Transporting a Catamaran project

[thebes]

My wife and I are strongly considering building a cruising cat. One thing I have found very little information on is getting it to the water when its done.

I live (currently) around 1000 miles from any ocean or navigable river which flows to the ocean. Catamarans are, of course, inherintly very wide.

Does anyone have advice on the practicality of building a yacht with a 17-19 foot beam that would need to be transported that far? I know it must require wide load permits, but what is the maximuum width (in the USA, New Mexico and Texas specifically).

For that matter how would a catamaran with an even larger beam (21-23 feet is quite plausible) be transported from where it was constructed to a suitable launch site even if it were the same city.

I don't need to know companies that transport, etc, I am just checking on the feasibility of this for the moment. I would be able to move to a port town to build the catamaran, but my wife and I really love the area we are living in and would prefer to build it here if that were practical.

btw, the plans we are looking at all have bridge deck cabins.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Thebes

[gonzo]

Yes, they transport bridge sections. However, the cost is astronomical. Can you build the boat and assemble it at a marina?

[yokebutt]

By standing it up on its side, powerlines and the like can be moved temporarily.

Yoke.

[Deering]

Why not build the hulls and cabin as separate units, then complete final assembly onsite after transport? You could have most aspects completed, requiring maybe a month or two to make the join and finalize construction.

[nero]

That is what I am doing. The two hulls, main beam, front tramp bar, back tramp bar, main beam exterior shell, and bridge deck, mast and boom, pieces will be trailored 250 miles to the Illinois or Mississippe river where I will bond it together and finish out the joints.

Most of the insides can be finished out while on the farm. The design is a semi open bridge deck. I still have yet to design the decktop navigation birth and sheltered navigation station.

I have visited several of the french bridge deck cats (10 - 15 m). They look cool but that bridge saloon eats up all the deck space. It is like sitting by the side of a building, not on deck with a nice view.

The space in the hulls (from what I can see in my hull half) feels spacious. There is about 2 meters of horizontal space at the widest part. The floor space at that point is 94 cm. The 'lightbulb hull' takes away the need for a large room up top. If I flip it the extra foam and hull material up top will float it higher. smile

Also maybe a Harryproa is cool for you? They are demountable. I have a sketch of a lightbulb hull proa. Will post it later today.

[category4jay]

It appears that we have the same idea at hand. How did your project go??

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ran-42880.html

[CatBuilder]

The 20+ ft isn't gonna happen. My quote to move a 25ft beam about 2 miles was $10,000. There was only one company that could even move it. Save yourself the effort and build at the water's edge.

[CatBuilder]

Jay,

See my post in the thread you started here. I have an incredible amount of information in those links I put in. It's an impossibility to move a large catamaran in the USA.

transporting a catamaran