And on a full-flowing river, and a small lake, and on a pond, a makeshift catamaran will become not only fun, but also a useful device. On it you can sunbathe, jump from it into the water, because it is almost impossible to turn it over. You can use your homemade catamaran to transport small loads, as well as swim to explore the cages in which fish are caught. If you create a flotilla of such vessels, then it is quite possible to arrange small competitions in speed, or in figure driving, they will also be an excellent means for making a small tourist trip.
What are we dealing with?
In order to assemble a catamaran with your own hands, you will not need any special materials - they are all available and very easy to process. If you do not take into account metal elements, then you will need ZMM plywood and slats with a cross section of 15-25 and 25 * 25 millimeters and a length of 3 meters. This is the main advantage of the resulting raft, as well as its feature. It is best to use waterproof plywood. If it does not turn out to be one, then it is better to purchase a birch, but even in its absence it is allowed to use spruce or aspen.
If you seriously decided to make a catamaran with your own hands, then the choice of plywood is a very important step, because the durability of your boat will depend on it. Naturally, it is also important to show diligence in terms of thorough finishing of individual parts, as well as their connections. Plywood should be saturated with preheated natural drying oil. It is best applied on a hot sunny day using a wide brush. Heating oil should be done exclusively in a water bath using a wide bowl of boiling water. Of course, it is important to remember caution, because a burn with a hot substance is quite painful. You can complete the impregnation operation after the drying oil is no longer absorbed into the wood. Usually, the application is carried out two to three times with interruptions of several hours.
Structural elements
So, understanding the question of how to make a catamaran, it is worth considering everything in order. Raft pontoons are made of battens and plywood. It is worth starting with frames. To do this, it is necessary to cut 12 billets from plywood, the dimensions of which are 320 * 320 millimeters, knock them down with three or four nails, and then process everything together along the contour. Next, you need to make slots for the slats. The slats are square, but the slots should be 20-25 millimeters in size. The remaining 5 millimeters in the rails are equipped with grooves. It is best to lay all six rails side by side, fix them, and then make a slot through the saw in all at the same time. Since they will turn out a little deeper from the edges, it is worth leveling the average depth, shifting the boards several times in the process.
Before forming the grooves, it is worth checking the dimensions of the plywood sheets. If we are talking about a number of less than 1,500 millimeters, then it is necessary to adjust the installation location of the cross member 7 and the frame 5, respectively. Six frames require that pieces of slats be attached to them from the sides and from the top, and a piece of the board should be secured from below. Everything needs to be done as firmly as possible, it is better to use screws or screws for this, because nails will be hammered into the rails, the task of which will be to hold the plywood.
Ship assembly
If you decide to make a catamaran with your own hands, you will need to prepare several racks. The length of four of them should be three meters, two - 1.9 meters each, also four segments of 570-600 millimeters will be required, after which you can proceed with further work. It is clear that it is worth placing a pair of upper rails from below, which will allow the frames to firmly sit in their place. Immediately you can fix a pair of crossbars with screws and then lay the keel rail, screwing it after that to the frames 1, 5 and 6. Next, you can turn the frame for the catamaran to one side to fix the upper rails to the same frames.
A 50 millimeter thick board will be needed for you to cut the stern and fore lobes, and it is important to consider that their shape should be cone-shaped. And then they need to be inserted into place, having previously pulled the upper rails together with wire. On the bow and stern overhangs, the keel rail is made of several scraps.
Sheathing
Now the time has come for such an important element as cladding. To make a catamaran with your own hands, you need to cut several elements. The width of the central part is 823 mm, it is not difficult to cut it. It is easy to bend it in the form of a frame, since it has already passed the procedure of impregnation with drying oil. But here it is important not to rush. To facilitate the work, it is required to tighten the workpieces with wire, ropes or something else, and then leave it in this position for several days. It is worth noting that the plywood must be fastened with nails, however, it is first necessary to smear the places of fastening with thick oil paint on slats, frames, as well as in the corresponding places of plywood. The most diligent should be to miss the joints at the frames.
Build Continuation
If you are doing a catamaran with your own hands, the drawings have already been carefully thought out, then on the cardboard template you should determine the shape of the blanks for overhangs. There should be something like a cone. They are installed similarly to the previous elements. End caps should only be attached to paint. Their contours should be specified according to the finished skin. It is necessary to nail rails 9-11 on the paint, like all other parts. Next, you can make the deck open, circling the contour of an almost finished pontoon. When the deck is nailed, it is possible to complete the manufacture of pontoons. During installation, you should not regret the paint.
Deck
The easiest way is to make it from the same plywood as the other parts. For strength, the bottom and top should nail the slats in increments of 300-350 millimeters. If you do not trust the strength of plywood, then you can lay it in two layers, laying one on the other. Where the pedals will be installed, you need to adjust the pitch of the rail accordingly with them. Naturally, talking about how to make a catamaran, it is worth noting that it is appropriate to use other materials for the deck, for example, thin boards that will be nailed so that there is a space a meter wide between the pontoons.
Working part
If you decide to make a catamaran with your own hands, then the rowing drive should be made of parts from a bicycle. You will need to use a pair of frames with carriage nodes and pedals. The trim ends of the frames should be flattened, and then attached to the deck rail using screws. Between the pedals, distance bushings should be installed, the length of which is 120-130 millimeters, and the pedals themselves must be connected by long common studs.
Water catamaran is equipped with paddle wheels, which are made of bicycle. The blades should be cut out of rubber, the thickness of which is 4-6 millimeters, and then wound with wire to the knitting needles. One wheel should be equipped with five to six blades.
Functional area
The seat is made of plywood and rails, the cross section of which is 25 * 25 millimeters. The seat is secured to the deck after the rowing drive is installed - so that the rails from below are not accessible to the tensioned chain. It is best to fix the elements with screws, since, quite possibly, it will be necessary to adjust the position.
So, you make a catamaran whose photo you liked. Next, you need to make the steering, this will also require rails and plywood. The dimensions of the rudders are 200 * 320 millimeters. The plywood bracket with the sides 200 * 200 millimeters should be nailed to the right one, and then thrust from it to the lever, which should be installed on the side, in the immediate vicinity of the seat. The axles of the longitudinal and transverse rods can be thick nails, for which holes must be drilled with a drill, otherwise the rods may burst.
Final stage
With the assembly of the catamaran there should not be any special difficulties. Pontoons should be installed on level ground, after which you can lay the deck on them, outline the mounting places for bicycle frames with pedals, a rowing drive and seats. But do not rush to consolidate all of these nodes. All wooden parts of the raft should be painted with three layers of oil paint. Since it takes a day or two to dry each coat, you will need a week to complete this operation.
When the painting is completed, you should install all the nodes in place. The seat is mounted at the end. To tie the catamaran to the pier and to ensure the convenience of carrying it, it is worth screwing 4-6 door handles on its sides.