I got to visit Alex’s 45′ catamaran project yesterday in Bellingham. It was being spray painted with water based primer. System 3 WR-155 Epoxy Primer. http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=71&familyName=System+Three+WR-155+Epoxy+Primer
I had forgotten that it is possible to do high-test spray painting without scaring the neighbors with the lethal stink. Pictures soon.

It seems it was time for my ISP, Drizzle to go dark again. I see that I have  no website and no email today. I think it does indeed work better in Uganda than at Drizzle. If it weren’t for Jesus, their amazing tech guy, I would be gone.
So, alternate email if needed.  themultihulldesigns@gmail.com

they fixed it for now.

I am often asked if house insulation foam can be used on boats. A few years ago I would have declared “never”. Since I have been building my own SIP panels on the lunar lander project, I have moderated a bit. But only on non structural items. I used the Foamular pink foam to vacuum bag panels. http://www.foamular.com/foam/
It ranges in density from 15 psi compression strength up to 40 psi or even 60 psi compression strength. I assume the shear strength is similar. I don’t see weights listed but it is light. One downside is there are no thicknesses of less than 1″ available. It can be gotten at Home Depot or any other similar store. If vacuum bagged with thin plywood faces, (3mm or even 2mm) it can make very light and inexpensive cored flats for your multi interior.  The edges will be much easier to smooth than any of the honeycomb or Nida products.

Launch picture of a new KHSD charter cat in Goa, India. Perfectly framed by…cattle. Waiting for the tide.

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

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://basalt-alf.narod.ru/

http://www.basaltfm.com/eng/fiber/info.html

http://www.sudaglass.com/chars.html

http://www.basfiber.com/roving

http://www.basfiber.com/Sites/basfiber/Uploads/BCF%20KV12%20assembled_TDS_eng.202CB9D826F74BC685B3910192BB01FF.pdf

“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

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.

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.

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/