http://project.kiteboat.com/
After helping finish up one of the first GP 26s with Brook Dees, and Jim Antrim’s Class 40 built at Berkeley Marine, Dan is again in the Bay area working on the Kiteboat Project, a foiler trimaran that is powered by a kite. Here’s a short report from the always entertaining Mr. Newland.
“The boat is a kick. The hulls are 25′ long and weigh about 90 lbs each and (I’m not kidding), overbuilt. We could take probably 20 lbs out of them. Everything is carbon and the core is Nomex. VERY stiff but you can litereally put a half-hull under your arm and carry it off.”
“The systems are interesting and fairly complex. The foils are “J” shaped and tied to the bow “sensors” i.e. paddle like deals that move when waves hit them to keep the boat from porpoising. The “T” foil rudder has a swiveling box with electric trim to adjust height. Then there are the kite launching poles, reels, controls…the list goes on. Anyway, it’s fun and great working with these guys. Most came from BMW/Oracle and built the trimaran so they are used to this stuff. Good guys, all. OH! and Tom George is good friends with one guy, Gabe Murphy. He grew up on Guemes Island in the SJ’s and ferried to school in Anacortes.”
“No, I haven’t had my ride yet but I am hoping to do it soon! After this one is done, they want to set a record sailing to Hawaii. Should be fun!”
“I did race last Sat and we got a 1st and a 2nd with big breeze. This weekend if I could have started looking sooner, I could have done the 3 Bridge Fiasco. Holy Shit! They have 320 boats entered! I was on the SSS Board when we came up with this crazy race and now it’s one of the most popular races on the planet AND STILL GROWING!!! There are even 2 races now copying it I heard. One in Seattle (the 3 islands race or some such???) and one in Rhode Island. They asked me to get up and tell the history of it, that was fun. Well, the first hour for me was fun anyway!”
“Anyway, say hi to everyone!”
Dan