Rebuilding a Catapult Catamaran

I just purchased an old Catapult inflatable catamaran. The first build were made of PVC and the hulls of this one are in bad shape. I want to build new hulls in Hypalon using the old floats as patterns.

There is two reasons why I want to do this - one is that I enjoy rebuilding boats - never done a repair on any inflatable yet but I figure with the right advice I can do it - and the other reason is that once I learn how to do this in this boat then I can move ahead to build floats for an inflatable pacific proa I want to build later on.

I came across old postings from Sealion in 2003 and I wonder if he still active in the group or how to contact him. I got a quote already on the two floats from a company in GB but I live in Miami so it gets complicated.

My question to Sealion (or anybody who know how to build tubes) are:

1-Material - I found a company in MA making two types of Hypalon - one is hypalon/neoprene/hypalon with breaking strenght (lbs/inch min)warp 562 fill 562 and tearing; the other is made of D/C red hypalon on nylon with breaking strenght of warp 525 and tear 475. Which one to choose

2- Gluing - I understand there are two ways of joining the material - but joint and overlap - which one is more foregiving - I have a hard time visualising how to glue the interior strip w/o running the risk to glue the other side of the tube, pinching it.
3 - there is the humidity factor too what is the brand recomended-
4 - what is his recomended glue brand
5 - valves & chambers - I love to have two chambers per tube for safety reasons - which brand is recommended

I do not mind paying the 740 BP quoted to me - I think highly of the workmanship of proffesional builders - the main reason I want to do this myself is for the chance to build my next pacific proa out of tubes which will require learning the building of the tubes

 

Interesting choice of craft! Unfortunately I have nothing technical to add to your quest for rebuild information but just wanted to comment on how interesting it is trying to combine inflatable shapes with cat hulls. Good luck with the re-build.

 

Re inflatable hulls

The origional hulls for the catapult were made by an inflatable manufacturer who is situated in Wincanton UK.I guess that they would have the origional patterns.
Hope this helps
Nick

 

Maybe this site will provide useful info for you.
http://nrsweb.resultspage.com/boating/Hypalon Fabric
Here is another. http://www.henshaw.co.uk/default.cfm/loadindex.110

 

Catapult Rebuild

Hi - how are you progressing with the inflatable hulls?