Construction Thread for Custom 45' Cruising Powercat

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

We had a busy week, and I had business away from the shop today and did not get any pictures for you.

Doing alot of inside work because the weather has really been sucking.

Expecting the foam to come in soon to begin construction on the flying bridge and the hardtop.

Most of our LED lighting came in the week and we will begin installing it.

Have a big push planned next week on the engineroom in the starboard hull.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Had a good week. Nasty weather a couple days though.
Forrest has been working on cabinets and drawers, Nat sanding inside and sanding and fairing outside when the weather will let him.

Alan has been jumping around, helped me with several wiring issues.
He also installed the fuel control board in the port hull.

I cut some of the wires out of the wiring harness on the starboard engine because of the changes we made in the charging circuit, and hooked up the battery cables to the starboard engine.
Put lights in the forward and main engineroom in the port hull.
Also did some outlets and lighting in the Master cabin as well.

All the A/C duct work is in place and off the list.

My batteries went dead half way thru taking pictures today, will do better next week.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Finished the gen set except for the raw water and the siphon break today.

Will have pictures tomorrow.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

To go along with the bathtub is a 20 gal water heater.

It is electric, has a heat exchanger that heats the water with the jacket water of the starboard engine, and also has solar water heating panels.

The electric is just standard electric like in your house.

The solar is cool.

It has 2 water heating panels, and one small electrical solar panel to power the pump to move the water from the water heater up to the panels.

When the sun comes up, the pump comes on.

The solar heating is tapped into the water heater thru the drain fitting. The bronze tee with the 2 ball valves, the faucet to drain the water heater, and the pump are on the bottom left side of the front.

Beside it on the right bottom of the front is the cold water intake.

The 2 pipes sticking out of the lower middle of the front of the heater is the heat exchanger.

Due to the engine temps [ 185- 190 degrees F ] , I added a mixing valve to regulate the temp of the water as it leaves the water heater.
It is the unit on the top left of the water heater, and it just adds cold water to the water coming out of the water heater to regulate the temp to the point you set it. Somewhere around 125 degrees F.

On the right top, you will see the pressure relief valve, that will be plumbed to a small thru hull out the side so if it ever releases, the hot water will go harmlessly over the side.

The unit is aluminum, so all pipe connections going into the unit are stainless steel to prevent corrosion between the bronze and aluminum.

I doubt that there will ever be much need to use the electrical part of this unit.

We sat it in the boat this afternoon and it is ready to bolt down.

It is to cool for school.

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by Capt Hugh Wilde

The solar is cool.

It has 2 water heating panels, and one small electrical solar panel to power the pump to move the water from the water heater up to the panels.

When the sun comes up, the pump comes on.

The solar heating is tapped into the water heater thru the drain fitting. The bronze tee with the 2 ball valves, the faucet to drain the water heater, and the pump are on the bottom left side of the front.

I doubt that there will ever be much need to use the electrical part of this unit.

It is to cool for school.

Can you show and tell us more about the solar hot water system ?
I have only seen solar hot water on one boat last summer. It looked home made.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Originally Posted by Cotemar

Can you show and tell us more about the solar hot water system ?
I have only seen solar hot water on one boat last summer. It looked home made.

We bought the unit from Heliatos, a company in California.

Here is a picture I found of the parts for the unit we have, but they have changed the unit that goes into the bottom of the waterheater as you can tell on my picture.

We paid alittle over $500 for the kit, and it looks like quality stuff to me.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

The solar charging system we are installing is a Victron MPPT 150/70 controller and 3 LG 285 watt solar panels.

They will be feeding a 900 amp hr. 12 volt house bank. Lifeline AGM batteries.

I believe it will be a powerful system.

The Victron people told me the one we have is the first one of this size sold in the US, but I have had good service from my Victron dealer over the years and I am sure it is great.
http://www.victronenergy.com/upload/...2%20-%20EN.pdf

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[Capt Hugh Wilde]

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Due to Christmas, we only worked a couple of days this week.

Nate has been fairing on the transom area, Forest has been working on the " turtle" the cover for the hatch system going into the aft cabin, and he has also been working on the patterns for the solid surface counter tops. He should start cutting it next week.
He has also been building Al's chair in his office in the port stateroom. It sits good to.

I have been working on wiring, switching, and lighting. My lot in life

More wiring next week, and then when Alan gets back the following week, the plumbing event begins.

[Pelagic]

I have enjoyed following your well documented project and the workmanship looks great.
I am curious about your design decision for bulbous bows?
Have heard various pros and cons for them…. Being positive in head seas for dampening reasons, but negative in downwind surfing conditions where it can inhibit bow recovery when buried in the trough.
What made you decide to include them?

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

They are more wave piercer than bulbous bow. They give her a longer waterline and a finer half entry angle.

I agree that fuller bulbs like the one in the 2nd picture would give issues in the conditions you discuss.

[downunder]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

I have enjoyed following your well documented project and the workmanship looks great.
I am curious about your design decision for bulbous bows?
Have heard various pros and cons for them…. Being positive in head seas for dampening reasons, but negative in downwind surfing conditions where it can inhibit bow recovery when buried in the trough.
What made you decide to include them?

Interesting question Pelagic as most of the cat designers have moved away from the concept.

Agreed great workmanship and also good choices of componentry.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

I have enjoyed following your well documented project and the workmanship looks great.
I am curious about your design decision for bulbous bows?
Have heard various pros and cons for them…. Being positive in head seas for dampening reasons, but negative in downwind surfing conditions where it can inhibit bow recovery when buried in the trough.
What made you decide to include them?

I agree with you to a point about bulbous bows. I have 2 pictures I am posting at the end of this. One of a bulbous bow head on and one of our starboard hull head on.

The bulbous bow swells out and becomes wider than the the entry of the hull, where what we did is more of a wavepiecer, and is just a extension of the hull lines, making her longer on the waterline and with a finer half entry angle.

There is also a picture of the bottom of the hull so you can see how fine she is in this area.

Our hull also does not have a flat keel line, it rises from the back of the canoe body all the way to the bow, and that should lessen any desire to bow steer.
We also have nice big rudders and they should hold her well. I am enclosing a couple of pictures of the rudders.
To give you an idea of the size of the rudders, those are 24 X 24.2 5 blade, .85 DAR props.

I do not believe that our " bulbs" for lack of a better term will cause any difficulty in recovering in a following sea condition, as her LCG is well after, and she has good buoyancy in the forward third of the hulls.
I am also posting a picture of a hull half where you can see the rise in the keel line from aft to forward.





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