efficient 10m displacement powercat (build thread)

Discussion in 'Boatbuilding' started by groper, Apr 15, 2012.

  1. groper
    Joined: Jun 2011
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    groper Senior Member

    Well, its been a long time between posts so i guess i have some catching up to do...

    3 intrepid adventurers and me, took our little cat from Cairns up the Queensland coast for a ways for some fishing and diving along the way... We eventually found ourselves holed up at Lizard Island for a few days waiting for a weather window to cross the Coral sea Via osprey Reef to Alotau, Papua New Guinea. We climbed the mountain at Lizard and checked out all of the islands offerings during this time, which also included a number of visits to the coral reef research station here. We were upset to learn of the major coral bleaching event in January just past, which has ruined much of the Great barrier reef in this region... according to the researchers, 90% coral mortality... which is about consistent with what we saw everywhere since our journey began. A sad story so far, but I have this happy snap to cheer up the mood :) and another from one of the beaches here...

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    After some patient waiting - a perfect weather window presented itself and we set off on the 100NM trip out into the coral sea to Osprey reef. Once here, we did some epic diving and hooked some excellent fish - unfortunately we were unable to land any of the large pelagics we hooked up - including one particularly beautiful yellowfin tuna- it seems the shark population here is remarkably healthy and prevented any successful landings :( Heres a snap from 30m below, the visibility in the water out here was nearly 50m...

    [​IMG]

    Following an overnight at osprey, the weather calmed to near glass out, just a gentle SW blowing and we set off on the ~300NM ocean crossing to PNG @ 7kts. Smooth conditions all the way and we arrived in Alotau in high spirits, greeted by a pod of dolphins playing with us on our way into the bay. Just magic, ill have to upload all of the videos - we have plenty inc manta rays, pilot whales and more :)

    [​IMG]


    All in all we spent a month cruising the Louisiade archipelago of the Milne Bay province of PNG. Absolutely wonderful experience with a bit of good, bad and ugly... Its a country rich in superb natural beauty, poor in development and governance, and truly a last frontier with no services or availability of basic fuel and supplies etc for nearly the entirety of the area. Out here your on your own, and the native people are 100% subsistence farmers and hunters. We traded clothing and fish we had caught for fresh fruit and vegetables, and generally had very friendly experiences with most of the people we encountered.

    [​IMG]

    Heres a few more pics of the trip, ive got so many im not sure its appropriate to continue putting them all up here. I may start a social media account or such like if anyone wishes to follow our adventures, our next journey starts in early october :) Happy boatbuilding my fellow nutcases - i guess it may have been worth all the effort after all... although, im already thinking about the next, *ahem* slightly more ambitious boat! :p
     
  2. groper
    Joined: Jun 2011
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    groper Senior Member

  3. Jim Caldwell
    Joined: Aug 2013
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    Jim Caldwell Senior Member

    Nice looking front beam!
    Any problems making it by wrapping the glass, mine was a pain in the a**.
     
  4. Charlyipad
    Joined: May 2014
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    Location: St Simons is ga

    Charlyipad Senior Member

    WOW!
    What an inspiration you are Groper!
    Great job.
     
  5. Speedling
    Joined: May 2016
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    Location: Cedar Lake

    Speedling Junior Member

    Just an awesome boat man!
    I have dreams of building a basic 22 footer and you pull this off like it's nothing. And seems good and reliable too. Awesome!
     
  6. groper
    Joined: Jun 2011
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    groper Senior Member

    Ah yes - i forgot about the beam saga... trying to make it like i outlined earlier in the thread was a disaster! compressing a large number of fibers around a former under a vacuum bag will always result in wrinkles... the only way to do this via infusion reliably would be in a 2 peice seperating female mold using either a compressed air bladder inside the beam or a vacuum bag inside the beam sealed to the mold around each end. This way the infusion stack is being stretched thinner rather than compressing it into a wrinkled bunch.

    I gave up on it and got a 150x3mm aluminium tube rolled by a local engineering shop and would be a good way of obtaining a plug to make a mold from... you could make a really long one and just use part of the mold to make shorter beams in a commercial environment... during the rolling process we squashed it into an oval profile by deliberately using oversize rolling dies. End result im happy with :)
     
  7. DennisRB
    Joined: Sep 2004
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    DennisRB Senior Member

    Nice scenery. That's a decent trip you guys done. Hey can you take a few pics of the sleeping arrangements?
     
  8. Mr Efficiency
    Joined: Oct 2010
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    Mr Efficiency Senior Member

    What arrangements did you make for fuel, groper, which seems to me would be the biggest problem ?
     
  9. DennisRB
    Joined: Sep 2004
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    Location: Brisbane

    DennisRB Senior Member

    Good question, and did the issue with fuel mean that a slow cruising speed was required?
     
  10. Mr Efficiency
    Joined: Oct 2010
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    Mr Efficiency Senior Member

    Nice pics of the coral gardens I thought.
     
  11. ElGringo
    Joined: Mar 2014
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    ElGringo Senior Member

    It is nice to see hard work paying you back many times over, it was a long project and you deserve the happiness.
     
  12. groper
    Joined: Jun 2011
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    groper Senior Member

    Indeed the fuel was a major issue. The only place we bought fuel was In alotau. I could have bought fuel I'm misima but I knew it was $3 per litre and so didn't plan on getting any there. We carried an extra 100 litres in Jerry cans and so had 700 litres on board. This gave us enough for the coral sea crossings, and from alotau out to the calvados chain and back again without refueling. Yes- we had to travel at 7 knots most of the time to conserve fuel.... with wind behind us, we could travel on 1 motor for almost half the fuel burn at times. With wind on the nose, 2 motors were required to keep the speeds reasonable etc... I still don't have fuel flow meters, so I still don't know accurate fuel figures at various speeds.... suffice to say the boat is quite efficient at what she can do...
     
  13. groper
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    groper Senior Member

    The next adventure has begun :D

     
    1 person likes this.
  14. jorgepease
    Joined: Feb 2012
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    jorgepease Senior Member

    Beautiful!
     

  15. Speedling
    Joined: May 2016
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    Location: Cedar Lake

    Speedling Junior Member

    Livin the dream man!
     
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