All posts by kurt

Insulation and Foam/glass Construction

I knew that the PVC and SEN foam cores we use to build boats had some thermal insulation value but I didn’t think it was as good as house construction insulation foam. At the Fiberlay design conference I learned that it is almost as good as the insulation foams. For example 90 kg Airex is 0.24 BTU.in/sqft.hr.F which comes to R 4.2 per inch. Craig Riley tells me that the PET foam gets wildly even better results when in a vacuum.
Nice.

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.