World Cruising Cat?

Take a look at the catamaran in today’s Photo of the Day and tell us what you think she was built for. If you’re like most people, you probably think she’s some kind of funky daysailor, and that the most ambitious trip her owner would contemplate would be a weekend to Catalina.

You may be right, but we have a strong suspicion that the cat in the photo is based on a century old 38-ft sacred design from Tikopia Island, and was recently built for long term world cruising. Before you fall over in fits of laughter, allow us to qualify that.  We think she was designed and built for long term world cruising by Southern Californian Glenn Tieman, who had previously cruised a 26-ft catamaran from California to Mexico to the South Pacific to Southeast Asia and the Philippines over a period of 10 years. And on $1 to $3 a day, all expenses included.

Tieman’s original cat was a Wharram Pahi 26 that he built for $3,000. When we last wrote about Tieman two years ago, he said that he’d just completed his new 38-ft cat which, because he used so much better and more expensive materials – strip-planked cedar and epoxy – cost a total of $14,000.

One of the things that makes us believe that this is Tieman’s latest cat is the outrigger canoe alongside the cat. During his last voyage, that’s all he used for a tender. He liked them because they could be made inexpensively from door skins, a little epoxy and "any old thing for an outrigger." He made his paddles from "a piece of plywood nailed to a 1′ x 2′." Because they were so cheap, he considered them all but disposable.

We’re going to try to track Tieman down, so we’ll let you know whether this is his cat or not, and what he’s up to.