Flyfishing kick boat cat

@portacruise

great comments

I’m gonna 2x on making the amas removable. I did it on a boat with outriggers. And essentially, these toons are outriggers.

of course, the amas need to carry the person, so would be much more substantial, but this setup cries for a Wharram or other simpler lashing. The toons get built and then the amas can be carried together with a trapeze or some other way and they can be lashed here in 4 places per ama. I used cheap rubber lashings from a waste tractor tube and keep a couple around as they will degrade over a couple years in direct sun.

But this also means the toons don’t need garboards and the thing is far more portable..

Here in Minnesota, you’d want that for carry in lakes and it looks too heavy all together.

 

Thanks for the comments ☺️

Seems like it's going to be foolish to give up now and foolish to carry on so I'll do the latter.

The pontoons currently weigh 4.2kg each. So I'm hoping to keep it below 15kg total for the boat but I'm going to have to be careful to achieve that! I must select everything according to weight. I will take a look at the wharram lashing approach. Thanks! It will definitely be able to be taken apart easily. I have aluminium 25x50mm sections for the cross beams and will laminate a hollow core central seat platform from 4mm ply and glass sandwich. I did some tests and it's super strong and light. I might invest in some carbon fiber braided tube and vacuum bag that onto super lightweight japanese cedar for the cross beams but that might just be a lot of effort for little savings on the weight over the aluminium.

So far I've just got both hulls to the same point with the bulkheads laminated with 2 layers of biaxial 30oz cloth on each side of each bulkhead. One piece on each side cut on the bias and the other not. It feels very strong! And all the seams are now taped inside. I'll move onto glueing some strips of spruce or meranti to the insides of the fore and aft closed sections so there is wider landing for the decks to glue on and laminate the decks insides with light glass and epoxy. Still not sure if I need to glass the insides of those or not.

For power I'm going to get a little 18lbs water snake. Only weighs a little over 2kg. Should be strong enough given the size of the boat. I don't need to go fast.

 

Don't forget about the weight of the battery for your water snake motor, which could be another 20 kg depending on whether you use lithium or not, and how far you will be going. For me, a drill motor setup has been a lot lighter and much more versatile compared to a traditional design troll motor.
Here's a link to one possible set up of a drill motor , and there are also other different ways to set things up.



Myself always motors into the opposing forces on my fishing trips, that way I can Coast back with minor steering forces, and not get stranded, should there be a loss of power. That means launching into the wind and waves on open water or Upstream against river currents. Possibility of quickly attaching back straps to the inflated setup / Portaging up or down and around River Rapids, thanks to the built-in zipper compartment pockets which will keep equipment and supplies in place. Looks like the first picture in your post #28, but I sit 20 cm above the water surface . There's also an advantage in having the Lays all to myself because almost all of the smaller craft like kayaks, canoes, Etc, will move themselves downstream with the forces or be blocked off. That's because rarely will they have enough energy to challenge the forces, rapids, or thin water using paddles or fins due to their much heavier weight plus limited dragging terrain. That's compared to Stepping or climbing around with a back strapped float tube. Most of the casting is done from good Shoreline or shallow water, knee deep or less standing up; sit down position is mostly used for trolling. Another Advantage of going Upstream on Rivers is it gives a preview of where the hazards and lays may be for working the drift back down toward the launch exit.

I use a foot bar for mounting the drill propeller shaft swivel instead of a transom shown above in some of my setups. A mouth tube which attaches to the different accessible valve nipples is used to adjust pressure for altitude, temperature, and ergonomic comfort. Punctures and leaks have all been small over many decades and have not required immediate repair. Pressure is restored with the mouth tube remaining attached while underway, and the trip is continued. When I'm ready to come back to shore, repairs can be made and tested overnight.

The whole FT setup including propulsion, equipment, snacks and 1 L of water weighs under 14 kg and most of it can be packed down into 1 carry-on bag when deflated and empty. So that compactness has allowed me to travel by air with the set up, visiting/ exploring hundreds of water places throughout the USA, over the many years. Probably boring to most people, but it has been a lot of fun for me anyway. Ha..