folding catamaran systems

Hi!

I was wondering why farrier folding system (like in trimarans) isn't used on catamarans too?

From something like that


to something like that


Should have worked on cats with small beam (so that mast stays fixed). But I guess I'm missing something, so I want to know what.

Apart from Cat2fold, is there any other effective (not time consuming) folding mechanism for trailable catamarans?

 

Thomas Firth Jones' Brine Shrimp comes to mind.
His plans are available here:
http://www.jonesboats.com/

 

Or my Wizard, Sango, Savannah sailing catamarans and my Skoota 20, 24 powercats.

It's a very simple system that has worked well for 20 years

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

Here is an interesting post on a cat folding mechanism on the slider cat blog.

http://slidercat.com/blog/wordpress/?p=595

I have a 32' cat that doesn't need a folding mechanism because it has an 8'4" beam. Additional righting moment is added with water ballast.

The fact that it looks like a spaceship is an added bonus

 

I was always a fan of the Viva 27:

 

Well none of these can be folded on water and still have usable deckspace and interior (resting folded in marina berth like trimarans).

Cat2fold being an exception. Is there any other catamaran that uses this double scissors system?

 

Wasn't aware of the "folded on water and still have usable deckspace and interior" requirement.

Having been a sailing catamaran owner and sailed, raced and delivered many multihulls the ability to fold for a slip was never a consideration, and I can't say I ever "wished I was skinnier."

Steve

 

Didn't Tony Grainger look into something for his range of catamarans? There was some thing in one of the Australian multihull world magazines. Was there any progress on it.

 

i am looking at the woods skota 20 powercat , 1 of the things i like about it is the folding set up. it is simple and proven over a lot of years.

 

You know, Raps, a NASA logo would dress that right up! ;-)

Mike

 

Roger Simpson designed a 23' 'Takeaway' that keeps the hulls vertical. At least one was built.

 

Here's Len Surtees 9m trailerable catamaran. Not sure whether the floats can be lifted while in the water, or only when on the trailer.

 

Now that you mention it, The Boat's name will be in Nasa font next year... along with a NASA logos on the bows

 

I had a Crowther International 23, with oval sliding tubular cross arms.
Worked well and could be open and closed on the water.

 

Do you have any pics?

Kurt Hughes describes similar "sliding tubes" concept on his web page: http://www.multihulldesigns.com/designs_other/30tubecatslide.htm

But he says that "At this time it looks promising but is yet untried". Pity, I'd love to see one.

Looks like there are quite a lot of these folding cat mechanisms, but none seems as successful as in trimarans. My guess would be that reason for this is that foldable trimarans actually provide more interior space. Which is somehow perplexing, because same size non-folding cat would provide more space than tri.