For the past ten years, I’ve been collecting photos and written recollections from some of the founding members of the mid-20th Century re-awakening of the Polynesian catamaran form as a sailing craft. The names of Brown, Choy, Seaman, Kumalae, Edwards, Munoz and a dozen others set the standard by which all multihull designers still measure themselves.

http://proafile.com/view/weblog/comments/old_school/

These modern era pioneers set the tone for all the multihulls that were to follow to the present day. The design roots of the form have been massaged over the years, reflecting modern thinking, material use and perceived needs of those who use the boats. I have always been drawn to the lovely flowing lines of the 1960′s era beach oriented multihulls I used to see blasting past when I’d be out pursuing my lifelong love of surfing. The pictures shown are of El Gato by Phil Edwards (sailing above) and Mickey Munoz’ Malia on the beach (below).

Through the wonderfully prescient aesthetic talents of Seattle based designer, Michael Schacht, we have all been a given a gift that touches all the notes of my youth as a fledgling Waterman.

The Beach Cruiser speaks to me in so many ways I had  shelved to some degree, being a resident of Salt Lake City right now. When I opened the computer browser to Michael’s Proafile site, I was hit by a ton of cascading water as all my early boating passion fell on me from a double overhead collection of memories.

Please follow the link above to Proafile and take a long look at the beach cat concept that Michael has delivered into our multihull consciousness. Even though I’m up to my ears with my own design work, I am powerfully tempted to build this boat myself… it has hit me that hard.

Chris Ostlind