New boat from Kotaro Horiuchi

[Guru]

Kotaro Horiuchi, the grand old man of small boat designs in Japan, has come out with a new offering - a small boat that does 19 knots with a 2 HP outboard. See the photo attached. The boat is about 3.3 m long, and will be exhibited at the Boat Show in Tokyo in the beginning of March, 2013.

He is well over 80 but still takes part in canoe competitions all over the world and coming up with new designs of small boats.


Gururaj
Ex-Naval Architect/Translator
honyakusha@gmail.com
http://cli.gs/ttech

 

[Ad Hoc]

If he ever pops down to Kobe harbour, i'd love to have a go

 

[Manfred.pech]

Kotaro Horiuchi, the grand old man of small boat designs in Japan, has come out with a new offering - a small boat that does 19 knots with a 2 HP outboard. See the photo attached. The boat is about 3.3 m long, and will be exhibited at the Boat Show in Tokyo in the beginning of March, 2013.

He is well over 80 but still takes part in canoe competitions all over the world and coming up with new designs of small boats.


Gururaj
Ex-Naval Architect/Translator
honyakusha@gmail.com
http://cli.gs/ttech

Thank you Gururaj for the very interesting news. Working with Google I found fascinating experiments of the great KH with a catamaran and trimaran: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7RSZX1GA5A

 

[Doug Lord]

Kotaro Horiuchi, the grand old man of small boat designs in Japan, has come out with a new offering - a small boat that does 19 knots with a 2 HP outboard. See the photo attached. The boat is about 3.3 m long, and will be exhibited at the Boat Show in Tokyo in the beginning of March, 2013.

He is well over 80 but still takes part in canoe competitions all over the world and coming up with new designs of small boats.


Gururaj
Ex-Naval Architect/Translator
honyakusha@gmail.com
http://cli.gs/ttech

-----------------------------
Thanks for the update about Kotaro and the boat-looks like fun! I treasure Kotaro's book that I got a couple of years(or so) ago. What a great guy!

 

[Guru]

Incidentally, I have started translating chapters of his first book (LOCUS OF A BOAT DESIGNER - in Japanese) on my own. This book is also a treasure-trove of information, and I'd like non-Japanese readers to read it.
Gururaj

 

[Manfred.pech]

Though I do not know enough about hydrodynamic foils, the Catamaran design of Kotaro Horiuchi seems to me worth to be discussed. The boat is to be steered following the canard principle by the vertical parts of the front foils by an ingenious system. I think KH choose this solution to enlarge the distance between the foils for longitudinal stability (compared to the Moth solution with an extended after foil/rudder fixing).

The hulls can move independently around the foreward beam to give the foils more room for an individual optimal position in the water by the sensors and allow free pitching. Therefore the mast with its aluminum struts is not stayed rigid but can move with the independent motion of the hulls.

The bows are very interesting with their hydrodynamic ski like front foils to prevent sudden nose diving tendencies by negative lift from the T-foil. The after foil can be moved fore- and backward and the angle of the foil can be adjusted. Folded back the tire comes down to beach the cat.
I am surprised by these solutions aside the main stream of small catamarans but I´m curious about a contest with other beach cats. The video looks indeed very encouraging.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7RSZX1GA5A

 

[boatmodo]

Guru, When you're done translating the book I'd love to read it. Thanks.

 

[beachcraft]

Can it get to shore or do you have to keep it tied up in a couple feet of water?

 

[Manfred.pech]

Can it get to shore or do you have to keep it tied up in a couple feet of water?

The main foils can be folded back to get the wheels down: http://ketch.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/home/labo-e/twinducks/protype_test.html (scroll down please). Description can be found in "LOCUS OF A BOAT DESIGNER 2", pg 267 ff from Kotaro Horiuchi.


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