Fig. 9.
Screw down one of these eared sockets just where the curve goes off on the narrower side, as shown in [Fig. 7], and in the centre fix a third. Use galvanised nuts and bolts for fastening, with a thin leather washer under the bolt and an oak washer under the nut, and make the holes watertight by hard screwing and plenty of whitelead. To the other edge at the angle, and so as to project beyond it and correspond with the eared sockets, fix your flat staples, as shown in [Fig. 8], so that a bar can be passed through each, as shown in [Fig. 9]. Along the centre of the board above which the staples project bore five holes an inch in diameter, one in the centre of each of the five divisions with which you started, and then having first fitted a thin batten from A to B, as shown in [Fig. 4], and let it down flush into the quadrants, give the construction a thorough coating of red-lead paint inside and out.
Next get some canvas forty inches wide. Coat it well with boiled oil, dry it thoroughly, and placing the lower edge of your framework along its centre, strain it up tight all round. Use copper nails to fasten it with, and running a streak of paint along its lower edge, finish it there with a thin oak batten, steamed to shape if necessary, and screwed on outside while the paint is wet, so as to serve for protection and form the keel. Now give your pontoon a good even coat of paint, and when that is thoroughly dry give it a trial coat of any colour you please.
Now make another pontoon in exactly the same way, and when it is finished fasten both hulls together with three pieces of scantling, as shown in [Fig. 9]. The cross-bars should be nine feet long and four inches square, and kept in their places by copper bolts slipped into them through the holes in the centre of each of the sockets.
Next make a platform of quarter-inch boards by nailing them together in two layers at right angles to each other. Use copper nails and clinch them. Round the outside of the platform run a low ridge of hard wood, so as to turn it into a tray, as shown in the sketch, and keep the water off the edges of the boards. Cut out a dozen grooves for the tops of the sockets to sink into; put the platform flat down on the cross-bars, and screw it into its place with galvanised nuts and bolts passing through the bars. The catamaran is now finished and ready for the mast, which can be stepped in an iron collar raised on three strong iron supports about twenty inches long, strongly riveted and bolted into the deck. Her sails and spars are made in the ordinary manner, the same as those of other boats as previously described. She requires a traverse or ring for the painter, and a rowlock to steer her by, and then, having carefully overhauled her to see that she is thoroughly watertight, whiteleaded every crack and crevice, and remembered throughout her construction never to have nailed a nail or screwed a screw without first covering it with whitelead, you can give her a farewell top coat of colour. Wait till she is thoroughly dry, and then, having placed a cork securely in each of the ten holes leading to her watertight compartments, which holes were made for you to get the water out in case any should leak in, you can launch her, seize your steering rudder, and be off. She will go anywhere and do anything, providing always that the waves are not rough enough to wash you off her deck.
Fig. 10.—A Safe Craft.
Says Mr. Alden: ‘There is no better boat to cruise in than such a catamaran. At night you anchor her, unship your mast, pitch your tent, and sleep safely and comfortably. If you come to a dam you can take the craft apart and carry her round piecemeal. If you once try to build a catamaran and succeed—as you certainly will if you have patience—you will have the safest and most comfortable sail-boat in the world.’