How many hulls ?

I can personally vouch for the Black Skimmer. I have sailed a Skimmer in Florida Bay which is treacherously shallow and can sometimes turn very ugly in bad weather. The Skimmer is the most efficient boat of it's type that I can think of. Bolger has contrived some exceptionally clever schemes for doing things. They are entirely functional and very economical in the build. I am thinking of Bolgers method of attaching the lee boards for example. A simple piece of rope does the job. Not only does it do the job but it allows the board to goose wing if you choose not to attend it after tacking. Way clever. Also the flooded forward and after compartments seem ridiculous at first thought. Flooding turns out to be a very smart thing to do. Some people think that Bolger is a nut case. Those people have never sailed a Black Skimmer. The sprit boomed yawl rig on the Skimmer is also a study in cleverness. Rigs of that type use the the absolute minimum of lines to pull or adjust. These sprit boomed sails are not the most efficient in the world but they are sure enough the easiest to deal with. The Yawl rig makes helm balance a simple matter. The Skimmer will sail miles on end without ever touching the tiller. Smart rig. and a cheap one too. If Bolger is a nut case he is a damned clever one.
 
I am a Tornado cat sailor and I build really fast cats and tris for a hobby who has sailed tons of different boats over the years. DO NOT get a cat. Buy something like a Flying Scot -- stable, dry, comfortable, unexposed....
 
John:

Not all cats are racing cats (Re: "Slider" for one that I know is completed...I'm working on another, and I know of at least 1 other being designed to be dry, safe, VERY stable, and comfortable). If you design ANY boat to be a dead-minimal racing boat, it'll be wet; if you design it with extra reserve buoyancy, wider-beam hulls, and more freeboard, it'll be dry & spacious. Speak what you know, and remember that there are other avenues of design for the same # of hulls. If you build a cat with 20'LWL, 22/5' LOA, 9'BWL, 10'Beam, 2.25' freeboard, and 2' BWL hulls, you'll get an extremely dry boat! It won't be able to come CLOSE to keeping up with a Hobie 20 (or even a 16 for that matter), but it'll be great for comfort, dryness, protection, etc...there's more to design than cat=speed.
 
Good point, Rob. I was tunneling on the idea of someone picking up the newspaper and making the mistake of buying a Hobie 18 (like I once did) for the family. Tornados are even worse for families -- light days fine -- any wind and it is a constant cold shower. Two years ago I built a 22ft wave piercing cat to solve the wet problem. It is very dry, but is so fast (quite a lot faster than my Tornado) and exposed that it terrorized everyone (no issues or accidents, just the speed bothers them). Only my niece will go on it any more. As you pointed out, a day sailing tri or cat would be good -- quick, dry and easy to transport -- and not intense feeling. I've seen ads for a Magnum 21. Something like that looks nice, but my wife and family all like the look of monohulls. So after asking friends and family lots of questions we got a shiny, turquoise Lido 14. Everyone loves it, except I feel like a charter skipper even making sure to pack food and drinks for all. They all say "This is much better." But now I am looking for a Thistle so that we can all be dry and secure feeling while having a better and faster sailing boat. I plan to paint her vintage black with gold trim and have lots of wood inside with padded seats and drink holders. In the mean time I am just finishing my second foiling tri. Here is my first one. http://s371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/johnelliott24/Precarious the trimaran/ Do not take the family out on this! My wife took one look and named her "Precarious!".
 
Thanks guys for some useful information and for sharing your experience, most valuable. I'm pretty sure I will go for a mono-hull, it was my original preference.

I'd still be interested to hear what the Catamaraners out there think of the Jarcat (J6).
They're a bit 'boxy' but are reckoned to be an easy build.
Small, light weight, easy to tow and shallow draft.
There is a lot of support and an active local group of 'Jarcatters' in my vicinity.
Only problem, they all seem to tip their boats over at some time.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/rhturner1/j5-6.html
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~ingle.m/jar1.html
 
Proof of Concept Project

alan white said:
...You mentioned the flat bottom type and the subject of stability.
Small sailboats, even keelboats, depend on crew weight to counter heel for the most part. Therefore, the differences between flat bottom types and round bottom types isn't so much about stability, but more about speed potential and handling characteristics.
A flat bottom boat pointy-bowed boat is generally called a skiff, and such boats are initially very stable. They sail okay, but also row and motor okay as well. This may appeal to you.
Round bottom types tend to sail somewhat better as a rule, as they have less hull friction. This makes them faster at lower wind speeds though both types are equal in heavy winds.
Multi-chine types fall somewhere in between, and if you build them, they are great examples of "most bang for the buck".
A good place to start if you are taking the family along, is a circa 15-18 ft centerboarder, either round bottomed (Daysailer 17) or multi-chine (Wayfarer), or even vee bottom (Point Jude, 19 ft Lightning class).
Flat bottomed boats are not so common any more, so you won't see many in glass in the size range mentioned. Not that they aren't good boats, just that the other hull types sail better in general (then again, Phil Bolger has made a career out of proving that box midsection boats are fast and faster than many more sophisticated shapes. To my thinking, they are ugly and structurally weaker than rounded shapes, needing more bulkheads, frames, stringers, etc..
Click to expand...
You know I really like the looks of the Lightning class boats.

And as I look closer at them I believe I can modify one to accept my aftmast sail rig configuration without a great deal of difficulty. Granted that stock mast is pretty filmsy, so I might have to get creative there. For what I have in mind, it may require that I either sleeve it at points, or just use a Hobie 16 section or something like that. It would be a real challenge to use the stock mast with all of my additional loading. And I might have to get a little creative about the lower backstays and their interference with the mizzen sail....or maybe I would have to use a 'running backstay' arrangement,...or just leave the mizzen off for the initial trails??

What I need to start with is a good profile dwg of the Lightning class boat. Anyone HELP

There sure are enough of these vessels around the world that I could initite a sail-off with a stock vessel to prove or disprove a few points.
 
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