Cat trampoline replacement?

[Kelphead]

Greetings....
I have a very old 42’ cat that I bought a year ago. I spent several months replacing rotten plywood, lots sanding, epoxy resin, etc. and finally epoxy primer. Now with the hulls in pretty good shape, I am getting to a point of thinking about repairs for the rest of the boat.
I was considering replacing the small stern trampoline (11’8 x 52”) with
“solid fiberglass grating,” maybe 1” or 1 1/2” mesh. In theory this would give a good solid working platform for lots of different things. HAS ANYONE DONE THIS ? In theory the the water should still freely flow through the openings similar to the standard trampolines. Also, thinking about doing the same for the much larger fore trampoline to make a large stable platform.
Anyway, I am looking for thoughts on this.
Thanks, Kelphead

[catsketcher]

What type of cat is it?

[Kelphead]

The cat is a Rudy Choy, CSK plywood construction with a thin fiberglass/epoxy coating.
I believe the solid fiberglass grating that I was considering, to replace the stern trampoline, weights around 150lbs compared to the old nylon tramp that is around 60lbs.

Kelphead

[sv Grateful]

Had you sailed the boat much before the refit? If so, how much water comes through the fwd tramp? The loads imparted by large volumes of water coming through a tramp made of webbing can be surprisingly high.

I would not worry too much about the aft tramp, but if you plan to go offshore I'd recommend that you stick with netting fwd. ATN offers very reasonably priced custom tramps.

[Simi 60]

Black woven scallop net. No knots . Cheap from commercial net suppliers.

[Kelphead]

Thanks all...
Cat sailing is all new to me. I’ve had my 30’ mono hull Sailboat since the mid 80s. I have several years of captaining charter fishing aluminum power catamarans but have no experience with sailing cats. The sailing cat I have is in dry dock and I have yet to splash.
Commercial fishing web would of course be a great cheaper alternative to standard trampolines, but my goal was to have a solid platform that I could more easily fish from and just be able to walk upright for better access the stern for pulling things aboard. I am actually trying to avoid the “drunken crawl walk” associated with walking on a web tramp.
Of course I am concerned about retaining the purpose of the original trampoline. My thoughts about using solid fiberglass grating actually came from observing my remote off grid micro-hydro system. In order to keep rocks, leafs, and other trash from plugging the system, I first filter the water by running the water, two 4” PVC pipes, over a 24”x32” slanted box made with made with two layers of 1/2” hardware cloth with a regular piece of household screen sandwiched in between. Approximately 40 gallons per minute goes through this super small screen without even slowing down. I am not sure how this might translate or have a lot of relevance comparing to hundreds of gallons in seconds coming through a cat trampoline, but the micro-hydro is where my original thought developed toward maybe using fiberglass grating for trampoline replacement.

Kelphead