: How about a 6 foot catamaran with strip built pontoons and a flat deck with
: an 8-10" sided box on top all covered with fiberglass/epoxy and a few
: drain holes in the bottom. This also sounds like something you could tow
: the kids around in when you're not crabbing. From what I have read on this
: site, I would use a quick release waist strap with a secondary bungie,
: just in case of emergencies.

How about an 8 foot long catamaran you can build in an afernoon?

Get 2 sheets of 1 inch thick foamed plastic building insulation (Get the rigid stuff, not the stuff that loks like it is make of lots of tiny baeds fused together)

Also get a tube or two of Liquid nails, or a similar construction adhesive that will bond to your chosen plastic.

From each sheet of foam cut strips that are full length (8 feet long). If your material has a tongue and groove, then cut the widest piece from the tongued edge. Use a sharp utility knife and make several gentle passes for each cut.

You'll need pieces that are the following widths and quantities:
Width - - - - - - Quantity
9 inches wide (1) cut from the side with the tongue.
7 inches wide (2)
5 inches wide (2)
4 inches wide (2)
3 inches wide (2)

This should add up to 47 inches, allowing you to just barely slice off the groove -- if there is one, or to give you a bit of slack. You can cut things a bit under the directed size, too. This is not rocket science!

Take the 4 inch width pieces and cut them in half to give you 4 pieces that are 4 feet long, 4 inches wide, and an inch thick. Using the construction adhesive, laminate these into a stack that is 4 inches thick. You don't need a lot of adhesive to do this. A few short stripes on each piece should do. Set this aside. It will be a spacer.

Now take the 9 inch wide piece and one of the 7 inch wide pieces and laminate them, squaring off the edges you have cut. Flip this over and glue on the second 7 inch wide piece, aligning it so that it is the mirror image of the first one. Flip the thiing over and put on a 5 inch piece one each side, and follow that with the three inch pieces. When you are finished you should have an 8 foot long pontoon that has is 7 inches wide at the top, and progresses in a stair step fashion to a center that is 9 inches deep.

Now take the pieces from the second sheet of foam and build another pontoon and spacer in the same fashion.

When all the construction adhesive has hardened, you can use a sanding block with coarse sandpaper, or a rasp, to remove the "stairsteps" amd give each pontoon a more rounded profile. You can shape a "bow" on one end of each pontoon, too.

Even up the shape of the spacers, rounding the edges a bit.

To assemble your cat, set the pontoons upside down on a flat surface. Set the spacers between them, about 18 inches from each end. That would leave the spacers aboutt 4 1/2 to 5 feet apart. Then, take one spacer at a atime and apply some construction adhesive to each end, and replace it in its position. Drive a 12 inch dowel rod through the side of each pontoon to pin the spacer in place. Do the same for the front spacer.

Once the construction adhesive has hardened you can cover this with a single layer of 4 ounce to 6 ounce fiberglass cloth and EPOXY resin. (don't try to use polyester resin as it might dissolve your pontoons.) Overlap the glass cloth which is used on the spacers by at least 2 inches over the glass on the pontoons. Then, when the resin has hardened, the entire unit is held together.

Sand lightly by hand and apply one more coat of epoxy resin. No need to fill the weave. Stiffen and strengthen things by attaching a bottom between the spacers and the pontoons. You can use piece of 1/4 to 3/8 inch plywood as a bottom and paint that with epoxy to waterproof it. If you want, you can use more 1 inch thick foam, covered with more glass cloth and epoxy resin. Hold the bottom in place with 4 inch wide strips of glass cloth and epoxy resin at the edges. You can use a fillet of thickened epoxy in there if you wish, but iot may net be necessary.

Paint it. The paint will protect the epoxy from UV, and make the foam look better.

This whole thing will be very light, and float like a cork. Depending on how much foam you remove when shaping the contours of the pontoons, it should offer about 250 to 300 pounds of flotation. If you want to attach anything of substance to it, epoxy on some "pads" of 1/2 inch or thicker plywood or solid lumber and secure your fittings to those.

Just an idea

hope this helps

PGJ