Hi

I was wondering, with a Tornado being such a wide boat, would it be possible to design the T to be easily assemled and taken apart? I was thinking along the lines of the Hobie Wave. Is there anyting stopping me building loops onto the hulls of the T that will allow the cross beams to slide into place? The Tramp could be modified to slide into rails on the hulls and would only be tied on the aft beam.

Would this be possible? Would there be strength issues with too much strain being placed on the loops? Why aren't more cats designed like this?

Cheers,
Michael

What takes time assembling the Tornado, is not bolting the beams in place. The trampoline requires about 10 minutes of work. But assembling the mast, putting the mast up, and threading all lines for the bowsprit is what takes time.

We usually disassemble our boat in about 1 hour, this is from sailing condition til it is on the trailer. Assembling it again takes about 2 hours if we relax about it. We can do it faster if we have to.

The old boat was faster to rig, with only one trapeze and no spi.

The frustrating part with a Tornado is that it requires two experienced sailors to build the boat in two hours. If you have a new crew... you waste half as much time explaining what goes where.

Once you have her on the water... there is nothing that compares!

I've always thought the tear down and re-build time was wuite reasonable on the Tornado. The 8'6" boats still need to drop the mast and stow the rigging. I've seen how difficult it is to disassemble the hulls of a TheMightyHobie18...compared to Tornado it's a nightmare! There are only 10-12 bolts for the beams on the T and a speed hand wrench makes very fast work of them. The tramps come in several versions over the years, some pretty much like to suggest...only laced at the rear beam. Can't get much better than that. One boat that is really nice to disassemble...the Dart 18. It's got spring-loaded clips that lock the beams in place instead of bolts. No center or dagger boards to secrue.

Mike.

Speaking of the Dart 18 !
Because of high ferry costs, there is not much catamaran interaction between Ireland and England. But last week 13 Dart 18s arrived in Ireland for the Irish Nationals. They were transported on 2 "6 boat" trailers towed behind a small van and a 4 wheel drive. The extra Dart was on the roof of the van. They were all re-assembled in a very short time. Their owners, either flew in or travelled as foot passengers on the ferry. A great weekend.