Trailerable catamaran

Hi,

i want to move from mono to multi and want to know what designs do you guys recommend to build?

It has to be easily trailerable, have a cuddy big enough for 4 people to hide from bad weather. Speed isn't on the top of the list. I was thinking size about 30ft or something similar that is still sensible to trail.

 

Woods Wizard or Sango?

 

Richard Woods has a number of pod cabin cats, the smaller of which are designed to be trailed, some of the larger ones can be built demountable.

 

How often will you trail? there's a lot of effort in doing it with a cat

A tri might suit better if doing a lot of trailer/sailing

 

Tnx. Yes i saw Sango. It's great just a little small and doesn't have standing headroom in the cuddy. If it was bigger it would be my first choice.

Woods folding system is the easiest of all. Is anyone else using this technique? Looks like it could be done by one person.

A tri just doesn't have enough space inside.

 

Am I missing something in the definition of "cuddy"?? I would have thought that a cuddy was a bridgedeck cabin.

 

IMHO, standing headroom on the bridgedeck and real trailerability are difficult to combine - maybe in a demountable design... .
Since you have to have a certain bridgedeck clearance to avoid slamming and usually want to minimize the windage of the boat, there are some physical limitations to your SOR.
To keep persons out of the weather, you don't need standing headroom... .

 

30ft, standing headroom on the bridge deck and trailable ! That's about as far from sensible as it gets.
Do you want a yacht or a pontoon home ? Whilst catamarans can offer more living space than mono's there are limits !

 

You have more of a chance of getting standing room in the main hull of a 30' trimaran than on the bridgedeck of a 30' cat. You might be able to do something with a sitting height cuddy with a pop top. It's really the only way I can see you could do it on a small sailing cat without jacking your freeboard a ridiculous amount or you could build a power cat like Richard Woods Skoota 28.

http://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/6-powercats/264-skoota-28

I suppose the other option is a folding cat like cat2fold It has a sort of cuddy on the tramp but it also is longer at 36'. Kurt put up some renders a while back showing a smaller version of the Cat2fold system so it might be worth contacting him if interested.

https://cat2fold.wordpress.com/about/

 

Yes, i know it's a long shot to have all this "features". Woods has a Gypsy 28 http://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/3-25ft-to-30ft-catamarans-designs/176-gypsy. This one has all that.

It looks like similar design as Sango,Wizzard. I wonder if it could be made so that hulls can be folded as on Sango.

 

This is a pretty hard problem. There are not too many cats around that trail. Richard Woods has some designs, so does Len Surtees. http://www.surteesmultihulls.com/

A sitting cuddy is okay to put on a trailerable cat but standing headroom is over-rated - you probably just want to rest anyway. The bridgedeck cabin in my 38 footer has standing headroom in about 30% of it and this is fine. On a small cat you just want somewhere nice to shelter sitting down.

Folding a catamaran is very tricky. A nice Farrier is a good choice if you want a good sailing boat. If you want more privacy then a cat is good.

Work out - Do I really want to trail often? Do I know how big a boat I want? Could I find something around to fit the bill? Boats are cheap at the moment.

I have to be honest and say that I have spent over a decade designing, building and modifying, modifying and modifying folding cats. As much as I like my design (I should launch Mk 2 in about 2 months) there is a lot of fussing in the process. Don't try to do it yourself!

cheers

Phil

 

Why do you want full headroom in the bridge-deck cabin? Just build a doghouse that provides a full height entry area from the cockpit wide enough to extend across from one hull to the other. Then you can get full headroom in the hulls and sitting headroom in the main cabin area. This provides the best option without making the cabin look silly.

The picture shows the bridge deck saloon. One step down on each side into the hulls gets full headroom on this 30' cat

Several of Richard's designs would work with such an arrangement OR if you want to avoid folding, try this one:

http://www.teamscarab.com.au/5.6cat/design.html

 

When cooking, doing dishes... headroom comes very handy.

This doghouse seems interesting but i don't see it on a trailable cat.

 

Ok, so either wet from rain or wet from doing dishes - I stay outside!
A bit of a shift in your SOR... .
However, IIRC there are demountable designs out there, which combine standing headroom (in the hulls) with a cuddy to hide from bad weather. Maybe this is an acceptable solution for your housekeeping problems.

 

The best solution for most people is to have a galley and sink down in one of the hulls where there is standing headroom. It's better in my opinion to work in a narrow space when preparing possibly hot food less chance of falling over and injuring yourself or others while cooking. Sure cats don't roll as much as monohulls but they still move around a bit in a chop or a beam sea. Then your cuddy can be for eating, lounging and socializing.