I just got word from Paypal that even though I provided USPS tracking proof that I mailed the DVD, since post office still has not delivered it, customer gets full refund.  I’m going to have to put in extra protections for Paypal sales I guess.  Customer has not responded to any emails so I have no way to know if he actually got it.

I’ve been wanting to start SDW for a while. Longtime seadog and venerable boatscum Richard Elder got me started with a note and a link on the Spirit of Kingston passenger ferry. Its really the same story over and over. Legislative groups who know nothing about catamarans hire elderly gold plated naval architecture firms, who actually also know nothing about catamarans, to pick ferries for them. 

This is a prime example.  It is 71′ long so it is just over the magic 65′ cutoff length to avoid excess USCG mucking about.  They must have wanted the additional  mountain of regulatory mucking about that extra 6′ gave them.  Displacement is 43 tons or 86,000 lbs.  Beam overall is 25.5′ so kind of like my Holo Holo or Kai Oli Oli.  Kai Oli Oli lightship is 37,000 lbs for comparison.  Look at the power comparison.  It needs 4, yes 4 engines of 740 hp each.  My cats are 500 hp per side for slightly less top speed but the same cruising speed.  Fuel use on SK is 80- 85 gph.  Compare to Holo which is about 15 gallons per hour. 

And I understand the passengers take a beating when the wind blows.  “Some have criticized the port for purchasing the Spirit, a light catamaran that last winter’s heavy seas treated roughly. “The weather was slowly beating up on us,” recalled port commissioner Pete DeBoer.”  Light? It has fat hulls, big overhang, short waterline, and low bridge-deck; you think?   I’m sure the highly credentialed consultants they hired had never actually been on a wave piercer or semi-wave piercer catamaran.  Holo operates out of Kauai.  The USCG considers those to be some of the most extreme waters in their jurisdiction.  Those are real waves.  The designers and buyers of SK clearly did not understand displacement hulls or they would not have allowed  this amazingly bad example of a passenger ferry.    The Washington State Ferries need an intervention. 

 

There has never been so many plans orders so soon from the Holiday Discount. I am going as fast as I can to get them out. Most have been printed already, but I am looking to see if any pages need updating or replacing.
I am going to try one new thing as all the orders are from overseas. Airmail post has become even slower than before. I sent a DVD to customer in Canada in early December by air. Tracking it I see that it took 10 days to get from Seattle to LA. It left LA for Canada on Dec. 22nd and is still not there. Courier like Fedex is crazy expensive. Something like $150 just for the DVD. The Construction Manuals are too large to really email. Tomorrow I want to try to create some smaller versions of them and see how small they can become. Then I can email them to everybody and save a lot of grief. Sets me back another day though,  so please bear with me. I did work through the holidays and will keep on trying to get everything out as quickly as I can.

I read last week that the washington state department of transportation is looking for new passenger ferries. Typically they will want to pay $5 million for each one. And each one will need a thousand horsepower on each side to go 25 knots. And they will look like autonomous units, designed by fishboat designers.

In the spirit of my friend Larry’s ferry, http://www.seattleferryservice.com/ A single yes, but a nice friendly looking boat. I propose a new Mosquito Fleet looking catamaran. Friendly and traditional, but built with infused composites and epoxy plywood/core/plywood sandwich cabin.
Last saturday I did a quick study model of the vessel.  65′ x 30′.  100 passengers. 27 knots with 500 hp per side.  About 1.5 miles per gallon. Cost should be under a million.

I sometimes forget what a nice set of pictures and what a dramatic story Jim Dory has with his KHSD 30′ cat. Think I remarked before, but it came up in the forum and I had to see all the pictures again. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdory/sets/72157625973914417/

 

A big mess of sources. I worked on a lot of these during the last few trips. I imagine this kind of being crowd sourced where people will add to this as it goes along.  Some to be added anyway, but getting it out for what it is now.

A sources list now is different than it was when I first did the Construction Manual.  Presently the best way to locate boatbuilding products is to go to the manufacturers website, and from there find the vendors in your local area.  This list is pretty much for North America.   And it leans toward products that I have first or second-hand experience with. Builders elsewhere, get me your favorites and I will expand this.

Epoxy

Mas        http://www.masepoxies.com/

Noahs                                   www.noahsmarine.com

System 3                              www.systemthree.com

SP                                           http://www.gurit.com/

WEST System                     www.westsystem.com

Fiberlay                               www.fiberlay.com

Jamestown Dist.               http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/main.do

Fiberglass Supply            www.fiberglasssupply.com

Vinylester Resin

Ashland Chemical           http://www.ashland.com/products/hetron-epoxy-vinyl-ester-resin

Interplastic Corp              http://www.interplastic.com/

Composite Fabrics

Fiberglass Supply            www.fiberglasssupply.com

Fisheries supply               www.fisheriessupply.com

Fiberlay                               www.fiberlay.com

Composites One              http://www.compositesone.com/

VectorPly            http://www.vectorply.com/

Core

http://corecomposites.com/media/CoreComparisonChart.pdf

Airex                                                     http://www.corematerials.3acomposites.com/

Corecell                                               http://www.atlcomposites.com/products/cores/end grain balsa/index.htm

Divinycell (crosslinked PVC)        http://www.diabgroup.com/europe/products/e_prods_2.html

Urethane             General Plastics http://www.generalplastics.com/products/index.php?PHPSESSID=6ac3fdb313fb070a2d6a8f4d0f5eb4a4

Balsa                                                     http://www.corematerials.3acomposites.com/

Paulownia                                           http://www.paulowniawood.com/

Foamular                                             http://www.foamular.com/foam/

Fiberlay                                               www.fiberlay.com

Nidacore                                             http://www.nida-core.com/

Polycore                                               http://www.polycore.com.au/

Plascore                                               http://www.plascore.com/index.htm

Tricel                                                     http://www.tricelcorp.com/

Core Craft FRP Honeycomb         http://www.infracomp.com/index.html

Vacuum Bagging supplies and equipment

Fiberlay                                               www.fiberlay.com

Airtech                                                 http://www.airtechonline.com/

Plywood/Lumber

Anchor Hardwoods         www.AnchorHardwoods.com

Edensaw                              http://www.edensaw.com/MainSite/Store1/Content/SiteContent/1/Home/Main.aspx

Meridian Plywood         1-800-743-1126    Lynnwood, WA

Noahs                                   www.noahsmarine.com

Boulter Plywood              www.boulterplywood.com

Joubert Plywood              www.wolstenholme.com

Paint

Farwest Paint                    www.farwestpaint.com

Awlgrip                                http://www.uspaint.com/

Stirling                                 http://www.scomar.com.au/Products/Coatings/CoatingsSterling.aspx

 

Rigging and Masts

Hall Spar

LeFiel

 Plastics

 

Hardware

Fisheries Supply                              http://www.fisheriessupply.com/

West Marine                                      http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TopCategories1_11151_10001_-1

 Foamex         
Outdoor cushions that do not absorb water. Dry-fast open cell polyurethane foam ideal for outdoor furniture and boat cushions. Five Year warranty.
www.foamex.com
 I have bought some light samples from HollySolar http://www.hollysolar.com/

  The watermaker store (http://www.watermakerstore.com In san diego has a watermaker (up to 1500gpd) with a 130A alternator on it, all based on the Kubota 6hp diesel which purportedly uses 1/8 gallon per hour.

 Masts

 Masts, Battens  www.c-tech.co.nz

  www.southernspars.com former omohundro 775-782-6788

http://ballengerspars.com/, often called the best mast builder

 Sailing equipment www.layline.com

 Synthetic rigging parts seen

at http://www.allspars.co.uk/precourt.html

 Carbon tubes     http://www.cstsales.com/

 racing software and electronics

Marine computing international http://www.marinecomputing.com/

 make a black box that allos wind and radar to be fitted on a rotating mast (Mike Golding on his open 60 has one)

 Composite props  www.kiwiprops.co.nz/home

 electric outboards http://www.fischerpanda.de/cgi-bin/start.pl?task=content&folder=03_Whisperprop_Marine_Propulsion&sfolder=NULL&file=08_DE-Outboard.html&lang=eng

 A Steerable diesel electric outboard: http://www.fischerpanda.de/cgi-bin/start.pl?task=content&folder=03_Whisperprop_Marine_Propulsion&sfolder=NULL&file=06_ADE-Saildrive.html&lang=eng

 Steerable raisable electric drive: http://www.fischerpanda.de/cgi-bin/start.pl?task=content&folder=03_Whisperprop_Marine_Propulsion&sfolder=NULL&file=10_RA-DE_Thruster.html&lang=eng

 The Azimuting Podded Prop: http://www.fischerpanda.de/cgi-bin/start.pl?task=content&folder=03_Whisperprop_Marine_Propulsion&sfolder=NULL&file=07_AZIPROP.html&lang=eng

 Or these amazing drives http://www.fischerpanda.de/cgi-bin/start.pl?task=content&folder=03_Whisperprop_Marine_Propulsion&sfolder=NULL&file=12_General_AZIPROP.html&lang=eng

 Plastic Mirror  TAP Plastics Inc. www.tapplastics.com

 

Go to www.solomomtechnologies.com electric power

   For nets

http://www.multihullnets.com/

  http://www.nets-n-tramps.com/

   http://www.net-sys.com/

  http://sailrite.com/

 window bedding techniques

http://www.sikasolutions.com/Marine/295.htm

 Tools

 Northern Tool And Equipment www.northern-online.com    

Fax: 1-612-882-6927  Air tools, Auto, Engines, Generators, Gloves, Hydraulics ect…..

 For info on LED lights www.Hollysolar.com

 http://www.diyplastics.com/safetyglazing.htm

 comparison table for plastics and other materials

http://www.machinist-materials.com/comparison_table_for_plastics.htm

 Composite materials     

http://www.uscomposites.com/

 Noah’s Marine www.noahsmarine.com 

 A local Vancouver company, Kraft Industrial Supplies.

www.kraftindustrial.com    Lots of other nifty pultruded shapes (I

confess I was surprised how cheap these things are).

 I just had a meeting with a rep from TriStar Plastics Corp. This is the

plastics equivalent of a steel service center. They stock plastic, machine

plastic and will provide technical advice on what is best for a particular

application. Interestingly they make a wide variety of bearings which would

seem ideal for rudders etc. www.tstar.com

 plastic boat sheds www.ClearSpan.com

 Carbon tubes, start with these guys:

http://www.forterts.com/ 

http://www.csi-composites.com/ 

http://www.cstcomposites.com/ 

http://www.marstrom.com/ 

http://www.carbonfibertubeshop.com//index2.html

 

 

 

 

Engines

Yanmar

Styer

Caterpillar

Yamaha

 

Tanks

 

Haul-out

 

Builders

 

 

I had forgotten how much stuff US Plastics has. http://www.usplastic.com/
sinks, tanks, plastic bolts, hinges, structural shapes; all kinds of things.  All kinds of things for boats that won’t corrode and are light.

And Mike Roth reminds me of Harrington Plastics, also here in Seattle.

http://www.harringtonplastics.com/

Godspeed Jan.   http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2012/12/bay_city_boat_builder_sailor_j.html

Jan and Meade basically invented modern epoxy boatbuilding. I had the honor and privilege to meet both of them at IBEX in ’09 at Miami. We spoke a lot. They were impressed with my Post-Apocalyptic Boatbuilding article. They told me that it motivated them into getting back into the biz of boats. They wanted to help make boats available to the 10%, not just the 1%. I couldn’t agree more. That’s what I also try to do. And on Sailing Anarchy ” “It is a double loss to us. Today we lose a great innovator that found great fun in building crazy machines in unexpected ways to further some very important technologies,” wrote one commenter. “And then there is the loss of a great guy that seemed untiring in his quest to help us little guys… Fair winds.” I recently went to the Facebook page of the catamaran design company named after the candy. Virtually everything there was toys for millionaires.  It’s not right.   Godspeed Jan.  Picture I took in Miami.  Isn’t that Jim Gardiner also?

 

I’m working on this 41′ powercat while here in Copenhagen. Sort of a more serious, friendly look at a powercat design.

I just got this picture and note from Ian Walker in western Australia. He writes “I have been the proud and happy owner of a 36ft Hughes cat for 20 years. She is raced weekly for 9 months of the year then cruised around
the NW coast of Australia in the winter. She has covered several thousand
nautical miles, sometimes in atrocious conditions, including 1 night when
the wind exceeded 55 knots, and, to the credit of your design, has never
suffered structural failure.”