Catamaran Sharpie Hulls

[great white]

The stability of a catamaran. The quick build of a sharpie. Room for a retiring couple to live aboard. I will have, for a brief period, substantial funding. I know a used boat would be faster and cheaper, but I have specific needs that can best (and most economically) be addressed by appplying hammer to nail and glue to ply. Some construction experience, ex-Navy, not a sailor. I solicit opinions from the wiser and more experienced boatmen on this site.

[JimD]

I have not the experience you seek but just to get the ball rolling, sharpies are flat bottomed and sail well heeled, otherwise they would most likely pound like crazy, and catamarans don't heel unless half the boat is out of the water, if you call that heeling, non?

[chill]

You may want to try a woods Gypsy. It has flat bottom hulls (dory style) of 28 feet. You can check out his site at www.sailingcatamarans.com. (http://www.sailingcatamarans.com.) I am building the Gypsy myself now.

[JimD]

chill, nice looking boat. About how wide are the hull bottoms?

[jDave]

The Gypsy is just one of many proven dory-hulled catamaran designs. Hull pounding in a cat is not nearly the problem it is in a monohull as the hulls are so narrow you are presenting a very small footprint to the sea. The bridgedeck of a cat can of course pound if it is too low to the water, but I think Woods designs are mostly free from this vice. There are other designers with dory-hulled cats such as uh...Jeff Gilbert, to name one. If you want a rich resource of knowledge to do with multihulls, talk to the guys on the yahoo multihull boatbuilder group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/multihull_boatbuilder/

Everyone from dreamers to builders to well-known designers lurks and posts there.

Dave

[great white]

Wow. Thank you for the quick and appropriate responses. And thanks for the welcome. Pounding: long, skinny hull, with a vertical bow, hoping that it will become wave piercing. Great names, designers, will check. Plans include Great Lakes. Will be scanning the board for tips on dealing with the many problems of boat building and commissioning. One final point... how practical would a cat of about forty plus feet be? Larger? Smaller? We are a writer and a photographer, with needed space for writing and, well, photography. Thanks again...

[brian.cunningham]

Have you looked at Wharrams?
They're Deep Vee hulls, so they don't pound.
www.wharram.com (http://www.wharram.com)
Most are homebuilt, and made out of wood.
http://www.wharram.com/images/Tiki_36_for_Tiki_Wingsail_Article_photo_E.jpg
http://www.wharram.com/images/Tiki_sail_article_photo_D.jpg
Here's one going together:
http://www.wharram.com/images/DSC00086.jpg
http://www.wharram.com/tiki_ photos/show_thumbnails.php?craft=Tiki+46&start=1&images=12 (http://www.wharram.com/tiki_photos/show_thumbnails.php?craft=Tiki+46&start=1&images=12)

[ 12-06-2003, 12:46 AM: Message edited by: brian.cunningham ]

[Aramas]

There was a sharpie biplane junk cat called Dragon Wings - I've seen the design drawings on the net but I can't find them now. The Hall's are building a similar boat to replace their dory 'Badger' - I've also seen their design drawings on the net. Look around and see what you can find.

[Steve Paskey]

The news I've heard, alas, is that Pete and Annie Hill split up while building a junk-rigged catamaran in Africa. Here's what I've read, from a post two years ago at the junk-rig group at Yahoo! . . .


They have split up, Peter is building a catamaran and intending to sail in high latitudes. Annie has bought a wooden Bermudan rig yacht and is refitting it. She is not intending to convert to Junk rig. She use to write a letter for a UK yachting magazine entitled Blue Water Letter but has given this up as she is now land bound in SA until the refit is finished. Badger has been sold.

[great white]

Actually, the Wharram boats were sort of the inspiration for the whole concept. In fact, it was only the ease and speed of construction that swung me to the sharpie. I am a strong believer in the KISS principle for almost everything, and my boat is going to reflect that insofar as possible. Sorry about the Halls, though I never heard of them. I like being married.

[Mark Van]

It seems to me that a v-bottomed catamaran would be easier to build than a sharpie cat, one less chine. I don't think there are any catamaran designs available that are simpler to build than a Wharram, but for a full-time liveaboard, you would have to build one at least 40 feet. (My first boat was a 26 foot Wharram Cat, my current boat is a 39 foot sharpie houseboat)

[brian.cunningham]

Originally posted by Aramas:
There was a sharpie biplane junk cat called Dragon Wings - I've seen the design drawings on the net but I can't find them now. The Hall's are building a similar boat to replace their dory 'Badger' - I've also seen their design drawings on the net. Look around and see what you can find.Here ya go...

I agree with the "shadowing issue. Biplane rig have a narrow window where they work well.
http://tenchiki.net/reality/fun/dragon_wings.html
http://tenchiki.net/reality/Art/sail/dragon-wings-07.gif

I posted the link on your other thread as well.

If anything the Wharram hulls are easier to build than a sharpie. His first boat was a flat bottomed boat BTW.

[ 12-06-2003, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: brian.cunningham ]

[JimD]

Silly me, I thought you really meant to take two wide bottomed sharpie hulls and make a cat out of them! :D Looks like you've got some good suggestions here, tho. :cool:

[great white]

JimD, you're absolutely right. That was the idea. My original (apparently unrealistic) plan was to build a couple sharpie hulls about 64 feet long, with an 8 foot beam for an 8:1 ratio. My research tells me that sharpie hulls go together fast, and with epoxy/ply construction, I should have a closed in hull faster with sharpie construction than any other method. I know that the hull is the fastest part - the innards take way more time. Still, any time saving is good, for personal reasons. I am striving for low-tech heaven, something I can move into with my wife in the shortest time, a place where we can spend some time writing and fighing and shooting pictures and diving in the Great Lakes like, yesterday.

[great white]

Mark Van, Braam... please to e-mail me to answer some questions? My computer, which is so old that it runs on kerosene, can't e-mail out of Explorer. Address is gwnwrite@mts.net. Thanks.

[Aramas]

Yeah I found that Dragon Wings site - but there used to be another one by the guy that designed and built her, and it included the rough pencil drawings of the design. I might be confusing it with another site, but i think he was in the process of rebuilding a 30' Hughs tri.

Bummer to hear about the Halls.

[JimD]

Great white, 64 feet? That sounds huge to be making up a boat as you go along. A cat in a proven design that large will give tonnes of room and v bottoms aren't hard to build. Good luck

[great white]

Thanks to all who have posted. I have always enjoyed research, and, with the comments, I think I am going to have to go back to the Wharram designs, and figure a way to put on a center deck. I appreciate the effort and comments and insight of all who have helped me. I will be around, reading often, writing occasionally when I feel I can contribute something.
Feel free to e-mail or post. I will be here.
Thanks again, and may all your sails be full. And your lives as well.

[brian.cunningham]

Many of his larger designs already have decks with large pods.
http://www.multihulls.uk.com/wharram/mahuini.htm
http://www.multihulls.uk.com/wharram/images/when1j.jpg
http://www.multihulls.uk.com/wharram/images/when2j.jpg
And the harbour tents you can put on them are HUGE

[jDave]

You said in your post that you are looking for something to get you and your wife in the water sailing "yesterday". If that is really the case, do NOT build a boat, buy one. I know whereof I speak as I am in the third year of my planned 6-month rebuild of a Searunner 31 trimaran. Since I started I have seen other similar crusing tris for sale for about what I've invested in purchse price and materials (saying nothing of countless hours of labour and storage costs) that are in sailing condition (which my boat was not). I like building boats - I thoroughly enjoyed building two stitich-n-glue dinghies - but what I really want to do is go sailing and I regret taking the path that I did. Buying a used boat is ALWAYS cheaper and less work than building or doing a total rebuild. It doesn't seem fair and it doesn't fit mine and everyone elses romantic notions of building yourself a boat for cheap and then sailing her, but it is true. If you love building boats and don't really care how long it takes, then build one. Otherwise buy one, trust me!

[brian.cunningham]

Originally posted by Braam Berrub:
Brian,
those deck pods are small - less than 4-5 foot headroom - they are 'on watch sailing shelters' - not the same as a deckhouse with standing headroom.He keeps them small to reduce the windage.
If you want full hieght you'd need to install one, should't be a problem.

[great white]

JDave, you have an excellent point. In discussing this with other people on the board, I have come to realize that building a boat is a much larger undertaking than I considered. As a youth, I helped build houses on spec. With a crew of about eight, we could put up a house in a few weeks... one floor, nothing fancy... in a small country town, and I was recalling with some enthusiasm, the fun of building.
But there are time constraints, and, while I am not giving up the thought of a Wharram cat, I am thinking hard about the used boat market. Conversions and other things will bump the cost, but that seems to be a problem I will have to face. I wish you well with your tri, and I hope that, at some point, we can raft up someplace and swap good beer and bad lies.

[swingking]

Wharram's first (trans-Atlantic) boat, at least, was flat bottomed. Now he only sells V-bottom plans. Perhaps he learned a lesson there.

[jDave]

Great White - good beer and bad lies, rafted up in and anchorage somewhere sounds terrific. Thanks for the good wishes, and good luck to you as well!

[brian.cunningham]

A Wharram for sale site
http://www.multihulls.uk.com/wharram/boats.htm

Given the used boat market nowadays, I'd take a close look at everything out there, cat, tri and monohull.

Have you thought about renting a boat for a weekend? That way you can better tell what you want in your final home?