Considering Homebuilding a ~50' Catamaran

The things you are thinking about are good.

I don't know I'm sorry. I know nothing of high performance multihulls, especially in that size range. What I can tell you is if the boat has decent beam, isn't too heavy and carries enough sail it will be fast. Mr Woods for example offers bigger rig options for some of his boats. Their length to beam and hull waterline beam is within accepted norms. If you sail it like a beach cat and have enough sail and wind it will go just fine. You won't win around the bouys though against a stripped out carbon cat sailed like they stole it.

Everything goes up in proportion to weight not length. Remember I quoted the weights of teh Horstman cats for reference. An electric windlass is great until it isn't. Then you need to go forward and sort it out. Murphy dictates that will happen at midnight in 6' waves and driving rain, not in still air on a warm summer afternoon.

I realise this is drifting off topic but I'd like to offer the example of our camping adventures. We tried everything from a tent to a caravan. Everything has it's problems. Anything works fine in sunny dry mild conditions, but when we were camped in sub zero rain wind there may have even been snow we were so happy we had a well insulated teardrop camper with reverse cycle air conditioning, especially as we watched the Japanese girls trying to avoid hypathermia running and electric heater in a tent ( dangerous and ineffective). So many other examples. Anything works in good conditions. How will it go when everything goes pear shaped ?

I could not agree more. Custom matresses are one of my pet peeves. My answer is a small cuddy cabin to fit just the queen bed. Not only std matress but also std sheets etc. What some designers try to pass of as berths is a pathetic joke. Cabinetry personally I'd build it all in foam sandwich. Dark objects like dark timber make a space look smaller. Chipboard etc is stupidly heavy and never waterproof. I hate it. In a 40' you should be able to use off the sheft domestic kit cabinets if you want that, 18" deep ones should fit fine and chuck them when they swell. As I said before do whatever is right for you, but investing in hulls increases performance and seakeeping while big bridgedeck cabins add windage, weight etc. The cuddy cabins are a great compromise IMO.

The mini bridgedeck cats are close and obviously trailerable. Mick waller does one aswell but only in ply. Again re-engineering isn't that hard. I personally prefer the jarcat because of the big double but whatever. With a folding tri your learning skills you won't use on a fixed beam boat but whatever appeals. If you want 8' beam in a cat you are limited to about 20' but that is a fairly handy boat... Whatever you choose make it a manageable project. Don't build 2 giant boats.

You can get good boats for a lot less than that but as you say factor in the headroom requirements and it becomes difficult. If you were in Australia wou'd have a look at these:

45' crowther catamaran for sale | Sail Boats | Gumtree Australia Hervey Bay Region - Bundaberg Surrounds | 1276337978 https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/bundaberg-surrounds/sail-boats/45-crowther-catamaran-for-sale/1276337978

Island Dream - Catamaran for sale | Sail Boats | Gumtree Australia Caboolture Area - Beachmere | 1254019162 https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/beachmere/sail-boats/island-dream-catamaran-for-sale/1254019162

Remember those are our tiny little Australian $, multiply by 0.7 to get roughly US$

 

All,

A quick update as I am still interested in this and wish to document my journey a bit. Over the past couple years, I have been reading the forums pretty regularly, but have spent less time contributing as I've focused on getting a better understanding of personal finance, investing, etc.

I've gotten my first bit of epoxy work done, as one of the daggerboards on my Hobie Cat slipped through the trunk until only about 2 inches of the top of the board were in the trunk. While we were looking for it, we surfed a wave sideways and ended up ripping about an 6 inch chunk out of the hull. This necessitated cutting holes into the deck to access the trunk and then repairing, fairing, and painting. I'm also suffering some delamination on one of the access ports. I intend to use that as an opportunity to fill in those access ports and resurface the decks of both hulls. This experience has only fixed my resolve to only proceed with the correct build facilities. I skimped on the protective gear and ended up with shallow breathing for over week due to dust inhalation.. I believe my lungs are already a bit weakened due to childhood pneumonia, so it's not something I can afford to repeat. Additionally, working in a driveway exposed to the elements is not conducive to good build practices.

I've also been thinking a lot about what some of you have mentioned about getting out of the water. From an even more direct perspective, I don't think I'll even be able to get insurance without having significant sailing experience. Anyone have ideas of cheap small boats that come close to my headroom requirement (multi or mono) that might be good to get a taste of cruising along with some practical experience?

Additionally, inflation and the rising interest rates have dampened my purchasing power significantly, making the original timeframe suspect. At the savings rate I can achieve, I will not be able to save enough to purchase house + boat + retire early enough. Therefore I am attempting to transition to a position that has slightly less earning potential, but more stability for the possibility of taking leave of absences from work to sail my boat. This should result in a longer period of time to allow savings to compound for retirement and let me take extensive sailing trips with my children before they age out. Speaking of which, #1 has arrived! Hasn't impacted the savings rate too much so far, fingers crossed. The wife remains skeptical but open minded. She very much enjoys sailing and is a bit of speed demon, but is less enthused about the build process.

My SOR has been updated slightly, as I believe part of my retirement plan may now be to run charters from this boat. (Big dreams, now I'll await the reality check). That will necessitate slightly different accommodations setup. This should provide income reducing my dependence on previous savings.

I've been following SV Lynx's video series on their build of their Schionning Solitaire 1520 quite religously, living out my dreams vicariously.

 

You can probably find some relatively affordable older monohulls in the 45ft range with standing headroom or near standing headroom. That said, there are plenty of normal height people cruising in boats they can't stand up in, so that's also an option.

 

I just remembered the Columbia 34 MKII has 7' of headroom. Google "Columbia 34" and "headroom" and I bet you'll find some threads about boats with good headroom.

 

Schionning expensive. I cannot write. Using woods to create woods. Struck. cannot talk.

50 ft too big too expensive. 40 ft huge. 35 ft five big enough. Time and money to build to big.

https://www.mikewalleryachts.com/waller-1160-catamaran

for example bigger by far!

WoodsNot available at the moment.

 

I've been thinking about this option a bit. I've found a couple others as well.
6 Quality Mid-size Cruisers | Cruising World https://www.cruisingworld.com/top-picks-30-40-feet/#:~:text=Fantasia%2035%20Designed%20for%20comfort,that%20makes%20larger%20boats%20jealous.

Will probably try to snag one at some point because I'll likely be uninsurable without it.

@guzzis3 Hope you are feeling better with the stroke and appreciate the input.

 

That was probably someone else. Woods recommends keeping it under 40ft for a variety of reasons and even went so far as to remove his >40ft designs from his site.

 

I think there is a misunderstanding. I wasn’t stating anyone recommends a boat of 50Ft. Was stating that I remember reading that a “50 ft boat is recommmended” meaning that the fit and finish for a DIY can be great from 50ft away. But if the DIY was trying to build perfection the build time would get out hand. Who knows maybe I was dreaming. Pretend I didn’t say it if that’s ok I would prefer not to debate it.

 

Oops, that's correct.

You said Spronk, which is 50ft, so when you later said 50ft I took it literally.

 

I think it’s Richard Woods that stated something like that. For about 5 years I was moments away from ordering lumber. Now that I built a house and two pretty big additions, that last 20 percent on a big cat would probably never get done. I have an 84 ft barn set up perfectly for building hulls one at a time.