I got back last night. I got a lot done during the time. The new Composite Multihull Construction Manual is done, less the Table of Contents. Pagemaker did a pretty good job of it last year on the CM Manual, but was usless for this book. I will have to do it the old fashioned way.
The CM Construction Manual is also updated and the pagination and other bits fixed, or so I think.
Getting them out is the trick. With all the color pictures and hyperlinks, they are really best as PDFs instead of print. But each book is about 180 mg at standard resolution. A lower res lite version will be about 25 mg. The best way might be for Matthew to put them up at a downloading website. Already-builders could get the new books at a low cost. Not-yet-builders would pay somewhat more, but that could be refunded from any future plans order. I’m guessing there would be a passcode of some kind.
I also have the composite bridgedeck 45 cat materials spreadsheet updated with the help of Frank Fladerer.
And the plans set for the updated Trikala 19 is done except for labels on the pages. I get a lot done when I’m not doing plans support.
I came across some pictures of Bruno’s Aolani operating out of San Diego. 58′ long. I designed that some 15 or 16 years ago. It looks nice. Richard Elder was the original developer of the design. http://www.aolani.cc/
I will be out of the office between this April 6 and back on the 25th. I may or may not have email during. I will take laptop and be working on 3 designs. I will also be editing the two construction manuals.
The office seems to cost more than it brings in anyway so by being gone maybe I can stem the leaking.
The shopping cart will of course still take orders, but nothing gets shipped until I get back.
I wandered into Fisheries Supply today and spotted the March issue of Latitude 38. Inside I found a nice interview with the new (relatively) owners of the 45′ KHSD cruising catamaran, Capricorn Cat. They, along with the original owners, seem to have put more miles on that boat than almost anyone; except Richard himself. They also have a blog http://capcat08.blogspot.com/ I will see if I can get a link to the interview. Courtesy latitude38.
I just got some new pictures of my 55′ daycharter cat (100 pax) Palmetto Breeze operating out of Charleston, SC. This design could easily be made into an accessible daycharter design.
At the first of the year, the rate for priority mail overseas doubled. I will have to increase my shipping cost as soon as I get around to it. It still takes between a month and two months for most airmail priority to get anywhere overseas. I guess they are trying to force us all to stop mailing and go to Amazon.
I’m falling farther and farther behind on everybody’s work as both useless emergencies and important ones keep popping up. This week a guy who bought stock plans still underway demanded all his patterns immediately. He will not be building anytime soon. It’s triage here with those sorts of things as the office still costs more than it brings in. He mentioned the word refund if he doesn’t get all the patterns by tomorrow. He has also noted that he will change everything. I guess that means the patterns will be actually useless. Having to refund would wipe me out. At the same time, every step closer to getting the USCG certified updates done, seems to step back. Yesterday they stopped the process until the OCMI could certify the specific gravity of the seawater. Day before they stopped the process until I could prove and locate the watertight bulkhead. They have lost all drawings before 1990 so they don’t ask for help, they demand. This is really wearing on me.
