New Designs

What ever happened to the old Shaman?

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I began building my first trimaran, Smoholla the Shaman the year that I began architecture school. That was 1977. I first sailed her the summer that I graduated. It was my home for a couple of years and at the same time, the fastest sailboat in Puget Sound, until Chaak came along.  She was my CM construction method prototype.
She lives in the Chesapeake now, looking different but still sailing. How nice.
back when I had her
back when I had her
Smoholla now
Smoholla now

the new cockpit

  the new cockpit
New Designs

fury catamarans

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one of the Fury 65 catamarans
one of the Fury 65 catamarans

I found these videos on YouTube of the kHSD 65 catamarans Fury. They are all aluminum and certified for over 100 passengers.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWHRjgGPe0g
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJIhCwgEZTI&NR=1
There are are least three and maybe four of the Fury catamarans in Cozumel and Key West. They must have been synergistic. The original owner managed to get three or four boats out of the same set of plans.

YouTube has a whole raft of Fury videos.

New Designs

Palmetto Breeze Video

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palmetto breeze
palmetto breeze

Check out this video from the KHSD 55 charter catamaran Palmetto Breeze. She sails out of Charleston, SC.
Historic Charleston. athletic women in bikinis; whats not to like?
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Charleston-SC/Palmetto-Breeze/66586621671
The video.
http://www.cofcsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=14800&ATCLID=204979487
Sorry about the ads. And don’t try to pause it to escape the buffering. It will flip you back to zero when you light it up again.

Power Catamarans

Catamaran Ferries

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This office has been a leader in creating efficient, user friendly passenger ferries.

Most of the catamaran ferries that I see are designed by large design offices, and in my opinion, designed badly. They are usually metal, are heavy, have poor efficiency, and a poor ride, compared to what they could have. There are significant reasons for that. Those catamaran ferries come from offices who have been designing single hull ferries decades.  They do cats now like they always did the monos.

I come from a sailing catamaran background.  Instead of just piling on the horsepower, efficiency is important.  I carry these lessons to the passenger cats that I design.  I expect the gold plate design offices will figure this out in 5 years or so.  That technology here now. For more discussion ofdisplacement power multihulls see this article.

We offer a full line of USCG-certified multihulls and the experience in working with the Coast Guard to get owners operating in the least possible time.

KHSD Charter multihulls emphasize functional, efficient design combined with longevity and durability. Many of these designs can use rapid construction technologies for hulls and house cabins.

New Designs, Sailing Multihulls

Sailing multihull preferences

2 Comments

If you could answer these questions and forward the answers to me to help start the design process.

  1. How long should be between charging batteries, once a day, twice a day, two days?
  2. Singlehanding needed?
  3. Shorttacking is fun
  4. The sole should be flat
  5. In light weather the boat should power if speed falls below 5 knots?
  6. Dining seats must be face to face?
  7. Galley should be out of traffic?
  8. Head area should be separate?
  9. All winches should be hand powered?
  10. Transom steps?
  11. Boat should be able to be beached?
  12. Kickup rudders?
  13. Shoal draft important?
  14. Unobstructed inside headroom is important
  15. Leangth of trips planned?
  16. Motor noise?
  17. Sea noise?
  18. Weight/cost tradeoffs
  19. Resale is important?
  20. Interior style? Old yacht-eurostyle-plastic boat style-mega yacht style
  21. Reefing gear type
  22. Frequency of anchoring intended
  23. Frequency of tacking and trimming intended
  24. Racing intended
  25. Helm should be covered from weather
  26. Good raingear is all that is needed
  27. Trimming quality verses helmstation comfort tradeoffs
  28. Most time under sail will be spent where?
  29. Most time at anchor will be spent where?
  30. Previous boats?
  31. Previous voyages?
  32. Previous races?
  33. How important is boatspeed?
  34. Boatspeed verses comfort tradeoffs
  35. Budget
  36. Examples of best multi you have seen
  37. Examples of worst multi that you have seen
  38. Number of persons expected on most or typical voyages, and relationship of those people
  39. Most work will be upwind or downwind
  40. Rotating mast or not
  41. Fractional rig or not
  42. Fuel choice, why?
  43. Engine choice, why?
  44. How good should paint job be?
  45. Are there any other questions that i should have asked, but forgot to?
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