The first complete picture of the new 21′ powercat shuttle in production in China now.

Conventional wisdom is that as soon as a multi is built here, it sails for warmer climates. Or that they are all store-bought F-boats that have been capsized at least once.
Actually there are a surprising number of KHSD multihulls building and sailing in this area. None have capsized so far, and the owners are not clubbie so they are not on club memberships. In no particular order, and I must have forgotten several, and I know I’m forgetting a bundle of little daysailors:
49′ cat – Poulsbo
Formula 40 tri- Seattle, for now
45′ cat – Bellingham
45′ cat – Seattle
63’/65′ trimaran – Marysville
56′ cat – Port Angeles
56′ cat – Portland,OR
Chaak 49′ tri – Seattle
Proa 26′ – San Juans
Proa 24′ – Seattle
26′ tri – Bellingham
36′ daycharter cat – Blaine
37′ tri – Seattle
52′ tri – eastside, may not still be on
37′ tri – Bellingham
40′ tri – Bellingham or farther
65′ catamaran ferry – Everett

31′ tri -Port Townsend

27 cat – Seattle

40′ powercat – Tri Cities, OK thats very greater Puget sound.

How about that? Who knew? Let me know if I have forgotten anyone.

To get more room in a hull space people often want to substitute a hat section layup for a bulkhead. So how do they compare structurally?
First, ABS ORY tells me that I can use some of the hull skin in the laminate calculations. But only a flange width of 18 times the skin thickness, plus the base width of the internal part.  The skin thickness is assumed to be 0.15″.
The basic bulkhead is assumed to be an inch wide so I’m allowed to use about 4″ of the flange width. I will assume the bulkhead is 6″ tall and has 0.1″ laminate faces.

For a hat section I assume that base is about 6″. I’ll again use a skin thickness of 0.15″, giving me about 3″ so a total flange width of 9″. I give it a 3″ wide inside flange and sides at 45 degrees. Those parts are also 0.1″ thick. I assume all parts are of equal strength.

The original bulkhead gave a section modulus SM of 2.1 inches to the third power (2.1 in^3).
The hat section only gives SM of 1.33 in^3. If I thicken all the hat parts to 0.13″ (4 times 17 oz biaxial) it still only gives a SM of 1.6 in^3.  5 layers of biaxial will give a SM of 2 in^3.
Conclusion. Like magical catamaran beams, hat sections take more material to achieve the same strength as a bulkhead.

I finally got the slightly dated web address of the KHSD builder in Goa, India. Contact at www.multitechmarine.com

I’m beginning work on their passenger power trimaran next week.

I don’t know why it took me so long to realize this information should be here on the blog. It just might have been the extra oxygen from the bike ride just finished.
Tomorrow A19th at 8:30 in the morning Pacific time JR Watson will be on ProBoat Radio. He not only knows all about epoxy, but this will honor his long career with Gougeon Bros.
http://proboatradio.com/2011/04/14/glue-and-you/

As I was laminating the lunar lander bits on Tuesday, I got some perspective on the Earthwise ferry. I often take amazing things for granted, and I have done so with this. What Rob Smith has put together is really amazing. My 25 years of doing plywood/epoxy passenger cats were just what he needed for this venture.  He knew just where my skill set would fit in to the big picture.  And more than a boat, he has organized the entire venture where they will be built there in Africa with local materials. Showboats magazine has featured a mega-yacht with bamboo flooring and called it “sustainable”. This is the real sustainable deal.  It will be positively changing the lives of thousands of people. I’m surprised that Wooden Boat or even Pro Boat are not all over this. This is not 17′ lapstrake canoes for dilettantes. This is plywood/epoxy/core fusion creating big positive change.
I did try to interest Workboat in this a year or so ago. They were so disinterested. “If its not a tin boat built in Houma by a guy named Skeeter, keep moving.” was the sense I got.  It’s humbling to be part of this.

Uber surveyor Dennis Smith got to run survey on a couple of 25 year old KHSD CM multihulls. Both had minor rot places. Both spots were inside the hulls at remote locations where epoxy was skimped. The trouble is inside, not the outside. The take-away lesson is coat inside thoughly and make sure any damage is repaired.  Cove all the joints.  Epoxy hulls still need to be ventilated.  Note they were both the $6 door skins and not the 6566 that we use now.  But coat it good inside!

We had the only two sunny days in weeks this last Friday and today. I took advantage.  Forecast is again rain for as far as we can see. The lunar lander panels were taking over the shop. They had to be epoxied and glassed so they could be moved outside. The dozen panels were arrayed in the sun all over the yard outside as they were glassed.   Laying glass did give me ideas for topics here.  Not as Zen as sailing, but close.  Back in the office tomorrow catching up on designs again.

As I face the prospect of disassembling my trimaran, I am reminded about the most important thing to do with installing any hardware with epoxy. And I hope to find out that I kept this in mind when I built Geko. MOLD RELEASE
Every fastener set into epoxy should have already had mold release was rubbed into it and buffed. Or even green soap. New builders don’t believe it, but much of your hardware will move or be replaced over the years. And I will admit perfidy on this. The evidence is when is forced to use the battery and jumper cables to heat the fastener. Mold release!