It can't be Planet Earth. - It must be a Multihull Haven Heaven !

[DerekKelsall]

Originally Posted by Skip JayR

Its a pleasure to know you here, Derek ! Appreciate your design work. I am not that age (having started sailing in the 70th). Looking back already before that time you had some relevant impacts onto multihull sailing.

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Tks... am I going right, that you enjoy the Kiwi multihull spirit ? - Any new exiting projects or do you enjoy retirement under Kiwi sun (so to read on Wikipedia) ?

Have a good day ! - Happy Sailing !

Skip,

thanks for writing a bit of my story - No, no retirement planned yet - too much still to do, and to enjoy. As I look down onto our bit of river and hills from my office, NZ suits well - we (Paula and I) usually spend 2-3 months in US and occasional visits to UK and other countries - family and business.

Our work is spread, thinly, around the World, with Peru builder, Ballotta the most productive. Still finding refinements to KSS, wing masts and twin rigs to design, more power cats and a cat with wheels is about to start build. Watch this space as they say.

It has been a fascinating journey so far with multis going from crazy fringe to almost every on water application you can think of.

Happy boating,

Derek.

[Skip JayR]

Makai Marine at 809 G Street (ramp) in Chula Vista (California) must have been a kind of place for "owners in spe" dreaming about own multihull.
The small warft owned by Mike Flynn and Jack Norcross built multi-hull yachts and the trimarans which were designed by Norman Cross (1915-1990).

I found following picture of 1967 within the chapter "BOAT YARDS 1961-Present" of the article about "Gun Powder" written by Steve Schoenherr. Thanks to Google Image search.

1967/11/30 - The yachting world is swinging to a new beat, the world of multi-hulls. There are catamarans, trimarans and light, fast outriggers. Multi-hull construction has become an art and the state of the art has developed to a high degree. Now, builders of multi-hulls are banding together at small boat yards, in clubs, groups and just helping-hand neightbor boat builders, but with qualified professionals to give advice and correct potentially dangerous mistakes. One of the professionals lending the novices a hand is Mike Flynn, who with his partner, Jack Norcross, operateds one the South Bay's newest small business enterprises, Makai Marine at 809 G Street, Chula Vista.

Cutline: Makai Marine at 809 G Street (ramp), makes multi-hull yachts and the trimaran that was designed by Norman Cross, occupies part of the old Tyce Engineering firm across from Rohr; operated by Mike Flynn and Jack Norcross. (San Diego Union, Nov. 30, 1967

[Skip JayR]

The BCMS - British Columbia Multihull Society (founded in 1969) on the pacific West coast of Canada has a beautifully place from where its members sail around lower half of BC, northern up to Queen Charlotte Islands, east to Alberta (and south to Mexico).

(Source of picture: Photo Tour Trekkers :: Queen Charlotte Islands Blog July 8, 2014 )

Queen Charlotte Island is 60 nautical miles off northwestern British Columbia and located 732 kms from Vancouver. It is an archipelago of approximately 1,884 islands with 150 significant islands. Nowadays they are known as "Haida Gwaii".



Here we see the BCMS member and Cat "Bad Kitty" (the yellow one) in bundle with the the very fast and foldable TNT34 Trimaran (produced in Poland).


The TNT34 with the name of its sponsor Liqui Data is sailing around the globe... here on Canada's West Coast.


A snap of the BCMS bay in 2009...


The BCMS members one can see racing anually the Swiftsure Intern. Yacht Race in May (which is organized by the Royal Victoria Yacht club)... in the categories "Inshore Multihulls" (e.g. Banks 35, F-24) and "Cape Flattery Multihulls" (e.g. Forumula 40 Cat, Corsairs (F-27, F28R and 31R) and Farriers (F27, F-31, F85SR and F9AX) and Leopard).

Here a snap of the 2011 race with Cat "Mad Kitty" and some other multihulls...

(Source: Swiftsure Yacht Race – May 28 & 29 | BCMS)

... and 2015

(Source: Swiftsure International Yacht Race » 2015 Photos )