I usually won't respond to a post like this; I have good health and limited time, and I'm not going to change anybody's mind, but members of this community like Kevin Cook, Greg Scace, and Wouter have contributed to my enjoyment of and skill in sailing, and I would like to give some back.

I have spent considerable time this year corresponding w/
Matt, Wouter, Phill, Skip Elliott, John Lindahl et. al. trying to nail down what I think would be close to an ideal beach cat and seeing what could be built or modified. My basic parameters were: 18' length (there has been so much development at 18': the 18sq, A cat, F-18, and this adds directly to what is useable for a modified application), under 280lb, sailable by one, but enough buoyancy for 2. An A cat mast is tall enough, sail area is probably about right if you ad a genaker, need to stiffen the mast. My experience is that an 18' boat with 30' mast needs more beam than 8.5' beam. A Tornado is a dream to handle over my P-19 and that is (IMO) due to the beam. Skip said he thought most of the 18sq guys went too far, 10' beam was adequate. Anyway, make it whatever you want. The beam v. trailering is a major issue. If we had some automotive/aircraft engineers and a manufacturing outfit that thought they had a big enough market and money to be made, we would have a slick affordable expandable beam system in short order. 'Till then we will have to make our own trade-offs. It seems to me that we could easily use one of the newer F-18 hulls, put it on a diet and we would have something.

I corresponded w/ Phill, he won't sell his Blade F-18 plans in a lean layout, and he isn't working on an 18' hull.

I drove to CA to sail a Marstrom A, (Randy S. said it was like the ocean liner of As) to see if it was slightly rerigged and beamed if it could be a bastardized but workable candidate. Actually this has been done with some degree of success, but the hull volume appeared marginal for 2up and the chorus of "you won't like it" was enough to quabash that idea.

So, I've been talking to John Lindahl, initially to see if the LR2 could be modified for my use. He and Roake thought it would be better to go back to the drawing board. John has a building method that does not require a female mold. So, I'm hoping we can work something out. By me sourcing out all the rest of the components from off-the-shelf or DIY I might be able to afford a one-off. I realize this is jumping a bit off the deep end, but John is very impressed with the design and Randy S. thought the basic parts and concept were good, he dubbed it the "Catalina Cruiser". Knowing the breadth of both these guys experience I feel I can take a chance if I can afford it.

Another way of looking at this is like the F16hp. Wouter did a great job of optimizing the parameters, and of course Phill had this great idea and very clever skills and drive to produce the Blade. And the F16hp is probably adequate for 95% of my sailing, and I will probably eventually get one, but 'there is no substitute for waterline'. I personally like 19', but in order to lose 120 or more lbs.... well I think the 18sq have shown what can be done.

I have little doubt that this boat will eventually be mass produced. It is what the vast majority of us want after we have sailed some years. Although the majority of successful classes have been fairly strict (to the manufacturers profit) As and Tornadoes have shown innovation don't have to destroy a class, it can give it life.

I hope I don't see a myriad of posts about this idea or goal won't work, blah, blah, blah. There is not an original idea in this post, and in fact not one idea that I haven't see done already. It's just a matter of putting it together into a user friendly package. If you have a realistic vision, you find ways to solve or cope with problems, not trip over them for the rest of your life.

Trailering is a persistent problem, but when enough of us set that aside long enough to experience the advantages of adequate beam, we might have a new paradigm.

So, Matt I think you have hit upon something that a lot of us have thought about. I certainly would like to see the concept modified and brought to even limited production. I believe that eventually there will be just 2 or 3 classes of beach cats racing, and everyone in the class will race wo/ handicap. First over the line wins! But a lot of whiners and believers in Slot Effect will have to die off first. Steve