Catbox Catamaran Sailboat
By Doug Day (retired) #1 "DUB"
John McKissick's "Cat Box" - The hulls are a very simple construction. John's original thought was to make a surf board by taking 2 of 2x4's, and putting plywood on each side. Then he extended the idea and made 2 short surf boards that were sticking upright - poof, he created a catamaran.
He saved a tree from the dump for his mast, and used bamboo for the spars. If you look at the sail from a distance, it has the typical hem lines of a sunfish sail. After a close up inspection you see that they are just lines drawn with a sharpie marker ! For the sail edges, instead of the classic duct tape, he melted the edges using an iron set on medium heat with a couple of pieces of paper to folded over the part he wanted to melt. The paper kept the iron from sticking to the plastic. John's wife was very nervous during the whole process fearing that he would mess up her good iron.
Each hull has an opening at the top so he can see if there are any leaks, and also to bail.
The lines are all from a cheap roll of clothsline. It is low stretch and has a wire core, sounds like a good material to use.
She sails! During the tow out to the starting line, John sailed out there instead of being towed. I owe John an extra special thanks, he was very open and kept posting update pictures and info about his boat keeping the subject alive in the group and also encouraging others to build boats too. Thanks a bunch John !
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