Impara Cadet

[mattaipan]

Does anyone remember these little cats, similiar in size to the arafura cadet, but rounded hull as opposed to hard chine. Trying to find some info on them, but the internets not turning up much, they did appear as an association years ago in the VYC yearbook. Would anyone know the designers name? or any other inforamtion would be great. Thanks

Matt

[Emmessee]

I remember them but I have no idea where there would be any now. I did see one on ebay a few years back, but nothing since. You see a lot of these types of boats being sold on ebay and the seller always calls them a hobbie cat, obviously having no idea what they are on about (a little like me).

[Yeti2300]

I am 90% certain that the Impara Cadet was built at Colac in the late 1960s. It was built as an alternative to the Arafura Cadet and was very similar but had rounded hulls like the mosquito. You might try contacting the Colac Sailing Club as I am sure that someone there might be able to assist.

[Pirate]

I know ....... Grave dig ..... but I'll add some extra info for future searches

The Impara Cadet was designed and built by Jeff Hunter in the early 60's with production beginning in the mid to late 60's, approximately ~12 being built by him through to the mid 70's

Jeff was and still is at the time of this post an active sailor in the southwestern Victoria region, specificially the Colac area

http://www.colacyachtclub.com.au/

They were a very similar hull shape to the Mosquito catamaran and still have a VYC yardstick of 113.00 as of 2003 (same as the arafura cadet)

They were a sloop rigged cat, sailed by 1 or 2 jnr's and had a single trap.

They had a ply-wood "tramp" and a single swing down centreboard.....

The first 5 boats also had a timber mast and boom with the later builds utilising alloy sections.....

A stick figure of a man throwing a spear was burnt into the main cross member directly under the mast step..... ( signature of the Hunter)

I sailed #3 called Mirage at the Camperdown Aquatic Club (now disbanded) and won several club events as well as regional regattas including the A & R Spear perpetual trophy with this pocket rocket

Number #2 was sold on eBay recently and after contacting the seller he told me..... and I quote....

Hi

Mine was number 2

Sailed it on Lake Colac and then Hazelwood Pondage

It will now be based at Paynesville I believe

Cheers

- viking2024

The only image I have found on the net...... this is number 2 impara as part of its advertising pics

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1328[/ATTACH]

hope that sheds some light...

Kingy

[Nutty]

Hi guys, I am the one who bought Number 2. I have repaired it to the best of my ability( not much ability) and am really looking forward to sailing it at Paynsville/Raymond island. If you want pictures let me know.

By the way it has an aluminium mast and an oregon? Boom

[Pirate]

By the way it has an aluminium mast and an oregon? Boom

 

 

originally,

both Mast & boom were Oregon  

 

the weak point was where the mast met the boom / sail guide cutout / & the additional load from the boomvang which was added later as an

after thought, this broke most masts in that spot.

 

the Oregon mast was made from 2 pieces glued together:

separately they had the sail rope guide cut into them by a home made hand plane built to cut the half circle, the two halves where then glued together and the mast was then hand shaped with a spoke-shave plane etc.. I recall Jeff telling me it took a full w/end to make a single mast.

 

Your impara should have a 'stick figure' burnt into the front beam at the mast-step, that stick figure should be a man throwing a spear....

Jeffs 'signature'..... the hunter    .

All the imparas Jeff made were painted in clear gloss to show-off the timberwork, this included the Oregon mast & boom.

 

Jeff Hunter ( original designer & builder) is still alive and sailing, sails a trailer sailor at Lake Colac YC,

 

2 other Impara's reside at Derrinallum YC as jnr club boats, a 3rd lives in the township apparently, I'm unsure as to the sail numbers of those boats......

I'll try n get some pics for you next time I'm there

 

&

 

 

hell yeah I want to see the pics of yours    

 

Kingy

[Nutty]

Hi kingy, I am new at this Ipad/forum business, so as soon as I have figured out how to shrink the photo files I will post some

(When my wife or kids show me how)

The cat does have the spear hunter burned into it just below the mast mount

I have sanded,repaired and then repainted it in clear boat lacquer, so as to keep it as original as possible with 5 coats of lacquer

(Shiny but weathered)

Dave

[Pirate]

All good Dave, we all had to start somewhere and like everything else its just a case of practise makes perfect.

best way is to host the photos on a photo sharing site such as photobucket or image shack, and then link them to the forum...... this way if your a member of multiple forums then its an easy job of simply adding the photo link to each site.....

the added advantage is YOUR photos stay in YOUR control so if at any stage you no longer want people to see them you just delete them from the photobucket site and all the links go dead.

uploaded photos to a forum often become "forum property" and they can be damn difficult to move around /share /delete...

just sayin......

if you need a hand give us a hoy..

Kingy

p/s

I use both image shack and photobucket....... pays not to keep all the eggs in the one basket

[Pirate]

2 other Impara's reside at Derrinallum YC as jnr club boats, a 3rd lives in the township apparently, I'm unsure as to the sail numbers of those boats......

I'll try n get some pics for you next time I'm there

 

 

got a pic.....

 

'RIVAL' is number 23 and the blue boat, 'SPARKS' is number 22

 

 

[Nutty]

Hi Kingy  my wife has just re,sized  this photo for me, I have no idea how. This is my  little impara set up in the back yard so I know if everything is there and also so I get it right before I have an audience

[Pirate]

looks damn good for her age

 

The only things that I can see that doesn't look right...... 

 

trapeze wires etc !!!

 

And I cant recall that strip of timber across the deck just behind the shrouds that's where the ocky cord for the trapeze ran....

 

diamond spreaders on the mast,(the wire looks to be hanging loose there......)

 

 

 

Mine had hatch covers in the rear deck too...... obviously a design change between #2 & #3

 

The centreboard on mine was permantely bolted, cant ever recall it being out for any reason, RIVAL & SPARKS boards are also "set" in place.

 

Kingy

[Nutty]

Hi kingy. The wire hanging down I believe is whats left of the trapeze, if its not then I dont know where it goes

(I have never rigged a cat before)

The strip of timber (fijian mahogany) behind the shrouds was put there because I felt the ply was too frayed/

weathered and because I believe that is where wet and fragile bums will be placed (mine is definitely fragile)

Splinter proofing was most important

The diamond spreader is where the stays? Attach to the mast?

The centre board is supposed to be bolted, I didn't install it so I could play with the cat in the back yard and not scratch it

(The panel beater next door prepared the centre board for painting to show me how to do it and will kill me if I scratch it)

Dave

[Nutty]

Me again. When I had the cat rigged up the boom seemed to be very close to the tramp, is that normal?

It was only about 500mm from the tramp

Dave

[Pirate]

Dave, the boom should be basically parallel with the deck, so the height where the boom meets the mast (gooseneck) should set the height at the mainsheet end.....

from memory, to get the impara to point into the wind we used to lay the mast well forward to the point where the jib was right down to the front bridal ring, your pic shows ~6" of tie-down rope there, and they had a plate with several holes to allow the side shrouds to gain length, in your pic there's no adjuster plate to let this happen.....

 

these were typical shroud adjusters.. .....

 

 

Remember these were a junior boat so they had enough room for a young teenager to scramble through 

 

having said that...... 500mm seems a tad tight, 2foot or 600mm seems more like it from memory

 

 

the impara had a mast spreader, in the pic I posted with the 2 impara's, RIVAL's mast is just visiable in the very top right corner.....

you can just see the spreader bar in that pic.

 

Trap wires came from the same point that the side shrouds are located on the mast.

 

I have no idea as to what that wire you have is for, its too low for either the spreader or trapeze, is there just the one or is there a matching one on the other side of the mast ???

 

 

 

I wont be at Derri YC for a few weeks but I'll drag out a mast next time I'm there and get some dementions & a pic or 3 for you.

 

Kingy

[Nutty]

Thanks kingy. I will have to get 2 shroud adjusters and lean the mast further forwards

I need all the space I can get, my teenage scrambling years are well gone

The mast doesn't seem to have ever had anything attached at the spreader height so is it possible they were only installed on later models which had the aluminium mast from new?

There is a wire on each side. At first I thought they were extra stays but they don't reach the tie down points like the full stays. Maybe they tie down somewhere else?

Thanks again for the tips

Dave

[madboutcats]

Great thread thank's for posting the pics, just a thought my Arafura Cadet has trap wires but doesn't have spreaders you may have a mast made from a similar section 

[Pirate]

My first mast was Oregon and it had a spreader setup, the only reason I recall that is because  that's where it broke, at the spreader bar itself !!!!!

 

I had one bolt through the spreader bar itself and posiably age and timber degration caused the snap, but it was probably more the gale that was blowing at the time

 

My replacement alloy mast had all the fittings pop-riveted on, obviously the alloy was stronger but also the rivets took less material out so the bulk of the structure was retained.

 

Of the other imparas in the area I recall, those that broke the Oregon masts all broke at the gooseneck.

 

For some strange reason these two boats have stuck in my mind..... impara #8 was the first one to get the alloy mast as "standard" and impara #14 was the first trial an alloy boom.

The odd thing is, I recall boats after that still having the Oregon boom and alloy mast combination.

 

Stupid thing is...... Jeff Hunter was up this way on the w/end and had I of known.... he'd have a list of questions

 

[Pirate]

Great thread thank's for posting the pics, just a thought my Arafura Cadet has trap wires but doesn't have spreaders you may have a mast made from a similar section 

 

Arafura's never had spreaders and I don't think they even have them today on the newer boats..... but they had the alloy mast right from the first one where as the impara had the oregon mast and that wasn't changed until the weakness was spotted.

 

I guess those of us that broke the oregon masts simply put the spreader on the alloy replacement because it was there, in all reality it probably didn't need it ! 

 

Kingy

[Nutty]

Hi guys. I took the impara for my first sail on it last week in paynesville.

It needs some serious leak prevention work. I think it thinks its a seive.

I applied some temporary gaffer leak prevention, which worked well for the week

The two cables which can be seen in the photo hanging from the mast I realised when rigging it are secondary back stays

Instead of the diamond spreader

I did scratch the centre board so I am expecting my (panelbeater) neighbour to shoot me

The thing flies and is a ball to sail

My brother in laws Paper tiger does go quicker (quite a bit) but in the Paynesville channel is nowhere near as manouverable as the Impara

Ps, my brother in law is going to put some video footage on youtube in a few weeks when he gets home,

I will post a link

Dave

[Pirate]

awesome news Dave, she's on the water after all these years and giving you some big smiles as well

 

looking forward to the video

 

 

so where are all the leaks ???

 

 

Kingy

[Nutty]

Hi guys me again

The video is on youtube, look for "impara cadet"

I beleive the bulk of the leaks are where the ply joins to the stern board? (The solid meranti timbers at the stern)

I was thinking of sanding around the joins and then glassing about 50mm either side and then over the joint

Then re varnishing everything and hoping that all works

Dave

Ps sorry for the miss spell of paynesville.

I also noticed that on the windier day it took in less water,which makes me think most of the leaks

are around the stern and it takes on more water when sitting still

[madboutcats]

Here's your video thanks for sharing

[Pirate]

before you cut loose with the glass matt & resin......

 

 

grab an old hatch cover that fits and drill a hole in the middle of it, the hole needs to be the same size as a valve hole in a car rim....

 

then fit  a tubeless car valve to the hatch cover.... (50cents each at my local auto-shop)

 

fit the standard hatch cover to the hull your checking along with "valved hatch cover"....

 

add 2 psi of air at the most, -----> use a foot pump or hand pump NOT an air compressor or you'll have a much bigger problem

(I use a pushbike valve and pushbike pump, its a little more work to make, hence saying car valve)

( I can post a pic of my valved hatch if needed )

 

DONT add heaps of pressure, better to have an assistant on the pump while you do the run around ....

 

run a rag with really soapy water around all the joins.....

 

check other hull

 

 

got bubbles.... = ..... got leaks

& the bubbles will be at the leaking joins

 

address the actual leaking spots, don't apply a bloody great Band-Aid you may regret later on.....

wont be fun if you ever have to replace the rear decks and you've plastered the joint with matt and resin for example.

 

TIP:

go to your local VET centre, ask for a couple of large syringes, these are ideal for laying resin in small spots like pinholes etc ... just like using a silicone gun

& they can be re-used over and over again, just leave the syringe partially open and allow to dry, pull it apart and the set resin is dead easy to remove from the plastic syringe body

 

Kingy

[Pirate]

You flew a hull

 

 

good vid..... need more tho

 

[Pirate]

2 pics I found .... IC 22 @ Deep Lake Derrinallum ~September 2010