Sometimes I forget not everybody knows about G-10. It is a phenolic fiberglass sheet or shape that can be machined into anything. I am using it to fabricate hinges for the Beckson ports on the lunar lander as the windows must be much thicker than stock. I get mine at McMaster-Carr. http://www.mcmaster.com/#grade-g-10-phenolic/=zs44n4
I just spotted one of my cat designs on HGTV show Million Dollar Rooms a couple of weeks ago. It was an 85′ unit that the developer wouldn’t pay any more than $3K for the design of. It was a spare design of course. I didn’t want to leave him in lurch, but it was not a real design fee.
Next contact was when Charlie Munger bought it and dropped by to find out what he had just bought. Over the years I have met various people who worked on it, including naval architects in expensive offices.
Ironic that it is a million dollar room, but the proper design of the fundamentals was thought to be too expensive to be funded properly.
I could not find a link nor a picture.
An ama bow broke off during the race. 70′ trimaran? Clearly the only time we get to see inside. Most of us. Picture below.
Its time again for speculative forensics. One would assume that if they going to spend a couple of million on it, everything would be perfectly engineered. I learned long ago that just because they are famous or expensive, it doesn’t mean it was done right.
And again, I can only go off of what I can see here. If anyone knows any of it first hand, let me know.
First it sure looks like a carbon fiber keel and a carbon fiber band running down each side just above the stringer. Rule of mixtures error if so. If you use carbon for global loads, there better be enough of it to do the whole job. Regulars here already know that the stretch to failure of carbon is around 1%. The other fabrics have much more stretch. So the carbon would have to fail before the other kinds would begin to help much.
I would not have used a stringer. They increase the panel aspect ratio, which is weaker. The closer to 1:1 a panel can be, the better.
That core looks really thin to me. It looks like 12mm but am sure it couldn’t be that thin. I would have had no less than 25 mm and maybe even 40mm thick. I forget what colors of core denote what density. Maybe someone has it handy.
Finally, that hull skin fabric sure looks like e-glass, or more likely Kevlar. Dude. That has already been covered.
They could have called me.
Coming right up this week. My friend Greg Lynn is presenting. Wish I knew about it sooner. I don’t have a link yet but maybe soon.
I see they went ahead and came up with one. It could have been so much better. I recall the design brief called for something besides cross tubes, but they did that anyway. They sure should have looked into Rafi’s Cat2Fold system.
One of the biggest faults of the original I thought was that it had berths, one per side, that were some 13′ long and about 2′ wide, or close to that. That always seemed useless to me. I offered them flared hulls with enough inside room to sleep two, the right way. What I see is a wide transom that gets wider fast above the waterline. That will promote pitching in waves. Maybe it was not intended for waves.
I see it has a prod to hold up the bow net. That is easier to break down, but once the mast is down, you have nothing holding the lot up.
They did do a belly pan instead of tramp between the hulls. I don’t see how they will origami it, if they will. Again, Rafi worked out a way to fold those up, and in carbon, they’re not too heavy.
I thought mine looked friendlier also. I don’t see any designer’s name mentioned in the advertising, so I’m guessing the whole call for designs thing was actually a call for ideas, like I suspected. (Normally I can edit image size. Word press changed without me knowing it and no longer will allow resizing photos. I will have to look into that.)
I finally got a chance to update my long running and very popular 45′ cat model.
I wanted to keep the look and feel, and amenity similar, but add much more.
Notice the reverse bows to dampen pitch in waves, and the spray deflector that slides back into hull flare. The hull flare is the best way to get gobs of room inside the hulls and still have a skinny waterplane so it can be fast.
It has about the same layout options inside, but a suncover over the cockpit and added transom steps for easy water access.
I have chosen to allow the builder to make his own parts as much as possible. The bowtube is composite, as is the compression tube, chainplates, mast and boom. I will create an exploded view of the components as a flat panel assembly probably this November, along with the study plans.
I will offer this design once there are study plans, for the same price as the present model. Once the set is done or nearly done, it will be available at a competitive price for the plans.
Mast can be fixed or rotating.
Its next week. As my friend and GRPguru (www.grpguru.com) Andre Cocquyt notes, “CAMX is the joint show of previously ACMA and SAMPE, so it is indeed the best event for composites in the US. Tons of seminars and the entire who’s-who in the composites trade is there, as are most vendors and technical experts, perfect place to (re-)connect with peers and make new business links. Good live demos at the composites alliance booth for everything from infusion to prepregs and RTM. Anything that is new in terms of materials and techniques is shown and you need a couple of big bags to take home all the samples and brochures. It is in Dallas, starting next Monday 10/26 thru Thursday 10/29.”
It used to be that the MACM conferences in Florida were then best to get information. They ended. IBEX used to be pretty good but nothing like the MACM. CMAX is supposed to be the deal now. I will make it to next year’s.
Quick little video in light winds. Looks so much nicer than when I owned it. Seems to be impossible to place the url here, so below is the best I can get for now. Not on the YOutubes yet. “Engine is working again so we had some fun sailing on Oosterschelde.” In Face again.
Posted by Trimaran Gecko on Tuesday, October 13, 2015
I need to update my resources for east coast and gulf coast boatyards that can do composite and or wood/epoxy multis.
Any suggestions from people?
It turned out that after me running all kinds of diagnostics myself, Verizon had remotely turned off my modem, and activated another that I don’t have.
