Single handed catamaran

Hello,
I would love to build a small lightweight cat to sail on my own at the beach. I dont want to spend much more than $300, excluding ropes, blocks and sails. I am unsure which construction method i want use. Im not interested in a junky pvc hulls or stitch and glue.

Please help me, give me any ideas or ask questions. To summarise, i need help designing and developing this idea

 

A beat used Hobby cat otherwise LOL

 

you could build a rather inexpensive skin on frame hulls, the way they build sea kayaks, you would have about $100 into the hulls. I have been meaning to try this just for fun, I have built 9 skin on frame kayaks and several small sailboats. It is fun and fast build method, light and inexpensive since so little material is used.

Or how about free plans for small cat: http://svensons.com/boat/?p=SailBoats/Hobby_Kat

 

James, why are you opposed to stitch and glue. S&G does in no way imply inferiority.

I suspect that you might be a beginning sailor because you used the term ropes. Sailors call them lines and each has its own, name such as main sheet, Jib sheet, halyard, painter, down haul, vang, barber hauler, snotter, preventer, lanyard, and more..

No offense intended here. Beginners often have their minds made up before they have all the facts. Nothing wrong with S&G construction. Some very fierce and expensive cats are built that way.

Petros has made a sensible suggestion about skin on frame because it will fit your stated budget. You need to know that even a fairly small professionally built sail will cost more than your whole $300. The mast and rigging may cost that much and more as well. A complete boat with decent components will surely exceed $1000 before it is splashed. The best deal is to find an old Hobie or other small cat that you can buy cheaply. There are plenty of them out there to be had at bargain prices.

 

My 14ft singlehanded stitch and glue plywood catamarans Pixie and Quattro 14 use 6 sheets of 4mm ply plus about 5kgs epoxy. If you shop around you can probably build the hulls for under AUS300 providing you use cheap Chinese plywood. I assume many other plywood beach cats will cost the same

However, as others have said, the rig is the expensive bit. Probably a new jib alone will cost more than the hulls.

So it makes sense to use a rig from an existing beach cat, whatever hulls you put under it.

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

i have sailed for three or so years and i have read some books about sailing in general, rigging and basic boat building. i will attempt to make sails myself, as i know several sail makers, and other sailors with lots of knowledge about sailing in general.

there are some small sailing boats that i have seen on the internet made from polystyrene and fiberglass. would this be a good construction technique? places where structural integrity is important, i could reinforce with plywood.

 

wood is going to be by far the lowest cost way to build. If you have access to a table saw or some way of milling your own lumber. You can salvage suitable larger timbers from old buildings being demolished or left over from other projects and remill them to the size you need. Or also consider reclaiming timbers and logs that wash up on your beaches, and than cutting them to the size you need. This is by far the cheapest way to build a boat.

As for rigging, I would look around for a used mast and sail from a similar sized boat. if you go to a place that stores and repairs small boats they likely will have something used that is suitable and almost ready to go for less than you can make it yourself.

 

nice idea, but i have moved on to another idea. i may start a thread on this forum in a few days. thanks for all your sugestions