>>>Together with the few pictures of the building of the Outrigger, I really think that I would be able to construct the boat. As Laszlo, I even can sign all necessary waivers as a Beta User... >>>>
Well, fair enough, we know the kit works, have ironed out 100% of the details, and even have a beautiful set of plans complete. Send me an email (john@clcboats.com) if you want to talk about getting a BETA version. We've already had six of them built so we have gleaned as much insight as we ever will from BETA builders. I get fried almost daily (sometimes deservedly, often not) by people with questions arising from instruction manuals. Thus the pace of new-manual-rollout has been slowed while we wring our hands and edit and edit and edit and edit and edit. Wish I could go make it go faster. We just did a bunch of hiring and that will help in the medium-term.
>>>Has there been any thought about adding a Hobie rudder to the OJ? I am thinking the rudder from an H18 would be a good fit.
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I'm not a huge Hobie Cat rudder fan, but part of the fun of building the boat yourself is that you can experiment with that sort of thing! I think a Hobie 18 rudder would be a little too small for the OJ. (It has only one rudder, after all.)
>>>>For land transportation you can, obviously, disassemble and trailer the OJ. Would it be able to handle remaining assembled and being tilted on a trailer? The tilting is to reduce the width so you can leagaly tow it. Leaving it assembled would drastically reduce launch time.
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I've thought of that, and the idea is appealing. But recall the OJ is twelve feet wide overall (part of the secret sauce that makes it so fast). Tilted to fit within the 8'6" trailering limit, it would be 11 feet high on the trailer (if you include the height of the trailer itself)!
This year we fitted the boat with ratchet straps for the beam connectives. Extensive tests showed this to be as strong as the 1/8th-inch nylon lashings, and it takes a fraction of the time. The OJ now takes about as long to rig from a standing-start as a Hobie Cat. The Hobie's hull and tramp stay assembled on the trailer of course, but its mast and rigging take ten times longer than the OJ's lateen rig, so they come out about the same.
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>Finally, on catamarans the trampoline is an important part of the structure of the boat. Getting it properly taught has a significant effect on boat performance. It helps keep the boat rigid so there is minimal wasted energy in the different parts "moving" around. Does the trampoline on the OJ serve this function in addition to being a good area for the crew or is the connection of the hulls to the crossbeams rigid enough?
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We sailed the boats briefly without trampolines. This was workable, and the assembly was more than stiff enough, but it was not especially comfortable for the crew.
At first the tramps were laced on, which took a lifetime to do. Now we've fitted tracks to the hulls so that the tramps are slid into place, then tensioned with a quick spiral lacing. It takes minutes. I'm sure the OJ is stiffer with a tramp than without, but it certainly didn't feel flimsy without.
Here we are back in 2014, using the lashing method. If you could keep the boat rigged all summer, this would be ideal.
