The Boat

For the past three years on-and-off I have been researching boat designs, systems and technologies – all geared toward the day when I have enough time and money to build "the boat".

I have previously built boats and other complex things and have a lot of experience with wood, epoxy and composites – usually small craft in the 14 to 16 foot range.

Three years ago "the boat" was going to be a catamaran – to a Tim Clissold design but those thoughts and ideas have evolved into a variety of trimarans and other cats and even the odd mono hull.

The final version is a cat by Bernd Kohler and based on his DUO 800 design. You can find the design here.

This is a very light – even minimalist design that can be described as a "pod cat" – because it has two 8 metre long hulls and a central pod supported by aluminium beams. It is demountable and the version that I am building has a neat "biplane" rig – two carbon fibre masts – one in each hull.

But even Bernd’s design wasn’t quite what I wanted – so I have made a few modifications.

As an aside, I ended up going to school and learning the fundamentals of yacht design - including hydrostatics and structures and spent a lot of time exploring alternatives with 3D modeling software. I must have created and tested 30+ designs before this final configuration emerged.

I have enlarged the DUO 800 pod (slightly) and the hulls have been modified – they are now symmetrical – the original was asymmetrical and didn’t use centerboards and a few other things that are evolving as the build progresses. Some very interesting foils are going to serve duty as centreboards.

Progress has been good – my efforts in the first week have produced the hull sections and I am starting on the beam connection sockets - will keep you posted.