Microship Status 09/02/93

I made another pilgrimage today -- to the high-density marine-supply region around Shelter Island. The original purpose of the trip was to go see a $9,000 trimaran for sale down in Chula Vista... but it turned out to be a plywood clunker, junk really, so I spent a few hours exploring. In the process I made some excellent contacts in the marine electronics biz, played with an Astra sextant, and spent about $80 in the nautical bookstore.

While doing all that, it suddenly occurred to me that I may be able to parlay some of my high-tech nomadic experience into project funding. The yachting world is full of people who long to disconnect and be free, yet still need to stay in effective communication. This has become one of my specialties over the years, so I'm going to invest in a couple of small ads in Latitude 38 and Santana to see if a bit of consulting might pay off. I have no interest in hands-on work on other peoples' boats -- my own will keep me quite busy enough -- but I could generate custom reports of suitable products and system configurations on the basis of interviews about the intended application. It's a wealthy clientele, and I've never seen anyone advertise a similar consulting service, so it may work. Or it may bomb... many business ideas do. In any case, it's easy enough to try with virtually no investment, so we'll see!

Hobnobbing among the yacht brokers, chandleries, and specialty stores is useful, even though my boat is on a smaller scale. Seeing how other people have solved problems helps me take steps to avoid similar ones, and I'm noticing a gradual evolution of the design based on all this reading and learning. It seems a slow phase, but I'd rather be methodical now and do it right than have to make a major hack to fix something critical.

One issue that is surfacing is the shape of the amas, or kayak outriggers. Since a trimaran should fly the windward hull when reaching, the optimal ama shape is not just a function of displacement hydrodynamics. We also have to consider what happens when it returns rapidly to the water -- too flat and it will generate major shock to the structure. I'm concerned that the standard kayak shape may be suboptimal in this regard, but rate their modularity highly. Could be yet another design trade-off.
Also, examination of a Corsair F27 today suggests taking a close look at their ama-deployment design, which occurs in a different plane from the "parallelogram" method I initially postulated. More on this as I explore it further.

That's it for now -- I'm on a deadline crunch with the Internet World article (that will also run in SunWorld Japan). Back to it.....

LITERATURE RECEIVED (plenty of new reading material today -- between Seabreeze Nautical Bookstore and visits to the Shelter Island marine businesses...):

Maiden Voyage - book about solo circumnavigation by then-18-year-old Tania Aebi
The Spirit of Rose-Noelle - book about trimaran capsize and 119 days adrift, by John Glennie and Jane Phare
1993 Southern California Boaters Directory
California Boating (cruising guide)
1993 Mariners World Marine Directory
The Cruising Multihull - book by Chris White detailing trimaran design
Sailing the Farm, a Survival Guide to Homesteading on the Ocean - book by Ken Neumeyer about living at sea
Beachcruising and Coastal Camping - book by Ida Little and Michael Walsh
SeaLand portable toilet literature
Autohelm instrument catalog (autopilots, instruments, navigation)
Pioneer Stereo marine products literature
Cruising World magazine (Sept 93)
Harken yach equipment catalog (cleats, blocks, winches, etc)
Ronstan catalog (similar product line to Harken)