good idea or bad? catamaran made out of 2x Dave Gentry's Ruth?

[thedutchtouch]

what say you? http://gentrycustomboats.com/RUTH%20page.html obviously there would need to be a bit of extra framework where the crossbeams would attach (preferrably in a removable type of way), but any thoughts of this as a catamaran? it's already been done as a monohull http://capefalconkayak.com/jwboat.html

[gonzo]

It is rather fat for catamaran hulls. In waves there will be a lot of stress on the crossbeams.

[Petros]

I have built many skin-on-frame kayaks, canoes and sailboats, it is a great way to build; lightweight, fast and much lower cost. I plan on trying it out on a catamaran as well sometime.

I would not just take a row boat and use it as a cat hull, too wide and too much drag as gonzo points out. IT would be better to take the lines off say a Tornado and adapt the skin-on-frame construction to the cat hull shape. It is not difficult to do, I have done it on a number of designs. The temptation is to make it much heavier than it needs to be, but I have found it is rarely necessary since the design tends to be fail-safe, it has mulitple redundancy. For example you can use stringers of 3/4" square, and gunwales of 1x2 for hulls up to about 18 ft long. Most will use much heavier material than this, but it is not necessary if you keep your stringers not more than about 8" apart max. Frames can be at about 12 to 16" spacing, even up to 24" if the boat is light displacement.

Two row boats lashed together to form a cat would be rather clumsy and slow. If you want to attempt that to use the hulls separately, use two canoe hulls or kayak hulls. I have thought of making a trimaran out of a long canoe and two small kayaks (all skin-on-frame), you load it up with camping gear and sail out to a remote location and set up camp. Than you can use the kayaks to go explore the local bays and estuaries. A cat can be designed the same way with two kayak or two canoes.

[thedutchtouch]

you are right, i was thinking out loud but it is pretty clear to me know that the RUTH hulls are poorly shaped for a cat. oh well