Earth Race

Has anyone seen this boat?

http://www.earthrace.net/

 

earthrace

Yeah, I saw it........it was here in Marina del Rey.
I have to say, I was NOT overly impressed. They did spend a lot of money and effort but overall I can't say the money was well spent or the project well thought out, nor was it presented very well.
My buddy invited me down 'cause he knew some of the guys.
Cheers,
Mike Leneman

 

Design Analysis or...?

Mike, given your comments about Ian Farrier("Planing Trimarans") in one of your first posts on this forum and now this: are there any designer/builders of multihulls that you think do a good job?

 

Earthrace

Doug, you seem to miss the point that I own an F-31 and have raced and cruised it for 12 years (I have 25,000 miles on the trailer), won a lot of races with the boat and even cruised the Bahamas 3 times with it AND I like the boat.
My comments come from having sailed on that boat more than the designer, by a BIG margin.
As for Earthrace.......have you seen it? Have you talked to the crew?
Have you ridden on a 60' powertri from L.A. to S.F. in bad weather?
I have, and I have an opinion which is based upon a lot of experience. Take it or leave it.
Cheers,
Mike Leneman

 

For those of us that haven't seen the boat, please give us more details on what you consider its positive and negative design features!

 

positive and negative

Positive:
Sexy looking
Tough
Big
High minded project

Negative:
More emphasis on looks than practicality
Heavy and not fuel efficient
Un-comfortable, and small interior
On one hand they saved the weight of a couple of gallons of paint......leaving an ugly and totally depressing black interior and then made those overweight, micky-mouse looking exhaust "ears". That makes no sense.
The boat weighs something like 18,000 lbs. and they saved 40 lbs. of paint ????
The bunks are pipe berths (they saved another few pounds....big deal) and it's noisey as hell in the boat. That is not a boat I would go around the world in.
Cheers,
Mike

 

My Take

Nope it's not meant to go around the world like the Earth Race machine. It's more like a coastal cruising and Water Taxi service craft, but here's my concept of what works for a multiple passenger trimaran power boat.

The SurfBus was originally conceived as a transport boat for surfers wishing to get out to previously inacessible locations with good waves. With the SurfBus, I'm going for a really economical design with a very slender hull approach so I can use a smallish outboard. This will benefit the owner by giving miserly fuel consumption along with smaller transom loadings and balance issues.

The SurfBus could also be used in harbors to ferry people around as a Water Taxi. I can also see it as the ideal, double date, cruise the harbor at sunset, vehicle where you stop-off at your favorite restaraunt for cocktails and a comfortable ride back home.

In case anyone asks; NO, it is not designed to plane. It's simply a stylish and responsible approach to moving people on the water as economically as possible.

Chris

 

Chris,
Maybe the traditionalists will slap me for saying this... but that is going to turn out to be one beautiful boat. Clean, elegant and inspired. And it looks like a very efficient hull too- a good thing now that we're regularly into buck-a-litre fuel.

 

Chris, I don’t think you are making much sense with that story of the:"responsible approach to moving people on the water as economically as possible".

This boat looks more expensive to build than a basic monohull and for the kind of service you propose (the surf thing), the initial cost of the boat and the number of surfers and boards it can carry will be fundamental, regarding economy.

But that´s not the boat that I find wrong, but the functional approach.

Now, here you are making a lot more sense:

"I can also see it as the ideal, double date, cruise the harbor at sunset, vehicle where you stop-off at your favorite restaurant for cocktails and a comfortable ride back home".

But, the point you are missing is that it is not needed any function for a vehicle if that vehicle is gorgeous enough to give you the irresistible wish to ride in it.

And that's the case. Nice work Chris

 

Thanks, so much Matt.

I'd like to give some inspirational credit to Will Allison as we were both kind of working on smaller, solo versions of this, slender hull type of concept for Minimalist Coastal Cruising thread.
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14436

Will's boat came at the stability issue with a RIB form from bow to stern and I hopped on the trimaran side of things. I showed the design around to a few surfing friends who spend a lot of time in Mexico and several said they'd want to build one if it was available as a four seater. That made a lot of sense to me, so I started exploring the form. Knowing how cheap most of my buddies are, the efficient hull and small outboard format fit right into the overall design brief from the solo boat, the Javelin.

The Bus part of the name originated from my impressionable days as a young surfer when I had a VW Bus into which I crammed all my boards, camping gear and smelly wetsuits. I felt it was time to update that concept and give it a bit more elegance of form. It's hard to get away with a stanky Bus when you're 50.


Thanks, Vega.

My "economically responsible" comment is aimed at the life span of the vehicle. I should have said that in the posting. With fuel the way it is now (and going higher in the future) it won't take long to recoup the additional costs of construction for a more efficient boat.

Glad you liked the work.

 

power tri

Chris,
I like you're x-arm design. It is much more efficient than EarthRace's.
Straight across, one piece then curved down. This would have saved those guys 10's of thousands of dollars if they had done it like yours.
Cheers,
Mike

 

It seems to me that the boat is designed to act like a snorkeling submarine. After looking at pictures of the boat in a sea, the purpose of the exhaust "ears" is evident.

Lohring Miller

 

Earthrace

Yes, the ears are evident.........Disney paid them off ......
Question, do you think they are air intake or exhaust?
Cheers,
Mike

 

Chris - I like it! You've come quite a way since the model you posted back on the other thread. And it would certainly be simpler to build than my RIB. Then again, I came at it from another angle - an econmical tender, so a tri didn't make a lot of sense from a coming alongside point-of-view.

As far as Earthrace is concerned, I don't think it was exactly intended as a luxury cruiser (at least not in its current guise) more as a platform for publicising a concept. To that end, I would consider it a success. So whether the ears are a necessity in terms of operation is somewhat of a moot point. They help to make the boat look sexy, so they are a succesful addition

 

If you look at the videos on the earth race site you can see how the "ears" are needed to get air to the engines as the boat penetrates waves. The arched ama support beams also help keep wetted surface down when the boat isn't completely submerged.

Lohring Miller