I am looking for any all information and personal experiences with double stacking cats.

I have seen the the double stack trailer in the tech gallery and like much of it but I am collecting any all ideas.

Anyone know of or have trailers that ll ready double stack that may be available or for trade for a regular trailer.

Pictures and diagrams would be awesome.

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Dustin Finlinson • Magna, UT
Member: Utah Sailing Association
1982 Prindle 18
1986 Hobie 17
1982 Prindle 16
1980 Prindle 16(mostly)
1976 Prindle 16(mostly)
Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook.
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A double stack like the Trailex trailers is the easiest way to go, but they are very expensive.

I have double (and even triple!!) stacked Hobies, Supercats and Prindles. I took 2x6s and carpeted the ends with indoor/outdoor carpet from Home Depot. I wrapped it a few times to give extra padding. Take two of the boards and lay them across the tramp of the bottom boat so that the carpeted parts are on the frame. Tie the bottom boat down to the trailer securely and then tie the top boat to the bottom boat. On Hobies, they fit better if the bottom boat was put on the trailer backwards (stern towards the front).

You can use floatation cushions instead of the boards, too.

We double stack A cats by using a 2x4s sistered together and notched to fit the beams. The boards ran front-to-back instead of side-to-side. The top boat goes on upside down. If you are double stacking boats with beams on the hulls like P18-2, P19, Nacras, Supercats, you may want to consider putting the top boat upside down. You can't do that with curved beam boats like Hobie 14/16/17/18s.

I triple stacked 3 Hobie 14s--what a sight!



Edited by DanBerger on Dec 29, 2011 - 08:01 AM.

i've double stacked a Super Cat 17 on a Super Cat 19 before..




ohh and i helped Dan triple stack the 14's.... it took 4 of us to get that last boat on top and at night no less.... hahaha



Edited by dsltrc on Dec 29, 2011 - 08:58 AM.

I built my own double stack trailer in 1992. The frame of the trailer has to be strong enough for both boats, as do the axles and tires. Sorry no pix.
Anyway, the front of the trailer has open tubes where the bend would be (welde the Y instead of bending) and open tubes at the rear. Made a second set of cross bars with legs and put the second boat on top. In fact I store my boats inside in the winter with the N-5.5 on top of the H-18, only one space, the other trailer stays outside. The boat part is only part of the problem. Mast transport is the other. Unless you have two cradles that are far enough apart to clear spreaders you have to lash masts to odd places. I made a double cradle that attaches to the conventional cradle. The lower boat is on low bars (under the frame) so putting the upper boat on is not a big deal, but it really helps to have at least 3 and better to have four people to do it. Unloading is the same. In short with the trailer I have I can put 2 boats, 2 masts, 2 sets of sails all on one trailer. The other comment I will make is bring a good tow vehicle, the windage of a double stack is pretty substantial.

A long time ago, I saw an RV pull in to a big regatta with a double stack towing a single behind it. H-18 on the bottom and a H-17 on top and another behind. Took them under 2 hours to get all three boats on the beach but a pretty cool set up.

I would never double stack one boat on the other without cradles on the bottom boat, rollers would crush the lower boat. HTH, Richard.

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Lake Perry KS
H-18
N-5.5 UNI +spin
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Here is a site dedicated to A cat trailers. There is a lot of info on a home-built triple stack by Ken and Mike.

http://www.acatsnw.com/trailer/trailers.html

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Dave Wilson
Hobie 16, Hobie 14
Tampa, FL
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Wow thanks for that link. There are some pretty amazing and wild ideas there.

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Dustin Finlinson • Magna, UT
Member: Utah Sailing Association
1982 Prindle 18
1986 Hobie 17
1982 Prindle 16
1980 Prindle 16(mostly)
1976 Prindle 16(mostly)
Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook.
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