Actually what I meant by getting it through a gate is that these people who buy the boat are going to have to store the boat somewhere. In alot of neighborhoods they do not allow you to store a boat beside your house, so most people will have to store it in the backyard. A boat on a trailor will not go into a backyard. I was thinking that this boat might break down in to something pretty small but after thinking about that it makes things a mess during assmebly.

I like the rollers idea, that would allow almost anyone to haul the boat. What made me start thinking about the transport was the kids that live across the street. Their mother is raising them alone, she is always hauling them around to soccor games and what not, so if she is willing to do that she and other mothers would probably be willing to haul the boat out to the lake. Single mothers have to be able to get their kids on the water without much more trouble than they take them to soccor practice.

If this boat is really going to take off and kids all over start sailing it we will have to think out every angle.

I am glad to see people working on this. More people out on the water will create a higher demand for performance boats. Hopefully this will cause some companies to create inovative new designs.

I think that a 12ft version of Jon Montgomery's Catapult would be very suitable. It would be quite narrow with the hulls deflated, but not taken off the beams. A quick pump, mast up, sails on and away you go
This is quite a fast design - I used to beat Condors and Hobie 16s to the windward mark, racing a standard 5m Catapult. http://www.catapultcats.com

So everything we say keeps coming back to these inflatable cats. Is that the way to go? It would be really nice and be super light and simple. But for some reason I don't see it winning over tons of people.

Also the aquacats might be okay. I know they look so bad they don't even catch crap on here but when push comes to shove they are cheap light and easy, maybe a different rig on one would do it.

My interest in building from scratch is land yachts. Something that could be built and used during the winter. The more I thought about it the more I realize I'm a warm blooded person. And if it's warm enough to sail, may as well be on the water.

For me building a three sailed boat is somewhat selfish, cost prohibitive, would end up not being finished before summer, and probably not a smart move for someones first boat. But a simple 12 footer seems doable.

I've got enough parts laying around for a rudder system. I see the sail as the largest single item expenditure and I'm hopeful to be on the water for less than $3K.

I think aiming for three thousand is a little high. What if we started shooting lower. I understand that the sail and other hardware is going to be expensive but it seems like this thing could be built cheap.

Here a first part listing.

I made this to get a feel for were I was in the way of weight, but it may also give you some idea of the costs shall be.

It must be noted that I have 0.5 kg reserved for shackles, rings and other chandlery stuff. However at this moment my design has not used a single one of these yet and it is pretty far developed. Amazing what you can do with lashings, beads and figure 8 knots.

The only part not further specified are the hulls themselfs. I really don't know how much money is involved there.





25 kg for everything other then the bare hulls. We are on a right track here. I think I can reduce the weight of the mast a little further as well. But I'll have to check that.

Wouter

Wouter I would like to say that what you are doing is impressive.... but remember we are going to have kids sailing these things. Those hulls are going to be very light which I hate to say it but light hulls are usually not as tough as heavier ones. I am not saying that they couldn't take racing and stuff like that but I am not very far gone from those younger years and I know that kids are hard on stuff that they own.

You are corrert of course.

At this time my main focus is to get the stuff other then the bare hulls as light as possible. Any savings here can directly go into heavier hulls.

I would like to make the hulls out of glass layers and core-matt material. Looked briefly at twinex, but just like rotomolded hulls these are practically out of the reach of homebuilder or even a small company make a small serie of hulls (start-up)

On the other hand, don't underestimate the strenght and dent resistance of 4 mm ply on such short hulls. Especially if covered with a single layer of glass it will be surprisingly abuse resistance. I'm sorry to say that my crew did test that aspect on my F16 with her trapeze hook. Hitting the deck with the hook first will all of her weight and then sliding off with hook scratching at the deck still carrying all her weight. Now she is pretty light 58 kg I think, but still the damage was mostly visual. I now have a 100x5 mm scratch on my decks that you can feel be moving your fingers over it but the true depth is probably only 0.5 mm. The boat is fine beyond that.

It is also my intention to cover the keel line with a strip of aluminium to prevent wear of the hulls being dragged along the beach and stiff. With a V-ed keel this should also protect the hulls against most submerged rocks. In addition I'm looking to make the hulls easily repairable so small holes are hopefully not a serious issue.

And at some time we have to trust the kids not to use the boats as bumper cars. I've seen 8 year olds being exceptionally attentive to optimists overhere. I guess it all comes down to how you raise your kids. Lasers and optimists aren't bullet proof either.

And like I say all though this thread. lets give it a try and see how it works out. There is no point in giving up on something before you really do know whether it will work or not.

Everybody keeps saying this and that won't work, but do we really know that ?


Wouter

I don't quite understand why, if you are coming up with a whole new design that is for children, you would want to make it a Formula instead of a One-Design. One key to success for kids' boats is that all the boats be identical so they know success is dependent entirely upon their skill, not on their boat being a little bit better or lighter or faster than the other boats.

And since parents will be building the boats (theoretically), it would just become an adult competition to see who can build the fastest boat. How does that benefit youth sailing? And wouldn't it be sending the wrong message to the kids?