Exocet cat in Crystal River
Anyone have any information on this cat? Looks like it was once a racing cat capable of ocean crossings. Now it looks like a bird sanctuary and the hulls look delaminated. What is the thing hanging down under the hull?
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The thing hanging down probably is, as "basket.case" mentioned, an outboard pod.
It looks like a very nice boat fallen on hard times. Boom is missing (and sails of course), lots of cosmetic work to be done and lots of equipement are probably missing. Can't se any delamination signs on the pictures tough ?
But finding the owner and doing a survey might be worthwhile anyway.
Would be just the ting for me and my family, *sigh*.
An outboard pod would make sense and was my first thought but I wasn't sure. Here is another picture of the delamination that was on both bows:
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The boat does have a valid registration sticker, but no way am I looking for a project boat! I was just impressed with the high aspect rig and the design. Still no takers on who built or designed it?
Whether the boat is salvageable depends a lot upon what it is made of. If it is all fiberglass, maybe it is worth the work to save it. If it is fiberglass over wood, the best way to make sure it is worth buying is to require the owner to have the boat hauled out, using slings, for a survey. If the slings go right up through the hull when they lift it, you know this is not the boat for you, and the owner, of course, is screwed. We saw this happen to a big cat right down at the marina at the end of our canal when we were living aboard our boat back in the early 1980's. In the case of boats built with fiberglass over wood, too often the wood inside the fiberglass shell gets rotted. 
There's a big Rudy Choy cat at a marina right down the street from us, and we have been eying that for a year or so; but, again, you don't really know how good it is structurally until you have it hauled out of the water.
I found this about Exocet, but I think it was a line of cats, not a single boat named Exocet, but it could be...
Erik Lerouge Yacht Designs
Address: La Touche
Phone: +33 (0)2 51 51 46 45 Email: design@lerouge-yachts.com URL: http:/
He grew up opposite a boatyard in Cherbourg and with an ambition from childhood to design boats. Multihulls were an early influence. Friends of his helped form the French Multihull Association; imported the first Prout Shearwater catamaran into France; promoted the Exocet, the first successful French catamaran as well as locally built Pivers.
In 1970, a friend became French Tornado champion and Erik Lerouge bought a Tornado for himself
ps was Tad really banned?
I live near crystal river, and always wondered about exocet. unfortunately alot of people seem to scrap boats in what is otherwise one of the most beautiful areas i've been in. i'm not sure if the real owner hauled it out or if someone just came by and salvaged it, bc it was looking pretty abondoned. there's about 30 other boats living there now, and probably one or two are likewise abondoned.
anyway thanks for reviving the mystery of it all...
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