Power Catamaran World

Hero: Bill Shuman's dream powercat

Hero is Bill Shuman's dream boat, a superb 64-foot power catamaran that he built himself over several years and now cruises in the warm waters of Florida. Last we heard,  Hero and Bill were in Key West.

Believe it or not, the awesome photo of Hero was not taken from a helicopter but from a flying camera mounted on a quadcopter drone. Check out the video clip which also includes interior shots of Hero.

Malcolm Tennant designed the hull and rudders. "The rest was done in-house," Bill says. Construction is Corecell foam/epoxy/glass. Here are basic specs:

• LOA 63.5 feet
• LWL 58 feet
• Beam 24.75 feet
• Draft 4feet
• Displacement 60,000
• Fuel capacity 2,500 U.S. gallons
• Water capacity 800 U.S. gallons
• Power 2 x Cummins QSB5.9 rated medium continuous
• Range @ 10 knots is fuel capacity divided by 5 gallons per hour, ie, about 500 nautical miles.

Visit the Hero blog for more photos.

Bill has other projects in mind, thus, Hero is for sale, asking price $1.5-million. For more information and to arrange a viewing, email Bill at [email protected]  or telephone 954.257.9603.

The camera drone is a DJI Phantom 2 Vision.

"My friend Brooke was the owner/pilot of the quadcopter," says Bill. "It was interesting for us all.  At one point we lost it, had to turn the boat around and chase it down to get it back in the range of control.  It will return to launch site via GPS and for some reason it still had its last 'home base'.  When it got out of range it tried to return to a previous 'home'.  Thinking about this now, it may have tried to return to where we launched from a moving boat.  Also, it was only capable of about 20 knots. The boat outran the drone until we turned downwind and then it could keep pace."

Hobie Alter's dream power cat for sale

The singular pilothouse power catamaran Hobie Alter designed and built for himself is for sale. Alter died earlier this year after a life that saw him receive legend status in surfing and then in the popular beach cats that bear his name.

Read more about the 60-footer he kept at his house in the San Juans and cruised from Mexico to Alaska since 1990: http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1990/Hobie-Pilothouse-60-2752118/WA/United-States#.VHM539bzC3Z

 

Horizon launches two luxury powercats

Horizon Power Catamarans has delivered “Lil,” hull number 8, of its new PC60 Skylounge luxury yacht series and “Quintessence,” hull number 1, of the new PC52 series, to owners in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Photo shows the spectacular master stateroom aboard the PC60.

Three new PC60 yachts are available for charter in the Caribbean.

Read more: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/08/prweb12101980.htm

Powercats utilized for next America's Cup

Thanks to Ben Ellison of Panbo, the best blog on the Net about marine electronics, for shining the spotlight on power catamarans in the America's Cup 34 organization in San Francisco. Click here for his full report. Click on the image for a larger view.

Aluminum powercat launched in France

JXX38, a new cruising power catamaran built in aluminum, has been launch by Jaunin Productions in France. For more information, visit the Jaunin website.

Wave-piercing Journey 45 LRCat unveiled

The new Journey 45 Long Range Catamaran (LRCat) upstaged traditional trawler designs at the recent Fort Lauderdale Trawler Fest. Designed by Kernan Yacht Design, the Journey’s wave-piercing bows provide the foundation for the power catamaran’s speed, performance and eco-friendly profile. (Click either image for a larger view.)

Capitalizing on a proven commercial hull design, Journey promises half the fuel consumption and twice the speed of traditional trawlers. Projections suggest that when fully loaded it will cruise at 3 nautical miles per gallon at 16 knots.

Journey Hull #1 is available for delivery in 2011 at an introductory price of $759,000.

At the event, Mike Clausen and Neil Riley of Bay Island Yachts of Alameda, California, introduced a built-to-scale model of the Journey 45 LRCat. It will also be displayed at Trawler Fest in San Diego on March 5-7 and Anacortes on May 20-22.

Powered by twin 220-hp Volvo D-3 common rail diesels, the Journey 45 is expected to perform similarly to its sister ship, the Tim Kernan-designed Water Wizards. Commissioned as an offshore filming platform, the 50-foot catamaran completed a non-stop passage of 2,800 miles from Long Beach to the Panama Canal in just less than six days, reportedly at an average speed of 20 knots.

As part of the journey to powercat ownership, buyers are invited to customize the salon area as well as select either a two- or three-stateroom layout. The interior design on all models is open and airy and provides maximum storage, a huge galley and salon and a spiral staircase that leads to a roomy flying bridge. While taking advantage of the latest technology inside and underneath, the Journey elects classic yacht styling above the waterline. 

Partners Clausen and Riley hope Journey will upset the applecart on tired trawler thinking, with “smart boat design that promises the latest in innovation, fuel economy and responsible, green boating.”

Clausen told Power Catamaran World:

“We are waiting for bids back from two yards in China (to build LRCat), have already made a trip there and have a highly placed consultant helping us, and a bid from Navigator Yachts and Bennett Bros. We did have a new yard in China ready to go but, due to their location, shipping was going to be more than $30,000 over shipping from other boatbuilding locations so that set us back about 30 days.
 
“My partner Neil and I have been together for about 20 years, dealing with cats both power and sail for the last 15.  Briefly, we were dealers for Prout, then represented Lagoon, Fountain Pajot & Gemini here in the San Francisco Bay. From 1999 to 2009 we were dealers for Glacier Bay and sold upwards of 85 boats including the 30 and 34. Over that time our customer base was looking for a cruising power cat that didn’t look like a space ship or a stacked container on floats.  Hence, we found Tim Kernan who was very keen on our concept and here we are.”

Hull #1 awaits a buyer:

“We have interest in the boat but it seems they would want #2 or #3. We do have investors for the first hull so we’re ready to go when we decide on the builder.”

Site see: www.journeycatamarans.com

All hail USA's BMW Oracle Racing!

The giant trimaran BMW Oracle, powered by a wing mast of unheard dimensions, has won the 33rd contest for the America's Cup, soundly beating the giant catamaran Alinghi. Finally, have multihulls earned their rightful place at the pinnacle of racing in the sailing world?

Footnote: Water Wizards, an innovative power catamaran owned by Steve Shidler of San Francisco, served as a photo boat during the competition off Valencia, Spain.

Maine Cat P-47 interior design

When Glenn and Pam Cooper ordered a new P-47 to be built by Maine Cat, they requested they be permitted to create their own interior layout. Here's how they explain what they have in mind for the power catamaran that will be launched this summer:

At right is a drawing of the so-called "great room" which is where we have really changed our boat from the other P-47s launched or under construction. Click on the image for a larger view.

Please note we have no forward great room pilothouse steering station. We've decided to have all that in the flybridge with some repeaters below. In addition, our master sleeping quarters have a standard king size
bed rather than the queen. Aside from that the only other significant changes we've made is to extend the cabin top to provide all-weather usage of the cockpit. Our flybridge will also have "all-weather" capability. To do this, we needed lots of cooperation from Maine Cat. It's been a pleasure to work with them.

Why no steering station below? Our rough days and nights at sea are now behind us due to no schedules and plenty of reserve speed. Our cruising grounds will be the east coast and Bahamas the first year with perhaps cruising in the western Caribbean following on its heels.  Being mainly where the sun shines, we are comfortable with only up-top steering but are planning to locate a set of throttle controls in the cockpit for around-the-docks maneuvering
when needed.

We had a major complaint with every other production powercats we looked at. Every place you'd plunk yourself down is molded plastic, curved, probably not where you really want it, and usually uncomfortable. Your flesh and bones have to conform to the molded structures and not the other way around. If we're going to pay the price of a real nice home why not also have the key comforts of home? When we bought seating for our last home, our philosophy was ". . .  any place you sit you should be able to easily fall asleep." We wanted that same advantage on our next boat.

If you look at our interior plan, notice that forward (where the steering station was) is an ultra-suede settee and a table. The settee, which itself has a comfortable incline and depth to it, easily converts to a queen bunk with an inflatable air bed stowed inside. This is all on a raised floorhaving lots of storage. Midway aft, we have cleared out space for two leather
recliners. We are buying these from a Brazilian company called Lafer and they are incredibly comfortable. Beyond them are the "work" areas. We have eliminated the stand-up powerboat-style refrigerator and will have more than 10 cu. ft. divided into well-insulated fridge and freezer boxes, and note we're going to cook inside with an induction top. We have the balanced electrical system to support this and we'll be able to cook faster, greatly reduce interior moisture, and eliminate propane.

While we haven't included a schematic for the cockpit, the concept is to basically have an open box with a rear seat across a large part of the stern. This seat will also provide some storage. For cockpit seating, we have already bought two Lafuma zero-gravity recliners and will probably have similar seating like that stored on the boat. For dining in the cockpit, we'll use a portable, foldable resin table. Beautiful, no, but functional, yes.

We like the idea of being flexible and lightweight, all part of a form-follows-function philosophy. On a couple's liveaboard cruising boat, a good rule to follow is: six for cocktails, four for dinner and two to spend the night. Hope the kids don't read this!

Click on Comments below to share your thoughts on the interior design or start a discussion about Maine Cat P-47.

End of Earthrace?

Earthrace, the record-setting power trimaran, may have met its end in Antarctica after being rammed by a Japanese whaling ship today. Some reports have it sinking, others say it's being salvaged. Here's the latest news report.

The 78-foot wave-piercing trimaran entered the record books in 2008 when it circumnavigated the world in 61 days after failing in its first attempt.

Domino is splashed in Paraguay

Jean-Pierre and Marie DuFour couldn't be happier. Domino, a 65.5-foot/20-meter custom power catamaran that they have been building for the past two years plus, has been launched.

Click here for Marie's account of the emotional day.

Earlier on, here's how Marie explained the decision to build the Malcolm Tennant design in Paraguay.

Click on Comments below to start a discussion or share your thoughts on Domino.