I see Derek Kelsall has sent out a mass emailing, inviting me to his workshop. I got two of them, I guess in case I missed it. Says he will increase my understanding. I do understand it. I had forgotten that I had been doing CM about a decade before KSS started and its pretty similar to CM but with bits cut out of the bilge.
The trick as I see it is to start with curved panels; instead of bending flat panels into a curve. The other trick is to resolve the compression along the keel. That way you don’t have to cut bits and then laminate over the cut bits, and next fair that work. I think I sorted that compression out and will build one that way as soon as I get this spaceship done.
I hope I’m still working the problems like Derek is when I get to his age.
I know some people who have gone and it was a real life changer. I would go if it was local and not too expensive. I don’t believe the system is superior to CM, for one thing, I managed to do a CM hull without attending a meeting of the faithful. I am pretty sure that for my hull attending a meeting would have cost me more time and money than building the main hull did.
One thing about Kelsall is that he isn’t a tri designer, at this time. I don’t know that I think the process is sensible if you are building three hulls some of which are different in size. For boats up to about 30 feet, you can probably get an ama slung together by traditional means in about 20-30 hours. I have done the 20 hours on an ama for a boat with a main hull of 24 feet. So that sounds reasonable.
Trimarans not only have 2 different hull sizes, but in many cases, less than half the main hull is the curvy bit. Does it really make sense to go to a seminar, learn infusion (cool!), make a full length of main hull lam table to external finish standards, etc… Just to make the parts of the Trimaran main hull that are under the knuckle? Keeping in mind that your keel and stem, the wet bits, will require more fairing than a CM hull?
Now if you want to infuse various non-hull parts, be my guest, but that is just boat building.