Kit
boats are a lot less intimidating for some people compared to building from
plans where you source all your own materials, do all your own cutting, set up
strong back and temporary frames, do large areas of glassing, make lots of dust
from grinding and filling etc. Kit boat are self aligning requiring less
skills, less mess, less VOCs, and you end up with a very light boat as the
panels are heat pressed under factory conditions. The best part is much less
hull fairing as only the chine taping needs to be faired. All bulkheads, beam
panels, Easyrig booms, rudder components, walkways and interior fitout
can be precut saving a lot of time as the cnc cutting is so accurate. The kit
arrives as a stack of 2400 x 1200 DuFlex panels with prescarfed edges ready to
glue side to side. To remove the parts you jigsaw the tabs holding the
parts in place. Bit like a balsa aeroplane kit.
Of course there are trade offs. Kits are
more expensive and the boat has a flat panel look. There are probably more home
built kit catamarans now than any other building method and I suspect the people
building them wouldn't have attempted a boat any other way. Flat panels don't
have to look ugly either. Some designers get around this by strip planking some
parts like the saloon top and gunwales to get away from the plywood look. The
multi chines are mostly under water, and no they don't make any noticeable
difference to performance.
I
haven't drawn anything yet so not sure how good I can get a Harry to look in
flat panel. Just throwing the idea out there to see what people
think.
Mark
...................................
Mark Stephens
I'm not sure I see any advantage in a hard chine duflex boat.
More
expensive, not pretty against faster build time. What about
weight
compared with strip kiri and glass?