Mini Catamaran II

This was me tweeting the original Mini Catamaran. I decided to have the motor in the rear figuring the prop wash would pass by the ends of the pontoons hence giving me more responsive steering.

But instead of facing forward, which adds complexity to the steering and throttle, I decided to face sideways similar to how most small boat operators sit.

This way too all the controls are on the motor when I remove it.

 

The seat sideways positioning was centered.

Slides were added to the base of the chair for centering front to rear. This way I could easily find the balancing ‘sweet spot’ when under way.

As it turned out the steering was way more responsive. On this outing the water was rather choppy, and I ended up getting my butt wet.

To fix this I later added 2.5″ risers to the frame.

But after looking at the frame-to-pontoon mounts, I.E. the thin wood boards with two bolts, I decided this set-up was a potential for disaster, which I’d experienced in a past pontoon project and luckily survived.

The pontoon weight bearing capacity was also at the max, and I didn’t have room to store the boat. So I reluctantly took the boat apart.

I’m glad I got around to testing my little paper model theory. It worked, but not as good as I’d hoped. Maybe if I lost 50 pounds….