I was going to include several of Owen’s finds but I see that the antivirus chose now to update and it locks up the system when it does that.  It could go on for an hour.  Back Monday.

http://inhabitat.com/solar-energy-rolls-out-like-a-carpet-with-groundbreaking-roll-array-photovoltaics/renovagen-diagram/

Meeting more deadlines this week. So not much put here again.

For the upcoming, I have pictures of the repair of Holo Holo, the new stretched 37 cat being built up at Jim Betts shop, with aeroesque rig. I will post a new 50′ trimaran runabout and a new 62′ cruiser. Meanwhile I will forward some of Owen’s finds here in case anyone is not yet following him.

I haven’t been here much lately between rush USCG submittals and deadlines on real jobs.

I had thought I was done with mucking around with the recent USCG catamaran submittals and could get some work done.
Wrong!
One of the hulls measured a half inch deeper than the other. That came to a difference in displacment of 3.5 pounds and a possible heel difference of 0.126 degrees. Unless I can talk them out of it, they will insist on a new complete stability study for each hull. As it is now, the stability is more than 40 times what is required for metacentric height, and over twice what is required for intact stabilty.
The whole crew there seems to be new. I’m trying to talk them out of this silliness. They do have unlimited power on this kind of thing.

I don’t think I posted this before. http://sarabisailing.com/
And I still don’t know how the mast worked out yet.
Nice pics.

This is the hull plug being built for the diving cat that was shown here a month ago or so.

The January issue of Practical Sailor had an article suitable for a few lines in Post-Apocalyptic Boatbuilding.
It notes that retired climbing ropes (they call them ropes) usually have very little UV damage or wear.  And are retired early and often.  While they stretch a bit more than our top low stretch lines, they have many uses where stretch is expected or even useful.

This gets you a peek. http://www.practical-sailor.com/issues/37_61/features/Testing-a-Dynamic-Traveler_11899-1.html

There are 5 different kinds of ropes, but I gather that single dynamic are what we want.

My client Ian found these at the London boatshow. Apparently you can walk on them with no damage, to the PV.  They will be all over the top of the house cabin.  http://www.photonicuniverse.com/en/

I got a request the other day to help evaluate a catamaran buy in SoCal. It turns out it was one of the bootleg Sunchaser 58s that John Shaw splashed and sped off with. 

Funny thing; when they went through USCG certification, MSC was calling me with questions. One question was how was it possible that a 58 could weight 50,000 lbs I think it was. The other was it had the lowest laminate testing numbers they had seen.

Get one done right by a reputable builder, with designer support.

Canon makes a great printer, but CFS out of New Jersey is the sleeziest organization that I have come across in years. I bought the printer with the understanding that I would make 3 years of payments then it was mine.  Contrary to what was said, it turned out actually that I could buy it from them then. The vendor told  me that was news to him and we would work something out when the 3 years were up.
I wasn’t really paying attention to when the time was up. It was up in November, but as they told me, “we will never tell you when the 3 years are finished”.   And the extra payments are considered frosting to them and gone. 

I have been given 2 weeks to pay in full, but they will insist on getting two more payments afterwards or they can ruin my credit.  And it is all governed by the laws of NJ. Note to anyone else in future, they are utterly dishonest.

I got this recent picture of a couple of jobs in the Pedigree Cats yard. Is the truck under the Shuttleworth 53 new?  The cat has been there since Bill Clinton was president.  It has a luscious interior but looks very dated outside, to my eyes.  And the structure is more flexible than I insist on.
The big unit on the left is interesting. It is something like 86′ and nice and wide. It does have no visible main beam under the mast inside. The fiberglass box beam is under the floor. All glass. I did a quick calc and recall predicting a deflection of 2″ (50mm) from mast load upwind.  Might be moderately alarming?