Aluminium Cat designs

I have been looking for designs for a Cat in the 40 range with a bit of speed to it. My main reason for wanting to work with aluminium is because I really hate working with fiberglass.
Does anyone have some links for good alloy designs? OR contacts for people who have built fast multis?

 

40 feet or 40 meters? (I guess 40'). At what maximum speed are you thinking?

 

Sorry, 40'. As far as speed goes, something that could get to 12 knots or so without much effort.

 

wow, i just reread my first post, i guess i left some info out. I am looking to sailing cat designs

 

Sailing cats are out of my comfort zone. Anyway, let me ask you, 12 knots with the engine (it may be a lot) or with sails (it could be little)?

 

40ft is about the minimum size for aluminium and even then it won't be a great performer compared to a wood or foam sandwich boat. And that will be if keeping it empty inside. Most people prefer a wood or lined interior, not a "tincan", if for no other reason to reduce condensation. So you end up building a boat within a boat, which adds to time and weight. The bigger you go the less the aluminium weight penalty matters. But of course costs and effort to build/sail/maintain also go up.

What do you want to do with our boat once you have it sailing? For example, if oyu plan a lot of high latitude sailing then aluminium makes sense, unfortunately a catamaran doesn't if you go through a lot of pack ice.

Richard Woods of Woods Designs
www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

Sailing in mid latitudes and tropics. mid 40s is looking like a good size. I spoke with a local boat builder and he said that a multi-chine would be the cheapest to build. That said, your not going to come even close to fiber glass prices.

 

We have a 15m, 50kts trihull powerboat design that is built in alloy as that is what the client boatyard wanted. All of Richards comments apply, even at that size/speed.