[PCW] What's happening in your world?

Mon Oct 22 00:38:26 EDT 2007

Hi Georgs,

Most of this summer was boatless for us since we sold our 26 ft aluminum
Armstrong powercat in June.  My first boatless summer in SE Alaska in 13
years.  Traumatic.  But it has allowed me to focus on completing the
languishing house remodel before next spring when I take possession of my
new under-construction Maxweld aluminum powercat.
http://www.maxweldboats.com/

The hull of the new boat is nearly complete.  Cabin construction will start
in a few weeks.  She will be Maxweld's show boat in the Seattle Boat Show in
February after which I take possession of her.  I plan to run her home up
the Inside Passage in the spring.  BTW - I'm looking for a slip for her in
the Seattle area from about 1 Feb until 1 May if any Puget Sounders have any
suggestions.

We owned our Armstrong for nine years and it was a fantastic boat - fast,
industrial tough, stable, and very versatile.  It followed the old boat
maxim of drinking six, eating four, and sleeping two, and that worked well.
When we had friends/family with us they camped on the beach.  

But time moves on.  Family is getting older and camping on the beach has
become less tenable (father-in-law is 80 now...).  And finding a good
anchorage that also provides good (bear-free) camping eliminates a lot of
great anchorages.  Schlepping camping gear to and from the beach gets old.
We wanted a much larger aft deck for fishing/king crabbing/shrimping (this
is Alaska after all).  We also wanted a larger, more comfortable boat for
rough water conditions.  We wanted more range.  We wanted a head (purposely
eliminated on the Armstrong) and we wanted to sleep more people.  We still
have to be at work most Monday mornings, so trawler speeds weren't going to
cut it.  Eventually this boat is expected to be a summer coastal cruising
boat from the Aleutians to Baja.  There are several Maxwelds up here, and
they are rugged, proven Alaska boats.

I looked at several other cats.  The new MaineCat looks intriguing, but I
don't want to be a test case for the new hull, and getting it from Maine to
AK was going to be expensive.  Plus, customization options were limited with
it being in composite.  Many of the other cruising cats on the market are
not designed with fishing in mind (this is Alaska after all...).  We
explored some very interesting custom design/build possibilities, and some
promising partnerships, but ultimately opted for the simplicity of a proven
Alaskan design that we own independently.  And we like the low (no)
maintenance, bombproof nature of unpainted welded aluminum.  

Here are the specs:

LOA: 41 ft (officially a 35' hull minus the swimstep/pulpit)
Beam: 14 ft
Pilothouse w/ second aft steering station in cockpit
Power: Volvo-Penta D-6 350 hp outdrives (I was very leery of going with
outdrives, but talked to a lot of marine mechanics who contended that the
new generation of Volvo outdrives have had a good reliability record so far.
Fuel economy is outstanding, I'll get the same economy as my much, much
smaller 26 ft Armstrong with 4-stroke outboards.  The ability to trim the
drive on a cat is valuable since cats are subject to fore-aft trim
challenges.  Maybe I'm making a mistake - we'll see.)
Cruise speed: 20-30 kts
Top speed: ~40+ kts (who gives a rat's patootie?)
Fuel consumption at 25 kts: ~1.6 mpg
Fuel capacity: 400 gallons (200 each)
Water: 200 gallons
Generator: Not installed, but pre-configured for future installation.  For
now I'll use my 2 KW Honda inverter gas genset via the shore-tie plug.
Light, quiet, and I already own it.
Heat: Hurricane
Head: Lavac (single head w/ separate shower)
Hydraulic anchor windlass (spool type), pot puller and davit.
Sleeps: one athwartships queen, three single bunks, dinette makes a double -
for a total of seven.
Galley: 3-burner propane, oven, counter-height fridge, 7 cu ft domestic
freezer (for seafood storage), Corian counters & dinette.
Laundry: Preconfigured for future Splendide all-in-one unit. 
Interior:  Hybrid between commercial and yacht.  Probably leaning towards
commercial.  Still working out the details.  I'll customize further when it
comes home.
Unsinkable (well, you'd have to try really, really hard)

One of the advantages of building in aluminum is that you have wide latitude
in the configuration.  The builder is not locked into a fixed hull mold.
For instance, we're installing 'delta pads' on the hulls, which are flat
plates faired onto the bottom of the aft section of the hulls which provide
more planing lift at slow speeds.  This should allow me to plane efficiently
at slower speeds, which is a challenge in most planing cats with their
smaller (than monohull planing boats) hull-bottom surface area.  Cruising at
30 kts isn't always the most relaxing.  

Another hull customization are the keel fins in front of the outdrives.
These fins are heavy-duty 1/2" aluminum plate designed to protect the
outdrives from damage by the numerous floating logs up here.  

My favorite customization is the transom.  Maxweld's normal transom includes
an access door to the swim step.  I've spec'd out double transom doors
which, when opened create a six ft opening in the middle of the transom.
The swim step will have a recessed trailer roller on its aft edge which will
allow me to drag a 14-16 ft skiff over the swim step into the cockpit.  This
will be a great way to quickly bring a large tender aboard for runs in
protected waters, and quickly launch it again w/o towing.  Obviously when
going into big water I'll choose to secure it on the roof, but many of my
runs are relatively short in inside waters.  Having a substantial, capable
tender up here is a real luxury.

Cost for this boat, fully configured with electronics, tender, etc will be
about $375K.  I'm no millionaire, but this is within my reach with some
careful budgeting and financing. 

Bob Deering
Juneau, Alaska   

-----Original Message-----
From: power-catamaran-bounces at lists.samurai.com
[mailto:power-catamaran-bounces at lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of Georgs
Kolesnikovs
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 5:16 AM
To: Power Catamaran List
Subject: [PCW] What's happening in your world?

Hey, guys!

I've been preoccupied with magazine business for the past nine months 
but I'm now starting to resurface, aiming to boost traffic on our 
List and get that darn ite up and running at last.

I'm located on Lake Ontario. Admiral and I have plans to focus on 
inland and coastal cruising over the coming years, thus, we've 
purchased a trailerable power catamaran, a previously owned TomCat 24:

http://www.c-dory.com/TomCat%2024.htm

Before the snow flies, we hope to explore the western end of Lake 
Ontario. Next year, we plan to head east to Thousand Islands, the 
Rideau and the Trent-Severn.

--Georgs
-- 
Georgs Kolesnikovs
   Power Catamaran World
   http://www.powercatamaranworld.com
_______________________________________________
Power-Catamaran Mailing List