Check out... http://ideaintegrator.com/boats/tmc/default.html. Now that's a boat!! ;)
It is a strange little catamaran that is using a biplane dual mast rig. Reminds me a lot of one of the small catamarans that is described in Thomas Firth Jones's book, Multihull Voyaging.
What an interesting boat!
Wonder if she'll fly a hull. ;D
Yes, but then bad things happen.. :)
And she's easy to transport apparently. ;D
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/bfharris/missCindy.jpg)
I'd have to question how hard it was to get the boat on top of the car. :) Also, curious to how much it weighs.
Maybe it's just me but I think a trailer would work better ???. It's just too...too, well, it's just tempting fate too much ::) but what do I know?
Fair winds,
Pappy Jack
Apparently it worked just fine. He made it to Mexico, found a few guys to lift it off the roof and slide it into the water, sold the car for a dollar, and off he went. I don't recall seeing the weight (I know payload is around 500 lbs); but it can't be that heavy given how it was loaded/launched and given that the suspension of the car made it the entire trip.
I'm sure the windage was up there, though (if I can trust my groggy memory, he achieved a whopping 12MPG).
Apparently the boat goes like stink, as he handily passed a 40'± something or other on more than one occasion (again, foggy memory at 3 am). A big advantage to multihulls.
I'm surprised the little beastie moves that fast, unless going fairly far downwind. Going upwind, twin mast rigs like that have some issues, since the windward sail often blankets the leeward one a fair bit. Of course, going downwind, she probably moves like a scalded cat... with both masts being able to catch the wind fairly cleanly... talk about sailing wing-and-wing... if she has jibs for the two masts, she could have four sails up. :) Or a big square sail between the two masts and both mains.
Did anyone see who was the designer of the "MicroCat"? I got the impression that the owner/builder might have done the design himself, but the hulls look a lot like some Bolger designs.
The owner is the builder, here is a build up.
http://ideaintegrator.com/boats/mc/construction.htm
Interesting, I wouldn't have guessed it was a stitch-and-glue build initially. :)
Did anyone see the other boat in the background? Pretty nutty.
(http://ideaintegrator.com/boats/mc/const/july27.jpg)
thanks for the pictures. More please. :D
That little pirate ship in the back ground is very awesome.
Quote from: Volksdraggin on January 02, 2009, 08:08:08 PM
That little pirate ship in the back ground is very awesome.
2nd that :)
Prepare to be boarded by Peter Pan! Actually, it *is* really cute. It'd be fun to try sailing it, too.