Hi Guys,
I went down this road in 1976. I knew that to build a faster catamaran the boat had to have more sail thrust, a bigger engine. To generate more sail thrust you have to have more righting moment than the other boats. THEREFORE THE BOAT MUST BE WIDER!!!
Then I considered all kinds of variable geometry beams,etc. to have a wider boat to sail and a narrow,8ft wide, boat to trailer. The simplest, least weight and cost impact method I found to accomplish this goal was telescoping beams. This mechanical arrangement added about $1000.00 to the cost of producing the beams/tramp/boat and about another $1000.00 to the trailer cost for telescoping cross beams/arms. These cross beams were rigged with cables so that the trailer winch could be used to telescope the boat out to 12ft or in to 8ft.
The manual trailer winch could even be replaced with an electric winch which made the telescoping operation 'push button'.
To telescope the boat either way added 15 minutes to set up or take down time. The beach cat sailing public turned the idea down; only a few hundred boats were sold in ten years. The NAMSA PN for the SC20 was 62 when the Tornado was 64.
Today the fixed beams and tramp can be installed on an ARC22 catamaran by two persons in 20 minutes. The mast and standing rigging takes another 20 minutes. Spinnaker pole requires 10 minutes. Rudders and steering requires 10 minutes to install. Sails up takes another 15 minutes. Load the spinnaker and rig spinnaker sheets takes another 10 minutes. So, all in all it takes about an hour and a half to take an ARC22 fron trailer to sails up. Hinged beams might reduce that time 5 minutes and add $1000.00 to the cost to produce the boat. The hinges and machining and precision pins are going to cost $500.00. Then comes the impact on the dolphin stricker system, the jib traveller track and the main traveller track on the rear beam. For 5 or 10 minutes savings and 5% to 10% more cost to the boat; I don't think it is worth it.
Bill