Because my 36' x 24'
Catamaran can fold to 8.5', I can easily and quickly take it to all the "Hot" sailing venues in North America.
I purchased Cat2Fold from the original creator (although Kurt
Hughes ultimately designed the boat) in SoCal earlier this Spring. I, along with my girlfriend, christened her by sailing out to
Catalina Island for a lovely, long weekend.
Then, in the end of June, I was lucky enough to get my
kids and go spend a week on Yellowstone lake in our country's first National Park.
Sailing in the 40 something degree fresh
water was certainly a different experience than having
dolphins swimming off the bows in Southern California!
Cat2Fold is a one of a kind custom
boat. She sports a freestanding biplane rig with carbon fiber masts. She takes about 2 hours to set up for
day sailing.
The
boat sails wonderfully! She is definitely not an over powered
race machine, but I think passages averaging 10 knots (in
cruise mode) are quite realistic for her. Her biplane rig has been interesting. I've learned that when close hauled, if you fall off to more of a beam reach, there is a point that the windward sail causes such a
wind shadow to the leeward one that the leeward sail sucks in towards the windward sail as if we had just changed tack. What I've decided to do to alleviate this is to ease out the main sheet of the windward sail to create a tighter slot, or venturi effect. This seems to alleviate the problem.
This boat is so easy to sail, its kind of like having a
dinghy sailboat that just so happens to have have around 850 square feet of living space!
Not quite the luxurious floating condo style cat that I've chartered in the
BVI before but, every boat has its compromises. This one can fold up and be trailed to my Idaho mountain
cabin (6400 ft.) and sit here for free allowing me to tinker on her slowly and dream of my next up and coming adventure!
Speaking of which, I have just signed up for the
Baja Haha for this fall. This is a rally that
sails from
San Diego, CA to Cabo San Lucas,
Baja, Mex. over the course of two weeks. Then I will spend another 2 months cruising through the
Sea of Cortez, eventually finishing my tour in
San Carlos, Mex.
I am currently in the process of installing a used
water maker and an Airhead
toilet. Will see how that all pans out.
Here are a few pics for you to check out my Cool Cat!!!
Cheers,
Brian
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