Catamaran plans, who have I forgotten ?

Yeah snow isn't a problem in Brisbane...Climate similar to Florida I believe...

 

Pick a weather window, it should not take you very long to do the hulls, 3 months at 40 hours a week is 480 hours . Even if you give yourself 2400 hours to complete a boat in the size range you want, 480 hours would be 20% of the, I think that would be within reason at worst case. Richard Woods should be able to give you a rough estimate on build time.

 

Back on page 7 I linked to Mr Woods page where he deals with this.

Sailing Catamarans - How long does it take to build?

He has built several of his own designs in his own backyard and he admits he has no special skills so probably worth considering. But it would vary enormously. I'd suspect people who have never built anything might take longer, those looking for a furniture finish, while others who don't care about details or who have a lot of experience...

Changing your mind is fatal. I think it's one of the best ways to extend the time.

 

Those are rosy estimates. 2000 hours for a Skoota 28 means finished in one year full time work.

 

The sentence above the numbers says in the water but not fitted out. For the powercat I'd interpret that to mean a bare hull painted with engines and steering/throttle, no other fitout ?

I'd think for a scorpio with cuddy it would take that to get the bare hulls and bridgedeck done no rig, no cruising nav or safety gear no wiring plumbing etc.

The keels. Maybe the rudders...maybe. Maybe no paint yet..

But as I say once over that hurdle I'm on familiar ground.

As a quick aside this is currently advertised. IMO it's probably a $60k boat but they are asking $99k. Simpson drew nice boats but that thing is weighed down with saildrives and twin diesels..

1996 SIMPSON Sailing Catamaran (boatsales.com.au)

This is what I'm up against. Cats that should be 50 are asking 100...

 

Ask doesn't always mean get.

Never buy unsurveyed.

Always start at 80% of ask.

Unlikely you can build that boat for that $$. It looks rather nice for a 27 year old.

Just my damned tent cost almost $4k. I recovered $1950.

 

I spent $1500 on a mil surplus tent and another $600 on a concrete slab , so there are other cost involved . I could have planned on pvc and plastic like they build greenhouses in this area if my property had been in a different location , and saved on the 1500 . I think if you do a male form , lay a light 3oz glass to start by yourself . Then find a couple people that will work for free beer and food on a weekend to help layup one layer of triax , you could deal with fairing and build up for puncture resistance where needed . If the beer is cold and the food is good they will come back for each major layup .

 

I hate to be pedantic, but I think the climate in Brisbane is milder than Florida. Maybe like Los Angeles with more rain/humidity? Miami is more like Cairns.

Guzzi, out of curiosity, where do you plan to take this cat once it's built? Coastal? Ocean crossing? Local? All the way around Oz? How many days/weeks/months at a time?

 

Regarding climate I was just approximating. I remember I looked at latitudes years ago but like so many things I've forgotten what I found.

Usage: Queensland coast, Brisbane to Port Douglas. Probably 3 - 4 months cruising from Autumn to Spring, hopefully dodging cyclones

rberrey: I was planning to infuse everything. It's slow but I can take my time get everything right before introducing the resin. Hopefully less panicking...and of course humidity becomes less of a problem, although I'd need to watch movement in the mold. But hopefully the hull bottoms will get done in a short enough time that that doesn't become too much of an issue...

 

If you build a 1980's shape, using 1980's technology it will take you a lot longer than if you build a boat that suits your requirements and is built using up to date techniques. Round bilges are one example. Building them is the second hardest part of building the boat. The hardest part is fitting the floors they require. Plus they need more topsides (weight, cost, windage, work) to get the headroom required. Double chines are almost as bad. A dory hull may be a little slower, but you won't notice it unless you do some serious racing. You will build it much quicker, and quicker (and lighter) again if you infuse it.
A boat designed by a designer who won't design what you want, or give you good reasons not to is going to be for sale pretty quickly.
If you sit a ton or so of boat on a sharp rock, it won't matter whether you have 400 or 600 gsm of laminate. When I started selling materials 40 years ago, 200 gsm was normal for 25-30' cedar strip multis. And 400 gsm either side of foam for 40' cats. They are still sailing. Materials suppliers are laughing all the way to the bank as boat designers over spec laminates.
Adding extra hull laminate on a boat with daggerboards or fixed rudders is missing the point. The bottom of the hulls hardly get impacted. The rudders and daggers do. Not having both kick up is asking for trouble.
Why are you looking at boats with stayed rigs? Modern cruisers (especially those in your condition) should not be contemplating foredeck work or going up masts to fix problems. Nor should you be worried about 50 different points of rig failure. Build an unstayed carbon mast (or 2) with a self vanging boom (probably a wishbone) and reduce your sailing stress levels by 90%. And knock a decent amount off the fit out time as well.
It's a pity you didn't visit us while we were building the 24m/80'ter (2 old guys with plenty of ideas to discuss and try, 40 hour weeks, 2 years, maybe one year of which was experimenting, testing and doing things differently). If you had seen a 12m panel infused in an hour and the next one infused 2 days later, you would not be worried about building. Nor would you be contemplating anything that needs jigs, strongbacks, building frames, torture boards or assistance to lay up.

 

Thank you for your comments Rob. I'm glad you have posted. I've been wondering how you are going.

The HPs are nice boats but:

To get the accommodations I want I'd need at least a 40' boat and that puts me up a registration bracket

The mast system does not accommodate low bridges as far as I know. I have to move. I'd love to move to Runaway Bay, but I suspect I won't even be able to afford Biggera Waters, so I'll have bridges to contend with.

I've been keeping an eye out for HPs, abandoned projects or well priced second hand boats. Not many come up in any condition. I have thought about a scratch build but a catamaran solves a lot of issues for me.

I'm hoping my epoxy is still ok. It's been under the house for what ? 18 months, maybe 2 years..

I hope your adventures have been going well.

 

I don't know.... I think you could get the room in a shorter HP. We'd call the spinoff Fat Harry and it would keep the sail outrigger but have a more sharpie style accomodations hull with say 6-1 LB ratio and maybe some deadrise on the end sections to smooth out the windward pounding and noise. Of course off wind it should surf like crazy.

 

A 10 meter long hull ? and maybe a 3 meter short hull, or 6? What about dropping the mast ?

 

I'd go long on the short fat hull to carry the load, say 7-9.
You could have fun on the rig and keep it short, 2 masts? How about lug sails? Crab claw is traditional too, even shorter. Actually raising and lowering masts can be easy with some A frame supports. Lazy would be counter weights and tabernacles.
Once you give up America's Cup technology there are a lot of options for fun, easily handled, economical approaches.

 

Guzzies3,

My comments applied to whatever you build.

I don't have the time (and you don't have the money ;-)) for a one off design but, like Cav said, if short and fat is what you want, a Harry still has advantages over a short fat cat, such as ease of sailing, ease of building, safety and cost. If you were to buy a set of EX40 plans Ex40 – Harryproa http://harryproa.com/?p=994 (which include everything you need to know about infusion, including how to build your mast), I'd advise you on whatever you wanted to change. After you build one of the hulls, you will have more than enough knowledge to build the cabin set up you require.

The cargo proa has telescoping masts. These are pretty simple with unstayed rigs and solve a lot of bridge problems. Although for Gold Coast canal moorings, Cav's suggestion of a gin pole/tripod arrangement will step and unstep an unstayed mast quicker than you will raise and lower a stayed one. And a counterweight and tabernacle, or a deck trench, even quicker

His suggestion of a short rig is also a good one. I spent this afternoon building a 3m section of 80mm dia, 3mm walls carbon mast which will easily scale to longer lengths and thicker walls. No vac bag but better resin/fibre ratios than hand laying, I think. It is a mast extension for a crabclaw rig with 31 sq m of sail on a mini cargo proa (mcp) Mini Cargo Ferry Prototype – Harryproa http://harryproa.com/?p=3155. I was pretty impressed by the crab claws I sailed in the Marshall Islands
, less so with the hulls, so have built a lightweight (<150 kgs) mcp with high aspect ratio rudders to see how the rig performs upwind.

Re lack of Harryproas for sale, see my comments on selling boats not designed for their intended purpose soon after they are launched. ;-)

My adventures are going very well, thanks. Cargo Ferry Prototype – Harryproa http://harryproa.com/?p=3788. or, for more regular updates HarryProa groups.io Group https://groups.io/g/HarryProa

Your epoxy should be fine, but do pot life, cure times and HDT tests before using it for anything serious.