Hi All

I have finally launched my planning beach cat I have working on over the last 24 months on and off. I posted this on Boatdesign.net a while ago but forgot this thread and the great advice I got from you guys. So, anyway, here are some pictures if you are interested (don't laugh I'm trained in IT not boat design )
The Pink Onion

I know in the pics I need another foot of downhaul on the sail...my friends in the windsurfer forums put me straight on this!

I was trying to achieve the following charecteristics in my design:
a) Car toppable - achieved, although it doesn't pack up quite as cleanly as I had anticipated
b) Quick and simple to rig - achieved, first rig up time from roof to water in 23 mins.
c) Prove whether a 12 foot cat with planing hulls can give an exhilarating ride - achieved, it does - in my biased view
d) power the boat with a standard unstayed windsurfer rig - achieved, certainly seemed to provide enough power with an 8 metre rig
e) Single rudder and no centre board for simplicity and minimal drag. Use of hard chines on the sides to provide lateral resistance - this set up works but due to no dagger boards is tricky to tack.


My first sail was in a steady force 3 on an estuary (this boat is not designed for sailing in choppy sea). From that initial sail, I have learnt much about what works well and what doesn't about my design. Here are the key things:

1.) The concept of windsurfer style planing hulls works. She got up on the plane on a reach and certainly gave the local windsurfers a run for their money (OK, I may be a little exageration here )
2) Windsurfer rigs have lots of potential for small projects like mine
3) A little prior knowledge can go a long way. In my case an understanding of boat balance (Centre of effort and Centre of lateral Resistance) would have served me very well when deciding on the position of the mast

5) She is a pig to tack (hardly surprising I suppose. Although I find that by sinking the transom a little she spins round a little easier.


Anyway, I have had fun building it, and now have a boat with a very shallow draft that gives me quite an exilerating ride, and that my kids love sailing.

What would I do differently from what I have learnt if building another one? I would loose the posts as you guys suggested. To compensate the clearance I would raise the height of the hulls. This would dramatically reduce weight and complexity. Apart from this I would change very little


Anyway I have just had my entry through for the Round Texel Race........

I have just received the go ahead from the missus to start my next project... . I have this obsession with easy to rig car toppable quick boats, so this is going to be a mono hull with racks and stabilizing foils.

Thanks again for the initial advice!

Andy Lyne