I got another great picture of my 65′ Alii Nui. The queen of the fleet in Maui.
Alii Nui Pic
Category Archives: New Designs
Mosquito Fleet Catamarans
New 65 foot Mosquito Fleet ferry proposal. Imagine a Holo Holo for cold weather, with classic lines. 135 passengers. 500 hp per side giving 27 knots.
Compare to the recent Kitsap Transit metal cats of 149 pax, needing nearly 5000 hp to go 37 knots. And costing $7.5 million each. They could have probably had 4 or 5 of these for that price, and avoided the soulless utilitarian look too.
They could also be electric, but see how they have about a fifth of the carbon footprint already.
#multihulls
Gato
It must have been more than 20 years ago that I met Gerry Downton. He was a famous around the world ocean racer and I was an obscure designer. He bought plans, built the 42 and sailed it.
He notes, “Did a 5 year apprenticeship as a boatbuilder.
Left Australia at 21 to go sailing for a year, but didn’t return for 36 years. Too many yacht races to do and race boats to move, fix, modify or build to think about stopping a great lifestyle. Ended up sailing about 225,000 miles during that time. Including some long distance races and 1 marathon race. Loved it all.
Built “Exit” a Newick 36’ tri and “Gato” a Hughes 42’ for myself and am toying with the plans for a Power cat as my next build. When will this madness stop?!”
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Visit to Lake Chelan Ferry Build
My first time standing in the cabin. 50 feet, and 32 passengers. Building near Seattle.
#catamarans #passengerferry #lakechelan #multihulldesigns
Bio Composite Materials
in my Automotive Design/Production magazine I read about a new composite being by the University of Portsmouth in UK. They are using a date palm fiber biomass for things like bumpers and liners. The products are reported to have better tensile strength and better low velocity impact strength.
Date palm fiber polycaprolactone PCL bio-composite is completely biodegradable and recyclable…”
Mechanical properties. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1020216906846
I get a bending strength of about 50,000 psi which is impressive.
19′ Beachcat in China
In development now. The beachable resort version first. 19′ x 8′. It will be vinylester/glass, not rotomolded.
Salty’s Hound On Pipe 3
This arrangement is proven as it has sailed for years. I have been told that it can rotate 90 degrees each way from centerline.
John Fanta would prefer Colligo Cheeky Tangs for the shrouds.
52′ Tri Hound
I was shown this 52 Mcconaghy trimaran with an interesting hound arrangement. Composite rigging guru John Fanta advises against any hidden composite rigging arrangements.
It also had an oddly large masthead plate and an oddly small and badly chewed up exit for something there in the picture foreground.
Chaak Pic Again
Chaak recently popped up on the Classical Sailing Multihull page. After she ran hard on the beach, destroying the original amas, I was asked to design new amas and beams for Chaak. ’85 maybe? They have proven to be tough. It did a run to Hawaii and back. It was campaigned harder than most PNW boats at that time. I recall Tim mentioning one time when the route back from Hawaii was by way of Alaska. Tim started to realize that when the shadow parted from the boat every few waves, it meant they were airborne.
USCG aircraft above asked if then needed help. “Nope”.
I recall that there was a Constant Camber 44 designed that was supposed to beat Chaak in racing. In fact it was nicknamed “Chaakduster”. Was not even close.
Pipe 3 On the Water
I was sent this great picture of Pipe 3.
I understand that back when it was Faamu Sami, Salty used to singlehand it everywhere while out cruising. Nice.
