Catamaran from two single hull boats

Get some study plans of older designs and price out the boats. Low end will be ply and midgrade epoxy. Get on ebay and craigslist for rigging ect. , or the whole boat. Get in touch with Richard Woods , he'll give some good advice on small blue water cats.

 

Sand Crab: No offense, but there is no comparison between a Gemini and a Catalac when it comes to build quality. None. The Catalac is built like a battle ship, which is one reason it's so slow.

Although... check out this video of a Gemini 105MC crossing from the Chesapeake to England. If these things can do it, so can a Catalac 10M. After all, how do you think most of the Catalac 10Ms and 12Ms got here?

http://vimeo.com/5595748

The Catalac 10M is 34' and a few inches.... pretty close to your 36' min size. It also has a fairly respectable bridgedeck clearance (unlike other Catalac models).

I've been on one in a Force 9 and she handled it well, downwind.

Don't knock the Catalac 10M until you've tried one. They are truly a steal at the price points you can find them at. Quite a value and able to cruise from North America, to South America to Europe, Africa, etc... Maybe not a Pacific crossing, but an Atlantic crossing is all you need to cruise most of the continents. The rest is just coastal cruising once you arrive.

 

No websites. These are all unadvertised deals I sniffed out myself when deciding if I wanted to build or buy someone's project.

I have info via email.

PM me if you'd like the info. The Kurt Hughes hulls in NY appear to be the best deal. The guys with the Chris White ones will probably be cutting them up and throwing them in the dumpster at some point because they're retarded (site censored the word mo ron s) with the perceived value. They may be much more hungry now than when I talked with them though.

 

Hey nimblemotors. im new here. I just got a plans set for the P95 Kohler designs. personally I love it. even though I plan to cheap out on many things since we are in the same "boat" excuse the pun"

the p95 is a 30 ft'er. but he has some nice designs in the 38 ft range. when i read your post it sounds liek you are going for speed of build too??..figure on 1000 hours minimum, for any 30-40ft cat.

the one im building doesnt have a lot of headroom(about 5 ft and 6 ft in the hulls). but when underway your mostly out on deck or sitting or laying down anyway . but she's fast and you could blue water cruise in her if you wanted. but more to the point -i believe -even if you wanted to use the most expensive woods, you should be able to build her (or a similar cat hull from any designer in wood boats) for 20k. to me, and I may be way off base i dont know- this doesnt sound like an unreasonable figure-

my disclaimer is-im not an expert. but what i have to go on is the estimates for the my boat, at around the same price.

of course with an expensive rig this price will be higher of course.
according to my study plans, an assymetric cat hull can be built 60% cheaper than symetric hulls...its just a thought.
good luck!

 

The money wont be in the hulls, on a 30' you can save a few $1,000 on going low end wood to high end foam. The mast, sails, hardware, ect. will be the area where you can only cut so much if you want a blue water boat in place of a day sailer.When I did the take off on my build ( 31' ) I came up with low 30s using wood and cheep epoxy , ebay items ect, new mast alone will run $6,500 to $7,000. You will pay for a boat pound for pound to some extent, look at the disp, I think a person can build on the cheep for around $6 to $7 a pound, if you take your time (years) and wait on deals maybe cheeper , but not a blue water 30' cat or tri for 20k. rick

 

It really appears my only option is going to be a build from scratch, in which case the only option is something I can build quickly.
A 34ft cat appears the right size for blue water and 2 people living aboard.
I don't need luxury or gizmos, just the space and safety of the bigger boat.

My experience is that it is better and faster to build small and get the experience and technique and then go big.
And frankly, given the effort, wouldn't it make sense to build one to sell at a profit and maybe this will offset the cost of the building new vs buying old?

So my question would be what design is fast to build, and is the same for a small one and 34ft, and what size small one would be worth building and selling?

thanks again,
Jack

 

What do you want to do with the boat? I looked at a lot of factor,s and narrowed my chorces down to a Richard Woods cat and Ed Horstman tri. Ed did,nt have a 30' to 32' cat and this was my size range, there was a big gap between his 28. and 34' cat. I wanted a small roomy blue water cruiser, I found with the older designs you know what your getting and the prices for plans are priced low. As someone who has to read building plans daily I am impressed with the plans I bought from Ed for the money. I was and am impressed with the Woods designs for a number of reasons . They are designed so the comman man can build and cruise, a boat that can sail in the north sea to me will be reliable in most any sea, he has a number of small blue water cats 30' give or take range. You might come up with other conclusions depending on your needs ands wants. Read some of Richard Woods post on this sites and others such as cruisers and sailors forum , multihull4us.Ed Horstman has three good books that you can order from his site, Ed,s advice was build what you want now and go sailing. You can build a boat and live, and coastal cruise, and make it blue water capable in time. I will build a boat structure that can be turned into a blue water boat with the right fit out as time and money allows. You can build a blue water boat in the 6000lb displacement range = or - for your 50k , get a few study plans and price out material, wood v foam , poly v epoxy. Priceout your ports , winchs, sails , mast, gally, bath, power ect. Example 10hp inboard v 9.9hp outboard , see what your options are and what you can afford. This takes some time, first decide what you want in a boat, also look at displament and not just size, figure out how much weight you need to carry, you may need a bigger boat or might drop to a smaller one. I started out looking at cat designs and ended up with an older tri design, take some time and research according to your needs first and add in your wants . rick

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Rick's advice here is dead on.

 

oceanic 30

http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/21989

Maybe I can live with the smaller boat, but an outboard?

Would it be possible to modify this boat and extend the hulls in back with a pair of motors??

 

If you look at the post where I asked outboard or inboard, most adviced outboard. Nice looking boat. rick

 

Look up Catalac and Iroquois catamarans. Better bang for the buck. Nothing wrong with outboards.

 

Just read that thread thanks. I like the notion of double everything for blue water safety, so I'd need two outboards. In really bad weather isn't an issue having them outside in harms way? I assume they are setup to be fully controlled from inside the boat, and not hand run outside? and the fuel tanks and fuel lines all exposed?
I hated the outboard on my old sailboat, very loud.
I have an outboard powerboat, and yes it easy to work on, but new ones are very expensive. For larger ones, it places a lot of weight up high vs down low. There must be reason they are not used in boats bigger than 30ft.

In any case, opinion about modifying this boat? Heck of a lot faster than building from scratch.

Found this webpage where they lengthen the cat hulls, doesn't look too difficult,
http://www.time-for-a-catamaran-adventure.com/catamaran-lengthen-hull.html

 

I looked at the Catalac's and sorry but I think the 9m is ugly.
I like the 10m if one was forsale reasonable will consider it.

 

Speaking to the outboard, 30 ft comment, I think you are talking about monohulls. Plenty of good catamarans have outboards. Mine is 45 ft and will have outboards. They must be the high thrust type though.

Catalac is out, so check the Iroquois. Those are pretty good looking, actually. Saw one a couple years ago in Maine. It was full of Germans who just did a trans Atlantic.

 

Speaking to the outboard, 30 ft comment, I think you are talking about monohulls. Plenty of good catamarans have outboards. Mine is 45 ft and will have outboards. They must be the high thrust type though.

Catalac is out, so check the Iroquois. Those are pretty good looking, actually. Saw one a couple years ago in Maine. It was full of Germans who just did a trans Atlantic.