| | | G'day,
I joined because I needed something specific. Since then I have deleted
all messages with linkedin in them so no need to add me as a connection.
Thanks for the nice words. The forum is not working well at the moment.
Not sure why, but my lack of posts and the Yahoo format certainly don't
help. My lack of invovlement is because I have been working on a couple
of projects which I couldn't talk about publicly. One is a kite boat (we
are building a 7m prototype in July), the other, I have been meaning to
send you details of for some time. Your comments/criticisim would be much
appreciated.
I have often thought that there would be a market for chartering a boat
for offshore racing, or for competing in (rather than just attending or as
rail meat) events like Cowes/Antiugua/Hamilton Is race weeks. The problems
with doing so are unreliable boats which need more time to learn than is
usually available. My solution is a 12m version of Solitarry.
The criteria and how they are met in the design are:
Containerable:
4 boats fit in a 40' container and are easily packed, assembled and
unpacked using the wheeled cradles they are stored in. This allows entry
in races all over the world, at affordable cost.
Low cost:
If they are built one at a time, the ready to race cost is
~$Aus80,000/$US72,000 in either France or Australia. A fleet will be less.
A fleet built in a low labour country, less again. Charter rates will not
have to be very high to make a decent return on these prices. The boats
are chartered with anchor, mooring lines and fenders included, but without
safety and electrics which will be absolutely minimal: AIS/vhf, chart
plotter, solar panel, 12v battery, tiller pilot, nav lights, and non 12v
battery epirb, sat ph, torch and head lamp. These (and most of the
safety equipment) will be supplied by the charterer, who will either own
them already, or will hire or buy them. The charterer will ensure
everything works, then install them on the boat. Each item will have a pre
set location into which it will slot or be strapped (no bolts or screws).
The pre measured wiring will run through moused conduit. The installation
will take a couple of hours for 2 people, and will ensure that they know
where everything is and how it works. Post race it will all be removed.
Low maintenance:
There is a single sail, 4 control lines, an unstayed mast, no holes below
the waterline and no daggerboards/keels. All of the boat is sealed
compartments, except for the living area which is wide open with no lockers
or cupboards. Everything is as simple as possible and will last a very
long time, apart from the sail ($5,000) and ropes ($200) which will be
replaced after 2 years of hard use/5 years of moderate. The finish is work
boat rather than showroom, so an old boat will be indistinguishable from a
new one in both looks and performance. When they are not sailing, the
boats will be in a container, so there is no weather damage, marine growth
or marina fees.
Quick to set up/dismantle:
The 150 kg/330 lb, 12m/40' long leeward hull is wheeled out of the
container on it's protective cradles, and the beams (20 kgs/44 lbs each)
are plugged into tapered sockets. The beams are used to tip the hull on
it's side and the 2 piece mast (65 kgs/145 lbs) is joined and plugged into
it's tapered socket. The hull is righted and the beams inserted and
secured to the smaller, 6m/20' hull. The trampoline is permanently
attached to the beams, but needs to be tied to the hulls. The sail and
lines are rigged and it is ready for launch.
Set up and pack up can be done anywhere where there is enough room,
including on a beach. No tools, cranes or machinery are required, once the
container is off the truck.
The initial base for the boats will be at http://cngrandval.com
<http://cngrandval.com/> They will also be building them, at least to
start with. I am visiting them in July to finalise the details, and after
that we should be ready to start publicising it.
Safe:
The boat is unsinkable and rightable by the crew (using the buoyancy of the
boom) if capsized. We will encourage charterers to do this under
controlled conditions before going offshore. The hulls have easily
replaceable 300mm/12” crash zones at the ends, with steeply angled
bulkheads. If the foam is damaged or destroyed, the boat will still sail
fast and safely. There is only one sail so the crew never has to go on
the foredeck. The unstayed mast allows the boat to be stopped to reef and
is easily depowered on any point of sail. The rudders kick up on impact
with debris or the bottom and can be lifted for balance or in shallow
water. The boat is designed and built not to break. We will pay for any
damage incurred while racing/sailing except for collision damage which
should reduce or eliminate any insurance problems.
Fast:
The boats are 40'/12m long, 25'/7.5m wide, weigh about 700 kgs/1,550 lbs
race ready and carry 57 sqm/600 sq' of sail on an 18m/ 60' mast, providing
better power to weight than most similar length boats.
end of description
The boat was originally a Sol, but to keep the cost/complexity down, I
minimised everything and made it as simple as possible. This has the side
effect of showcasing harrys generally as low cost and simple. Of course,
if enough people want longer, more comfortable or more expensive, it can be
done.
One of the potential backers ran a survey (
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6GZZMRQ
<http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6GZZMRQ> feel free to fill it in) to see
what people wanted. As it did not mention the boat or it's unique
attributes, it is not that helpful, but the 60 respondents (fewer than
expected, hopefully because informing interested people was not very
successful) were pretty much in line with my thinking, and seemed prepared
to pay more than we should be able to charge.
Steiner is working on an animation of how it all works, and I am visiting
Europe next month to talk to the builders and some potential money people.
The original plan was to launch the German Sol and use that for publicity,
but the owner and builder are not seeing eye to eye so not sure when this
will happen.
We are still deciding how to finance it. The options are: 1) Build the
first boat and see how it all works, then proceed cautiously to build a
fleet. The down side of this is that it will be a lot easier to get
outboard powered, minimalistic proas in races if we have a fleet of them,
2) Sell boats to time share owners and then charter them, which only works
if the owners don't want to customise their boats. 3) Find an investor and
run it as a company. I will be exploring each of these once we make it
public.
Any comments, advice or questions, please let me know. In particular, I
am way out of my depth on everything that is not part of the designing,
building and sailing aspects (finance, chartering, marketing, rules, etc),
so anything on these would be appreciated.
I will be putting this on the harryproa forum as soon as I can, but until
then, please keep it private.
regards,
rob |
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