The Meermark 17, a Kurt Hughes designed 17 footer that provides, easy, safe, fun, fast and affordable sailing to everyone. #sailing #sailingforeveryone #sailability.
Category Archives: New Designs
New Carbon Fiber Cross Tubes
On the spur of the moment I decided to go to White Salmon to pick up the carbon fiber tubes I had made for the little yellow trimaran. Innovative Composites Engineering.
I also got a tour of the place. Amazing. Stuck in the woods outside of White Salmon. Space X is their biggest customer. They have giant presses to compact the laminate even more than bagging. I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures inside the building. And also warned not to touch anything.
They consulted on Oracle. Hence in the boneyard.
When I ordered the carbon fiber cross tubes for my yellow 12′ trimaran, I assumed a modulus of about 16 million. And I speced the thickness accordingly.
I just got the spec sheet from the manufacturer.
8.5 x 10 to the 7th.
I checked with a scientist I know. That is 85 million.
That is more than 5 times the modulus. Wow.
They aren’t going anywhere.
the New Lake Chelan Ferry Hulls
Cliff got master builder Joe Kitchel to come up and do a Berlitz class on boatbuilding for Cliff and the boys. It worked. Beautiful hulls with no delamination. It took place in an abandoned fruit warehouse nearby. It was well insulated so they could run the temperature up as needed.
Craig’s New Cat Moves Along
I’m doing a 63′ cruising cat for Craig in New Zealand. Some screen shots. The diffraction gets better if you enlarge them.
I Grabbed Some Pictures of Tunnel Vision
It’s my 42′ cruising cat operating in So Cal.
Update On the Mosquito Fleet Catamarans
I have a meeting with Peter Philips of Pacific Maritime magazine about this next onth,
Hi Peter,
I do have a Lake Chelan ferry. See pictures.
Most of my boats are in Hawaii. The Holo Holo, Kai Oli Oli and Alii Nui are warm weather boats that ferry a large number of passengers. I want to take what I know and apply it to the Puget Sound.
http://www.oceanjoycruises.com/
The difference is that I come from a sailing background. We are familiar with easily driven hulls, and weight saving is critical.
Almost all the passenger ferries that I see are by designers with a powerboat background. They just pile on more horsepower to make up for not being easily driven.
I have been designing catamarans for 35 years. With the help of congressman John Miller, I got the USCG to adopt a particular design rule to design catamarans to.
I appreciate your interest.
Kurt Hughes
Pure Watercraft Electric Motors
I just had a phonecom and visit from Ed Ives of Pure
Watercraft. They are about to release a 50 hp electric motor system with a Tesla type battery. https://www.purewatercraft.com/
A Nice Note
I got this nice note from the HaynesCarstens family.
” We are frequently asked what type of boat she is, and are always proud to answer that she’s a Kurt Hughes! Just wanted to send well wishes to you, and let you know how stoked we are on your design! Here’s to a speedy recovery so you can get back to creating more wonderful things for folks to enjoy!! Best Wishes! :~ The HaynesCarstens Family
Fisheries Supply Seminars- Riggers Party
When:
Thursday, March 5th • 2pm to 8pm
Where:
Fisheries Supply 1900 N. Northlake Way
Seattle, WA 98103
Across from Gas Works Park
https://mailchi.mp/fisheriessupply.com/riggersnight-schedule?e=e1aad46c45
Hosted by the Fisheries Supply team
• Technical seminars hosted by leading brands
• Boat Box Talks: “Elevator pitches” on new products
• Surprise Giveaways
• Check out some of our favorite new products
• Connect with marine professionals and other boaters
• Learn from experts at product training seminars
• Great BBQ, craft beer and refreshments on us!
Plotting
The future caught up with me this autumn and I didn’t see it coming. 6 or 7 years ago I bought an amazing plotter. A Canon that could do a page in something like 20 seconds. It could do full size patterns and everything. No more repro copies of an original. It would be just in time printing. $5000 and supposed to be worth it.
A couple of years ago it stopped working. After about a $1000 in repairs it was working again. Until it quit again and I was warned it would be another $1500 and that might not be enough. That was last year. People were slow to pay at the time, so I parked the plotter. For at least a couple of decades, I could send a dxf file to University Reprographics and they could plot it out at full size.
An overseas job came up that needed that. It turns out that is not possible anymore. To plot AutoCAD, they would need their AutoCAD.
With all of us having plotters, the repro shops had to cut costs. That meant no more AutoCAD at the repro shop. I tried every other repro shop in Seattle. Nobody plots AutoCAD anymore commercially. And even with mere PDFs, it was more than $500 for a hull plot.
So I am getting my plotter fixed. Parts are on the way. I’ll part with the cash. As soon as repairs are done, I can do everyone’s full size pattern plots again.