All posts by kurt

RIP Ed Dubois

I just read of his passing in Pro Boat. Am I the only person who didn’t know?
I met him at one of the multihull design conferences held in Southampton back in the early 90s. He was a monohull designer who did his first trimaran, a Formula 40 tri, that was faster than any of its competition. I remember him as light hearted and unassuming. Godspeed.

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Mission Statement

Guys, make sure you believe and follow your mission statement before you build the hulls. Once again, the hulls were built before the mission statement was final. This 39′ power cat ferry is now required to have 36 seats and a perfectly flat floor. 3 years ago it was designed on almost no budget for far fewer passengers and no comment on the floor.  It needs 5′ more length to carry the weight.  Two studies on locating the cabin.MODEL7LONG2PSP2G

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Boeing 787

Piece of a 787 hull at Future of Flight. Visited with the kids Saturday. All carbon fiber. Compared to the thousands of rivets on the metal hull, I wondered what took them so long.
Probably if I had taken the Boeing tour I would know, but the stringers looked small compared to the hull thickness.
The hull is too large to co-cure, so the stringers probably help joining the sections. And help with global loads. I doubt if they help much with the pressure vessel.
This is interesting as my builders are facing rapidly increasing core costs, and decreasing shear strength. Stringers and frames are looking more attractive. Is interesting to see what unlimited funds for structure analysis came up with. My builder Terry Neilson uses glass over a pvc pipe half round.

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Different kind of foiling

I just got this picture of Joel’s stretched 37 cruising cat being built up at Betts’ shop.  The plug is covered with aluminum foil prior to applying mold release and laminating inner face. I have not seen this before.  Layups should start in a week or so.  I want to see this.bettshullfoilg

44 Powercat Gets Closer

It looks like my 44 powercat design in Estonia might actually get launched this summer. I see from the wheeled luggage note that it was 6 years ago when I was last there.  Foam/glass.  Steyr hybrid engines.  I will get more reports from the guys.

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65 Charter Cats Front View

I got that great opportunity to see my Alii Nui side by side with a Constant Camber 65 last week. It was great to see the differences. Again, both were built by the same yard. Alii Nui is foam/glass and the CC 65 is constant camber. Except for butting all the plywood sheets instead of scarphs, and bagging the ply to a true mold, instead of itself, this boat’s hulls  were built exactly like the CM system that I have been using for 30 years and that CC has been criticizing for almost as long.  Cool.  Oriented ply sheets.  Stringers instead of mass. Thinner hull skin.  Cool.

Alii Nui is 36′ wide.  I cannot find the CC 65 data online, but I’m guessing it is 30′ or even 32′ wide. That makes a smaller playpen.  First the Alii Nui.  Both from the same distance on the dock.

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Sailing On Alii Nui

Last week I got to take a great snorkel trip with Capt. Timothy on the 65′ x 36′ KHSD Alii Nui.  It runs out of Maalaea Harbor on Maui.

It was a nice comparison to come back to the harbor and tie up right beside a Constant Camber 65 daycharter cat.  Both were built by Schooner Creek out of Portland, OR.

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