Curiousity about cats

[Fore and Aft]

Cdreid if you have a spare $5 this book "Children of Cape Horn" is well worth a read and just shows what can be achieved with a 30 foot cat.......
If you're into reading heaps of great voyages happened pre-internet.
Cheers
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Boo...-srp1-_-title2

[caradow]

Originally Posted by ejs

Sailed from San Francisco to New Zealand and met lots of folks who had done the trip on cats. Lots of them had switched from monos. I have yet to meet someone who switched the other way.

Well I switched, owned a 44 ft South African cat for 5 years, sailed it around the east coast up to Maine then to Venezuela. Up and down the eastern chain many times, went to Cuba twice. Sold it and bought a Swan 44, sold that after 2 years and bought an Oyster 55. If I had the money I would sell my Oyster and buy a Chris White Atlantic 54.
There is no perfect boat but the Atlantic design comes close IMO.

[boatman61]

A 21ft Wharram has circumnavigated the world.. name of Cooking Fat... mostly solo.
https://gumbopirate.com/2010/07/17/a...h-cooking-fat/
You should look at Heavenly Twins 27's, Iroquois, Catalacs and Prouts..
They comfortably do what Cats do best, sail with the wind a aft the beam.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

lol where? I tried to buy a couple a few years ago, even went to survey on one. None of the dozens of boats in that size and price range that I looked at were "in good sailing condition".

Many of them looked nice, but e.g. were full of corrosion (endeavor steel grid), had baaaaaad blistering (morgans), wood rot (most boats of that age, esp under portholes and chainplates), needed engine work, or were just woefully unloved and needed much work.

Oh oh...you just opened up pandora's box. The last thread ended up getting shut down...

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by boatman61

A 21ft Wharram has circumnavigated the world.. name of Cooking Fat... mostly solo.
https://gumbopirate.com/2010/07/17/a...h-cooking-fat/
You should look at Heavenly Twins 27's, Iroquois, Catalacs and Prouts..
They comfortably do what Cats do best, sail with the wind a aft the beam.

Couldn't agree more. These cats originated from a time when materials tech was decidedly low tech, which means reasonably easy to maintain. They perform as well as any mono in the same size / price range and many larger, cheap, so called "blue water" monos that can't sail to windward either and provide much more stable and pleasant living accommodations.



Pat Patterson's cats (twins), Wharrams and Prouts have sailed all over the world cheaply and efficiently.


Before my switch I remember reading an account of a 27ft Heavenly Twins hove to west of Lands End in a Force 10 storm where the occupants played cards. I am sure the 24ft mono I owned at the time would have been rolled and sunk. Either way I would have been praying not playing.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Ah! THOSE kinda cats! My kitty cat with a number of miles under his keel sez that he only does monos. He sez multis make him sick :-) TP

Hilarious, mind numbingly funny, never heard that joke before.

[Ifitsworthdoing]

Would second looking for older Catalacs or Prouts or Endeavours (before they switched to powercats-only). It’s actually rather sad that most manufacturers now consider building anything below 40ft as unprofitable as they are effectively cutting ordinary (i.e. non-millionaire) customers out of the new boat market … which will be the second-hand market in a few years.

We are currently building a new 34ft cat and it’s costing a bomb - hence we are having to bite the bullet and become liveaboards without a dirt home when it’s finished! But at least we get the boat we want with the exact specs we desire and shouldn’t have to worry about repairs for quite a while …

[Cynara]

Cat questions go sailing even on a Hobie

[ron17571]

I keep reading about people taking years to build catamarans. (and most boats) It sounds like a business opportunity. I imagine getting a boat designed that a person could replicate would be the first obstacle. I can see building something like a wharram and offering them for sale.

[Cynara]

Buy plans. Built boat.

[ron17571]

Originally Posted by Cynara

Buy plans. Built boat.

Yeah... The way I understand it I would pay for a license for each boat I build.
A money loser right off the bat. a person would need their own design so they can build as many as possible.

[clakiep]

What concerns safety : I would never cross an ocean on such a small cat if not with a second experiencend and prudent crewmember, so one of them an get some sleep, without the boat beeing unatended. Not for traffic, but for sudden sea and wind changes.

Capt. Claus

[Buzzman]

There is a young and (almost) clueless couple sailing a Cherokee 35 they got for a song in a French boat graveyard and are slowly renovating and improving while pottering about the Med gaining experience sailing.
Nice couple, super tight budget, have a You Tube channel 'Wildlings Sailing'.
It's another option for older, cheaper cats to add to the Iroquois Boatman61 previously mentioned.
There's a young bloke in Byron Bay, Sage, who picked up a Wharram-style, open bridge-deck 30' cat for AU$1. Yes. One dollar. OK, so it needed some immediate remedial work, being an epoxy sheathed ply boat, and he's had a couple of issues that have required work since, but cheap boats are out there.
My Farrierr TT720 (24') while not necessarily an offshore boat per se, have sailed to NZ previously, and no-one ever said the Tasman was smooth sailing.
I paid way less than $10K for it, and it only needed minor remedial ply work in a couple of spots.
You need to be watching every day, and ready to drop everything and fly/drive to the baot and make an offer asap.
That's the best way to get a bargain.

[NevilleCat]

This little one has been all over....it's for sale...New Zealand $ , so about US $38k
If you get serious jump on a plane...you will have it ready for the Pacific Islands season!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/b...9?bof=Kavztjpb

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by Buzzman

and he's had a couple of issues that have required work since, but cheap boats are out there.

No different to new expensive boats then!