All posts by kurt

What ever happened to the old Shaman?

I began building my first trimaran, Smoholla the Shaman the year that I began architecture school. That was 1977. I first sailed her the summer that I graduated. It was my home for a couple of years and at the same time, the fastest sailboat in Puget Sound, until Chaak came along.  She was my CM construction method prototype.
She lives in the Chesapeake now, looking different but still sailing. How nice.
back when I had her
back when I had her
Smoholla now
Smoholla now

the new cockpit

  the new cockpit

fury catamarans

one of the Fury 65 catamarans
one of the Fury 65 catamarans

I found these videos on YouTube of the kHSD 65 catamarans Fury. They are all aluminum and certified for over 100 passengers.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWHRjgGPe0g
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJIhCwgEZTI&NR=1
There are are least three and maybe four of the Fury catamarans in Cozumel and Key West. They must have been synergistic. The original owner managed to get three or four boats out of the same set of plans.

YouTube has a whole raft of Fury videos.

Palmetto Breeze Video

palmetto breeze
palmetto breeze

Check out this video from the KHSD 55 charter catamaran Palmetto Breeze. She sails out of Charleston, SC.
Historic Charleston. athletic women in bikinis; whats not to like?
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Charleston-SC/Palmetto-Breeze/66586621671
The video.
http://www.cofcsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=14800&ATCLID=204979487
Sorry about the ads. And don’t try to pause it to escape the buffering. It will flip you back to zero when you light it up again.

Catamaran Ferries

This office has been a leader in creating efficient, user friendly passenger ferries.

Most of the catamaran ferries that I see are designed by large design offices, and in my opinion, designed badly. They are usually metal, are heavy, have poor efficiency, and a poor ride, compared to what they could have. There are significant reasons for that. Those catamaran ferries come from offices who have been designing single hull ferries decades.  They do cats now like they always did the monos.

I come from a sailing catamaran background.  Instead of just piling on the horsepower, efficiency is important.  I carry these lessons to the passenger cats that I design.  I expect the gold plate design offices will figure this out in 5 years or so.  That technology here now. For more discussion ofdisplacement power multihulls see this article.

We offer a full line of USCG-certified multihulls and the experience in working with the Coast Guard to get owners operating in the least possible time.

KHSD Charter multihulls emphasize functional, efficient design combined with longevity and durability. Many of these designs can use rapid construction technologies for hulls and house cabins.