While wandering around BeachCats.com I have seen a commercially available deck for beach cats and then also just read the post from JALEX about trolling motors and the responses. Has anyone sorted out how to turn a beach cat into a rowing configuration, either with the mast in place, or with it removed. The R2AK's guys are pushing lots of human powered ideas out there, but sorting out an easy rowing conversion would add a great deal of utility to these boats, like for scalloping or crabbing here in the NW. I agree that these are very efficient hulls and could be rowed great distances with the right setup. As a rafter we simply drop aluminum frames on pretty inefficient inflated boats and often row them on flat-water some serious miles.
I was even thinking of using my 5.2 as a mold for a cat styled rowboat with some added tail ends to increase the hull efficiency at the lower rowing speeds. Or just getting an add on rowing frame made for the existing boat frame. If anyone has had similar ideas or can sketch up some concepts I would be happy to help build some proof of concept projects.
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dg
NACRA 5.2 #400
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Beach Cat Conversion To a Rowing Toy
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Posted: Jun 09, 2016 - 01:23 PM
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Posted: Jun 09, 2016 - 03:41 PM
hahah - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTlgo-wQlvo
reminds me of this silly thing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCJR4dnN2V4
btw - 2 guys added a bike peddle engine to a catamaran for the everglades challenge a few years ago. i don't think it worked as well for them as they hoped.
Also on our beach, we have a guy with a hobie wave (i think) with a giant propeller that sits behind the "skipper" and propells him/it via airflow...
looks like a great workout and a very slow and idiotic boat
call me crazy but i'll stick with wind power for my sailboats
Edited by MN3 on Jun 09, 2016 - 03:53 PM. -
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Posted: Jun 09, 2016 - 03:56 PM
I wonder if the Hobie guys had seen that first video prior to making their fin device?
The width of my raft frame oarlocks is 74" well inside the width of my 8' 2" wide 5.2. Having oarlocks inside the width of the boat is not a big issue, the trick is to sort out the rowing seat height, height of the oarlock and then a good oar length. Not trying to make a rowing shell, but a fast rowing boat that could also haul some gear. I don'think this is too far fetched.
We have tied up two canoes with bars to make a cata/canoe to go crabbing. Worth all the effort to be able to haul up heavy crab pots full of delicious crabs.
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dg
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Posted: Jun 13, 2016 - 08:44 PM
I must confess that I am the distributor for the US, but maybe this might give you a few ideas. We actually sell this system separately, you simply need oarlocks.
The new name for the forward facing system is the RowVista, but it used to be called the Row Motion Pro.
http://www.x-cat.com/en/v…tion-pro-forwards-rowing
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Posted: Jun 14, 2016 - 07:01 PM
Confessions are allowed here. This is interesting and goes to what I was thinking about. Cats are inherently stable and would make a good fast rowing platform. Are the rowing bits available as separate items? Have you done any work looking to convert existing cat frames? Maybe I should take my Concept II rowing machine out and set it on the NACRA 5.2 and see what that looks like. Seeing this it is certainly not hard to see how to make this work pretty well.
I would not be at all surprised to see that your rowing cat is faster than a sea kayak either. For sure I would rather be rowing your boat in a 3' sea than a sea kayak. It would also be nice to be able to move your legs around a bit for comfort.
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dg
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Posted: Jun 20, 2016 - 10:14 PM
The X-Cat has a very specialized, articulated rowing mechanism that your Concept2 rowing machine is going to lack.
Especially on top of your 8 foot wide beachcat, a foot above water level.
That said, you could modify the fan into a propeller system, dropped off the rear beam, maybe even steerable?
Now we're talkin'!
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Posted: Jun 21, 2016 - 12:45 AM
I agree that the X-cat is very specialized. What I also know is that there are a lot of people particularly here in the NW that row really inefficient boats with tons of gear on them from place to place. Granted the rivers help them go to these places and the rapids are an important part of that, but if they could make 10 to 15 miles per day and get to a beach that they could camp on, then there would be a whole new area of boating to be developed.
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dg
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Posted: Jul 13, 2016 - 12:24 AM
Hello I like the concept II idea. 25 years ago I built one out of wood and a 10 speed I using plexiglass fins in the tire rim mimicking the concept II. I never put it on a boat but used it for years before giving it to a member of a crew team. The concept II has everything you need but the oarlocks. I would try mounting that first. I also wonder if there would be a way to mount the Hobie kayak propulsion systems on a catamaran. I was just paddling my Nacra 5.7 the other day with a kayak paddle and was amazed you fast I could go with it and used the tiller to steer. -
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Posted: Jul 13, 2016 - 12:59 AM
Rowing seems like the easy answer, but looking at all the pedal driven chain to propeller systems on several of the R2AK boats and seeing the speeds they accomplish, that might be another answer. But I have the oars and figuring out how to anchor the oarlocks into the daggerboard trunks seems simple enough. Since the cats are kind of wide, using two rowers side by side could be fun. Several of the trimarans used this setup and one even added a rower on the center stern getting three bodies going. This is just a fun thinking project for now. I am stuck in the dungeon right now remodeling a bathroom and my boat is in pieces in the shop waiting for attention.
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dg
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Posted: Jul 13, 2016 - 01:10 AM
Perhaps a pedal system sitting on a toilet mounted to the cat. Now that is multitasking. LOL -
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Posted: Jul 13, 2016 - 07:38 AM
i suggest time, effort and money would be better spend modifying a real row boat, no a purpose-build beach cat. -
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Posted: Jul 01, 2022 - 07:48 AM
I just finished attempting R2AK my third time and completed the Everglades challenge and got halfway through the ultimate florida challenge all without motors obviously. But I finally got my human propulsion straightened ou just last month. I had oars with oar locks on a 17’ Monohull that propelled me 2kts top speed one year and mostly just a paddle for every other attempt except my latest one. I finally broke down and bought a nice pedal drive on craigslist I just lucked out that it happened to be the best one on the market like new for about half price. Gotta love the internet for putting that together. It was a wilderness systems helix drive and I knew it was the best when I saw “black horse” with two of them on their stern this year at R2AK. Black horse won the Washington 360 last year (the replacement race for R2AK while canada borders were closed for COVID.) setup was a breeze too. I just bolted it onto. Scaffolding plank and slid it through my beefy dolphin striker and lashed the end to the bottom of my tramp and glued a wedge shaped block of wood under it so it rested flat on the tension bar. Worked great. I comfortably peddled my boat 2kts for days at a time once I got used to it and could do 3kts in a sprint. I also bought an Everglades Challenge 2021 finisher boat “dream on” a hobie 17 with a sweet sliding seat sculling setup but never got to try it. Mike, used a carbon comp tip section bolted to the cross beams using spreader bars and hounds tangs as bracing and brackets, as the platform the sliding seat was bolted on. The oars fit under the stock hobie 17 wings he said. He tried it with the mast down and said it works great. But that’s all I know. I can take pics if you’re interested and I’ll even sell it to you if you want. If anyone wants to read about my Ultimate Florida 2022 experience https://www.watertribe.com/magazine/Y2022/M06/UltimateFloridaChallenge2022.aspx and my instagram is shipwrecksurvivor if you’re interested in my R2AK2022 experience. -
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Posted: Jul 01, 2022 - 01:31 PM
Thanks for the reports. I have sailed those G5.7 cats in the 80s but never tipped over. It is probably a good idea to make sure you can right the boat before a long distance race. Little did i know when we did 1000 miles with support on a G5.7, that we would have been in bad shape if we had capsized. I didn't realize until decades later that with the front tramp on, there would be no way to get back on the boat once we re-righted it. Not even a dolphin striker to grab, so the boat might even sail away once upright.
I used a righting pole to right a H18 solo, but i can barely get enough leverage. Probably need a bag and a pole. -
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Posted: Jul 01, 2022 - 04:00 PM
the g-cat sit low enough that you grab the sidestay and pull yourself up (or get a leg up)
I have a video of 2 of us getting back on a g-cat that way, i will look for it
Def a concern on most cats - with our without a stirker - Grab that sheet like your life depended on it!!! -
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Posted: Jul 02, 2022 - 10:23 AM
That is how I re-board 90% of the time. The Nacra 5.7 is fairly high at the front beam. By grabbing a side stay with both hands, it’s easy to put the inside leg up on the hull. Then simply “plank”, & rolls to the tramp. It also works if the cat is trying to sail itself. As long as you don’t let your arms get straightened out over your head, you can still “roll aboard “ in just a couple of seconds.
Edited by Edchris177 on Jul 02, 2022 - 10:24 AM.
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Posted: Jul 03, 2022 - 06:41 PM
If you think about being capsized with some wind, you need to grab or get on the hull that is in the water when the hull in the air is definitely about to land in the water. If there is a front tramp there what will you grab on to to keep the old hull that was in the water from lifting up and going over the other way?
Even if the boat doesn't tip over the other way after righting you are going to need to swim under the boat to get to the shroud. when you let go of the boat to swim under it, the boat could sail away. Also the G5.7 has the tallest hulls of the beach cats because of the deep V hull shape. With no one on board, they float pretty high. Even with no front tramp getting a leg up would be tricky. Although if you are good at righting the boat you are climbing up on that new windward hull as the old hull in the air is touching the water.
On a H16 i have the crew on that hull that will be the new windward hull while we are righting the boat. The crews lags dragging in the water slows the side sailing off the boat on it's side, and they are keeping that hull from flying up when the boat rights. If it is windy enough one person pulling on the dolphin striker with the other person in the water is all it takes to re-right.
