Here is a non Facebook link to be able to track the voyage of the KHSD 50 something cruising cat. Follow the Sailboat by satellite. When the map appears, if you click on the boat and each dot behind them you can get the location, direction, and speed.
https://share.delorme.com/CourageWinter
Ok Ok, there is so much Alii Nui stuff here. They just keep having such great pictures and articles. One of my 65′ x 36′ daycharter cats.
A model on display at Costco. I want one.
This view sums up the wonderfulness of being on a cat like Alii Nui. Put on those fins and shuffle down into the warm water to visit the reef. Notice the two lanes for up and down apart.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sailing-with-Lil-Explorers-Catamaran-and-Crew/281505708649584
Day 1 Leaving Galapagos –
Beautiful day. Started out with some nice rain to wash the boat, then a pleasant 10 knots of wind to push us along. We have been with spinnaker and main all day, with our speed varying with the wind. There is a large pleasant swell coming out of the Southeast, and some smaller swells coming from a variety of other directions.
We caught another giant Yellow Tail. This one was about 3.5′ long and gave us around 20 pounds of delicious meat. Looks like we will not be fishing for another week. This one was not a giant fighter, nor as big as the last one, but still giant!
Everyone is doing great, and we are all making predictions as to how long it is going to take! My guess is around 23 days, with time off for great wind days!
There are 3 other catamarans leaving today also, and two larger catamarans that have already left, so the race is on!
Until tomorrow!!
Courage
I had the occasion to lay up some Kevlar this last weekend. It was on the door faces for the lunar lander project. It is largely for psyche value, but might hold the door together against a framing hammer attack.
I have not used Kevlar before as I feel that it has no place on a real boat. While it has great tensile strength, it has very little compression strength, and thus low bending strength. It also has the defects that nothing sticks to it, and it absorbs water. It is often used for marketing purposes though, and it does have a better stretch to failure than carbon fiber.
It is probably most used to market to yuppies who know enough to know that it is higher test than e-glass, but not much else about it. Kind of like the carbon cleat pads that I saw on a Gunboat. Cleats are mostly loaded in shear, and shear is where carbon is the least benefical, but hey, its carbon. And Kevlar does look cool.
The KHSD 53/55/58 cruising catamaran Lil Explorers is continuing its voyage.
Central America now and keeping on.
Find it on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sailing-with-Lil-Explorers-Catamaran-and-Crew/281505708649584
ENTEBBE.
The ministry of Transport has allowed a private company to ply the Entebbe-KalangalaIsroute on Lake Victoria.” They will be using the KHSD 65 catamaran ferry Amani. http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/New-ferry-gets-green-light-to-ply-the-Kalangala-route/-/688334/2264354/-/preev9z/-/index.html
We finally get to see some pictures of Chris Anderson’s cat that he designed and is building. This is going on in New Zealand. North Island I think. This is a CM (cylinder molded) developed plywood vessel. Chris goes away back on the process. In fact he is in the original CM video.
If I may throw in a bit of bio: Chris led the team that designed the fly-by-wire controls for the Boeing 777. I’m surprised he has not also been interviewed by Wolf Blitzer this week.
Being from the antipodes, Chris did not know about Autocad, so he designed and used his own 3D modeling CADD software.
This unit will have 6 unstayed masts. I recall seeing the rig arrangement fastened to the top of his car; he was conducting tests.
Good stuff and great to see it move along.
The KHSD 56 daycharter cat Palmetto Breeze is at it again. If memory serves, this unit is certified for 100 passengers. http://www.etix.com/ticket/online/venueSearch.jsp?venue_id=8648
Nick’s 42′ catamaran was featured in a newpaper story recently. I see the software squeezed the X axis so the pictures look forshortened in the X direction. I kept it so the text remains as large and clear as possible.
