If you moved everything far enough, it might make tacking more difficult. Many catamarans are hard to tack already. OTOH, if you could steer that...
I was just looking through Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft. I don't think I can tell the difference between a sharpie and a flattie. Does...
Well, that's the question. Whether air would be enough.
Speaking of information about sharpies, have you read "The Migrations of an American Boat Type", by Howard Chapelle?: The Project Gutenberg eBook...
50 lbs would be light if that was everything not removable from the hull, but it's not. OTOH, I have a 7 foot dinghy, originally built for a...
I though I'd shrink something like this 1895 catboat until it displaced, say, 350 lbs. Intended for single sailor up to 250 lbs, which I think...
I mentioned it above, but for this project, ply wouldn't really be right. Think miniature Cape Cod Cat. All curvy. If I used carbon fiber, it...
BTW, I'm sure the gears from the lower unit of a very small outboard motor should be usable, but you'd either want to cut away most of the...
That twisted belt seems like a good idea, but it would need lots of vertical room inside the sub, wouldn't it? Or am I just imagining it too...
Dieter, I was just at the library today, and saw a bit on the Derby Dory, which has flotation placed on the gunwales, or just outside them. The...
I think 4mm ply might almost be enough by itself. A balsa core would be lighter, and would justify the carbon. ;-) Hoping someone will have a...
If you were making, say, a 7 1/2 foot dinghy, you didn't want to mess with foam, but you were crazy enough to use carbon fiber, what kind and how...
Some time ago, I was helping with work on a small, portable, sealed medical gadget. It had membrane switches on the front. When ascending in an...
Sheer clamps? I'd call them gunwales. Considering that they're made out of paulownia, which is very light, that for most of the hull's length...
Seems like the big flat area in the middle could be plywood, with very light glass cloth and epoxy to keep it dry, which has worked for some of my...
BTW, I ran into a formula on line, attributed to David Gerr, for estimating a more realistic "hull speed" for light displacement boats. A user...
I guess in the case of the Solgato, assuming the motors are rated correctly and so on, 3kW will get us 8 mph, or about 7 knots. We only need 6....
That SolGato looks very nice. I wonder just how much something like that would cost in commercial production, though. I wonder how much range he...
I imagine you could make a catamaran that sailed reasonably well, and reasonably fast, from two skinny rowing boats or two kayaks. Until they...
I haven't cruised much at all, so my opinion on the advantages and disadvantages doesn't mean all that much. However, I can report some...
