RebelCat 1 More Pics

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RebelCat 1 Construction

To watch a video of this cat, go here. I was camped here in the jungle next to the reservoir. There was a ferry nearby I wanted to escape from - noise, smokers, cars - and I saw an island maybe a quarter mile offshore. I went to a town, paid a pickup owner to take me shopping, got the PVC, plywood and tools and he dropped me back here. All I needed was a raft I could row or paddle to get to the island, so I figured two pontoons, a deck and an oar.
After guessing the proper distance to have between pontoons, I got to work on the deck, which would eventually hold the pontoons together. I made six feet with curved surfaces to sit snugly on the round PVC. The traffic cones? Read on.
It's hard to see in this pic, but the deck is suspended by a thin rope from the tree, while I put on the last coat of varnish.
The deck sits on the pontoons and is just tied with some nylon rope. And that's it. The raft that will take me to paradise - the vacant island I've been admiring from a distance for over a week - is now finished. Oh, the traffic cones are just taped to the PVC caps with clear packing tape. They are absolutely necessary for the boat to move. Flat pontoons do not work, unless your idea of sailing is a snail's pace.
It works. I knew it would float me with no problem, because I calculated the amount of air in both pontoons - about 188 litres. Plenty for a raft. Notice it's more than half above water line. Rowing was a challenge, because the raft tips easily from side to side. It was great for improving balance.
It was actually too much of a challenge, so I rotated the deck 90 degrees so the raft was about four feet wide. Talk about stable. I had to reach farther to row, but the stability was worth it. I rowed this little raft all over the reservoir, exploring all the islands and coves, for three months. My island was the only one with a white-sand private beach, so I stayed there.
This is my private beach. Looking at the raft one day I thought, "It must be possible to turn this into a sailboat". I mean, it already foats well, moves through the water easily. All it needed was a sail, a rudder and a keel of some kind to keep it from sliding sideways. I went to town and scrounged some scrap wood, pieces of old furniture. A few more tools and I was making the conversion from raft to catamaran. Here I'm screwing the tiller to the rudder. The large piece is the centerboard.
With all of the new parts varnished and dry, the cat is assembled upside down (minus the rudder, which I attach just before sailing) The extensions on the back are necessary to make enough room inside the mast stays for the boom to swing, and so that the boom can be longer, giving the cat a larger sail area. The centerboard is lower part of a 'T' and simply ties to screweyes on deck. The material for the sail lies to the left of the cat, the mast farther left.
Bamboo from another island made the mast and boom possible. The sail is just plastic sheeting from a hardware store. The sail was about four meters high and three meters wide. The mast is help up by four stays, two attached to those extensions at the back and two on the front spreader which connects the pontoons at the front. The mast 'locks' on a step, just a button of wood, screwed to the wood that connects the front spreader to the deck.
The boom barely clears the back stays. The traffic cones are just taped to the PVC caps and taped closed at the nose. Very crude, but highly functional. This cat is as simple as a sailing craft can be. There is nothing on it than can be taken off, without fatal results. Flotation, sail, rudder, keel, and a place to sit. Actually, it is possible to sail without a rudder, by using the sail creatively, but that kind of sailing is easier with a jib, the smaller sail in front of the mainsail (not added until after this pic was taken). Many more pics and a video of this cat here.

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