That is one of the concepts that I was thinking about as well...powered up cat or tri would be great. Your twin unstayed rig seems to be the answer I have been looking at as well. I have a Guillemot expedition that I am about to join hull and deck, but the double kayak or two kayaks joined seems to have more promise as you can travel further, faster with a team mate. I really like the windsurger rig idea, but I would like to see something that is easily reefable. I have been kicking around the idea of an unstayed dingy mast that progressivly rolls up more mainsail. Taht way a person can go with a fairly large spread of sail and still be able to reef down to bare poles without leaving the cockpit. that being said, I surfed overto the Kruger canoe site and was impressed by the decked canoes and the multiple seating options for a long, long trip. I'll still be building whatever I finally decide on, but it will need to accomodate two, sail (singlehanded in order to give the possibility of rest)like a hopped up multihull, and still be paddled with relative ease. That leaves me with three real options that I am looking to persue.

1. A tri based on your design or perhaps with a stayed rotating mast sloop rig perhaps pirated from a Hobie Wave?
2. A cat made from two 18"+ kayaks with twin unstayed dingy rigs or a Hobie Wave rig as decribed above.
3. A proa like the CLC setup, but with a different rig possibly.

Sounds like fun and a fairly intense winter project if I am to be ready for the Lake Michigan WaterTribe Challenge.
: Ah, somebody else that got hooked into the Watertribe Challenge concept. I
: was turned onto it last year by John over at CLC. I was buying a Chessie
: 16Lt kit for my wife's first boat and saw proa pieces laying all over the
: shop. John proceeded to explain what it was and why he was building it. I
: subsequently went to the site and have been addicted ever since.

: In persuing my addiction, a like-minded sailing buddy and myself have (more
: or less) decided that our chosen route is a full-blown tri. Our thinking
: goes like this...

: Neither one of us has the desire or dedication to paddle the full distance,
: especially at the pace required to finish within the alloted time. We are
: both sailors first, paddlers second.

: We started out thinking about a planing dingy like his 505. This was killed
: when we decided that the centerboard draft and near complete inability to
: paddle into one or two of the required checkpoints was impractical. Some
: paddling seems mandatory on the original Challenge route due to lots of
: 6" water and narrow routes up channels against prevailing winds.

: So, we went to multihulls. We both learned to sail on a Hobie 14 Turbo and
: were immediately drawn to, for example, a stock Hobie Miracle 20. This
: turned out to be too expensive for our tastes and we couldn't find a way
: to beg, borrow, or steal one.

: "Go with what you know." Now we're going to build what we need. The
: concept is for a max length (near 24') tri. The main hull is to be an S&G
: double with minimal alterations to accomodate the tri rig and sufficient
: volume in the bow to avoid submarine imitations. The amas (outer hulls)
: will be purpose built, near full length, and with enough volume (twice
: displacement is the general rule) to prevent burrying when flying the main
: hull.

: Displacement vs. planing hull designs becomes a very complex, and somewhat
: moot, discussion when the fineness ratio of the hull approaches 20,
: typical for a racing tri. In simple terms, if you make it skinny enough,
: it won't really "plane" but the bow wave doesn't trap the hull
: in the typical manner either. This helps allow the main hull to remain a
: "normal" kayak when not hooked up to the full tri rig.

: I chose a tweaked version of Shearwater's Baidarka Double for the main hull.
: Eric lengthened the hull to 23'-8" and brought the max beam in to
: 24" (fineness ratio here). The bow volume, cockpit placement, and
: ease of modification all worked out well for me. The long waterline length
: vs overall length is a bonus as well.

: All gear required to actually sail the thing will be mounted on the amas.
: This means she'll have twin unstayed masts dead abeam of each other. The
: appendages (rudders and leeboards/daggerboards/centerboards) will be out
: there as well. Control lines (or other means) for the appendages will be a
: large hurdle to overcome.

: For masts and sails we have looked most closely at large windsurfer-style
: rigs. They allow easy stepping, are typically unstayed, and have very
: efficient shapes (elliptical). In addition, the extreme taper usually
: found in the masts allows the tip to spill off well in gusts without the
: addition of extra control lines for vangs, etc. As a bonus, large older
: rigs are widely available for reasonble money.

: The biggest challenge I forsee will be in the akas (crossbeams). They will be
: under terrific loads (I've calculated some numers that terrify me!) and
: need to present minimal frontal area to reduce windage and water
: resistance when punching through waves. In addition, a fair deal of
: curvature should be built in to get them above the water for the same
: reason. So far I'm figuring on 2" thick by 10" wide (fore/aft)
: akas laminated (hollow?) from western red cedar then covered by 2-3 layers
: of unidirectional carbon and one layer of kevlar cloth.

: With a bit of work we should be able to keep the all-up weight under 400# and
: still be able to paddle short distances (1-2 miles) without killing
: ourselves. That, and I'll have a killer fast double for touring with my
: wife.

: Wow, seems that I needed to get some ideas down in writing. Anybody out
: there with some great ideas to help things along?

: Porter