Kayak Catamaran?

Does anyone know what this is or if there are plans for it? It looks like someone just strapped two kayaks together.

I don't have a shop right now and want something minimalist, for coastal cruising and camping. This looks like it might fit my requirements, without being overly complex.

This came from a 2014 post, on this site; but, the ebay link is dead.

Can I just show the picture to a boat-builder and have him reproduce it?

 

Welcome to the forum!

It's an attractive craft but I am skeptical of its utility.
I'm gonna be a little salty here but understand, I've been in your shoes, not knowing anything about sail boats and being attracted to a bad design.

How is it propelled when not sailing? Will it go to weather? Is it even capable of a broad reach? How do you board and exit on anything but a shallow beach? That bridge will slap and sneeze on anything but flat water. The motion, I suspect, will be abrupt and sluggish. The canvas, as it is, will be useful only for camping, otherwise present too much windage and destroy visibility.

Suggest you find something proven like a production beach cat rather than try to revive something defective that didn't reproduce.

 

You nailed it sir!

It's a bad design; but, I do want the camping bit.

I really am looking for a sail powered wall-tent. Of course, that would be the Kon Tiki, which couldn't make Galeon speed.

I'm thinking this beast can be redeemed, by lowering the shelter under sail. With it up, I think Thor Heyerdahl will embarass me at the regatta.

Also, there's no used boat market where I live. A beach cat won't help with camping and will set me back five large. I'm lookin' to go five small.

In this image, there are all the bits I need, just perhaps, they shouldn't all be active at the same time. It's more icon than boat, I suppose; but, maybe not that far off.

It's gonna take some re-arranging, I think and maybe ad some zippers and snaps on the canvas, to allow parallel parking.

Thanks for the enthusiastic welcome!

 

The boat in the photo appears to be "skin on frame" construction, probably designed to be taken apart for transport.

Almost certainly there is someone out there who will build a similar vessel, though possibly not take apart, for a sufficient price. For a quality product that price couldy be over $10K; possible much higher than $10K.

 

That is a lot.

Do you have any recommendations or compromises I can consider, to keep the price down?

 

Ivabd, you still haven't answered my questions. Humor me.
Let's expand on DC's post. Pay 10k for materials, 6k for labor and end up with an unsail-able/unsale-able/unseaworthy POS.
Yours is not an unusual position. You don't know what you don't know while we can plainly see that which you can't.
You can buy a good beach cat and have it transported for much less than having that POS built. Ask yourself why there is only one, likely extinct, version of that craft. If it was a good idea, you'd see more. The world is always looking for a better mousetrap and you have not found one.
Think of yourself as a dehydrated horse. We have led you to water, the rest is up to you.

 

I was posting while you were.
I'd search for nearby sailing clubs, scour the web and, if you have a thick hide, go to sailing anarchy which is everything from vulgar and hateful to a great source of ideas.
A good used cat from a popular design or one-design fleet, will have the best sale and resale value.
P.S. Thanks for asking before jumping in after that Darwin Special.

 

People use beach cats, like Hobies for camping. A regular tent set on the trampoline is all you need.

 

I think it is a Klepper folding craft from the 60's. They expanded into larger sailing boats, presumably at customer request. They were far less popular than their kayaks so there aren't many around and the skins are usually shot. If you search Klepper design history you will find it. They are complex (assembly, disassembly). It is hard to get rigidity in the structure and smooth tight skin. If you are looking for simple, look up Russian inflatable cats (an H frame on two tubes), or just stick with the folding kayaks.

There aren't many boat builders with skin on frame skills and I think this design is more complicated than you think if it needs to disassemble.

 

I have that same picture saved under the name Pouch RZ85, which is a folding kayak that was built by a then East German company. I can't find anything about the catamaran at www.pouchboats.com, so I guess that was a home brew project.

I recommend gathering some more information before you choose a boat. "Beach Cruising and Coastal Camping" by Ida Little and Michael Walsh is quite good. The book is 30 years old, so doesn't list recent designs such as Liteboat (Row and sail boat concept: XP by Liteboat https://www.liteboat.com/row-and-sail-boat-concept/), but it does tell you what to look for in a beach cruiser. Have a look at the Open Canoe Sailing Group | Sailing Adventures http://www.ocsg.org.uk/ and https://www.youtube.com/@solwaydory, the Dinghy Cruising Association Cruising https://www.dinghycruising.org.uk/cruising.html, the videos of Roger Barnes https://www.youtube.com/@RogerRoving and whatever else comes up when you search youtube for either "dinghy cruising" or "canoe sailing". Buy back issues of Small Craft Advisor Magazine - Online Store https://smallcraftadvisor.com/.

Depends on the boat builder. But if you want the builder to be a designer and structural engineer as well, you will have to pay for the time it takes to work out the details. Also, folding kayaks are labour intensive to build, so not cheap, unless you build them yourself and don't count the time because you enjoy it. I think you have better options than copying the boat you show.

If you have storage space for a complete boat, then Ray Aldrige's Slider Cat should be just the thing for you. Buy the plans from Duckworks - Slider Cat https://duckworksmagazine.com/09/designs/slider/index.htm, take them to a boat builder, and that will likely be cheaper than a catamaran built from folding kayaks. Or as recommended already, get a beach cat, ideally with large volume hulls, some good drybags, and make yourself a tent. I went for an overnight trip on a Hobie 14, and found the trampoline very comfortable.

If you need the boat to collapse because you lack storage space, you have the choice of various inflatable catamarans, or you could put something together from the kit that Expandacraft offers: Expandacraft | Modular Boats and Outriggers https://expandacraft.com/

There are many boats that either are suitable for minimalist coastal cruising and beach camping, or can be made suitable. Read, watch videos, find out whether there is a raid near you, like the Texas 200 or the Everglades Challenge, go there, and get advice from people who have experience. Once you have a more definite idea of what you need, you could look for suitable second hand boats.

You did say there is no second hand market where you live, but travelling some way is likely cheaper than getting a boat built. And where I live, a company operates that is Uber for goods. I bought a second hand canoe a few months ago, offered the job of transporting the boat through the company's site, and had an offer within half an hour. A week later, I had the boat. Paying the driver cost me less than if I had hired a car, and I didn't have to spend a day driving back and forth.