Glass Boat Windows

There is not a single square nor rectangular window anywhere on the lunar lander dwelling (built like a boat) that I’m building. And the building department has forbidden any acrylic boat windows. And all windows must be double pane at least, with argon between the panes. Windows from stores like Home Depot are all rectangles. What do I do?

At Pacific Marine Expo fishing industry boat show last week I found several companies that build double pane glass windows to any shape. I simpy take them an autocad file of the shapes I want and they cut them out.  This could apply to any multi needing actual glass windows.

I do not know about price yet. These companies are:

AdvanTec    www.AdvanTecGlobal.com/Marine

AJR Windows    www.ajrwindows.com

Boat Windows   www.boatwindows.com

Beclawat   www.beclawat.com

Thorodon Bushings/Unstayed Masts

I met with the Thordon bushings guys at Fish Expo. They normally do plastic tugboat rudder shaft and prop bushings. Off the shelf mass produced products are a fine way to keep costs down. They told me that they sell bushings up to 8 feet in diameter. In their experience a polymer on polymer bushing situation is to be avoided. This is however the definition of a Tides spherical bearing.  They look ideal for unstayed rotating mast bearings.  I have been specifying them for rudder bearings on my boats for years now.

http://www.thordonbearings.com/

Fish Expo 2013

I think the economy is coming back. Fish Expo seemed much bigger and I found many valuable exibitions. I will post next week. I did find out about various groups of angry builders who are planning class action suits against John Shaw. Good luck finding him. In my experience he plans his larcenous excape well in advance. He probably bootlegged my SC 58 hulls to build those.  Professional Boatbuilder should do an interview with him and find out how he keeps finding new victims.

Study Plans Price Must Go Up

Study plans have always cost more in printing, post cost and time than they bring in. Its no surprise that printing and postage costs have increased sharply.
Now however about half of all study plans sent out require specialized help. The credit card might not work. A package labeled to Austria goes to Australia. A package is not delivered and I must track it down for the customer.
It turns out that I am spending almost all my time now doing special work for what should be simple orders. I really need a full time mailing person, but the economics don’t allow it.
Sometime around the first of the year, I will try and fix that. I’m busy all the time and not getting any design work done.

Cat2Fold Sailing

A nice shot of the Cat2Fold 36 folding catamaran sailing with a light downwind sail also.  Owner Brian notes that it is rare that you get a picture of you sailing your own boat.  It’s true.  I think I was only given 2 pics of the Gecko sailing the whole time I had it.

cat2foldsailing