[quote=havliii][quote=car_guy]
As a 21SE owner would it be feasible to cut down the beams to legal width? I understand the tramp and shrouds would need to be shortened but that doesn't seam too difficult. Would loosing the beam kill performance? [/quote]
Reducing the beam on a catamaran is a fairly straight forward mechanical task. You are sacrificing a percentage of your righting moment but not much else in the way of performance. Righting moment is a function of width and also a function of ballast. If you give up width you can always make up righting moment with more ballast ie heavier crew. You can also add wings to gain back width. Trap out on the wings and you add a bunch of righting moment.
The most critical part of the job is dealing with the dolphin striker. The dolphin striker supports the compression loads of the mast. You have to get this right. (On Supercats this is an easy task, Aquarius sells an internal striker that slips into the front beam.) Dealing with the tramp is easy, cut the middle, fold it back, add some grommets and center lacing, done.
The side stays and forestay can all be reused, how? Easy, Remove the mast hound, do some geometry calcs, then measure precisely, you reattach the hound to the mast, somewhere between 1-2 inches higher on the mast, this will take up all the slack in the stays. Trust me it is not much. (you will have to shorten the bridle wires to reuse the forestay, these are the only two wires that need to be shortened or custom made) Don't forget to plug the unused holes on the mast to reseal it.
I narrowed a Supercat 20 from 12' down to 9' (giving up 25% of the original righting moment) and do not have any regret what-so-ever. It is a terrific, fun, fast and easily trailered boat.<!-- editby --><em>Edited by havliii on Mar 30, 2016 - 12:04 AM.</em><!-- end editby --> [/quote]
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