Solitary Island catamaran, highlited features
Ran across an old email of mine I sent to a potential client outlining some features of polycore construction of a kit catamaran project....
I've highlighted the portions of this PDF in a separate doc attached to this email.
http://www.australiancompositepanels.com.au/Templates/study_plans.pdf
These are items that should be important to you both for yourself, and resale down the road. I feel very strongly that this is the BEST option for you. And it can easily be adapted for my rig.
Highlights of Solitary Island 12M Cat
1) Most kits available today are based on the 8 x 4 balsa sandwich panels joined along their long edge with a thin glass scarf join. The average 40’ kit will supply around 150 panels, which need to be aligned very straight and flat while being glued together. That is well over 100 glued joins before you can even start building. The Pacific 40 kit has its parts CNC routed from large Polycore panels. The panels are around 5.8m x 2.25m, the biggest panel you can fit into a 20 foot container. This significantly reduces the amount of pre gluing and the inevitable cumulative errors that can creep in when gluing many panels in a row. The longest panel in the kit, the topsides, has only one major joint.
2) High quality polypropylene cored product was chosen as we consider it to be far superior to balsa and foam. Polycore cannot rot. Polycore panels, using quality epoxy/glass are pre-glassed in the factory using vacuum presses producing a very good, consistent volume fraction resulting in the ultimate lightweight panel.
3) The Hull
...a) makes use of the wine glass shape hull. This allows us to achieve a good performance cruising waterline length/beam ratio of 1 in 12 while retaining a generous internal volume and good semi circular underwater profile with lower wetted surface area.
...b) This hull shape is difficult for the amateur to build so will be supplied as part of the kit, vacuum moulded under controlled conditions. This will increase your boats resale value as the buyer will feel assured that the part of the hull in the water has been built properly.
...c) From 400mm above the waterline up to the gunwales
a single flat panel runs from stem to stern. On the inboard side a single chamfer panel also runs all the way from the stem to the stern. What could be easier?
4) The Deck
...a) decks are made into one large uninterrupted flat panel, including the catwalk, front beam, side decks and rear cabin tops.
5) You will also receive instructions on making composite chainplates, stanchion bases and other fittings so as few as possible stainless steel fixings
6) Solitary Island 12 has been designed with performance cruising in mind.
An advantage of the kit built catamaran is that weight can be kept in check resulting in a very light boat giving sparkling performance and good weight carrying ability.
7) Ease of building has been a top priority throughout the design of the Solitary Island 12 kit. We are determined to make the job of building a boat as pleasant and rewarding as possible by making it quick and problem free. We have been involved in the development of catamaran kits for longer than most in this country and experience as multihull builders puts us in the unique position to know where time can be saved and processes made easier. A full set of pictorial instructional plans will be supplied explaining each process.
8) The
main backbone of the kit are the two factory made hull ‘shoes’ on which the rest of the boat is built upon ‘the right way up’ (Remember all those nerve wracking photos of catamarans being suspended with two cranes while being turned over?).
Not only is the most difficult part taken care of, but these hulls act like a strong back, another thing you don’t have to build. Just sit them in the supplied CNC cut MDF frames and start adding the bulkheads, bridgedeck etc.
9)
Fitting out can be done before the decks are put in place, in fact most can be done before the topsides are added. This makes access easier and working more pleasant.
10) Note that t
here is a minimum of joining to do with all the nesting done on large 5800mm x 2240mm panels.
In fact there are no panel joins on any of the interior fit-out or cockpit kits and with only one or two joins on the larger parts such as the topsides and bulkheads. This could save you weeks of building time (not to mention fairing time)
while the integrity of your boat is not compromised by hundreds of joins.
