Jon Montgomery's account of the genesis of Catapult:. We moved to Kingston Upon Thames, near the river, where I sailed a friend’s dinghy. I wanted a catamaran but had nowhere to store it.

By then my thoughts were turning to the possibility of making an inflatable catamaran

(Above: Model inflatable catamaran.) (Right: "Si Si" )

"The first boat was built in 1976 and had hulls assembled with two tubes, one on top of the other, with side walls and central aluminium beam to step the mast on and a single rudder blade. We called her ”Si Si”. (Photo above) This boat was the basis for a design built by a French company Hutchinson Mapa. The boat proved difficult to manufacture and never really got off the ground. My next boat was “Dice” built for speed sailing at Weymouth and was the forerunner of Catapult which was initially built by Carboncraft. (Left: "Dice" sailed by Alex Montgomery, aged six, preparing to be a future Class Champion)

 "Only three boats were built and they decided to not go any further. However they did build a 20-footer called “Cobra”

After a gruelling year trying to raise finance, we finally managed to get some funding from a venture capital company. What followed was a period of intense design and development, and Catapult was launched at the Southampton Boat Show in 1982."

 (Below: Catapult launched at the Southampton Boat Show)

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