Hello all. Are there any experienced cat sailors in perth who would like to have a go at rigging a suspected home made catamaran as i have never sailed and am clueless as to how to rig this cat. it is a 16 foot all aluminium hull which is why i say suspected one of a kind home build. As another member here (loose change ) said he knows of no australian builders who have manufactured a 16 foot aluminium hulled beach cat. Its looks professional and i am keen to know if and how well it sails. Anyone who can rig it is more than welcome to take it out and put it through its paces and see what it can do. All help would be greatly appreciated and lunch or beers on me which ever you prefer. thanks ives

No no no, ............ not the way to do it I think.
Step 1.
If the trailer is road legal hitch it up and go down to the local sailing club (preferably one that doesn't discriminate against cats) and show it to the brains trust at the club and get all of their collective opinions. Everybody likes messing with boats, especially someone elses. Let someone take it for a sail and get their opinion and then take it from there.

Step 2.
Possibly join the club if they can accommodate cats and have yourself an absolute ball as you get to know your new (to you) boat.

What LooseChange said.
Also when you said you never sailed did you mean never sailed a cat or never sailed before? If its the latter it would help to find someone to take you sailing on a cat to get some hands on experience before you go out on your own, preferably in shallow water until you get the hang of it and can right it on your own. You wouldn't want to go turtle out in the ocean.
What suburb are you in ?

all sound advice thanks guys. unfortunately i am poor as a church mouse at the moment after buying and clubs seem to want joining members and tuition fees etc before they will help. also harb i am in kewdale perth. thx

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ives said..
all sound advice thanks guys. unfortunately i am poor as a church mouse at the moment after buying and clubs seem to want joining members and tuition fees etc before they will help. also harb i am in kewdale perth. thx

Mate, anyone that spends their last $800 on a cat and has never sailed means you have been bitten by the bug.

At this late time in the season, no club would expect you to join, although you may want to consider joining next season if funds allow. I would still get my boat down to a friendly club and appeal to their sense of curiosity, I guarantee that you will learn something. All the best.

thx loose change i think i will. been trying to rig it in the front yard buy myself (very tall mast lol) got the mast up confusion set in then. seems to have for long mast wires instead of three plus sail hoisting one so i dont understand how the jib would attatch as usually they seem to attatch to one which meets a smaller one strung across the two hulls. besides the pully system is beyond me anyway but thanks for the advice. by the way the more i look the more signs i see that you are right about it being a home build such as the rudders i have noticed are cut from a clear perspects plastic of some kind and not quite shaped evenly enough to be factory built.

Hi Ives,

i live in Perth, (Iluka) though only for the past 2yrs. I haven't sailed on the river and don't know the ramps etc, but happy to come out and help you out. I owned a Windrush 14 and hobie 16 many years ago, so I'd be a bit rusty on small cats! but happy to help. Send me a PM if you'd like a hand.

that would be great free radical i could really use a hand cause i dont even know if i have all the parts cause i have no idea how to rig it .

Coode st is the boat ramp you will be after..

So that's a yes to help out too Toph? Hoping you'd pop up.

Maybe we could drop over to Ives house or meet up at a ramp and help nut out how to set up the rig, check all the bits are there Etc?

I could do next Sat arvo. Any other Perth guys that could help out? I haven't raised a mast on a cat for 20+ years.

house or boat ramp either is good for me probably better to see if i have all the parts at the house first though as you said. might save a wasted trip to the water though i see many mast wires and two sets of pulleys if that means anything.

just out of curiosity why is a 16 foot cat not manufactured using an all aluminium hull. is it because of price to make or because of the way it sails compared to glass or wood

There should be 2 side stays and 1 forward 1. Theres a bit of a trick to rigging these up short handed. My hobie had a long main sheet (rope to pull up mainsail)
Id take her down to a beach. Get it off trailer and push across sand to waters edge or use a wheel contraption.
Once youve got the stays in the right spot (being sure they wont get tangled when you pull the mast up) get someone to hold up the top end of the mast over their heads after youve positioned the base of mast in its housing. Pull the mast up as quick as you can. I should add that the forward stays are disconnected til the mast is up. My first boat was a hobie cat. I was that keen that id do all this myself starting by sliding the cat off trailer about 150m from waters edge. Id then get a passing stranger to holdtop end of the mast for me while i pulled it up ?? i was pretty hopeless at first but eventually became more efficient each time i set up. To dismantle id disconnect forward stay with help of stranger to hold the main sheet rope (pulling mast forward and slacking the forward stay) then lower the mast down. Its pretty hard work but doable.
It looks like a great cat for the money. Have fun !

You got some great offers for a hand there to at least get set up. I found ramps pretty hard to set up on. Prefer on the beach then you can take your time

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ives said..
just out of curiosity why is a 16 foot cat not manufactured using an all aluminium hull. is it because of price to make or because of the way it sails compared to glass or wood

I'm guessing the owner builders day job was for one of the local plate alloy boat builders. It will sail almost as well as any of the board less fibreglass cats. Probably lighter but will have a paint job that may need a bit of care. Just don't drag it up rough shorelines.

Looks like a great cat.
The technique for raising the mast single-handed is (similar as said above), drag the cat down onto the beach so its fairly level(or with the bow downhill if you have to), place the base of the mast under the tramp from the front, sort out what wire goes where.
Connect the two side shrouds. Go the the top of the mast, now walk it up(& dragging it backwards), using the front cross brace(of the tramp) to brace it at times if needed.
You'll now be standing on the ground, with the mast upright. Now hop up onto the tramp, & lift the mast up & onto the mast base, tilting it slightly fwd using the shrouds to steady it, once in place, keep it tilted fwd, hop off, grab the fwd stays keeping tension on them, then connect them. Take a few spare shackles with you, incase you need to extend the shrouds.

Without seeing it.. IT could possibly like some cats use the jib as a forestay so you have to use a different technique as you
stand it up from in front of the front beam straight up then pop the base in the tension the rig.. like a mosquito or arrow...it's quite easy to tell by just looking at the type of mast base.. ..

That is for an old catamaran champion such as a guy I know...
#blowmytrumpet

OK i have battled and got the mast up myself in the back yard so you guys can get a clearer picture of what i have and how to rig it. it has the sail hoist wire at the top then 4 main wires about 3 quarters of the way up the mast (two in the middle are joined together. then it has another 2 wires about 1 quarter of the way up the mast. one looks about 2 m at a glance and the other about 4. i have included photos of the rigging and pulleys i have though it seems like not much stuff i think whoever built this was keeping things simple and cheap maybe? also through in a pic of the home made rudders for comment .





























from some kind of clear per specs by the look about a cm thick

ives
I'd be very careful with those perspex rudders at first, they just don't look strong enough, unless they are made from some super strong polycarbonate. Maybe stay fairly close to the shore initially.
Greg

my thoughts to but judging by the age and condition of the rigging it has been sailed for quite a while. not big on long swims though so i be testing out on the river first before the beach.

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ives said..
i am in kewdale perth. thx

If you have no luck you can try Funcats in South Perth to give you the basics of cat sailing when you hire one of their Windrush cats.
www.funcats.com.au/tuition.html
If you were closer to Mandurah I would have suggested you get in touch with these guys, www.pbyc.org.au/page19.html to help you out.

10mm perspex blades on the rudders should be strong enough and safe enough for river sailing, better then 1/2" plywood anyway. But as Greg suggested, stay close to the shore until you get the hang of it and preferably go with someone else so you can get help with righting the cat.

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FreeRadical said..
So that's a yes to help out too Toph? Hoping you'd pop up.

Maybe we could drop over to Ives house or meet up at a ramp and help nut out how to set up the rig, check all the bits are there Etc?

I could do next Sat arvo. Any other Perth guys that could help out? I haven't raised a mast on a cat for 20+ years.

Ives brings the boat, you bring the knowledge and I'll bring the beer.. What can possibly go wrong

I'm more then happy to help but unfortunaly not this weekend. Work has be doing work stuff in Melbourne...

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Sectorsteve said..
You got some great offers for a hand there to at least get set up. I found ramps pretty hard to set up on. Prefer on the beach then you can take your time

We are a little shy on places where you could access the beach without dragging the boat for miles Over this side in the metro area. The ramp I suggested you would float it off the trailer and just walk it a couple of metres either side and set up on the sand anyway.

ives, if you don't get it sorted this weekend I'm more then happy to take FreeRad up on his offer to help you out

thx toph . i think ill wait till you and free rad are ready . many hands make light work n all that.

Some of those pix are too close to tell whats what(for me), but it does look like you have everything to get set up and its awesome that you got the mast up! well done. Once you meet up with toph and free radical youre gonna be sorted. In the meantime il dig up some of my old Hobie pix and see if i can find some that show the rigging. it will be a bit different, but it could give you something to ponder over the next weeks. get ya mentally prepared and excited maybe

thx sectorsteve good to know but what is most confusing to me is if it has four main stays instead of three which seems to be the case as all four wires reach the four main lug attachments shown in phots perfectly without ajustment and there are no other points of attachment that look strong enough to hold the jib sail then how is the jib attached. i know it will have something to do with the two smaller wires about quarter of the way up the mast but how and where they attach to the sail and the hull i have no idea. unless that is i have it all completely wrong. lol

I really like it. yeah looks like somethings not quite right in the rigging but youll get it. love the rudders! awesome. looks easy to take the perspex off too. whoever made it did a great job i reckon.

i think who ever made this rig did a great job to but thats the million dollar question i guess sectorsteve . who did make it. that would solve a lot of questions .

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ives said..
what is most confusing to me is if it has four main stays instead of three which seems to be the case as all four wires reach the four main lug attachments shown in phots perfectly without ajustment and there are no other points of attachment that look strong enough to hold the jib sail then how is the jib attached.

If I built a beach cat I'd use 4 wires as well for a stiffer mast sailing upwind. I'd rig it using 2 rear stays and 2 front stays made out of 4mm wire and lower shrouds made out of 3.2mm wire. Then I'd use a bridle to attach a jib with a wire luff. Is that what you have ?

that is exactly what it looks like i have in a nut shell harb. four high on the mast two front and two back and then two short ones lower down on the mast of different lengths

no bridle wire for a jib though harb and no points on front to fix one either which is what has got me stumped cause it came with a jib sail

The Bridle will attach to the same points where the two front stays attach. There will probably be a stainless ring in the middle of the bridle and another longer wire will attach to the hounds up the mast where everything comes together.