Newly launched Kelsall Catamaran designs.

Giorgio in Peru has one more feather in his boat building cap from the launch of one of three 58 footers in build. All reports so far are positive. The rig will come from NZ, so operating on motors only for a few more weeks.

Aluminium is not our usual build material. However, the first power 43 has motored away from the S. Korean builders, GHI. Their second Kelsall is well underway - a 51 ft. sailing catamaran. Some of our KSS techniques can be applied to alloy build and we are happy to recommend this builder to any owner who has a preference for alloy. Generally speaking, we consider it more appropriate for 40ft. and upwards.

82 ft. Bonefish is on the water in Tauranga. This is the project that brought me to NZ ten years ago. There is an interesting story here for all kinds of reason. We will be telling it in instalments, starting shortly here and on our website. Watch this space.

Derek.

Tons of wet balsa

A few weeks ago a debate on the use of balsa core began on our KSSboat group on Yahoo. It was lively and informative. It also went onto the Multihull boat builder steamradio forum (email is: multihulls-request@steamradio.com). Anyone who has read what I have written will know my view – Balsa loves water and rots very quickly. It is impossible to ensure the water does not get to the balsa core and there is nothing at all to gain anyway. We got lots of feed back. We learnt of lots more reasons not to use it. We learnt of a very long list of designers who are promoting its use. The only explanation of this is that they have not seen what I have seen of cores and that they are swallowing the sales pitch, which has gone to the extent of balsa becoming an industry standard. It should never, ever be in any boat – unless the objective is to build in redundancy and reduce resale value. One only has to flip through one of the multihull magazines to see the extent of its use. It is in most of the boats in build pictures, particularly owner build. Seems that most plans come without any warnings of the dangers of balsa or instructions to get the best results.
If this sounds harsh on other designers, put your self in the shoes of an owner – here is a quote from one owner on Balsa core.

"If there are no voids in the layup, water doesn't spread through it and cause rot, even with such poor workmanship.? It is a better practice, of course, to completely seal balsa from all contact with water. As the owner of several tons of wet balsa core (in a C&C monohull) and some dry balsa (in an F25c), allow me:

1. Anyone who thinks balsa core is better than foam is either a sadist or is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.
2. Even if he/she had the most perfectly laid up laminates on earth NOBODY will believe this when the boat comes up for sale.
3. He/she will NEVER recoup the cost of the extra labour involved in the utterly futile attempt to achieve a perfect balsa layup throughout the entire project.
Having said that, if the object of the exercise it to demonstrate that piss actually flows uphill, my advice is 'go ahead'." T.H