I recently meet a fellow who seems knowledgable and makes an interesting claim.

He maintains he can build a competitve, minimum weight, A cat cheaply and easily using tortured plywood construction. He readily admits the hulls would be "disposable", but that he could easily knock of new hulls each season, or as needed.

Also, I recenlty read of a kayak being skinned with "ballistic nylon", yielding a 16' boat weighing 37 lbs.

Does anyone believe either of these claims?

Is there any A cat- production or not- that isn't disposable?
Seriously, how long do they last (mainly from the strength point of view, but also from a design point of view)

I don't think he has actually done it.

To the best of my knowledge, A cats started in wood. However, they generally came out to about 200 lbs.

Durability of wooden boats depends mostly on maintenance, just like fiberglass! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The wood part has nothing to do with it IMO. Wood can last as long, or longer, than glass. There are disposable glass boats flying around here too.

p.s. REALLY SHITTY MOOD... it is snowing here today. This just sucks... and is stupid, and annoying, and W-T-F am I dealing with this?

There are hospitals in Florida, houses too! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I have a friend who was a Navy doc stationed at Sanford. He came to Ft. Myers for a Hobie regatta and basically never left. . . 35 years ago!

yeah, I think I may be getting close to that.
we are buying some land on the water in Navarre and going to build a house (serious F16 house!!). How long before I just say screw it and move back down there? dunno

ANYWAY

A cats just aren;t made to last a very long time. I really doubt you will see one that is made today be around in 20 years like you do with the older school boats.

The inuit ocean going kayaks are thin skinned framed constructions. I have seen a version which is not quite as big as 16 foot but its covered in a fabric/film. So I would believe the claim.. As for making one into a F16 or A..
Inuit kayaks do not have the stresses a rig puts on the hulls.. I guess someone could build a framed F16 using carbon tubes as frames... But a designer like Scarecrow would have more understanding than myself..
My only concern is the stretched fabric has zero puncture resistance at cat closing speeds.......

Then then a "light" Prowler moth hull with deck is around 7.5 kgs or 16.5 pounds.. As opposed to the "heavy" prowler hull at 9.0kgs or 19.8 pounds.... This is with centercase, reinforced stern and all ready to take flying plates ect..

As for the wooden A at around class weight. It will be hard but using some tricks from the ultra light design book, I believe, it could be done.. Well I believe it is potentially possible.. Then I have been wrong before.. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I think that might be true of all the very light boats. Haven't there been some catastrophic failures on the AC boats and big Tris?

I know that with Arie and me both on the Blade, I wouldn't allow double trapping and sailed much more "softly" than normal. 450+ lbs of "rail meat"? That's gotta be a bad idea on a 240 lb boat.

yeah, 450 is a bit much (warranty says 395 I think). I had 380 on the wire at midwinters and the baot felt a little sluggish.

I don't have much more faith in my kevlar boat under those circumstances.

And don't forget the I20 at Tradewinds!

??

The boat was being towed in and slammed into the engine of the tow boat. The result was damage to the bow.

It was written up a lot. I'll try to find the links.

http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...3&an=0&page=0#Post131293

thanks
I was wondering why i didn't see that until I realized it was on the CABB forum

Did you got the follow-up about me bobbing around in the water for 1/2 an hour? You just never know when you're gonna have an adventure. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Retrieving this thread from my own hijack!

http://www.hornbeckboats.com/

I think he probably is right about the wood A cat down to min weight and breakages. The loads for a two-up F16 with bridle and spi is much larger so there is a lot more going into the hulls.
Would be fun to try a 3mm strip plank A cat in the future but not this year or the next..

Where is the F16 angle to the topic Robi?

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

To rephrase, why did you post this on the F16 forum and not on the builders forum or the open forum? Topic is interesting but I dont see the F16 connection?

How is your F16 project coming along?

Rolf: What has Robi gotta do with this? Dont you mean Tikipete?