't want. Without that being adressed, the delam is likely to exacerbate. You need to beef up the area inbetween the layers of glass to get any real stregnth. This repair can be done for pretty large areas. I pretty much repaired the entire bow of my H16, probably a 3 foot or more long delam and a smaller area in between the pylons. The repair will take all of my weight, 250lbs, without any flexing. There are also many other beachcat sailors that have done this repair and from what I've gathered it holds up pretty well.

But, if the damage is too extensive, ie. deck and hull damage, I can understand trying to rebuild the hulls. The epoxy method is a bit cheaper I would imagine however. Best of luck whichever method you decide to go with. Let us know how it goes.
James

[fhrussell]

Originally Posted by sailinaggie

I have an old 18 ft sol cat. I really like the boat but the hulls are very old. I've been lurking on these forums for awhile, trying to read as much as possible. I'm experimenting with the idea of building new hulls and re-using everything else from the cat, so I would design around existing hardware. The only thing I don't like about the design of the current hulls are the daggerboards. Are they absolutely essential? I don't have any design or building experience. Can anyone recommend any books regarding glass boat building? Any other recommendations? Thanks for the help.

p.s. I'm looking at going with foam sandwhich construction.

Have you considered making molds from your existing hulls. I'm sure with some touching up you can produce a mold (or 2 if necessary) using your present hulls as a plug. The plug development is the hard, tedious part; so you're half-way there.

Also, you might want to ditch the daggerboards for low-aspect ratio (LAR) fixed skegs like the Nacra and Dart catamarans. They work well, not as well as boards, but it reduces the hassle of boards.

[alan white]

Swing up leeboards? Probably as light as daggers, out of the way of rigging while up, no holes in the hulls. And you already own the boards---- just convert them. You can also vary their fore/aft position if so designed, even cant.
And very beachable and rock-friendly, not to mention faster tacking if the new weather board could be actively raised by means of a small line.
Surely this has been done by someone?

A.