Launch picture of a new KHSD charter cat in Goa, India. Perfectly framed by…cattle. Waiting for the tide.
Fiberlay Class, Portland
Just notified about a Fiberlay composites and molding class in Portland, OR on December 1. The PDF below is a little large. Sorry. Am trying to get them to hire a blog geek for things like this.
http://web.fiberlay.com/emailblast/TrainingClasses-12-1-12.pdf
Basalt Fabric Composites
Some 8 years or so ago my friend, entrepreneur and crazed genius inventor, Chippy, showed me some basalt fiberglass fabric. He declared that it had better properties than glass at a fraction of the cost. I understand that the factory burned down and I forgot about it.
Last week I got to meet Mike and Jenn building a cat in Portland, OR. Mike helps build wind generators. They are looking into basalt fabric. I include these links which I have not yet had time to explore. So.
http://www.basaltfm.com/eng/fiber/info.html
http://www.sudaglass.com/chars.html
http://www.basfiber.com/roving
“Check it out. My snowboard has this instead of carbon for stiffness. It is made by Lib Technologies.
http://www.lib-tech.com/technology/basalt/
I have found references that it is 1/4 the cost of Carbon. Though I have not contacted suppliers. I’ll see if this is true.
Other advantages~
Higher UV and heat resistance than carbon
RF Transparent (Military might like this)
non-conductive!!! (better to protect against lightning damage)
environmentally friendly, greenhouse gases released long ago from natural process” Mike
Ending the Fax
I realized that except for the spam faxes, I have not gotten a work related fax in over a year. It must be a sign of the times. Its all the web and email now.
I am dropping that line and the fax number, 206-283-4106.
Tiny House
I attended the Build Small, Live Large summit in Portland, OR last weekend. http://living-future.org/cascadia/buildsmall
I wanted to see if they had anything that we need to know about in our cruising cats. I especially was interested to attend
“Biggie Smalls: The Notorious Tiny House
Micro Houses are structures that are often smaller than 200 square feet and have captured the attention of mainstream media and the hearts of thousands of Americans. They may be portable or fixed-in-place and may stand-alone or may be tethered to a “normal” house for utilities. These wee buildings are used as backyard studios, extra bedrooms, guest suites or full-time residences. Tiny House advocates explain that these small simple structures provide a flexible, affordable, reasonable (albeit small) solution for residential use, urban infill, and pocket communities. Our panelists will present information from their experience designing, building, and living in micro-houses with a focus on the unique benefits and challenges of taking small to the extreme.
Dee Williams, Portland Alternative Dwellings (Portland)
Lina Menard, This is the Little Life (Portland)
Derin Williams, UrbaNest NW (Portland)”
As far as I can tell, so far, they have nothing to show us boatbuilders. They are still doing stick frame and are way down on the technology continuum. I felt like a smarmy salesman trying to explain why a sandwich panel is better than studs and waferboard.
The one take-away was, in a small house, they have an artful bookshelf. In a tiny house, its a Kindle.
I did get to meet boatbuilders and sailors David Smith and Mike Lang.
Thin Plywood
3mm or 4mm plywood is pretty easy to find. It takes more work to find even thinner plywood. Especially with the little boats, it is sometimes a better result to do CM with thin plywood, instead of stressforming 3mm or 4 mm thick plywood. Its not cheap though. Thanks to Al, building my 20′ tri.
The 2mm ply is from the following link:
http://www.worldpanel.com/products.asp?cat=8&pg=2
The 1.5mm from the this one:
http://www.boulterplywood.com/
Palmer Johnson Trimaran
I see that Palmer Johnson has a new trimaran mega-yacht. It is 48 meters long. The 1% must be doing very well; it’s all carbon fiber. The design looks very post modern multihull: like Mike Schacht work, to the third power. The amas are just vestiges though; they could not support anything. However, as the guys from NAVSEA once reminded me, those amas could diffuse the thermal signature, protecting it from heat seeking missiles. It really is just a typical portly mega-yacht, albeit in carbon, with amas pasted on.
http://www.boatinternational.com/yacht-features/palmer-johnson-super-sport-48m/
Adventure Cat beats Oracle to the mark.
OK. In our dreams; but the late Oracle looks fearsome. Imagine that bearing down at you.
Techshop
I stumbled onto Techshop in my machine design magazine. http://www.techshop.ws/
From what I can tell, for $100 per month you can have access to a shop full of high tech tools including CADD and CNC cutting machines. That is no more than I paid for a drafty storage space. Only in a few cities yet, but surely will be in more soon. Cut out boat parts with a CNC cutter?
Articles
Flying back from IBEX I fired up the little notebook computer for the first time since travelling overseas in the Spring. I realized that I wrote a lot of articles back then. As soon as I catch up on everybody’s jobs, I will add graphics and publish. Short list of what I found. Plywood/Composites Fusion in Boatbuilding. (lecture I gave at SCCC Boatbuilding school) 5th Generation Rotating Mast Hounds. Cylinder Moulding in Composites. Finite Element Study of a Rotating Mast with No Shear Web
Soon as I get people’s jobs out.