Good names in cats

[GordMay]

Chris:
As I picture it, your arrangement is also more “directionally stable”.

If I have it right: Your shackle holes will “look” for & aft, allowing the shackle to be in-line athwartwship when bridled to a centreline rode - whereas the (M-20) end-bolt ring hole would “look” athwartwhip, placing a bending/shearing load on the bolt when shackled to the ring/eye.

[Llamedos]

Hi Gord,

The plates I have made are bent approx 10 deg so the part that the shackles fix to are directly in line with the bridle leg. The holes for the shackles are athwartship apart from the 10deg angle of the plate, this gives the strongest arrangement with the bridle rope, shackle and plate all being as straight as possible. The bending moment is taken by the plate that is 10mm thick and about 140 mm across so more than strong enough for the job. The plate is also thickened up to approx 30mm for the shackle holes to suit the 32mm jaw width of the M16 shackle and minimise any slop in the arrangement.

The ring nut would create a bending moment in the fixing bolt as you say but I doubt it would ever be a big enough load to cause any problem, after all the bridle is only going to be 18 or 20mm nylon rope that will obviously break long before the loads cause any problems to the M20 stainless steel bolt and ring nut.

Chris

[RandyAbernethy]

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the BB feedback. Good to get the perspective. I was out in a 42 last week. It's an impressive boat.

[Strygaldwir]

Randy asked me to post some of my thoughts and experiences with the Privilege 37 catamaran. So, here goes.

I have had the boat for a little more than an year and a half now. The first year I spent rebuilding it systems, I have now spent a while sailing up and down the intracoastal water way, the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.

I purchased the boat as an insurance salvage, one of the hulls got submreged durring a hurricane. I have since installed new engines and saildrives, installed new sails and running rigging, removed almost all the old electrical wiring and replaced all electronics. I have replaced the stove, refrigeration and freezer. I stripped off all the old bottom paint, applied Interprotect 2000 and new bottom paint.

I performed 95% of the work myself. I have a pretty good idea of the systems within the boat and what subsequent owners have done. Some of my obervations.

The boat is extremely well engineered, not quite as elegant as a German automobile, but put together very well.

o The original wiring was all routed through conduits, the electrical connectors were robust, not ABYC, but CE compliant.

o The plumbing was okay, it was flexible PVC, not the rubber hose I would have prefered. There are two water tanks, a major stainless Steel 110 gallon tank that is mounted accross the two hulls right at the center of gravity of the boat. EXCELLANT! The second tank is a small auxillary 24 gallon tank mounted in the forward chain locker. Nice to have the spare, but with a watermaker, I wanted to remove it. The only thing that stops me is running out of water a couple of times and being able to readily tap into the reserve to finish a shower.

o The original engines were Yanmar 3GM30 engines. There installation and routing of fuel, control, and panel was very well done. The only issue is the fuel tank is very small. I have two 26 gallon tanks that give me affectively 24 gallons. I would much prefer larger tanks. The engine is situated so all the pre-departure checks and routine things can be accessed by opening hatches mounted under the aft cabin racks. We can get to the belts, oil level, raw water pumps, alternators strainers, and fuel pump purge valves. Convient! there are 4 battery boxes in one cabine and one in the other. We have 740 amp/hours of house and a 240 amp starting battery. I was at first concerned about not having seperate starting batteries for each engine. After being on the boat, I am VERY happy with this configuration. The house batteries water level I check monthly or so. The Starter batter is an AGM battery that does not need much maintenace. I can start the engines with either the house batteries or starter battery. In a pinch I can run the house systems from the starter battery, but have only done so for diagnosis and fooling around.

o The rigging is outstanding, the mast is deck stepped and sits on a pedestal that extends to hard mounting points within the cross member and hulls. At 61 foot it is excellant for going down the intracoastal (well, except for down in Miami). I might have constructed a broader mainsail to give a little more sail area, but there is no issue with having too much canvas up. I have, ahmmm, been caught in 28 - 35 knot beam winds with both headsail and mainsail up. The boat was still rock solid. Interesting trying to bring the sail down and furl in these conditions, but after the panic, easy. The main halyard and reefing must be done by going forward, not the best. The head sail travelers are mounted far back and in cockpit. They are rather worthless for changing sail geometry. I use preventers cleated on to the mid ship cleats. A temporary solution to a poor design. The newer privileges mount the travelers and the winches on the cockpit roof. Probably a LOT better. The boom is a bit low. When we hoist the sail the boom will sit on the bimini. I'll have to either cut the sail so the boom rides higher or install a lower bimini. The problem with the lower bimini is there in only a little head room when I am seated at the helm seat.

o The escape hatches are VERY poorly implemented. The reason one hull sank was the configuration of these hatches. They are Lewmar Ocean hatches that were NEVER designed for underwater operation. They are mounted about 3 inches above the empty water line. If one is familiar with this hatch, it has a locked position and a ventalation position. The prior owners had let someone use the boat. They opened these hatches and when they battened them they accidently left them in the vent position. Durring a hurricane large swells within the marina caused water to repeatidly broach above these hatches. Since they were in the vent position water found its way in to the port hull. The auto bilge switches were broken, so after a while the water that was finding its way into the hull caused the boat to ride lower and lower. Eventually, the hatch was below water and the hull sank. Good thing is, it didn't fully sink. Just the aft cabin and galley were flooded. So, great floatation.

o When I stripped off the old paint the hulls were in great condition. Maybe 12 very small blister. When I drilled the hull for new through hulls, the hull was at least 1 inch of solid fiberglass. I also ran aground once on rather hard bottom. The hull pounded for maybe 5 minutes. When I had the boat pulled and inspected, no hull damage. Thank goodness for full keels. Thank goodness the rudder is shorter and protected by the keels. The saildrive leg is even further up. VERY well protected.

o The rudders are amazing. They are wonderfully balanced and VERY robust. I pulled them because of a stiff steering issue. Each one weighs about 100 lbs. Nice and solid! But the steering is one finger easy, even in 30 knot winds. No weather helm whatsoever. The rudders are mounted in floating duralyn (sp ???) bushingings wonder design. The issue is after 5 years or so, they swell. This results in VERY stiff steering. Easy to fix, if the boat is hauled.

o Anchor locker and sail lockers are excellently placed and very functional. There are watertight crash bulkheads in the bows.

o The boat has no detectable flex if feels absolutely solid.

o We have the 37 foot version and we get as much functional space as the 42 foot Manta. The interior design is Outstanding. We have had dinner for 6 in our salon and dinner for 8 in our cockpit. GREAT space!!! The master cabin is forward, across the two hulls. it is very roomy and comfy. Seems a lot bigger than it is. I have not seen this configuration in any other catamaran so far.

o The head room is excellent. I am 6'4" and have great headroom everywhere except going through the doors. The salon door is a solidly built aluminum framed sliding door that is very thick, yet convient to use.

o "We have a seperate frig and freezer. WAY too big for this size of boat, but we LOVE it.

o The interior with the wood and finishing is comprable to some of the mega yatchs we have been aboard. It is all finished wood and vinyl. No exposed fiberglass anywhere. We do have some sag in the vinyl in spots and we will have to resolve. We also have staining due to the flooding that took place. But, can't fault the design or implementation.

Overall we absolutely love the boat. I could not have designed a better boat. Gotta run, my wife is finished the laundry and wants to get back to the boat.

Latter,

Keith

[RandyAbernethy]

Thanks Keith!

[RandyAbernethy]

Kieth: So you have a 3 cabin owners version, yes? How do you like the forward center berth? I have only been on 4 cabin models. It looks like you have to kind of climb up into that amidships berth. Any thoughts there?

[Jeff]

Keith,

thanks for the Privilege report. How is the visibility from the saloon?

j

[will n]

welllll my wallets gotten in the way of this thread


(i.e.- i cant afford these boats) it appears im much poorer and younger than the rest of you out there

[Moby Dick]

and what about sailing performance of Privilege?

[otgadventures]

Hi all,
My wife and I just bought hull 644 Gemini 105M. We woud love to buy a Maine Cat, http://www.mecat.com as we know the builder, Dick Vermeulen, and respect his quality of craftsmanship. Pricy though, and we'll put it in the 'cat'egory of 'when we win a lottery'

I suppose our chances would be slightly better if we bought a lottery ticket though.

Happy sailing all.

[Strygaldwir]

The 3 cabins are what orignally attracted me to the Privilege 37. At the time I was originally looking, I could only find four cabin catamarans. Each of the cabins in the 4 cabin model were small. MUCH smaller than the cabin in the P37. To get a cabin the size of the p37, I had to go up to a 44 foot cat. That was WAY TOO big. I originally had only sailed monos and was looking for a mono at the time. When I stepped aboard the 44 x 22 foot cat, I could not conceptualize single handing it. The P37 was much more reasonable for me.

On my 37, in the master we have our own head and shower, locker, shelves, and sink. There is enough room for us one of us to dress in fron of the sink. We step up into the double bed. Plenty of room in the bunk. I can touch the bulkhead with my toes and the other bulkhead with my head. But, I strech a bit to do so. Like I said before I am 6' 4" so this is not bad.

Visibility from the saloon. I have piloted the boat from there, but I would not dock from there, even if I could reach the throttles. It is absolutely lovely when we are siting at anchor. We have plenty of light, it makes it seem so much bigger than it really is. Excellant design work. The negative is the heat. We used sunbrella fabric to create a sort of polorized cover for the windows (can't say they are hatches, or ports1) that cuts down a little on the heat, and during the day we have privacy, but can still see out. In extreme heat, we have found we had to put a boat cover on. That cuts the temperatures down by about 15 degrees. It gets it so the portable AC's can handle it.

Sailing peformance. Hmmm... I always want to say it sucks, but that's not exactly true. Ahh... It sucks it light air!!! The Privilege 37 is a heavy boat, it is solidly built and pretty was not spared for weight. We took this heavy boat, loaded it for extended cruising with almost everything we can think of (except the scuba compressor, but we do have 5 tanks, one of which is a 100 steel tank). So, the boat does not move when the wind is under 5 knots. We also have heavy sails. When we built our sails we used 9 oz cruising laminate cloth. The intent being longevity and durability. Performance was a tertiary consideration. But, when then wind is blowing the boat does very well. It is ROCK solid, not to much slap and points pretty well. When we are running on engines, or motor sailing, you have to be at least 45 foot to keep up. On just engines, our friends 47 foot Catalina couldn't keep up. We were able to pace and finally outdistance a Fontaine Pajot 38 on sails only. But, that was a fairly heavy beat to weather over 25 Nmiles or so. (we came in a 1/2 hour or so ahead of them). Another friend of ours has a privilege that he flies a spinnacher on. He loves it and gets good downwind performance. We go wing and wing and this gives us okay performance, but winds have to be at least 9 knots or so before we start moving.

The Privilege 435, is a GREAT sailing boat, got a chance to do a day sail on one. I am thinking of trading up to one, but can't find a good reason to yet. Several hundred thousand reasons not to! ;-)

Cheers,

Keith

[Canibul]

Re: SCUBA tanks and compressor.
A couple years ago we bought a Brownie's Third Lung diving compressor. ITs a hookah setup, floats on a little inflatable bouy, and we got enough hose to run three divers comfortably to about 60 ft. Would run two divers deeper, but we have found 95% of what we want to dive for is shallower than maybe 40 ft. I can lift the entire hookah with one hand. It will run for four hours on a half gallon of gasoline. Compressor stores in hard plastic container, hoses and regulators, belts, etc. in a separate gear bag.

It floats on the surface and follows the divers, and although managing the hoses takes some thought they DO keep the divers together, and its lots less hassle than dealing with tanks.

The potential to stay at 60 ft. for 4 hours means that one does have to keep track of time and repetitive dive tables. But in our case, it hasnt been a limitation. You are doing that anyway with SCUBA.

[Sunspot Baby]

Canibul:

If you're really staying at 60' ft for 4 hours you better be worried about the repetitive dive tables. 30' OK.

George

[Canibul]

Yes, George I know. Thats why I mentioned it. Someone could conceivably get down to 60 ft. and swim around for hours with a hookah.. So, people using them need to be competent and knowledgeable divers, and I would say more than just typical resort C-card divers.

I have been diving 42 years, and still got all my fingers and toes....
(dont hear so good and am prone to frequent fits, but isnt everyone?)

[northerncat]

make sure that the designer of the boat you choose has a few ocean miles under their belt there are a lot of nice designs out there but some of the designers have never crossed an ocean, my choice the schionning catamarans