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A Little History:
The Cunning Cat has been developed to my ideal fun boat so I hope we have some objectives in common.
A little family history.
Both myself and my wife Jenny have been cruising people since we can remember, we have sailed and raced various cats around Port Philip Bay and sailed most of the east coast of Australia in our last boat, a 42 ft Schooner.
Between 1978 and 1985, we owner and operated our own boat yard known as Hughes Engineering on the banks of Immigrant Creek Ballina where we also developoed a marine industrial estate, This estate became the home of Broardwater Stoves and our good friends Chris and Yolli Bell developed the now popular range of marine stoves.
Cunning Cat is designed to take all the hassles out of boat ownership,
( <--Jenny is pregnant with the maker of this website!)

 

We have had a break from cruising while we developed a light aircraft known as the LightWing over the past 15 years however Cunning Cat marks our return to sailing with a real vengence. Note I have labeled Cunning Cat as a fun boat, it has been designed as cruising boat and also a racing cat, it is also designed to be a fine piece of recreational equipment just like our 2 seat light aircraft.

So, in late 1999, the Cunning Cat crept off the drawing board. The conceptual part of the design began drawn in biro on a drink coaster in the bar of Australia's most Easterly pub, the Beach Hotel, Byron Bay. The main room of the "Top Pub" as it is known around Byron, has a unique folding roof that can be rolled back to let in the sunshine, so we argued " if Australia's best pub can fold back the roof why can't we do this on a boat."
The Solution ... build a multihull with a soft top or a folding saloon area. Use ultra strong vinyl zips and battens with camper trailer technology to build a weather proof enclosure to house the saloon / entertaining area. The saloon area can be folded back for day sailing and to reduce windage for racing then zipped up at night for entertaining.
The hulls are 1.25m wide so that firstly they will accommodate a double bunk and secondly, when the two hulls are brought together they will fit on a trailer and still be a legal on-road width. Likewise the maximum length of the boat is limited by part 17.1 of the Standards for Trailer Construction, the total length of boat and trailer cannot exceed 17.5m. We went for a little less than this and set the length of the boat at 9m or 30ft giving a total length of 15m when it's towed on a trailer.
The rig:
The requirement that the boat folds up for trailering, set a number of other design constraints particularly on the rig. To erect one large mast on a boat of this size would require a lifting arm so we have 2 options:

Firstly, a light biplane rig or two smaller but equal size rigs mounted on each side of the boat. This unusual rig is used on a number of Hydrofoil multihulls so we have adopted as an option on the idea to the Cunning Cat. With 2 wishbone main sails and roller furled jibs, the Cunning Cat has a maximum sail area of 50 sq meters. In some sailing configurations, the windward jib must be furled leaving 41sq meters and this is a powerful rig for a boat weighing less than 1.5 tons empty.
A high aspect ratio rig is also available with a fabricated 20% wing mast. Remember, the boat is designed by one of Australia's most popular light aircraft manufacturers and designers- Howie Hughes !!