Looking for anybody with knowledge or info on a Rainbow 15 Crystal Cat. It is 15 ft long, 7 ft beam and has a solid deck. Any help would be appreciated as I would like to restore this unusual cat.



Edited by CrystalCat on Oct 21, 2010 - 05:52 PM.

Hello CrystalCat, missed this post before. Do you have any pics of the boat? If you could take some you can open a new folder in the Beachcats Identification album to store them and we will try to id your cat.

Any logos on the sail? Do you have any paperwork with it, owners or assembly manuals?

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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New Member. I'm HDGib. I think I just purchased this cat from the previous poster. I have searched on line and only found the Craig’s listing for the boat I bought and an older e-bay sale of another identical one. I have saved the pic's of the e-bay listing. They show the cat better.
He had no sail or paperwork. I will try to add photos to the ID album.
I will post my questions and problems after I post photos.

hdgib

New Member. I'm HDGib. I think I just purchased this cat from the previous poster. I have searched on line and only found the Craig’s listing for the boat I bought and an older e-bay sale of another identical one. I have saved the pic's of the e-bay listing. They show the cat better.
He had no sail or paperwork. I will try to add photos to the ID album.
I will post my questions and problems after I post photos.

Hey that's cool, looking forward to seeing the pics, come back here and post a link to them when they are ready.

Check the transoms and any metal parts for a hull number (HIN), the number contains good info.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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I posted the photos in the "Unknown Beachcats" album in the "Identification album"
There are numbers on the transom but who do I check them with? I did a search for the Rainbow boat company which is what the e-bay listing showed as the manufacture of this boat.
HDGib

Definitly never seen one of those! Kind of makes me think of a smaller Reynolds 21.

So no dagger or centerboards? Looks to have the "deep v" hull shape of a G-Cat.

I like it!

http://www.thebeachcats.c…ictures/?g2_itemId=82668



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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
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The Hull numbers can be translated, post them here.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
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I had never seen one either. I was surprised to see the other one on e-bay. It's a two piece molded fiberglass. With reinforced deck floor. Then numbers on the Transom are RB1010161184
Thanks for any help. I need to find threaded drain plugs for the hulls before I go the rubber route. And I can't see where a boom has touched the mast. I am not a sailor but it looks like it would be easier to learn on then a normal cat. I have a sail that is about 8 inches too tall but it fits but it's not a cat sail so the battens are not as long. I would like to find any info about how to rig it properly. It's probably just like any other cat but I don't know what would go in the front two cleats near the mast cable mounts. (sorry for my land lubber lingo)
Mark

Nice looking boat, looks like it would be great for a family. I know that a Hobie 16 mast is 26 feet and I think a hobie 14 is about 24 feet, and a Hobie Getaway is some where in between. I think a Getaway sail would be nice if it fits your mast, boomless and all. What length is your mast?

I tried to look up Rainbow Boat Co. and could not find anything. I did look in NADA and it looks like they were made from 1983-1986. A 1984 listed for $4100 when new and todays value is low retail $1330 and average retail is $1510

Then I did quite well buying it for $250. It's in over "good" condition. The hulls are sound. It need a good cleaning and could probably use a coat of gel coat or hull paint. The one on e-bay sold for about $800 (boatangel ministry)
The Mast is 19.5' over all but I would need a sail with a luff of no more then 17' with a 8’ foot. The one I have is 18' and the rope fits the grove very well. My sail has one continuous rope luff and foot. So I may try to shorten it from the head. Can you tell I am not a sailor and don't want to put allot of money in it because I have never sailed before. When I grow out of this boat I may be willing to pay for better quality. Do I need a jib sail with this craft? I did not measure the luff when I had the mast up but it would need a 5’ foot. Would it attach to the forestay? I assume the cleats I mentioned before would go to a Jib sheets. I am trying to learn the terminology as I go along.
Do you know where I may find any information on the boat to see if mine is complete? What is the NADA?
Thanks for your patience with such a novice. (and cheapskate)

Ok, here's something at least.

Looking at your HIN the first three letters are the Coast Guard assigned Manufacture ID Number (MIN), these don't have numbers so yours must be RBI.

Looking that up we find it belongs to Rolling Boat Inc who builds pontoon boats and has only been in business since 2007.

Doing a direct search for the MIN in the Coast Guard MIN database at
http://www.uscgboating.org/recalls/mic1.aspx

finds that RBI is indeed the code for Rolling Boats Inc.
http://www.uscgboating.or…s/mic_detail.aspx?id=RBI

But with this interesting note added as a comment.

"15'3' CATAMARAN8/88 OOB PER CG-5093 ASSIGNED TO RAINBOW BOAT CO OF MERRIT ISL FL FROM "81 TO '88."

Which means that the Coast Guard reassigned the RBI code to Rolling Boats Inc because it was inactive, probably because Rainbow Boat Co no longer manufactured boats.

The last four digits of your HIN 1184 means it was manufactured in November of 1984, using the oldest method of representing the manufacture date, after August of 1984 they were supposed to use the newer method but probably didn't want to change in the middle of a year.

However! Rainbow Boat Co seems to still exist on Merritt Island, according to info from the Florida Department of State on coporationwiki.com
http://www.corporationwik…company-inc-4364988.aspx

That page has a list of officers and the address.
575 Millford Point Dr., Merritt Island, FL 32952, USA

Looking at Google street view that appears to be a residential address.
http://maps.google.com/ma…resnum=1&ved=0CBsQ8gEwAA

I feel like the history detective after all this and didn't really find much that helps, if you can find contact info on the officers listed you might find that one of them is an old timer from the boat building days that can tell you all about your Crystal Craft. (surprised if they didn't get sued by Chris Craft).

They must not of produced many boats with so little info, for a first time sailor you'll have your work cut out to figure it all out, but it's really not rocket surgery after all.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
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nice work detective linkous...you have a bright future ahead of you!

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Thank you so very much for all your detective work. I guess finding out more would be hit or miss.
I was able to find the drain plugs I need from Ronstan. Allot of the hardware on the boat is also there's.
Where on this site do I find out about how to measure for a bridal for the front Main stay (Forestay?) between the two hulls. And if I am going to go boomless I will need another one on the stern between hulls for the sail rigging. I presume I will need to raise the mast to see how much of a rise I will need from the cross cable to reach the forestay. On the aft one, should the rigging move between the hulls or have a stationary point in the center. My tiller will be forward of where the aft bridal will mount so I CAN go boomless. If I should ask elsewhere on this site, please let me know.
HDGib

most catamarans are what is termed "sloop rigged", which roughly means a single mast set forward of center, secured fore and aft with stays, however, we do not rig fore and aft per say, we use the basic tri-pod setup with a single forestay and 2 sidestays, the forestay usually attaches to bridal wires attached to the bow of the hulls forming an inverted "Y". Once the sail is raised and the main blocks attached, the force of tightening the mainsail by hauling on the mainsheet acts as a backstay balancing all opposing forces.

You will not need a backstay, clear as mud huh......

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I do not have a bridal for the bow, I need one. There is nowhere to attach the main block so I think I need another bridal for the aft.

hdgib

I do not have a bridal for the bow, I need one. There is nowhere to attach the main block so I think I need another bridal for the aft.

I thought I saw the forestay bridal wires in this pic



It looks like the wires for the main block bridal will connect to the insides of the sterns to the eye bolt that is there, in fact don't I see the wire in this pic? The blocks apparently stay between the tiller arms.



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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
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As I said in a earlier post the photo's are of an identical boat, not mine. I do have the eye bolts on each bow but no forestay bridal wires . And on the stern my eye bolts are about a foot from the transom on each hull but again I have no main block bridal.

My question, do I need a ready made "Y" bridal or can I create something from cable. I don't know how much stress will be on these.

hdgib

As I said in a earlier post the photo's are of an identical boat, not mine. I do have the eye bolts on each bow but no forestay bridal wires . And on the stern my eye bolts are about a foot from the transom on each hull but again I have no main block bridal.

Oh, ok missed that I guess.

hdgib

My question, do I need a ready made "Y" bridal or can I create something from cable. I don't know how much stress will be on these.

I don't see how you'd find the correct factory wires so you'll need to fabricate something with swaged eye ends.

I don't think you mentioned yet where you are located, it would really help you to get an experienced sailor to look this over, there are a lot of variables to deal with to get a good geometry for the rig. To answer your question about stress, it's actually quite a lot comparitively, this boat isn't very large and the sails (based on mast height) are small so I'd say that building the wires to the standards for a 18-20 foot beachcat would be more than enough, but they have to be built correctly or the eyes could fail.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
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Also, on the jib, the placement of the jib blocks well behind the mast probably indicates that the jib overlapped the mast somewhat, the stock sail was probably what would be referred to as a 110% fore-triangle sail. Getting the geometry right and finding a jib to fit will take some careful measuring with the mast up and bridal in place.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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OK Thanks I will take it to someone. I am in Keystone Heights FL. I think there are some good people in Palatka or St Augustine isn't that far away.

If Anyone is interested there is an HIN Identification App in the Apple APP Store.

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Dustin Finlinson • Magna, UT
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1982 Prindle 18
1986 Hobie 17
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The Crystal Cat was designed by my husband Barry Moore co owner of Rainbow Boats. She was designed for all sailors. How do I know this because I helped build your boat. If you would like more information and history of your boat please let us know. We also had a tent designed to cover the cockpit for great camping fun on the water ways.

rcat

The Crystal Cat was designed by my husband Barry Moore co owner of Rainbow Boats. She was designed for all sailors. How do I know this because I helped build your boat. If you would like more information and history of your boat please let us know. We also had a tent designed to cover the cockpit for great camping fun on the water ways.

Thanks for stopping by! Welcome to TheBeachcats.com, could you tell us more about Rainbow boats? Was the Crystal Cat the only catamaran produced? How many were made? What years were they produced? How much did it weigh?

Do you happen to have any of the old sales literature, brochures, assembly manuals kind of thing? I like to collect scans of those here for the next sailor who turns up with one of these.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
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the hull number

RB1010161184

usually starts with the boat maker

RBI

then a model number

01?

then hull number, sometimes also the sail number

016?

and then a date code

1184 = Novemebr 1984

Hello Rcat, Thank you very much for the response to my post about my Crystal Cat. I would greatly appreciate any information you are willing to share. I would very much like more information about the tent as well.
How can I get in touch with you? My e-mail is hdgib1@yahoo.com
Thank you very much.
Mark

Barry loved to sail cat's but I was not as an experienced sailor so he decided that he needed to come up with a family friendly cat. The idea that developed was a cat that would have a solid deck, storage and most of all a boom less sail in case I could not respond as fast as the sail. In other words no "kaboomy" on Suzy's head. We also wanted it to be as safe as possible for our children to go sailing in by them selves. Barry achieved this and more. She turned on a dime and boy could she fly through the water. The Crystal Cat was originally designed to be a day sailor but our sons wanted to be able to over night trips to the local islands. Based on that request a tent option was developed. I will have to say that our family is thrilled to know that there are still Crystal Cats out there sailing. Needless to say we would love to have one again. This is the brochure we used for boat shows.

nice background story

thanks Suzy

rcat

This is the brochure we used for boat shows.

That's great! Love hearing the story behind the design. I've added your sales sheets to the Crystal Cat album for posterity.

http://www.thebeachcats.c…ictures/?g2_itemId=82668

Thanks very much.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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