My 140′ sailing cargo trimaran is getting some traction.
An amazing discussion on my 140′ cargo trimaran. It’s 33 minutes but is worth listening to.
Ian, my customer got great news from Barbados.
“Good afternoon Kurt
Just received response from CEO EXPORT Barbados 🇧🇧
” This is excellent, looking forward to working to deliver this during 2025″
I guess you have to download it to hear
Alex needs to sell his boat.
$200K
It was called “the highest quality owner built boat that I have ever seen. A fine boat and a fine man.”
SALTY CAT
Salty Cat is a 45’ Kurt Hughes design fast cruising catamaran sailboat, easily cruising at over 10 knots, built by the owner and launched in 2015. It is completely built with Core Cell foam core with e-glass/epoxy skins. It has a 28’ beam and a Ballestron (aerorig) rig. It sails flat and is extremely stable. It is designed for short-handed sailing and long distance ocean cruising. It has a shallow draft, and no below the water line through hulls. Boarding is easy with the stern steps in both hulls. It is powered by two 30hp Tohatsu outboards (it only weighs 23000 lbs ready for cruising). Two queen sized private berths.
Specifications
Hulls and Structures
Composite construction with CoreCell foam core with glass/epoxy skins for hulls, structural members, and everything else on the boat. This makes the boat unsinkable.
Hull bottoms are semi-circular for minimum water resistance.
36” Bridgedeck clearance
Waterline to top of mast 65’
There are no below the water line through hulls.
Kick up rudders.
Carbon fiber Ballestron (aerorig) no standing rigging rotating mast and boom (by Jim Betts, of Anacortes, WA)
2 Daggerboards with crash blocks and spares
Carbon fiber stanchions.
AmSteel life lines.
Two-person helm bench.
Inside and outside helm stations.
Outside helm under hard doghouse extending over cockpit
Wet locker
3M non-skid pads.
Net Systems Dyneema trampoline nets.
Diamond Seaglaze and AJR windows.
Heavy duty Diamond Seaglaze marine door with dogs.
Ample storage areas.
Propulsion
Two extra long shaft (25” inches) 30hp Tohatsu outboards under 400hrs each
Motors mounted to two manually operated liftable sleds in the rear beam.
77-gallon fuel tank vented through filler cap.
Anchoring
Main anchor 60lb Manson Supreme.
Two extra plow anchors.
Lewmar windlass.
Wireless remote windlass control.
200ft anchor chain.
Chain and rode for stern anchoring
2 Bow bridles, one for anchoring, one for attaching to mooring buoy
Sails and Rigging and Steering
Ullman Sails high tech fully battened main with deep roach
and self-tacking jib.
2 Reef points
Lewmar roller furling.
New sail cover.
All Lewmar winches and clutches.
Heavy duty Milwaukee main winch motor (to raise main sail).
Lazy jacks.
Kick up rudders.
Hydraulics
Hydraulic steering
Each rudder can be hydraulically isolated (each rudder can be individually turned off if one is damaged).
Marol hydraulic rotary actuators directly coupled to rudder posts
Electrical System
Two 300w solar panels.
Three AGM batteries. One house and two starting batteries.
Battery management system.
Charles 2000w inverter.
Charles isolation transformer.
Horn.
LED lighting throughout.
Four day/night Marinco solar/battery vents.
Red courtesy lights throughout.
Electronics
All Simrad electronics.
VHS
Hand held VHS
Chart plotter
Radar
Sounder
Auto Helm
Slave VHF
Airmar B744V transducer.
Z-F electronic motor controls.
USB ports.
Plumbing
Outdoor hot shower.
Two indoor showers and lavatories.
Two self-balancing fresh water tanks, 200-gallon capacity.
2 Nature’s Head composting heads
Galley sink drains directly or can be diverted to bucket for sensitive waters
Galley and Heating
Three burner stove.
Oven.
Engel AC/DC large refrigerator or freezer.
Large sink.
Dickinson propane fireplace heater in each hull.
Microwave oven.
Carbon monoxide detectors.
Two propane detector systems.
Three large fiberglass propane tanks, one small propane tank for outdoor shower
Extras
10’ Trinka sailing dinghy with all spars and sail, spare daggerboard
3.5hp Tohatsu 2 cycle
Duplex headsets
Four kayak racks
Fiorentino Para sea anchor, never deployed
Spare 300w solar panel
AmSteel lifting rigging for easy haulout by crane
Marine binoculars
First aid kit
Flares and emergency strobe light
Spare impellers, fuel filters, fuses, absorbent pads, and much much more
Complete set of nautical charts from Olympia to Alaska
Spare daggerboard!
Kurt Hughes Sailing Designs – design
3123 Fairview Ave E, Suite 203, Seattle, WA 98102 ∙ (206) 719-4893 ∙ khughes@multihulldesigns.com
www.multihulldesigns.com
EDUCATION
1977-1979 University of Washington Seattle, WA
B.A., Architecture.
1979-1981 University of Hawaii Honolulu, HI
Graduate work.
1992 University of California Berkeley Berkeley, CA
• Continuing Education in Engineering.
• Composite Materials Workshop XVI.
WORK EXPERIENCE
1984-present Kurt Hughes Sailing Designs Seattle, WA
Owner/Architect
• Executed the design of over 1000 composite multihulls on all continents.
• Maintaining state-of-the-art 3D Modeling Tool Kit for Design.
• Premier advocate of Cylinder Molded rapid hull construction technology. Published construction manual and
DVD describing CM.
• In 1989, with the assistance of Congressman John Miller, convinced the United States Coast Guard to use the
American Bureau of Shipping Offshore Racing Yachts guide (ABS ORY) to certify charter multihulls.
• In 1990, worked with the United States Coast Guard to accept certification of multihulls for exposed waters
and severe conditions.
1979-1980, 1981, 1983 Pruess/Kovell International Seattle
NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Lectures:
•1990 World Multihull Conference, (Cylinder Mold Construction) – Southampton, UK.
•1992 Marine Applications of Composite Materials (A Finite Element Study of a Wing Mast Using Intermediate Bulkheads) – Melbourne, FL, USA.
•1994 Miami Boat Show, (Floats, Foils & Fibers, Which Way) – Miami, FL, USA.
•1994 Marine Applications of Composite Materials, (Three Rapid Composite Hull Building Strategies) –
Melbourne, FL, USA.
•1994 World Multihull Conference, (Multihull Structural Design) – Southampton, UK.
•1990s Several annual multihull design conferences at Southampton, UK
•1997 Miami Boat Show, (Cylinder Mold Construction) – Miami, FL, USA.
•1998 Miami Boat Show, (Fins, Foils, & Fibers, Which Way) – Miami, FL, USA.
•1999 Miami Boat Show, (Appropriate 3D) – Miami, FL, USA.
•1999 MAREX Conference (Appropriate 3D) – Auckland, New Zealand.
•1999 IBEX Conference, (Appropriate 3D) – Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA.
•2006 IBEX Conference, (Repair of Marine Composites) – Seattle, WA, USA.
•2006 Structural Engineers Assn. Of Seattle, (Marine Design) – Seattle, WA, USA
•2007Seattle Central Community College lecture for the Wooden Boat School. (Fusion of Composites and Wood in Marine Construction) – Seattle, WA, USA
2019 My Designs Newport Yacht Club
Significant Designs in Operation Now:
32’ trimaran, Smoholla The Shaman – 1979: First KHSD design, fastest boat in Seattle for many years.
26’ trimaran, Nickel Sea – 1981:
44’ trimaran, CHAAK – 1985: Third design, fastest boat in Seattle for many years.
36’ catamaran, Kamanu – 1985: First wood/epoxy cat Coast Guard certified.
42’ catamaran, Cruising 42 – 1986: Going around the world now.
42’ catamaran, Akialoa – 1989: The first catamaran certified by the United States Coast Guard under ABS.
40’ trimaran, Gecko – 1988: Formula 40 based in Seattle.
85’ catamaran Channel Cat– 1989: charter cat
63’ catamaran, Profligate – 1996: Latitude 38 magazine company boat.
58’ catamaran, Sunchaser – 1996: Production catamaran.
48’ catamaran, Yellow Bird – 1999: Typical 30-knot charter trimaran
46’ trimaran, Faamu Sami – 2000: Record-setting East coast trimaran.
23’ proa, Jow Tran – 2000: Power proa.
45’ catamaran, Capricorn – : Prominent West coast fast-cruising catamaran.
65’ catamaran, Holo Holo – : Power catamaran.
40’ catamaran, Mystere 40 – : Formula 40 catamaran.
55’ catamaran, Sierra Cloud – : Charter catamaran.
30’ trimaran, Tomcat – : High-speed trimaran.
65’ catamaran Adventure Cat 2– 2002: charter catatamaran
65’ catamaran Teralani 2 – 2005: charter catatamaran
85’ catamaran Marina Flyer– 2005 charter cat collaboration
58’ catamaran, Sarabi – 2001: Aero-rig world cruising catamaran.
65’ (2) 65’ passenger ferries for Uganda 2011
Built by Hughes :
32’ geodesic dome – 1974.
32’ trimaran, Smoholla the Shaman – 1979.
26’ trimaran, Nickel Sea – 1981.
40’ trimaran, Gecko – 1988.
23’ proa, Jow Tran – 2000.
Half-size fire lookout – 2004
Composite lunar lander 2018
Kalewa and Profligate were caught racing. I don’t know who won.
For the last couple of years I have been designing an update to my 63′ catamaran Profligate for Craig in New Zealand. Unfortunately it turned out he wanted everything changed. The plan set consisted of 38 PDFs and 75 CADD files, plus all the spreadsheets and Autocad files. I did everything he requested. One of the last things he asked for was instead of the usual aluminum bow tube, he wanted a curved carbon one. I did and I also included how to build it drawings. We agreed that he would send another $5000 for all the changes that were requested. Then on New Years 2023 he caught covid. He has be apparently in the hospital until a few weeks ago.
When I finally saw him online I asked how he was doing. He told me that I was fired and he was going to start another design with someone else. I thought he had lost his mind. Again, I had done everything he asked for and he was enthusiastic about the work, until covid. I told him that I could remind him of our hundreds of positive Messenger messages we shared. I discovered that they had all been erased. No evidence remains. Suspicious.
It is one of the best plan sets that I have ever done. I am offering it for $25,000 to recoup some of my loss. Introducing it here before it goes online.
An example of the detail I did. Of course all the laminates were called out.
First 3D model. In weird colors until I understand where everything goes.
A former client got some 36′ plastic cat hulls and he wanted me to design a house for it. Instead he built something simpler and uglier.
My 48′ daycharter catamaran built by Pedigree Cats was launched June 6th 2024 at Raymond WA.
The boat was built for Woody Brown, son of the inventor of the Hawaiian beach cat. After sea trials it will sail to Hawaii.
It will be operating on Waikiki beach.
This is a new 44’ powercat design by Kurt. It is simple, elegant, and perhaps the most bang-for-the-buck design I’ve seen. Kurt estimates displacement at 2550 kg/5600 lbs, which i suppose indicates the boat dry would be 4000 lbs and change. This would be a very easily driven hull. 2x 50-60hp outboards should be sufficient to go fast, and the mpg is going to be spectacular. Twin 40 gal tanks should give a range of 400-1000+ miles depending on conditions and how fast you want to go. Beam as designed fits in 18’/5.5m for docking, but could (should) be increased to 22′ -24′.
I am a professional boat builder and this is a boat I would love to build. A client of mine has commissioned these plans from Kurt and a detailed construction spreadsheet from me. At the moment they are unsure whether they wish to proceed with this design. Plans might be available at a discounted price. If you are interested, we are available to build this boat during the coming winter in Sarasota, Florida. If you are in Asia we can arrange to build this in the Philippines. Drop me an email at matthewhreynolds@gmail.com or text/call 1.941.323.5122.
To see more of Kurt’s designs, check out http://multihulldesigns.com.
Sailing in Puget Sound.
