In December of 2003 our new fleet had just grown by 8 boats.  Seven of us had just received our new “Australian Flyers”.  And the other, Stan, had found a great deal on a used WaterRat.  Now we were confronted with a common problem…transportation.  We had lots of questions.

• What is the best way to mount a modern A-Cat on a trailer?
• Should we use rails or hull cradles?
• If we use rails, will they rub holes in our tramps?
• Are there special considerations for the 30 foot carbon fiber mast?
• What is the best way to stack boats on a trailer?
• Are there any plans out there we could use as a guide?
• Does anyone make new trailers for A-Cats?

Web searches and emails didn’t turn up a lot of options.  The good news was that we had about 3 ½ months of rainy weather to figure it out.

By the time spring rolled in our group had come up with four unique solutions.  Rich had come-up with an ingenious solution by just starting with a cheap Hobie 16 trailer.  Peter had a unique custom trailer made by a shop in Astoria , Oregon .  Stan had sold his WaterRat trailer to another fleet member and then designed and built an amazing trailer from scratch out of rectangular aluminum tubing. Ken and Mike wanted to do something similar to Stan’s solution, but also wanted the trailer to stack 3 boats for trips to big regattas.  They had spent the winter working on a trailer design inspired by Stan’s.

This web-site is an attempt to share these efforts with the larger A-Cat community.

Notice that he used straight (not bent) 2” x 5” rectangular aluminum tubing for the frame.

The crossbar rails extend pass the cat’s sterns to hold the cat trax.

The boat’s crossbars sit on a smooth strip of UMHW plastic applied to the top of the 2” x 3” aluminum rails.  The front crossbar sits in a snug UMHW mount.  A flat tie-down strap holds the crossbar down and is tightened with a mounted ratchet.

The rear mast support folds down to allow easy loading/unloading of the boat.   It is held up by a flat brace which fits into a slot in the rear mast upright.

Stan originally used rollers to help with loading and unloading the boat.  He has now switched to large hull cradles.  The boat only touches the rollers/cradles during loading and unloading.

Here is Stan’s finished trailer with the Water Rat.  He had just finished painting the hulls white.

Rich’s trailer is functional, economical, and straightforward.  He started with a galvanized Hobie trailer and welded posts to support rails wrapped in carpet.  He added a wooden deck beneath the boat that really provides a lot of usefulness.

• The deck protects the boat from road debris when traveling.
• It is also a great platform for carrying and storing all the necessary gear.  He has added a sailing tube and a separate box to hold other gear, thus protecting the sail from other heavy gear.  There is also room for cat tracks – normally a difficult item to store on trailers.
• The platform can potentially be fitted with a hot tub and barbeque which could be used by the rest of us.

A separate tool box was also added on the tongue atop a “mini” deck.  Also notice the hull covers made from sleeping bags!

Rich also did something that I haven’t been brave enough to do.  He drilled holes in his RV roof and added mounts for his mast.

(above) Three boats from the Pacific Northwest arrive in Michigan for the 2004 North Americans!  Ken, Eric, and I drove 38 hours straight through and arrived on Sunday.

The trailer in the photo above is one of two that Ken & I built last spring (2004).  We had started designing this trailer back in January of 2004.  We had a few simple goals.

• The trailer must be able to carry at least 3 boats safely.
• It would be built entirely from aluminum and bolts will hold it together.
• A single person must be able to load and unload the bottom boat.
• The bottom boat can be loaded/unloaded with the mast upright (for keeping our boats at the sailing club).
• The trailer should be long enough to minimize the length of mast extending behind the trailer (when traveling).

We spent almost three months making drawings and debating designs.  Stan was also a big part of this.  He looked at every design and gave valuable input.  He also helped us build the trailers.

We settled on a two-level rail design with a swinging gate in back.  The original design is in this PDF.  Note that the design originally had straight 2” x 5” beams for the bottom frame assembly (just like Stan’s).  However, once we started building, a lot of the design changed.

We also created simulations with our design to make sure the boats could be loaded and unloaded without problem.  The first simulation below shows a problem with the location of the boat roller.  It was too low and caused the bow to dip dangerously low while loading.  The second simulation shows a roller mounted at the proper height.

On the first day of construction Ken, Stan, and I decided to change the design and bend the main 2” x 5” beams of the trailer frame.  Our biggest motivation for this was the axle.  Ken and I had chosen a new torsion axle and there weren’t a lot a good ways to mount the axle to an angled trailer frame. We decided to bend the trailer frame and up front to allow the trailer frame to run perpendicular to the axle and at the same spacing is the factory furnished brackets.  (*** the specification for this axle will be posted shortly).

We used a motorboat in Ken’s driveway to bend the 2” x 5” aluminum beams.  (see trailer drawings below for specific measurements).  We simply lowered the boat trailer tire onto the aluminum beam and then bent it up several inches.  We would then slide the beam 6 inches and do it again until we had a bend close to half the width of the frame.