A Sailboat You Can Fold Up
by Charlotte Observer on 12 May 2006
MIAMI - Technology Watching.... the 36-foot catamaran Cat2Fold bobbing gently at anchor off Crandon Marina, you probably wouldn't notice anything unusual about it -- just another live-aboard sailboat passing through South Florida, you might think.
But Cat2Fold is not like any sailboat you've ever seen. As its name suggests, it can be folded into itself for trailering or storing so that its 24-foot beam shrinks to 8 1/2 feet wide.
The brainchild of Camarillo, Calif., auto repair shop owner Rafi Francke, this invention was born of necessity.
'I didn't have a lot of vacation time to go sailing,' Francke said. 'We had to get something that would fit on a trailer or park at home when you're not using it.'
Made of carbon fibre with infused resin, the boat weighs about 5,000 pounds. Its twin 38-foot masts with wishbone booms support 650 square feet of sail area, plus an experimental jib of 140 square feet. Francke says the boat has reached 15 knots on short cruises.
What a good idea!
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