For
safety, comfort and speed, the boats in this line
are as long, wide and "deep" as possible
for the weight and cost. That gives a bigger,
safer, more comfortable "ride" on what
is really a smaller, less costly multihull. Every
KHSD multihull should use as little material as
possible to do its job.
Kurt
Hughes on Puget Sound.
I
always try to find the simplest way to do whatever
it is on a multi. I try to use the mass-produced
products that are all around us as much as possible
instead of asking builders to create new solutions
for problems that are already solved.
Features:
Fair
and efficient hull shapes that are easily
driven and sea kindly are the only ones found
here. These are wide multihulls,
allowing more safety and speed. There is no excuse
for narrow multihulls anymore. All KHSD multihulls
are very wide overall for their length. Wide boats
are that much harder to tip over. Wide by itself
is not enough, though.
The
hulls themselves are as long as possible for a
given amount of boat weight. Long, slender hulls
give a smoother ride. Sailors won't get beaten
up as badly by rough seas and the sails will work
much better in bad conditions.
I
stick to simple structures. There is no fluff
in these designs. I have done enough boat building
to know where to keep complex solutions: off of
your boat. Simplicity does not mean primitive
design work. It does require that the designer
also be experienced both in sailing and building.
These
boats have connective arrangements that use modern
structural strategies, not mere mass, to achieve
superior strength and stiffness. From load traces
to materials choice, fiber orientation and fatigue
life, the structure of these multis has been thoroughly
studied. A multihull designer must be able to
correctly define the loads on a boat and then
properly arrange the best materials to resist
those loads. Many of the strategies that I use
probably will not filter down into the popular
literature for years.
No
heavy multihulls allowed. Keeping the weight
off of a multihull promotes safety as well as
speed. Less weight means less damage when grounding;
it means a smaller rig is needed; it means less
stress on the whole structure. These boats are
light compared to others of the same size, but
never at the expense of strength and stiffness.
Keeping weight down depends on careful detailing.
Instead of using mass to resist loads, I use
the right fibers in the right place.
I prefer
to use the Cylinder
Mold form of construction wherever possible.
(You'll need the free Adobe
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These
units point! Pointing and tacking ability
is not just for racers. Your survival may depend
on being able to clear that cape or actually being
able to short tack bareheaded up a rocky channel,
or even to claw off of a lee shore in a blow.
Most
of your sailing will be to weather. My entire
integrated package makes KHSD multihulls more
responsive and better at working to weather than
any others. That package includes proper foil
selection, correct balance, structural stiffness,
the right sails, rigs and equipment.
Most
of the boats have cockpit-led controls
for ease of handling when singlehanding and safety
in bad weather. Being able to accomplish everything
from the safety of the cockpit during a night-time
gale could be very important to your survival.
Boat
speed by itself is not often a requirement for
safety, though it can help you outrun a storm
or get to a difficult harbor before dark. The
safety in fast multis comes from what makes it
fast. Multis that have a wide overall beam, light
skinny hulls and efficient foils both above and
below the waterline, are not only fast, but give
the best ride.
|  I
believe that you will find these multihulls
to be the most easily built possible,
given similar size and features. I do
indeed have epoxy under my fingernails
and spray paint on my glasses. I have
personally tried out all the techniques
and details that you find in the plans.
~
Kurt Hughes
(khughes@multihulldesigns.com)
|
