I'd still be very interested in building a cat for kids over twelve years. Maybe something simple, fast and light weight.

How about we please put away the egos for now....

And I am hoping that two different threads will evolve -- one for a cat for kids under 12 years old and one for kids over 12 years old (with 12 being right on the cusp).

For sure the F12 is not something I want my seven/eight year old flying around on. The F12 would be way too fast for her. For now we are using optimists with small rubber bumpers made from car weather stripping to help ease the impacts.

Thank you, Buccaneer. Finally, some backup. And now Wouter and his friends can laugh at the children in Thailand as well as in the United States for running into things.

For kiddy bumper boats I suppose we should do an eight footer and keep it under $1000 USD complete.

But now can we please get back to the F12 discussion?

With regards to FRP would it not be easier and perhaps less expensive to build a mold out of cheap plywood instead of the building the boat itself with expensive plywood?

From memory - the Catyak 9' 3" long 53" beam, 45 sq ft lateen rigged sail. Max payload 325 lb. Shocking orange rotomolded polyethylene hull, cast aluminum fittings, aluminum tubing for trampoline supports. Skeg keel (small) so it side slips like the dickens. It only weighed 95 lbs.

I was 14 or 15 ('74-'75) I was given the choice of a sailboat or braces and I picked this boat. I got sail number 666 (I never put it on, but I thought of many creative names to go with it). It cost about $400. The YMCA was using them for sailing lessons because it was so stable.

I loved it, I could go out in stinking fast winds and pass keelboats and dinghy's. I sailed it hard (Lake Carlyle in Illinois, 10 mi X 3 mi North-South) for about a year, then we moved away from good sailing lakes, except for one summer in 1980.

I later moved to Oklahoma City and brought it out of retirement and sailed on Lake Hefner (Oklahoma City has 16 mph average wind speed). I cartopped it all the time on my '82 Plymouth Champ (8 fwd speeds, 2 reverse). I could stop my car and be sailing in less than 15 minutes. I pulled it off the cheapo roof rack, un-wrapped the sail, sheet, and halyard from around the gaff, boom, and mast, stepped the mast, slid the pins in the pintel and gudgeon, hoisted the sail and launched. I went out in force 5+ often. I once did laps around a regatta of J24's on a hard blowing day, and got to see someone blowing their peas of the lee rail. I was riding a bronco and having a blast.

I'm back sailing dinghies, V15, but I love cats. My 13 year old son has gotten to sail dreamboats from my memories, Laser, E-Scow, and his first cat, a Hobie Wave. I googled for catyak just for a drive down memory lane and came across this link. Thanks.