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Old School

Beach cruisers are single gear bicycles with upright posture and balloon tires that put more emphasis on ride comfort and style than ultimate performance - the alternative to the ubiquitous road and mountain bikes. In that spirit, I present Beach Cruiser, the alternative beach cat. 19' LOA by 8'-6" beam, Beach Cruiser fits nicely on any beach cat trailer. The sail area of 220 sq. ft. also means that any beach cat rig can become a suitable power plant. However, that is where the similarity to the usual beach cat ends.

I found inspiration in the 1960's design work of C/S/K - the California based team responsible for classics like Aikane, Patty Cat II and Polycon. Beach Cruiser has narrow and boardless asymmetrical hulls, which while not the ultimate in efficiency, are beach friendly, and these deep and narrow hulls also deliver a terrific ride. The hulls taper into integrated rudders at the stern that should leave a clean wake and equally important, gains style points. The reverse sheerline sweeps forward to wave cutter bows, giving a nod to the Polynesian roots of the craft, and of course, everyone onboard wears Aloha shirts and boardshorts.

Beach Cruiser has actual raised seating and a solid bridgedeck between, which will make it an order of magnitude more comfortable than the typical beach cat. The wing area forward of the main beam will help keep spray down, as will the high 18" bridgedeck clearance.

The seats have big hatches to access the storage lazarettes in each hull, with more storage fwd of the main beam. Plenty of room for everything a beach cruiser could need (including tiki torches) with enough space to sleep a couple under a boom tent in the cockpit. Hang loose!

Lunada Design

Chris Ostlind, who has contributed several great articles to Proafile, has been blogging and sharing his work at Lunada Design for a while now, but it's news to me, at least. So in case you haven't been there yet, go check out his body of work, which includes all manner of small plywood stitch-n-glue canoes, trimarans, outriggers, cats and more. It's like small boat Candyland, so consider yourself forewarned. Page 1 of 1 pages