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Rio to Polynesia | Download 01 | Download 02 | Download 03 | Download 04 |
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Kiribati 36, our next stock plan Soon we will be introducing a very exciting new design, the Kiribati 36, an aluminium sail boat with a series of innovative ideas, which we are expecting to excite the imagination of many blue-water cruising sailors. This new design has all the ingredients to make a successful career. The story of the Kiribati 36 began when our friend, now our collaborator, Luis Manuel Pinho, a long time cruising sailor, accepted our invitation to produce this design in a joint venture. Luis Manuel was born in Mozambique. When that country obtained its independence, his family immigrated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Luis Manuel obtained a degree in engineering. Soon after his graduation he built a steel boat with which, together with his just married wife Marli, sailed to the South Pacific, where they stayed for many years. They established their base in Cairns, Queensland, and from there they visited many remote islands in the South Pacific. After four years of residence, Luis Manuel and his wife obtained the Australian citizenship, something important for us, since we also transferred our office to Perth, Western Australia. Luis Manuel sold his boat in Australia and came back to Brazil to build his new yacht, since this was the country where he was acquainted with building facilities, based in his previous experience. Luis Manuel and his wife intend to sail back to Australia with the new boat, where they will resume to their former cruising life-stile, and he intends to remain as our collaborator in future projects. The deal we made with him was beneficial for both sides. We used the Multichine 36SK as a base plan for the new design and he introduced the modifications he intended to accomplish, which we believe are shared by many other cruising sailors. The result of all his work is the Kiribati 36, which we are proud to advertise. If you are interested in the Kiribati 36 and want to know more about this design, please send us an e-mail to info@yachtdesign.com.auor to Luis Manuel at the e-mail luisdesenhos@gmail.com. Kiribati 36 Aluminium Swing Keel Yacht
Length Overall – 11.03m The main goals that the Kiribati 36 has to meet are:
11 m or 36ft LOA gives you enough carrying capability and can take its share of rough weather and the inertia for the proposed displacement still gives you gentle enough accelerations while this size still belongs to the small boat club in comparison to the current cruising fleet. While 32 ft or 10 m can still be enough, the savings in cost will be not all that great, as a simply conceived 11m can be cheaper than an overbuilt, over-equipped 10 m long boat, and the trade off can be disadvantageous when you consider the smaller payload. You can benefit of cheaper places if you can carry more stocks and fuel.
Next we come to the building method, which is based on a pre-cut kit of all aluminium parts, numbered and identified in easy to read perspective drawings. With this kit and drawings, and with the building manual supplied, an amateur with access to a shed and an aluminium welder (we recommend that an experienced welding professional be hired) can confidently put the boat together.
The hull plates are designed to be nearly 100% developable in a plane, so no great forces are required to bend them to shape and a minimum of stress and deformation is introduced in the material. This is assured by using dedicated software ( Prosurf 3, Rhinoceros ) that calculates and shows graphically the amount of curvature on the surface.
This hull is intrinsically very strong with the added advantage of the inherent dryness of properly built metal hulls. The 5086/5083 aluminium employed should ensure decades of trouble free cruising, as far as the hull is concerned.
The choice of twin rudders behind skegs with tiller steering is logical since you want to keep systems simple and still have low draught and good steering control. The twin rudders are 10cm deeper than the lowest part of the hull with the swing keel up, providing a stable 3 point base when sitting on the ground.
The option for a swing keel is dictated by the shallow draught requirement. With the keel up the Kiribati 36 draws scant 79 centimetres (2 ‘ 7” ) fully loaded. The ballast is divided between internal ballast and the ballasted swing keel. There is a very simple and low cost system to raise the keel, using an ordinary winch and a 4 to 1 reduction, pulling two 12mm spectra ropes.
The rig is a single spreader cutter in order to keep it simple and provide for enough sail area combinations for safe offshore passages. A mast height of 13 m and a sail area of 57 m³ to give a Sail area/Displacement ratio of 14.3 should power the Kiribati 36 well enough in the prevailing conditions of the trade wind belt. Slab reefing and mainsail handling by the mast is preferred to minimize line runs and keep chafe and costs low. A well protected working area around the mast is provided by back-rests on each side.
The outboard profile is dictated by the requirements of a good view to the outside and an easy transition from cockpit to cabin. A raised floor area just below from the main companionway hatch will provide a good view from the galley and navigation station area. Six 32x24cm and two 50x50cm hatches are installed around this cabin area, enabling integration to the exterior surroundings and plenty of ventilation, while being safe and strong.
The Interior The interior layout is very open and unobstructed with only the aft cabin and heads areas separated.A raised floor central section accommodates the navigation station, where a seated navigator can look out through the hatches, and the cook has full view of the outside, providing for a comfortable and ventilated working environment. Forward and one step below there is a dinette with ample sitting room for six persons and a forward double berth. The heads is located to starboard, aft of the navigation station, and behind it is the technical area, concentrating all through-hulls, except the main raw water intake, which is located on the keel trunk wall, being this the only underwater connection on the boat. A convenient space for electric equipment, pumps and all diesel fuel management is also located here.
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About the Multichine 31 The Multichine 31 is a design that should deserve a special recognition among our line of stock plans. Intended for amateur construction, this cruising sailboat is unique in elegance of her lines and comfort of her interior layout. This recognition took a little longer to happen than we expected, probably because the first boats of the class which constructions were concluded, their owners were in no hurry to complete their work, preferring to dedicate their time in improving the standard of quality of the many details of their workmanship. But now that some of these boats are already sailing in different nautical centres, the merits of the project are becoming evident.
Our builders, whose special cares are mentioned above, are very proud of their accomplishments and some of them are willing to share their experiences with other amateurs. Two of them published home pages with links to our web-site. The latest addition is: www.veleirotaga.blogspot.com. The Multichine 31 referred in this site is being built by the retired navy officer Álvaro Pereira Guimarães. He is constructing his yacht in an amateur building centre located at the city of Rio de Janeiro, practically unassisted. His work, for a layman in joinery work is worth a high commend for its level of finishing. Taga, as his boat will be called, will become a reference in craftsmanship among amateurs, we believe. The captions shown below are witness of this perfectionism.
*** Another very well built Multichine 31 is Santa Clara. Tom Murray, her owner, a first time amateur builder, launched her a few months ago. Santa Clara is producing a very favorable impression among sailors in the marina where she stays, and the unanimous opinion is that Tom accomplished a first class job. He built his boat in his home garden located on the beautiful hills close to the city of Rio de Janeiro, surrounded by the Atlantic Rain Forest. With such gorgeous landscape, and that wonderful swimming pool a step aside the building grid, we wonder how he got the necessary willing force to work so well. The MC31 class has many boats under construction in different countries and the latest acquisition of the plans was from a couple in Sweden who intend to start its construction straightaway. We are willing to promote the MC31 to the level it deserves, and we will keep informing about the latest news of the class regularly. Aloha, the other boat shown on the photos below is a MC31 built by another amateur at Porto Alegre, a city located one hundred fifty miles away from the sea in the Brazilian Pampas. On these photos she is sailing in the estuary of Guaiba River, which flows to a three hundred kilometers long fresh water lake connected to the sea.
Click here if you want to know more about the Multichine 31 class |
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Polar 65, our small expedition sailing ship The Polar 65 is an amazing cruising sailboat. This powerful “go anywhere cruising machine” soon will be giving reasons for many comments among the sailing community. After all there are not many other forty-five ton displacement boats capable of grounding on a beach, just requiring the next tide to be floating again. Her impressive swing keel, when extended downside, dwarfs a man standing at its side (see photo below), but this swing-keel with its sophisticated hydrodynamic shape is the secret for having sufficient lift to allow her to beat to windward, even when sailing in gale conditions.
Being provided with two engines and two rudders, the Polar 65 is able to manoeuvre in tight anchorages with great facility dispensing a complicate bow thruster installation. On the other hand her high degree of positive stability makes her comfortable even when sailing in very rough conditions. These characteristics together with an extremely spacious interior arrangement are what make her the superb expedition boat she is. The Ukrainian civil engineer Aleixo Belov was our first client to build a Polar 65. Being an outstanding sailor, just a few years after his graduation, he built a thirty-six foot fibreglass sailboat with which he accomplished a round the world trip, single-handed. Back home he wrote a book called “In search of the Orient” , where he relates his adventures, including an acquaintance with famous female navigator Tania Aebi, and a visit to his home-country, Ukrainia, then part of USSR. With that very boat he went sailing around the world two times more, always in solitary, resulting from these experiences two other bestsellers. Now he does not want to sail alone anymore, and decided to dedicate his Polar 65 in the mission of taking young people as crew, using his boat as a sailing school for less favoured youth. His boat is practically ready to be launched, and will be sailing before the end of this year. Owning a shipyard at the city of Salvador, State of Bahia, Brazil, he found no difficulty in building his Fraternidade (Fraternity in Portuguese) with his own team of welders. We visited his plant a few months ago and took the photos shown below:
*** Meanwhile another Polar 65 hull is under construction at Metallic Boats, a boatyard established in Triunfo, R.S., Brazil. The second vessel of this class, Mar de Cristal, soon will have the hull turned into its upside position. José Antonio Moeller, the boatyard owner, is very enthusiastic about the potential of this design as the perfect charter boat to operate in high latitudes, and having in mind to be prepared to produce these boats in series, he provided his installations for CNC cut assemblage, which will represent an important saving in time of construction. Moeller, a long time client of ours, already produced a collection of boats from our design, and for the quality of his work, we are foreseeing a very successful career for his latest investment.
Click here to know more about the Polar 65 class |
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Multichine 28 class latest news Our most audacious Multichine 28 owner-builder, Flavio Bezerra, who sailed from Rio de Janeiro to the West Indies single-handed without auxiliary engine and with no means to recharge his batteries ( rolling the page, see the article: “Multichine 28 Access reaches the Caribbean”), sent us this July, 2008, an e-mail reporting that at the moment he is at English Harbour, Antigua, and that all is fine with him:
*** Another client of ours who built a Multichine 28 unassisted, the restaurateur Giovani Dalgrande, is very pleased with the conclusion of his work. He built his boat at the city of Florianopolis, state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and a few days ago sent us an e-mail with some beautiful photos of his Kyriri-ete attached:
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Kiribati 36 – A new design for construction with CNC cut aluminium plates. It is well advanced the hull of the first Kiribati 36, a design adapted from our Multichine 36 SK and first of our line to be nearly 100% pre-cut by CNC. The hull is being built by Metallic Boats yard, in Triunfo, RS, Brazil Main diferences from the Multichine 36 SK, which can also be built in aluminium in addition to steel, are changes to the deck and cabin, to allow a better panoramic view from inside the cabin, item that our clients, Luis Manuel and Marli, consider a priority for a long range voyaging yacht, and modifications to the systems in the direction of simplicity, low maintenance and low cost, as tiller steering instead of wheel, and new position of the rudders, now placed behind the transom. The anchor locker was brought aft and enlarged and an extra watertight bulkhead inserted at the aft end, creating a huge lazzarette isolated from the accommodation area. The couple chose this design to replace their "Green Nomad", a Van de Stadt 36 built in steel by them, in which they cruised for 10 years, from Rio de Janeiro to the Pacific Ocean, passing through Panama and staying several years between Australia and the South West Pacific island groups. Between these, they were enchanted by Kiribati , reason why they chose to name their version of the design Kiribati 36. Being a swing keel design, the Kiribati 36 will allow them to return and explore the Pacific Ocean with more freedom of choice and options than before, when they had to play the tides in order to get into cyclone holes and other anchorages. The hull is in 5083 aluminium alloy, being 10mm thick in the bottom and 8mm on the sides. The hull panels were cut by plasma, while the remaining of the structure, deck, keel and rudders were cut by water jet. All was pre-cut, ensuring a fast and very precise assemblage. The modifications and the development of the pre-cut kit were done by Luis Manuel Pinho in close collaboration with our office, which shall launch an official version of the design soon. If you would like to know more about the Kiribati 36, please send an e-mail to info@yachtdesign.com.au or to luisdesenhos@gmail.com.
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Southern Voyager 28 built by Flab boatyard We have reported the conclusion of construction and turning over parties promoted by Flab Boatyard in various occasions since this excellent custom yard began its activities. Flavio sent us an e-mail where he expressed his feelings about the event: To build custom boats is a very rewarding activity, and building boats designed by B & G Yacht Design is an honour, and yet, obtaining such a group of friends among my clients, suppliers and supporters of my boatyard is a privilege that few can boast to have acquired in a professional career. The SV28 is a wooden power boat of displacement type. Her plans are intended for amateur or custom construction. The building method employed in the construction of the SV28 is strip planking laid over cold moulded laminated frames for the hull, and marine plywood sheathed with fibreglass for the superstructure. The interior is made with plywood. All parts of the construction are bonded with epoxy glue, resulting in a monoblock structure of great strength and durability.
Click here to know more about the SV28 Class *** More about the Southern Voyager 28 Voyaging through the web we found a site, www.craftacraft.com with an interesting comments about our SV28 trawler: ‘A designer that is currently moving from Rio de Janeiro to Perth, Australia, Roberto Barros has some interesting designs to examine, mostly sail craft, but a few power boats. The person who wrote the text above is a good observer. He is precise in stating that some of our trawler designs have a sailboat hull look. The reason for that is quite simple: our trawlers are of displacement type hulls and their smooth waterlines do not differ much from sailboat waterlines. The semi-planing concept of trawler hulls is neither fish nor fowl. Trawlers advertised as semi-planing, for obvious reasons, are never shown travelling at full throttle in their advertisements. The Southern Voyager 28, with its large tank capacity, is capable of travelling for long distances without needing to refuel, and this is the design intention.
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B & G Yacht Design – our office in Australia Since last year, when I moved to Australia, I am involved in the task of integrating our yacht design office with this new market. The chosen city to establish our office was Perth, the capital of booming Western Australia. The nautical activity is very intense here, be it sailing, motor-boating, fishing or canoeing, either in the sheltered waters of the Swan River, or in the Indian Ocean. Best known by the sailing community is nearby Fremantle. Distant 15 minutes from Perth downtown but still in its metropolitan area, in the year of 1983 Fremantle hosted the first America’s Cup regatta raced outside the United States. The town had been completely remodeled on that occasion and the complex of marinas built for the event is now being used by thousands of boaters and is also an entertainment site, with lots of restaurants and different tourist attractions. A nice place to visit there is The Western Australia Maritime Museum, where it is exposed one of the most famous Australian boats, Australia II, the first yacht to beat the Americans in more than 130 years of the America’s Cup competition.
The place I chose to settle the office was Bicton, a suburb of Perth located in the south margin of the Swan River, a stone throw from Fremantle. Roberto Barros, my partner, who remained in Rio de Janeiro, and I, took some time in adapting to work so far apart from each other. We communicate daily by e-mail and skype and during this time we learned to take advantage of the 11 hours time difference. Now it is as if our office is running 24 hours nonstop, since while one of us is ending his daily routine, the other one is just beginning his day.
I spent the first months in the new country trying to learn more about the local market. I visited some boat shows, especially on the west coast, talked to boaters in the marinas and clubs and sailed in new acquaintances’ boats. The interest in strong, safe, seaworthy, stable, reliable, easy to build, attractive and low maintenance yachts is the general rule, and in these aspects Australians don’t differ from people elsewhere. I soon learned that we are quite at ease regarding these requirements, since we also pursuit these characteristics and they belong to our design philosophy.
Since May, 2008 we have a company officially registered in Australia. It is B & G Yacht Design and in the coming days the new name and logo will be displayed in our website. We are quite motivated with this new challenge. More than just a new beginning, we feel that the B & G Yacht Design is an extension and a step ahead on all the hard work we had done in more than 20 years dedicated to designing yachts.
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Explorer 39 being built in Uruguay. The Uruguayan computer analyst Julio Gonzales is building an Explorer 39 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He obtained permission to use the installations of a local technical school and is profiting from the skill and enthusiasm of its young students. The hull strip-planked core is already completed and was extremely well finished. At the present time the fibreglass external lamination has been already applied and the hull is ready to be turned upside. Julio prepared an interesting site, www.explorer39.com, to relate his experiences as a yacht builder. We extracted from his site the following information and we intend to report periodically the progresses of his construction. The Explorer 39 is a swing-keel shallow draught cruising yacht, the ideal type of boat to operate in the River Plate, where an accelerated process of sedimentation is turning the estuary waters shallower at each season. In the long run Julio intends to use his boat in long distance cruising, and he counts on the versatility of his boat to provide him with a scope of usage unmatched by any other fixed keel yacht of the same size. Being built at the Escuela Tecnica Marítima del UruguayThis home page is a tribute to all amateur boat builders and cruising sailors.
Why the Explorer 39 ? The idea of building the Explorer 39 is a long time dream nurtured during the years when I owned a Plenamar 22, a weekend sailer too small for more ambitious dreams, and from this standing point I began looking for something more adequate for my future plans. First I searched the yacht market for an adequate model which suited my needs, but the prohibitive prices of first hand yachts deterred me from acquiring a production boat. The core strip-planking already finished, ready to be covered by the external fiberglass lamination
Click here for other information about the Explorer 39 Class. |
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Vagamundo is a very good looking Multichine 28 We received an e-mail from the professional deep-water diver Yesterday, the June 19, 2008 I went sailing with my brand-new Vagamundo for the first time. It is necessary to pass trough this experience to understand how I’m feeling; not exactly like the kid who received a new toy, but more precisely, the one who went to play for the first time with the toy he built himself. Those who lived an experience like this in their childhoods will know quite well what does this mean. Eight long years had passed since the day I acquired the plans at your office. I made practically all the construction by myself, only calling a hand to assist me when sheathing the hull with fiberglass and when applying the final coat of poliurethane finishing paint. So it is not surprising that I chose to sail single-handed for this first trial. It was quite a short-lasting sail; just about four hours, the wind blowing first, when leaving the pier, at four knots, (no engine required; at any rate, isn’t she a sail boat? J) and then sailing in fifteen knots breeze. I was absolutely amazed with the boat’s ability to sail by herself, even when running. I left the tiller to go inside the cabin to prepare a snack and to check if everything was fine down below, and the boat remained in its course as if I had already a self-steering gear installed. When staying in the cabin, I was marveled to be able to watch what was going on outside, around 360°, across her glass windows, portholes and hatches, a dream come true for all single-handed sailors. The wind fell once more when returning to the pier, and again I let the iron sail stay quiet is its bed and entered under main alone until we were lashed to our finger. Not for the sailor’s expertise, which is very small yet, but because the boat is a joy to maneuver. The first part of my dreams is concluded. Next step is to begin living aboard and then go sailing to the most distant places. I hope this will happen soon, even though I have to build a cradle in the fore cabin, since my first son, João, is only fifteen days old. I intend to wait until he is six months old, and then we take a decision.
Vagamundo is not entirely fit for ocean passages yet. She still requires a bimini, a dodger, the tender, and many other items, as is the case with most recently launched yachts. Unfortunately the company I dived for lost its contract with Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company which they worked for, and for that matter I am unemployed at the moment.
Click here to know more about the Multichine 28 Class |
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Pantanal 25 made in Turkey Last June, 4, 2008 we received this laconic e-mail with three excellent pictures of the first Pantanal 25 made in Turkey: Dear Roberto
Observing Zirrdeli’s photos was a very nice surprise for us. At first place because the boat is superbly well built, with a degree of sophistication, like for instance, teak covered cockpit seats, seldom found in boats of amateur construction. It also impressed us the fact that the two friends surpassed all obstacles totally unassisted by us, since they did not require any further information besides the ones provided with the plans. So our surprise came in a double dose, and receiving these photos gave us an incommensurable satisfaction. Hi Luis,
The Pantanal 25 class is just getting outside its egg-shell. When we decided to design a trailerable cruising sail boat with more creature comforts than most other similar boats, we couldn’t dream with the immediate approval of our ideas by so many sailors in the most varied places. Since its introduction, the class never stopped increasing in aficionados and there are dozens of builders in various countries working hard to complete their boats. The first chance we had to watch a video of a Pantanal 25 sailing took place last April when Dark Ice, the boat built in Campinas, Brazil, by Jorge Intaschi went for her first sea trial. This video is becoming very popular, with more than 3.000 visits in two months. Soon Jorge intends to produce a second one, when he will try a larger asymmetric spinnaker on his boat. We are praying for Aeolus to present him with a nice and fresh breeze for us to appreciate Dark Ice’s wake. |
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Samoa 28 Sirius first “flight”
Daniel D’Angelo, the Argentinean geologist who built a Samoa 28 totally unassisted, in his home garden in Buenos Aires, Argentina, already removed the boat from his lawn, employing a crane for the purpose. Next the boat will be conducted to a professional boatyard to have the fin-keel and rudder installed, and the final coat of polyurethane paint applied. Daniel published in his site, http://ar.geocities.com/velerosirius/ this thrilling operation in a You Tube video. Daniel wrote this note about the experience: The great day of removing my beloved Sirius from my garden finally has come. As it has been routine these last days, Murphy was there, bringing with him all his implacable laws. The freighter, who has been hired to transport the boat to the boatyard, didn’t come at the appointed time, and as the crane didn’t fail to come, we had to improvise, leaving the boat on the public sidewalk for a while. For good chance I could count on the assistance of my neighbor “Chavo” and his sons, who already gave me a hand when the hull had been turned upside. Since that day they hadn’t visited the workshop, so they where quite pleased to participate in this important achievement. The operation was successfully accomplished, with no mishaps, what is good omen for Sirius first steps in the outside world. Finally we left for the time being the hull resting on two bearers laid on the sidewalk. Praying not to be disturbed by the municipal authorities, we covered the whole boat with a tarpaulin, and my neighbor Alejandro and I went to sleep aboard, being rewarded with a 2° negative Celsius for that first night.
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Record crop of boats from our designs getting ready to be launched This season we have good reasons to commemorate. To toast our first anniversary of operation in Perth, Western Australia, it seems that our builders wanted to reward us with a record number of boats from our designs being finished practically at the same time.
The other boat just launched, still needing to be rigged, is also the first of her design to go to the water. She is the Green Flash ORC33 Class prototype built in Joinville, State of Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil, by João de Deus Assis. This boat is one of the firsts of this class to be concluded world wide. In Brazil she probably will compete in the ORC Internationa class, once there are no other sister-ships to race for line honours.
The Argentinean geologist Daniel D'Angelo, built her in Buenos Aires, almost unassisted during his days off the South Atlantic continental shelf oil rig where he works. (His site is: http://ar.geocities.com/velerosirius ) |
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Sirius is a good example of amateur construction. Competing with dozens of other builders in various countries, some of them professionals, it is him who will tell us the first news about a Samoa 28 sailing. We intend to publish a cover story in our site as soon as he informs us about this impressive achievement.
Last but not least, it is nearly concluded the construction of our first boat built in Korea. She is a Multichine 45 built in steel by Mr T. J. Park. He is at the moment giving the last coats of finishing to his handsome yacht. He didn’t tell us yet how he will call her, but for the time being, for us she will be "The Korean MC45 Star"
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Multichine 28 Atairu, a masterpiece in wood-epoxy construction. Flab Boatyard from Campinas, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, delivered another MC28 Class sail boat, the most popular cruising design from our office.  Atairu’s galley details The MC28 is a design intended for amateur construction. There are almost two hundreds of boats from this design being built or sailing in ten different countries, in four continents. Many of their builders intend to accomplish long distance cruising, some of them having a round the world trip as their goals. The couple Ivana and Antonio Piqueres, the Atairu owners, are no exception. They intend to sail the Brazilian coast from south to north and then their plans are unlimited. Since Atairu was built by a professional boat yard of such an excellence of quality, this MC28 tends to become an important ambassador for the class. It happens, however, that there are many other well built and fancily finished MC28’s. So, it is expected that the class will expand in numbers and geographic scope. We are grateful with the empathy of our builders with the design and we will keep informing our readers about the progress of the class.  Click here to know more about the Multichine 28 class |
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Multichine 23 - Sollazzo We reported a few months ago the launching of the beautiful MC 23MK IV Sollazzo. Now, her builder Flavio Traiano sent us an e-mail relating the first cruise aboard his home-built cruising sail boat. We were particularly pleased in receiving this e-mail, considering we developed these plans having in mind young families like his. The fact that he and his family had a great time during the holidays is a reward for our work, since our intention was to provide to the amateur the plans of a cheap and easy to build twenty-three foot sail boat capable of taking a small family in a coastal cruise in comfort and safety. His report about the trip say a lot about how pleased he was with the new experience. His words sound like music and are very gratifying for us. Finally we completed our first cruise with Sollazzo, our home-built MC 23 MK IV. A few months passed after Sollazzo’s launching, but that was the time required to complete the boat, when important details of the interior construction were performed. During this preparation phase we only used the boat in day-sailing, just to test her in the open sea, when we eventually experienced tough weather, giving us the necessary confidence to go further out. We left Rio in the beginning of April 2008. The trip was eventless and we managed to keep five knots speed average along the way, pushed by a light southeast, sometimes with the assistance of our auxiliary. We spent, my two and a half years old daughter, my wife and I, five marvelous days gunkholing between Ilha Grande and Angra. We slept and cooked aboard during all these days, and this included two delicious barbecues grilled in our marine kettle. I was delighted about my crew's enthusiasm with this life-style during these hollidays. Our pocket cruiser accommodated us comfortably during the whole trip. We managed to store neatly our food supply, cooking utensils, diving and fishing equipment, tool kit, sailing hardware, etc, besides an incredible amount of personal gear. It wasn’t even necessary to refill the water and fuel tanks during the cruise, in spite of daily fresh water bathes and plenty of motor-sailing. We used the engine for about one hour daily, enough to ensure full-charged bateries, even though there was no worry about energy saving. We used regularly our stereo and watched films in our notebook, never experiencing lack of power aboard. Flavio Traiano
Click here to know more about the Multichine 23 MK IV plans |
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Pantanal 25 Dark Ice first trial.
Last Easter Friday was a happy day for the Pantanal 25 class. Dark Ice, the Pantanal 25 we showed pictures of her being transported by trailer in an earlier report, went for her first trial last Easter in Santos, the important Brazilian port and the most developed nautical centre in this country. There are many boats of this class under construction in a dozen different countries, and at least another one is already sailing. However it was Dark Ice the first one to send us a thorough report and a complete set of photos of her first tacks on the water. We received by e-mail a beautiful photo of another Pantanal 25 built in Turkey by an amateur, and many others are not far from completion, but this was the first actual chance to know how does the Pantanal 25 behave. Dark Ice was built in Campinas, a city two hundred km away from the sea, by Jorge Intaschi, an amateur who saw in the Pantanal 25 design the perfect boat for his requirements. Jorge, a computer analyst, is a dealer in the car sales business. As it is so often the case nowadays, he has a very limited spare time for his preferred hobby, the sport of competitive sailing. Living so far from the sea and with such a demanding business, he needed a boat that could be stored at his home garage during the long stretches when he couldn’t afford having a holyday, and, on the other hand, when going to the sea, he wished a boat comfortable enough for his family to spend the weekend aboard, preferably with the amenities required for a pleasant stay, like enclosed heads, private cabin and a handy galley. When he discovered the Pantanal 25, he knew straightaway that this was exactly the boat for him. He was one of the firsts to acquire the plans, which had been published just a few weeks before. He was so enthusiastic about the Pantanal 25 potential that he decided to begin a boat-building business to produce this model in series. He opened a company in partnership with his brother Wagner, and a few weeks later he was already starting the construction of the plugs required for the fabrication of the production moulds. Even though the two brothers were experienced entrepreneurs, this field of activity was a total novelty for them. Despite their lack of technical knowledge, they decided to produce first class tooling and top quality infusion lamination. In January 2007, they installed their workshop, and the first decision they made was to acquire a boot at the Sao Paulo Boat Show, scheduled for October 2007. You can imagine they had to work like bats out of hell not to loose the show, and for very bad luck, or perhaps because of the hurry, Jorge fell from the plug’s deck, rupturing all ligaments of one of his knees. He went to the boat show in a wheel-chair since he didn’t accept to be operated on before the event was finished. He had no reasons to blame that detached decision, since his boat was one of stars of the event and he managed to accomplish fifteen firm orders along the duration of the show, with a permanent queue of hundreds of persons waiting to climb aboard. Now he is recovering from the surgery, and the great day has come for the sea trials of Dark Ice, the very boat produced for the boat show. Assuming they hadn’t enough experience to run the whole enterprise without a skilled assistance, they hired Eduardo Arena, a highly prized technician in the yacht building industry and a renowned model stylist in the confection of plugs. His participation was a real blessing, since he is also a keen racing sailor, and above all, he is a great supporter of the model. That Friday wasn’t very inviting. The sky was cast with heavy clouds and the wind was light and variable. A cold front was expected the next day, so an improvement in the weather pattern was out of the question. With his knee still requiring attention, Jorge Intaschi decided to watch and take the first pictures of his new toy crossing her first waves from the comfort of a speed boat’s fly-bridge. Eduardo Arena was going to be the test driver, assisted by a rigger and a professional sailor. The crew couldn’t be more qualified for the occasion, and undoubtedly all those involved with the enterprise were visibly excited with what was going to happen in the next few hours. In the rush of preparation all halyard and sheet tails were yet to be trimmed to their proper lengths, while the brand new sails were for the first time out of their bags. The launching down the slipway was uneventful, and in an instant Dark Ice was under tow. At that moment many of the myriad of doubts that populate the hearts of all boat builders were dissipated. The boat floated correctly on her waterline with a perfect trim, in spite of the three stocky crewmembers staying on the cockpit. When the motor yacht surpassed Dark Ice’s hull speed, Eduardo felt the rudder too heavy to steer, giving him the impression that it required balancing. This, as soon as the boat started to sail, was proved to be unnecessary, and in the circumstances of being under tow, all that would be required was to lift the blade a bit, which in the case of the Pantanal 25, has infinite adjustment. Jorge, despite a slight increase in heartbeats, was seeing for the first time his creation sailing close-hauled. And how nicely she performed; in five knots of wind the boat was sailing at practically the same speed. The initial stability was excellent and the boat seemed to be crossing the small seas effortlessly, leaving behind a very clean wake. Demonstrating very good pointing ability, the boat came about showing impressive acceleration in the new tack. Jorge exulted from the fly-bridge, blaming his damned knee for not being able to be at the tiller at that moment. The wind increased in strength to about twelve knots, and then the boat, which up to then was quite stiff, quickly lost some stability, heeling to a bit more than 15°. Being a narrow boat with her beam on the water line almost the same as her maximum beam, this was foreknowable, but the good news was that she was perfectly balanced, accelerating without the rudder loosing its grip. The return trip was useful in testing the boat in a broad reach. The wind was light and the asymmetrical spinnaker wasn’t capable of showing all its potential, but that was just the first trial, and many others will follow soon. The photos Jorge took from the motor boat are not spectacular, since the sky was overcast and the atmosphere misty. But that was only Dark Ice baptisms and we still are expecting a lot of good news about this design.
Click here to know more about the Pantanal 25 Class |
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Multichine 26C 2008. Made in Australia This article is simultaneously published in www.yachtdesign.com.br and in www.amateurboatbuilding.com
Our office is operating from Perth, Western Australia, since May 2007. In 2006, when we still worked in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, we developed the plans for amateur construction of the Multichine 26C, the smallest cruising sail boat from our line of stock plans that we consider being capable of performing any kind of long distance cruise, even a round the world trip, if wished. This project when introduced stirred great enthusiasm among cruising yachtsmen, and presently there are dozens of MC26C being built in many different countries. We reckon that the great interest for the plans was due to the unique spaciousness of her interior. In these times of short money and skyrocketing prices of production boats, it is not difficult to understand the appeal of home construction, especially if the boat in question arises a high degree of confidence and is suitable for living aboard for long stretches, besides being intended for blue-water sailing.
As a rule of thumb the amateur builder obtains great pleasure from the construction of his dream boat. In the early stages of the construction he is already dreaming with the pleasures his future yacht will offer him, and this probably is why most boats built by do-it-yourself enthusiasts are in average superior in general quality and durability to the series produced equivalents, and the Multichine 26C is no exception. The best home-built boats seldom are for sale. For their owners, just the thought of selling them is a sacrilege, like intending to sell a member of the family. Now that the first units of the class are getting close to being completed, we decided to introduce a revised version of the 26C plans, this time our work coming from Australia. The changes from the original plans are few but they nevertheless will turn the MC26C still more functional. We changed the angle of the heads door wall, which at first wasn’t parallel to the centre line. Doing so, we made the shower box a much more comfortable area, improving the maximum headroom from 1.82m to 1.85m and increasing the stepping area of the grated shower sump floor. The best way to provide running hot water at the MC 26C shower is to install a water heater under the navigation table the closest possible to the heads wall, using the engine’s fresh water cooling system to heat the bath water. To have aboard hot shower facility working as nicely as the one we have in our home bathrooms is a fancy really appreciated by the whole crew, especially children during those chilly winter days. The hot water can easily be extended to the heads vanity basin and to the galley sink, but even though the MC26C has large fresh water tank capacity, we always recommend moderation in water consumption aboard. For those who consider water heater installation too expensive for the boat’s budget, we suggest a simple solution to substitute this expensive gear: the installation of a two-tails 12.5mm flanged fitting on the heads coach-roof. An inexpensive sun-shower attached to the boom is linked to the upper tail piece, and the shower hose with an in-line ball valve is attached to the ceiling side of the flanged fitting. This costs peanuts and when the weather is cast, it is just enough to heat water on the stove and fill the sun-shower. Of course in a twenty-six foot sail boat hot bath inside the heads is not practical when underway, but then there is the transom platform, and besides, the sun-shower hangs on any place, like the backstay for instance. This change required an enlargement on the navigation table wall, extending it from the navigation table front face to the heads door wall in its new position. This small corner thus created is the right place to install a cabin heater, something so prized in colder climates, and for which no provision had been made in the former version of the design.
A description of the MC 26C layout should begin with the after cabin. The amazing volume of this compartment with its residential-sized double berth and the exclusive sofa at the cabin’s hall is hard to be matched by other twenty-six footers. We already pointed out how spacious the heads became after the change in its layout, but it’s worth mentioning that abaft the toilet compartment there is a huge stowing space with easy access from the boat interior. The L-shaped galley with sink, fridge or ice- box and two burners stove with oven is quite handy for those intending to live aboard. The saloon, navigation table and second double berth crown the interior arrangement, balancing all compartments with the same level of functionality. For that matter we are confident that this is why the MC26C design fascinated so many sailors at the first hour. Now with the new improvements we expect a new flow of enthusiasm among potential amateur builders and cruising sailors. The MC26C is a lucky design indeed. The approval of our builders about their boats’ interior layout and other aspects of the plans surprised us. One of them is preparing his boat for a round the world trip around the Austral Ocean by way of the three capes, which demonstrates his confidence in the project. We are ready to give him our most eloquent support, since we developed the plans having in mind people like him, who can’t afford purchasing the expensive models intended for ultimate adventures available in the market.
The reason for the MC26C being easy to build and, when completed, being of such high quality, resides in the method of construction specified for the plans. Contrary to most other multi-chine stock plans available for plywood construction, instead of stitching the hull’s outside panels and then installing partitions and furniture, we specify building the transverse bulkheads which will provide the hull shape and structure at the work-bench. We consider a good solution the stitch and glue boat building method for smaller crafts, but above a certain size like the MC26C, adopting the so-called ply-glass building method brings innumerous advantages. To start the construction, no matter if you are a layman or an expert in wood work, it is always advisable to employ the workshop bench, where it is much easier to obtain a smooth finish than when doing the same job in a much more awkward position in the interior of the boat. During this stage, either the amateur or the professional have the chance to train their skills and bring the part being built to the highest level of finishing. However the most striking advantage of building the transverse structure first, and only then planking the hull, is the huge saving in cost of epoxy resin. Wood cleats are incomparably cheaper than epoxy resin and the amount of epoxy necessary to fillet the whole structure to the interior and to join the panels at chines is absolutely disgusting.
Those pre-fabricated structural components are not difficult to make. The process consists basically in bonding cleats to plywood panels, employing in most cases butt joints. Full size patterns for the construction of these bulkheads are provided with the plans. Once those pre-fabricated components are concluded, they are assembled over a building base, which in the technical jargon is called strongback, or building grid. Then the sheer and chine clamps, as well as longitudinal stringers are fixed in their notches, already opened when the bulkheads were fabricated, removing the slightest chance of misalignment during this operation. The next steps in the construction are sheathing the structure with plywood and then encapsulating the whole hull with a thick layer of fibreglass. At this point of the construction it is already evident that the whole complex is extremely sturdy, and it is this sense of robustness that arises the immense feeling of confidence in the builder’s mind. When the hull is turned upside, the remaining of the work is intuitive, since all the transverse walls and furniture components are already in place, because they were already made at the work-bench. Then the work proceeds linearly until the interior is completed and the superstructure is attached to the structural members. Once more the whole outside surface is encapsulated with fiberglass, this time overlapping in about 50mm the hull’s fiberglass sheathing, this way generating an incredibly strong monoblock structure.
At this point of the construction the builder is assured that his work has been successful, and from then on all else in the construction will be a lesser challenge. Once the sanding and fairing is concluded and a finishing coat of paint is applied all over the boat’s external surface, fittings, keel and rudder are installed and the launching party may be scheduled. The MC 26C is fitted with a transom-hung rudder and tiller steering. This is the most reliable and cost saving solution. It was in our plans to provide an affordable and easy to build cruising sail boat, and providing the boat with tiller steering were in our original plans. Other appealing characteristics of the project are its long and unobstructed cockpit, good internal natural ventilation, a leak-proof mast-step on coach-roof and an ample anchor rode compartment.
Rendered images: www.IDEEbr.com Click here for more information about the Multichine 26C class |
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Curruira 42 trawler hull n° 1 turning over party Early this January I had the opportunity to take part in a barbecue to toast the turning upside of the first Curruira 42 built by Flab Boatyard, from Campinas, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was necessary on that occasion to complete a round the world trip just to be there to participate in the event. In May 2007 I had traveled to Perth, Western Australia, where our office is presently established. My route was by way of Santiago, Auckland and Sidney. This time I flew to Dubay and São Paulo, and now I have warranted the right to stick an X in my cockpit, despite the discomfort of the tiresome twenty-one hours trip and the eleven hours jet-lag. But in the end it was worth all the effort.
Arriving in the boatyard was a very rewarding sensation. Instead of entering in a dusty and noisy plant in an industrial suburb of any large city, I was in a rural area nearby Campinas, with many trees and pastures with cows and horses. The sheds where the boats are built are open-walled and surrounded by tall trees, by no means disturbing the landscape. I was also quite impressed with the neatness of the place, a condition seldom found in other custom building workshops. Presently Flab Boatyards have five boats of different lengths, all of them from Roberto Barros Yacht Design office under construction, and soon they will start to build a 46 foot trawler also designed by our studio. I arrived a few days before the date scheduled for the event and took the opportunity for promoting technical meetings with Flavio Rodrigues, the director of the company, about many details in the construction of the Curruira 42, and closer to the day of the party, I had the chance to do the same with the various other clients who were invited for the party. What impressed me most when I first glanced at the upside-down hull of the Curruira 42 was her huge size.(It’s amazing how misleading it is to watch a drawing in the monitor and seeing the actual boat in three dimensions.) Considering her generous beam, it is unquestionable that she is a huge trawler for her length, the very dream of many potential owners. In spite of being in an upside-down position yet, and its empty interior, the structural bulkheads already installed gave a good idea of how she is going to be when completed: the fore compartment with the sleeping accommodations, the central bilge area where the engine room and fuel tanks will be installed, and the after quarters with its steering gear installation. The standard of finishing of the outside of the hull is worth the warmest compliment. The Ply-glass construction method (marine plywood sheathed with a thick layer of fiberglass) is a building technique that makes the most durable boats a boatyard is able to construct, but the fairing and smoothing of the fibreglass external surface requires a skilled job not to show hollows or bumps on the outside. In the case of the Curruira 42 the finishing was perfect and the chines did not show the slightest inflection. Early in the next day the whole preparation was performed: tables and chairs were laid in place, the barbecue grill heated and the background music equipment tested, while the unquestionable star of the show, the Curruira 42, remained static in its building grid. But the time had come for the grand finale. Effusive congratulations, acknowledgments, ironic speeches, all of these were loudly heard in the next few moments. Suddenly an out of the script ‘happy birthday to you’ was rendered, since in spite of nobody having been warned, it was Flavio’s anniversary. Surrounded by the other guests who congratulated him, Nico let a few tears roll down his face and soon a ladder was installed for him to climb aboard, followed by Flavio and all the others. Then the party was established inside the hull and for the second time that day a ‘happy birthday to you’ was rendered. Nico was already dreaming with his boat completed, cruising the tropical waters of Bahia, one of the most beautiful cruising grounds the world over. But this is another story that we want to report the soonest possible.
Click here to know more about the Curruira 42 Class |
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Multichine 28 Access reaches the Caribbean The most exciting story about the MC28 Class comes from the Saint Martin. We have reported a fortnight ago about the desperate passage of Access from Rio de Janeiro to Natal, in the Brazilian Northeast, (see the third report down below) but we omitted telling where she was bound to. The computer analyst Flavio Bezerra and his home-built Multichine 28 had left Rio de Janeiro single-handed, without an auxiliary engine, without means of recharging his batteries and very simply equipped for present days cruising yacht standards, having in mind the most ambitious dreams of endless cruising adventures. After a long spell of silence we finally received a laconic e-mail from him relating his latest achievements. He told he arrived in the West Indies without rudder, after colliding with a whale, which threw his boat up into the air, (it must have been at least the Moby Dick,) seriously damaging his rudder in the process. He also told that he had a broken tooth falling on the deck, where he had his anchor roller and fore chain-plate damaged and when shifting the anchor from its roller, let it fall on his dinghy, puncturing its bottom and turning it into a useless life-saver. His supply of drinking water bottles was damaged in the collision, halyards were broken with the slam and many other small damages occurred all over the boat. He told that following the mishap he was becalmed for five days, and later was reached by a fierce storm, (he reckons the wind was blowing at forty-five knots), when, without rudder, he had to zigzag in a broad reach with deeply reefed main-sail only. Now Flavio intends to work for a while in the West Indies, where he has a promised job, to refit his boat, buy a decent auxiliary diesel and make cash for going further. As we have a special involvement with the MC28 class, a boat we designed having in mind young adventurers like Flavio and the so many others who are ready to follow his path, we intend to give more details of Access odyssey, as soon as we have more precise information.
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The construction is taking place at the Maritime school of Uruguay (UTU), a public institution ( a small part of each one of us, Uruguayans, where various technical courses are offered. 
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