Hi Robert,

Yes, Rob, Michele and I were a good team for a long time but after five years I feel I need to move on.

Designing catamarans is really quite easy as they've been developing for a long time so a lot of it is now empirical.  The challenge has been to design in Polycore, a flat panel material, and making it look good.

I've never been quite sure about the extra sailing loads argument as the rigging loads on a cat are taken by strips of uni in the top and bottom of the bulkheads, not a big deal. Also weight isn't necessarily a big factor. Where a proa saves weight is in not having so much material as they don't have such an extensive fitout, and not so much solid bridgedeck and saloon. I think a proa built with the same accommodation and appointment as a cat will weigh about the same. Where a proa gets it's performance is in the extra waterline length. It's pretty pointless comparing proas with cats as they are such different beasts fulfilling different rolls.

The biggest downer in designing conventional cats is using a conventional stayed rig.  I'm missing free standing carbon masts already.

Actually I'm still playing around with them as I have the contract to build all the carbon masts for the Norwalk Islands Sharpies range www.nisboats.com . Yep, still dealing with the sticky stuff.

Mark

Robert wrote:

It is sad to hear but can understand. I thought the tension and
cooperation were a good and productive coordination, but not always
easy. It must be a little frustrating for Mark to have to design for
all those extra sailing loads and subsequent weight, but the regular
money and lack of dealing with sticky stuff would compensate.
I may be interested in helping on the website but am not sure if I
have the skills,
Robert

--- In harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au, "Rob Denney" <harryproa@...> wrote:
>
> G'day,
>
> Mark and Michele have left harryproa. A more or less amicable split,
> neither of us liked the way the others were doing things, so decided
it was
> time to move on. Mark is now designing and selling catamarans for
Pacific
> Multihulls, I remain designing and selling harryproas. I wish them both
> well. Michele is removing their contact details from the web page and
> closing the bank account, but all enquiries from now on should be
sent to me
> at harryproa@...
>
> The good news is that I am now free to pursue my main aim, which is
to get
> harryproas sailing and work on further simplifying the build technique,
> where there is a lot happening. Anybody with incomplete plan sets
should
> let me know and i will get the missing pages to you as soon as
possible. I
> have almost completed the amateur built mast plans including a novel
join so
> they can be reliably built in two pieces and the new beam mounted rudder
> plans are available for Elementarry. They will be available for the
rest of
> the designs as soon as testing them on Blind Date is complete, hopefully
> early this northern summer.
>
> The bad news is that Michele is not updating the web page any more and
> there is 8 months of progress to report. I am a bit busy getting
> everything sorted out, including an excting, very light and cheap to
build
> 18m 4 cabin harry and a live aboard 20m version (which makes 6
harrys over
> 18m/60' currently under construction) so if anyone is interested in
helping
> out with the web page, please let me know.
>
> The other bad news is that with so much going on, I have not had
time (or
> money, bust ups are expensive in both) to get Solitarry completed. The
> hulls and decks are sitting on the Gold Coast after the brand new, very
> expensive, slightly overloaded ;-) trailer fell apart on the way up
from
> Coffs to Brisbane. Consequently, no Solo Transpac this year, but
there is
> another one in 2010, so that is the new target, with launching as
soon as
> possible. More on this as it happens.
>
> As Dan mentioned, there is an article by Mark Giles in the latest
Multihull
> World magazine on the launch and first sails of Blind Date. Gilesey was
> suitably impressed. A smoother ride than a cat, his seasick prone
wife now
> wants one, very fast, serious contender in the cruising market,
cheaper than
> a 10m cat, all the benefits from the web page, etc. There is also an
> article on Mark's first cat design and some interesting articles.
Cost for
> overseas is $Aus20 including air postage from info@... or ph
> 61) 7 55938187. Easiest way to pay is by credit card.
>
> regards,
>
> Rob
>