OK, Maybe I have gone nuts. I have been considering building a 32'
trailerable tri from Kurt Hughes Sailing Designs. This really will not
involve deferred sailing gratification since I now have the Minicups
and my supposedly fixed 28' S2 to sail for cruising.
My reasoning here is that all the places I really want to see have
very shallow water. I also like the beachability of tris, the speed
and trailerability would be really nice. I realize my little 2.4
liter Nissan will not pull such a thing but at 278,000 miles, maybe I
need a newer truck or maybe I could rent a big truck when I need to.
I also expect that even here (N. FL) the cost of slip space will
skyrocket in a few yrs so being able to keep her out of the water will
really save. Supposedly, this boat can reduce its beam to 12' so she
can go into a regular slip and at 12' the regulations on trailering
are not too onerous but I cannot find out much on this. For me,
sailboat cruising is luxurious (compared to tent camping) even without
all the amenities of heavy new monohulls so a spartan interior doesnt
bother me.
The Kurt Hughes design involvces something called Cylinder Molding
where 1/8" ply is epoxied to another sheet to form 1/4" on a simple
form formoing the amas (and main hull I think). Supposedly, this is
much faster than most other methods of making such a boat.
I realize a boat I build will never be a work of art since being a
techie type I lack sufficient aesthetic IQ but it would be ok in my
eyes.
Anybody have any thoughts on this?

IIRC, even Hughes is shifting toward foam sandwich methods. In cylinder
molding, there have been lurid stories of folks who made large, expensive,
parts which had enough voids to be complete junk. In foam sandwich, folks
doing fat boats (Farrier) plank crossways with 2' strips and folks doing
skinny boats (Newick) strip plank the long way. In either case, it's very
fast construction. Don't forget that when you get the hull shell done,
that's 25% of the time at most.
Jim


Parallax wrote:

OK, Maybe I have gone nuts. I have been considering building a 32'
trailerable tri from Kurt Hughes Sailing Designs. This really will not
involve deferred sailing gratification since I now have the Minicups
and my supposedly fixed 28' S2 to sail for cruising.
My reasoning here is that all the places I really want to see have
very shallow water. I also like the beachability of tris, the speed
and trailerability would be really nice. I realize my little 2.4
liter Nissan will not pull such a thing but at 278,000 miles, maybe I
need a newer truck or maybe I could rent a big truck when I need to.
I also expect that even here (N. FL) the cost of slip space will
skyrocket in a few yrs so being able to keep her out of the water will
really save. Supposedly, this boat can reduce its beam to 12' so she
can go into a regular slip and at 12' the regulations on trailering
are not too onerous but I cannot find out much on this. For me,
sailboat cruising is luxurious (compared to tent camping) even without
all the amenities of heavy new monohulls so a spartan interior doesnt
bother me.
The Kurt Hughes design involvces something called Cylinder Molding
where 1/8" ply is epoxied to another sheet to form 1/4" on a simple
form formoing the amas (and main hull I think). Supposedly, this is
much faster than most other methods of making such a boat.
I realize a boat I build will never be a work of art since being a
techie type I lack sufficient aesthetic IQ but it would be ok in my
eyes.
Anybody have any thoughts on this?