How to de-mast a sailboat permanently

Discussion in 'Sailboats' started by Marco1, Jan 28, 2014.

  1. Marco1
    Joined: Oct 2009
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    Marco1 Senior Member

    I do love that cat. One perhaps not very clever question. How come that such a slender hull, conceded double, can lift all that weight sinking only 300mm in the water? Must be a very light boat.

    More stupid questions ... I suppose it would be hard to fit a single on board engine to a cat?
     
  2. capt vimes
    Joined: Apr 2009
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    capt vimes Senior Member

    no - look at the images of woods cat again... you will see that it is powered by an outboard and i doubt it very much that there are two of them...
    even sailing cats with 2 inboard engines are most of the times only powered by one - the only situation where you run both engines at the same time is for docking.
    fix the rudders in a central position and maneuver into the berth with your two drives...

    now that i have reread your post - what do you mean with "on board"?
    mounted into one of the hulls? you'll get balance issues...
    take an outboard and be fine... ;)
     
  3. FAST FRED
    Joined: Oct 2002
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    Location: Conn in summers , Ortona FL in winter , with big d

    FAST FRED Senior Member

    At the speeds the hull was designed for a no mast sail boat would be a fine choice.

    The usual underwater shape will protect the prop , and on a CB boat the mass of the mast will hardly be missed.

    One thing you could do is to create 2 posts with a flat on the bottom (a sq ft of ply) a chain between the legs above the ply.

    These stiff legs are slid along the hull side , with the chain hanging under.

    A P+S set of 4=1 blocks are used to tension the legs hooked to the old chain plates.

    Now the boat will not tip when aground , useful in tidal shallow water cruising.

    Good luck with your endeavor.
     
  4. Skyak
    Joined: Jul 2012
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    Skyak Senior Member

    They have lots of positive attributes and sold well, but they get panned for compromised performance sailing and motoring. They have an amazing amount of interior space. I don't know the mast height but I am pretty sure it is under 10M. There were two models, the newer one is the M (which is what you see on that link) is taller and can take up to a 50HP outboard. It's more of a motorboat and capable of 20kn. The older 26D is lower and has limited HP for displacement mode around 6 or 7kn.

    Definitely give sailing a try. And if you have any interest in building, Woods has some fine designs.
     
  5. Baltic Bandit

    Baltic Bandit Previous Member

    The Macgregor is just a normal powerboat with a tank to put ballast water into and a retractable CB. You don't need the sail gear so you don't need the Macgregor - any powerboat will do (hence the ones I linked to).

    Most power boat "draft" is due to the need to immerse the prop sufficiently deeply to keep it from ventilating. If you put a jet-drive bottom end on whaterver power you have - and there are jet conversions for out drives as well as outboards, or you can buy an outboard designed with a jet bottom end
    http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/jet-drives/conversion-jet-drive-330.html
    http://www.yamahaoutboards.com/outboards/Jet-Drive/overview
    http://www.outboardjets.com/index.php

    that last link has a lot of valuable information.
    The reason pontoon boats have such shallow draft is not because they are light but because they use tubular ponttoons. Tubular pontoons are the optimal buoyancy increase shape (a square generates more initial buoyancy but then the increase is linear)

    water weighs a lot. a catamaran has the advantage that it has two hulls being immersed and doesn't have to worry about "veed" shapes for trackingl
     
  6. gggGuest
    Joined: Feb 2005
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    gggGuest ...

    They don't need ballast and heavy keels so they are intrinsically lighter anyway, but lightness is a virtue for catamarans, so they tend to go that way.
     
  7. Skyak
    Joined: Jul 2012
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    Skyak Senior Member

    True.
    I am a bit of a sailing evangelist and don't bother selling power boats. The one add I have is that the sailboat hulls are more efficient at low speed, but this matters little because low speed takes little power -unless you plan to cover large distances or spend a lot of time in deep water or trolling.
     

  8. Richard Woods
    Joined: Jun 2006
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    Richard Woods Woods Designs

    My Skoota 28 and 36 have twin engines, but my Skoota 20 and 24 do indeed have a single central engine

    See here

    http://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/6-powercats/190-skoota-power-cats

    for some comments, and about pontoon boats

    and here for another general introduction to power cats, based on a talk I gave at last years Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend Wa

    http://sailingcatamarans.com/index....0-introdection-to-the-skoota-power-catamarans

    4 men can lift a complete Skoota 28 hull. Empty weight of the complete boat is around 3000lbs

    Richard Woods
     
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