I’ve pretty much been doing nothing but this upgrade to the world cruising 42 cat design to possibly go into production. And the 19′ cat for China. and everybody’s tech questions. I can’t show the design yet. Pic below is one of the original ones out sailing.
2018 was an odd year for my power trimarans. Two customers insisted on the amas being hidden if not all the time, at least in the harbor. They claimed trimarans are ugly but they wanted the benefits. I found a concurring opinion in Boat magazine, a glossy megayacht monthly. In an article on White Rabbit, a 275′ x 66′ “trimaran” they write about trimarans, “some people might not like the look of them.” As you can see in the Boat picture, it has pretty well hidden the amas. I would put it in the stuff done wrong folder, by gold plated design office who has never done a trimaran before.
My first one was a trawler in Estonia where it needed the stability and economy of a trimaran, but the amas must be as invisible as possible. It had so much volume that they had to be big enough. Job ended.
Another one in the last autumn wanted to power trimaran around the world. But the amas had to be hidden in harbor. I broke my rule about giving away too much free work because the project was interesting. 3D modeling was not in the scope of work and not paid for. I did it anyway. Closest I could come up with was sliding in at harbor. He wanted a very organic rounded look. Customer called up screaming that I was cheating him with work he didn’t authorize. I told him it was free. I never heard from him again. Picture is in mode.
Former Skipper Chris Bane notes “I’ve logged over 240,000 nm on that boat. One of the best boats I’ve driven.” Chris has driven just about everything there is.
New 65 foot Mosquito Fleet ferry proposal. Imagine a Holo Holo for cold weather, with classic lines. 135 passengers. 500 hp per side giving 27 knots.
Compare to the recent Kitsap Transit metal cats of 149 pax, needing nearly 5000 hp to go 37 knots. And costing $7.5 million each. They could have probably had 4 or 5 of these for that price, and avoided the soulless utilitarian look too. They could also be electric, but see how they have about a fifth of the carbon footprint already. #multihulls
This demountable 26′ trimaran is being built here in the PNW. CM cylinder molded developed plywood/epoxy. Toss the outboard and add a rowing rack aft to make it a R2AK competitor. I will publish interior next week. BOA 22.5′ or 6.86m.
It must have been more than 20 years ago that I met Gerry Downton. He was a famous around the world ocean racer and I was an obscure designer. He bought plans, built the 42 and sailed it. He notes, “Did a 5 year apprenticeship as a boatbuilder. Left Australia at 21 to go sailing for a year, but didn’t return for 36 years. Too many yacht races to do and race boats to move, fix, modify or build to think about stopping a great lifestyle. Ended up sailing about 225,000 miles during that time. Including some long distance races and 1 marathon race. Loved it all. Built “Exit” a Newick 36’ tri and “Gato” a Hughes 42’ for myself and am toying with the plans for a Power cat as my next build. When will this madness stop?!”
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