Help Choosing Kit for Cat @ 43

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by Catbuild, Nov 9, 2020.


  1. Steve W
    Joined: Jul 2004
    Posts: 1,847
    Likes: 73, Points: 48, Legacy Rep: 608
    Location: Duluth, Minnesota

    Steve W Senior Member

    We have six cats at the marina, three Geminis, a Prout, Jeff's boat and my sons and his girlfriends Simpson. The last two are too wide at 20ft and 23ft respectively,for the Travelift so we strap a pair of large I beams across the Brownell hydraulic trailer and pull them out at the municipal ramp down the street, works quite well. I think Jeff took 7 years to build Meadowhawk, My son and his girlfriend are a couple of years into the rebuild of their boat but it has been very extensive including cutting off the raked bows and building new plumb bows. As you know, the biggest issue with building vs repair/refit is that in a climate like ours you need heated indoor space or you will never get there whereas you can organize your work with a refit and work outdoors in the yard and do smaller projects in a garage or basement at home. There are valid reasons to build your own boat that people without the skill sets simply don't understand, but saving money is usually not one of them. In your case you just can't buy a smaller displacement power cat, they don't exist, for some the ability to spread out the cost over a few years makes sense, for others just the sheer pleasure of building something is reason enough. The mold I have is just for a hull, you layup two individual hulls and then build a whole lot of composite panels on a cheap layup table to build the rest. A competent person or couple could have a pair of hulls ready for joining in a couple of months. Infusion makes the most sense, once you have done it vacuum bagging seems so last century. At some point if I don't find a buyer for the mold I may redesign the aft underwater sections to make it a displacement power cat with either a pair of small diesels or a pair of outboards, in either case under 100hp per side.
     
    fallguy likes this.
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