Slider is sailing

[rayaldridge]

Some here may recall that for a couple of years I've been threatening to build a catamaran microcruiser of a hitherto unknown type.

The boat is finished, more or less, and we launched her last month. I've posted several videos online. Here's the latest one:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kCv0SJ6cFk

Ray

[Trevlyns]

Hey Ray, that's some cool cat!

I wasn't aware of your efforts, do you have more details documented anywhere?

[Manie B]

Orgasmic

enjoy

bloody marvelous

[rayaldridge]

Originally Posted by Trevlyns

Hey Ray, that's some cool cat!

I wasn't aware of your efforts, do you have more details documented anywhere?

Trev, I really haven't got anything formal, though I made a brazillion posts to several of the Yahoo groups during the couple of years I was designing and building Slider.

In brief, a while back it occurred to me that there was a significant gap in the catamaran spectrum. There were beach cats with sealed hulls, and then there were cruising cats with cabins. There was very little in between.

As someone who found the concept of microcruising particularly attractive, and someone who preferred multihulls, I wondered what was going on. I also have an interest in vernacular boat design-- in other words, boats built by the folks who would actually use the boats-- fishermen, for example. I discovered that there was a vast number of monohull open cruiser designs, based in many cases on those beautiful and highly evolved workboats. I started looking for the multihull versions of those boats.

I discovered that there were many tiny trimaran designs with in-hull seating. This deepened the mystery. Trimarans have a disadvantage in comparison to catamarans of similar size-- they can't carry as much weight. For a tiny beachcruising boat, this disadvantage becomes fairly large, since crew weight is such a big part of total displacement.

Cats have other advantages as camping platforms. But again, I could find no examples of a 16' cat with in-hull seating, open hulls, simple trailerability, and a modest, easily-handled sail plan. I started thinking about designing and building one, because it seemed like such an obvious idea, at least to me.

At some point, I ran across a piece Jim Brown did for Cruising World, in which he extolled the virtues of the small simple plastic tris like the Windriders he designed. He wrote: “Speaking subjectively again, it is your reporter’s personal opinion that small catamarans don’t quite qualify as cruisers, because squatting on a trampoline does not provide the sailor any protection from the elements while under way.”

Well, sure, I thought, but why is it absolutely necessary for the sailor of a small catamaran to squat on a trampoline?


Anyway, Slider is the result, and I think she's more or less unique. Selway-Fisher offers a cat design with in-hull seating, but it's a much bigger boat, has a pretty big sail plan, and is not as easily trailed. That's about as close a resemblance as I've been able to find.

Slider is 16' LOA, 8.5' in overall beam. She weighs 480 lbs. empty and draws 11" at her maximum displacement of 1100 lbs. She carries 140 sq. ft. of sail in a sprit sloop rig. She has a fairly high aspect daggerboard in one hull, and kickup rudders. The seats can be moved to any place along rails in each 7' cockpit-- in fact, both seats can be in one cockpit, facing each other, for civilized dining. A good-sized tent can be pitched on the deck, which uses cedar duckboards. So far my best speed has been 8.4 knots as measured by GPS, sailing into a weak tidal current. She tacks beautifully, as you can see in the video, and goes remarkably well to windward. I don't think I've ever owned a boat I like as well.

[Trevlyns]

Well that's really a commendable effort Ray. I think it serves its purpose beautifully and she looks like a whole lot of fun. Well done!

[Zilver]

Hello Ray,

I like your boat very much - especially the sprit rig. The sitting in the hull looks very comfortable.

I have the windrider trimaran you were talking about. I used it for camp cruising in coastal water. This was doable and fun, but when the wind was above 4 bft I really had to use a canoe skirt to close the cockpit, else the boat got swamped.
Is that also a problem in your boat ? Just curious.

Anyway congratulations with your unique boat.

Hans

[rayaldridge]

Thanks, Hans.

No, so far there's been no problem with water coming aboard. Some folks were quite concerned about this possibility, and recommended a skirt, but I really couldn't understand the concern. I have 18 inches of freeboard midships, side decks, and coamings. This is more than many monohull open cruisers, and in addition, Slider doesn't heel enough to take water over the lee rail.

We've been out in big chaotic chop and the boat hasn't taken a drop of water aboard, except for a little spray drifting back. The closest we've come to having solid water in the cockpits was one day when we were crossing the channel in front of a big express cruiser that had come idling out from the bridge. For some reason, the driver decided she didn't want to wait 15 seconds for us to clear the channel and hit her throttles when she was about 50 feet from us. She passed 20 feet from our bows, and the wake was, I'd guess, 5 feet deep. Slider dove into it and there was green water covering the foredecks. Not a drop made it past the forebeam (which acts as a 5.5 inch high breakwater) and coamings into the cockpits.

It's an amazingly dry boat. I'm not sure what to attribute this to, but the flared hulls and substantial rub rails probably knock down a lot of water. Of course, it's not a terribly fast boat either, which probably helps. If you look at the YouTube video, you'll see that there are several other videos of Slider. In the one about our overnighter to Navarre,

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5HVskPHxPjY

I didn't get footage of the trip back, because it was fairly wild, and I had no time to play with the camera. We had east winds 15-20 blowing down a 20 mile long channel between the mainland and the barrier island, and home was due east. The channel wanders back and forth between points that stick out from both sides, and the chop soon became big, square, and with cross waves from all directions. My daughter made a little nest of sleeping bags in the starboard hull, and slept all the way home. She didn't get a drop of water on her, and we made the 20 miles, going dead to windward, in 5 hours.

As I'm sure must be obvious, I'm very happy with the way the boat turned out.

Ray

Originally Posted by Zilver

Hello Ray,

I like your boat very much - especially the sprit rig. The sitting in the hull looks very comfortable.

I have the windrider trimaran you were talking about. I used it for camp cruising in coastal water. This was doable and fun, but when the wind was above 4 bft I really had to use a canoe skirt to close the cockpit, else the boat got swamped.
Is that also a problem in your boat ? Just curious.

Anyway congratulations with your unique boat.

Hans

Congraulations, Ray! Looks like you've done a fine job. Lots of effort so good luck with the "enjoyment" part. Have fun!