Delightful meeting with Dan. Turns out a wave stove in the door in the front and it all went downhill from there. I do stand corrected about it having too much windage for offshore;  it was never intended to go offshore.  Except when it did.

Dan thinks he might rebuild, but ship it home in bits safe in a container. It would need accurate 3D modeling to sort out the pieces then. Glad to meet Dan.

I just got word yesterday that this 61′ Kelsall powercat Twin Coves sank and was lost at sea.  I see no mention of it online.  I will know a lot more after a meeting tomorrow. I would not have felt safe going out of the harbor with that much windage on a sled that small.   I always declare that whatever the sea can’t hit, it can’t hurt.  The inverse that it will hurt what it can hit is true too.  I feel badly for the owner.

Larry brought this site to my attention. Carbon here.
http://www.reusemarketplace.org/?content=ad.view.all.contact;listing_id=421720

I have realized lately that there was a kind of unusual and I think singular conjunction going on in Seattle in the late 80s. Naval architecture had just started to go digital. It was new and expensive. Macsurf had just come out and I seem to recall it was $6K a seat. Autocad was $3K a seat. A giant HP pen plotter was $10K.   What did a Mac cost?  Going from memory here.
Suddenly, here in Seattle there was an explosion of innovation. I always thought that was going on everywhere else, but now I’m not so sure.

Microsoft helped make the PC a less costly alternative to Mac.  Dave Vacanti here wrote Prolines hull design software for PC that did Macsurf at 10% the cost.  Generic Cadd, also here,  for PC was one step behind Autocad, also at 10% of the cost.  Zericon did a pen plotter for $2.5K.  The guy at plotter accelerator wrote a batchfile that made the Zericon plot in one smooth sweep instead of in the order drawn.  Generic also output a flavor of EPS file that Adobe (also down the street) could read easily and with even now, unmatched resolution.  So we could all start doing high quality publishing.  And all these people knew each other.  Dave wrote output specifically for Generic and so on.  By ’86 or ’87 I was doing everything in CADD, with files downstreaming from Prolines to Generic.  I recall being at a design conference in Southampton in maybe ’88 or ’89.  I presented slides of this process and the designs.  John Shuttleworth, the then famous as the most digital catamaran designer in the world, told me, “How you do that is great.  We can’t do that.”

The only other person I recall seeing do CADD back then was Gino.  I was watching him playing with it back at R&D Boatworks.  Cam Lewis was there also.  His comment was, “Its like an etch a sketch”

Nice new video from Brian out cruising Cat 2 Fold. http://cat2fold.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/charette-family-adventure-2013/

Part of reorganizing this business so I don’t spend all my time in the post office was to raise to price of print study plans so they finally pay their way.  And to introduce e-study plans. The first part was done, but not the second yet I see.

I thought of a workaround until it is done. If you want an e-study plan, order the design book and declare that you live somewhere overseas like Botswana. Then email me noting that you did order book but that you want a particular study plan. I only need your email address to send them to. There are only three designs that have no e-study plans but they will be phased out soon with all the time I will have now.

Most people consider Howard Apollonio to be a naval architect most known for sober and reliable large power yachts. Few know that my friend Howard was (and probably is still, but hidden) a catamaran crazy. He designed and build this back in 1966. Pretty wild.  Find Howard at  http://apollonionavarch.com/  The text parts are not online and longish so cannot be included now.

Howard was also the PE tasked with structural review of my lunar lander project.  The building department agreed that there was probably not a single civil PE in my state that knew anything about composite construction.  They did accept that Howard would understand everything about my building at a glance, and he is a PE.  One funny side story.  In his letter about the project he noted that the lunar lander could tumble some distance and survive.  And it turned out it actually did.

Again there are composites classes available at Fiberlay in Seattle. Basic Composite & Mold Making Training Classes!
Saturday, March 22, 2014
9am – 3pm
Fiberlay – Seattle
see http://www.fiberlay.com/emailblast/TrainingClasses-3-22-14.jpg

In the past my builders could get in for free by registering as one of my builders.  Then Fiberlay began hiring the instructors from corporate and it had to cost.  Not sure status now but give it a try.

Its AmCon Expo time again. It is “AmCon exhibitors are all job shops and contract manufacturers that provide custom metal, plastic, rubber and electronic parts and finishing services to OEMs.” I find it very interesting and will be there for my locale April 9-10. Is free if you sign up.  See other locations in link below.
http://www.amconshows.com/

I got this wonderful picture from Vision Winter in Panama City now. I assume that is Panama and not the panhandle. Two of my cruising cat designs meet while out cruising. Nice image and nice thought. A stretched 53′ on the right and a 60′.  The 53 is Durakore and the 60′ is foam/glass construction.