At Fish Expo I met the guys from Platypus Marine in Port Angeles, WA. http://www.platypusmarine.com/index.php
If your new 65′ catamaran suddenly needs a haulout, to see how bad Ollie mixed the epoxy, this is the place. I can’t find the maximum haulout width on their website, but my 65′ cats are 36′ wide; and they fit.

There is not a single square nor rectangular window anywhere on the lunar lander dwelling (built like a boat) that I’m building. And the building department has forbidden any acrylic boat windows. And all windows must be double pane at least, with argon between the panes. Windows from stores like Home Depot are all rectangles. What do I do?

At Pacific Marine Expo fishing industry boat show last week I found several companies that build double pane glass windows to any shape. I simpy take them an autocad file of the shapes I want and they cut them out.  This could apply to any multi needing actual glass windows.

I do not know about price yet. These companies are:

AdvanTec    www.AdvanTecGlobal.com/Marine

AJR Windows    www.ajrwindows.com

Boat Windows   www.boatwindows.com

Beclawat   www.beclawat.com

Colm alerted me that this video of Faamu, now Pipeline 3 was out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrjGXHTHE1o
Course again, Simmo set a pretty high bar.  Recall that Pipeline 3 is the KHSD 46 tri that was one of Ocean Navigator Magazine’s Top 50 Custom Sailboats of the Year in 2001 as Faamu Sami.  As Pipeline 3 it got new ama bows earlier this year.

Again I’m using 3D modeling to locate core and laminates. Here on the 79′ tri. One design advantage also is that I can query the model and get exact amounts of each type. The guys in the shop could get a 3D model or even on a smart phone.

I met with the Thordon bushings guys at Fish Expo. They normally do plastic tugboat rudder shaft and prop bushings. Off the shelf mass produced products are a fine way to keep costs down. They told me that they sell bushings up to 8 feet in diameter. In their experience a polymer on polymer bushing situation is to be avoided. This is however the definition of a Tides spherical bearing.  They look ideal for unstayed rotating mast bearings.  I have been specifying them for rudder bearings on my boats for years now.

http://www.thordonbearings.com/

There are more and more great videos of KHSD boats found online.   It is the KHSD 65 daycharter cat Alii Nui out of Maui.  http://youtu.be/0hquuDeWJqs

Maybe not real multihull content. Yet. The big Scania engine at fish expo. I forgot to write down the power.

I think the economy is coming back. Fish Expo seemed much bigger and I found many valuable exibitions. I will post next week. I did find out about various groups of angry builders who are planning class action suits against John Shaw. Good luck finding him. In my experience he plans his larcenous excape well in advance. He probably bootlegged my SC 58 hulls to build those.  Professional Boatbuilder should do an interview with him and find out how he keeps finding new victims.

Study plans have always cost more in printing, post cost and time than they bring in. Its no surprise that printing and postage costs have increased sharply.
Now however about half of all study plans sent out require specialized help. The credit card might not work. A package labeled to Austria goes to Australia. A package is not delivered and I must track it down for the customer.
It turns out that I am spending almost all my time now doing special work for what should be simple orders. I really need a full time mailing person, but the economics don’t allow it.
Sometime around the first of the year, I will try and fix that. I’m busy all the time and not getting any design work done.

A nice shot of the Cat2Fold 36 folding catamaran sailing with a light downwind sail also.  Owner Brian notes that it is rare that you get a picture of you sailing your own boat.  It’s true.  I think I was only given 2 pics of the Gecko sailing the whole time I had it.