Want to build a boat?

[MacGyver]

My friend sent me this link, I was blown away, what a project!!! and I am sure they saved a lot of money doing it, but still WHAT A UNDERTAKING! 
The talent is in over abundance here! 

http://imgur.com/a/MmUS7

This is the boats website, more stuff on it as well! 

http://voyageursailing.com/

Mac

[Billy]

One day....

[skip1930]

In Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, our Door County Maritime Museum and Light House Preservation Society has a small boat building work shop in the building. For a reasonable student fee that pays for the materials the class and our instructor, built a very nice rowing and/or sailing dinghy. Our boat was a Rob Roy that was featured in Epoxy Magizine. When finished the boat and trailer are raffled off during our Classic and Wooden Boat Show.

So far it has been great fun and profitable. I participated in one such class and learned a goodly amount about transferring small plans to full size wood, making gigs, stitch and glue, scarfing two pieces of wood together, lofting, and bending wood to form, hollow spars, the detail of rigging, sail making, painting and finishing, and all the rest to make her into a fine craft pictured below from the page in the magazine.

Here is our class. skipster is in yellow.

[Salty19]

I would love to build a little sailing dinghy. Captn Nemo's Highlander 12 is very inspiring--classy, salty, traditional and extremely unique.

Although if I do a Highlander the 14 would be my choice.  I'm way too busy these days to start on it, but next winter is probably doable. That will also give me plenty of planning and procrastinating time to chose the right plan to make it something I can be proud of.  Admittedly I'm not a fantastic woodworker, but what I lack in skills can make up for it in patience and desire for perfection (and some practice). 


That alum. build project is UN-BA-LEEEEEV-ABLE!!!!!

[skip1930]

Salty19 says, " That alum. build project is UN-BA-LEEEEEV-ABLE!!!!! "

Yea, I agree. I'm thinking that every alum frame and stringer, bulkhead, and hull plate piece was saw cut by hand out of sheet stock. And the amazing thing about welding this all together is to spread out the welds so as not to heat-up too much of the assembly in one area. And you can't really weld the alum when it's really, really cold...just doesn't work well. So the 'shop' has to be warm. Plus the surface of the plate must be clean and not 'smutty'. After a few days in the weather and you can toss that chunk of alum away, it will not be weldable.

Even the most careful welding and spacing will not keep the structure from shrinking as it cools, weld by weld. A 150 foot hull will shrink about 3 inches. So it's continually, cut it loose. Jack it apart a few mm and re weld it in order to stay on line.

The guy is amazing.

This is one of two, 205 foot positive displacement aluminum yachts being built for a couple of Russians.
Since the Russian tax is a flat 13% many multimillionaires have emerged out of Russia. Industrial Diamonds bought these boats.
The crane is lowering the two 6 cylinder John Deere gen-pacs, the two 16 cylinder MANN diesels and the two Twin Disc reductions down through all the holes cut into the decks.
Palmer Johnson had to cut away the building door frame to wheel these babies outside. Still have a half year to go to finish these two boats. One engineering, two builds.

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[skip1930]

One of two builds in the last five years. Skeleton shop crew hired by the job only. Then laid off.

Both boats sold to Russian women. The boat first sails from Wisconsin to the waters of Indiana for ownership transfer. Taxes paid in Indiana waters are less then Wisconsin waters.

A lot of electrical work to be done yet. About a month to go.
The fiberglass water-cooled mufflers and heat exchangers still need to be man-handled down and piped in, into the engine room. That's gonna be squeaky tight. A lot of disassembly will be required to make an isle. They typically sit along side the gen sets and the hull and ride atop the Mann 16 cylinder 4,000 kW diesels and Twin Disc transmissions. Some how a fire suppression system and bottles is also shoe horned into the overhead and along side of the electric control panel, which can be plugged into any port in the world needs to be finished.

NOW the hard part, since the piping is aluminum/bronze, none of the piping can go to ground...the whole system is isolated. Exhaust/fuel/heat exchanger coolant/potable water/grey water/brown water...all of it.

PJ's can't find anyone in house that wants to sail this boat to the Baltic.
Not when we just had an American taken captive last week in Russia for ransom.

PJ says the Russian who commissioned this build could not get a U.S. VISA to travel to the states to see her boat being built.
So an Australian was hired by the Russian to watch and photograph the build. Plus this fellow [now the captain] picked the crew.

This Palmer Johnson boat is an unusual Sport Yacht. Usually they are 120, 130, 150, foot and built as a planning hull of around 104 to 170 ton.
This one is 210 foot, positive displacement, 233 ton. About $170 million. The other hull is about ready to be pulled outside for the engines to be lowered down through the holes cut into the decks. Low ceiling in the shop and doorway.

[Wiggs]

I could do that.

Wiggs

[skip1930]

As a once time Palmer Johnson ship fitter in the 'Hull' department working off of a traveling scissors jack platform [called an Ape], I imposed my will on unwilling 4 or 6 mm aluminum shell plate, bending the flat plate to conform to the compound curves of frames and stringers. [some times the shell plates are 12 foot long and 4 foot wide and are scribed with butt lines, water lines, frame lines that need to be matched up to the already welded in companion shell plates.]

It's easy, tack a new sheet on in one place and find an edge to set this plate on. Then weld on a dog to an already welded plate [the dog hangs over the edge of the new shell plate] and use a five pound mall to drive an aluminum wedge between the dog and the new sheet plate, thus forcing the new sheet into a firm contact with the frame or stringer behind the new shell plate. Once 'home' tac weld the new shell plate in. The welders will come in behind you later that night and cut/grind a VEE cut grove between the old plate and the new plate and fill that groove with weld plus weld the plate to the frames and stringers. You should be able to hang 3 to 4 plates in a 10 hour day with a 20 minute lunch and 2-10 minute breaks. Since the boat shrinks with welding, a few months later the weld is cut open, jacked apart, and re welded. The boats are welded over again about 3 to 4 times...or until the mm's match what's on the drawing.

These Boats Are Beyond Perfection.

You can do that...skip.

[ahmch]

If they just built it from stitch and glue, they would not have to reweld it all the time. and wood floats right?
They are amazing feats.  Just the math alone boggles the mind.  Of course any math boggles my mind.  Would not want to be the first one to scratch it.
andrew

[skip1930]

That's pretty cool. She is a beauty. I like the wood. Problem is wood is heavy! It moves around like a mother, soaks up water, and hp.

These are all cut on a water cutting table. And lightly scored with an etcher. You start with a flat bar keel marked out in one meter marks. Frames aft of the bow/stern center line go in front of the scored line. Frames forward of the centerline go behind the score. Then put on the port and starboard lower frames, From the lower frames start to assemble a square tunnel running way below the waterline but running bow to stern. This will be the gallery really a backbone box shape, is for the A/C ducts, heat, electrics, hot water heaters, desalination, hydraulics, communications, air tubing, fresh water, grey water, brown water, black water, sewage treatment, fuel lines and transfer pumps to the day tank, lights, and gyros and counter weights, and fin motion controls. Then top frames, the lowest deck. The higher frames, more decks, ect...

In aluminum 150 foot is 114 ton empty. 50 knots.
In fiberglass 150 foot is 135 ton empty. 37 knots, is a glass one made of foam squares fiber glassed in place.

Wood? have no idea. But heavier then fiberglass.


This boat is Tiger Woods boat from 5 or 6 years ago. I saw it's advertised for sale.

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[skip1930]

Time marches on. And so does China Inc.
How bout this? An Israeli company. Those folks quietly do tech things well.

Alma Lasers [Alma] is an internationally well-known manufacturer of laser, light-based, radio frequency and ultrasound products with an integrated product portfolio for aesthetic and medical applications. With its world-leading core research and development [R&D] capabilities in the medical and aesthetic device manufacturing field, Alma Lasers has established a leading global brand with sales of over $100 million annually and plants and offices worldwide. Alma today is reported to hold a 15% share of the global market for high-end aesthetic laser devices.

There are three key sectors in the laser medical and aesthetic device industry; high-end aesthetic devices, surgical devices and smaller devices for domestic use in the home. Alma Lasers is already one of the leaders in the high-end aesthetic device market and has now begun to gain a foothold in the surgical device market during 2012. At the same time, Alma Lasers is completing the R&D stage for new devices fit plans to introduce for domestic use.

Another people that do some things well are the Brits. Who never even give themselves credit. But others are aware. Especially when it comes to things like this.

Founded by Robert Braithwaite in 1968, Sunseeker is now an international company with an annual turnover of almost £290million a year.
Its range of luxury yachts varies from sleek, speed merchants to huge vessels with rooms for five cabins and home cinema system.

Customers include Arab royalty and Russian oligarchs as well as celebrities of all kinds from film stars to sports icons.
Sunseeker models have appeared in several James Bond films, famously racing up the Thames in The World Is Not Enough and most recently in Casino Royale when one is owned by villain Le Chiffre.

Robert Braithwaite never dreamed of having such international success when he learned his trade working for his father's engine-servicing company.
Founded with a team of seven people, Sunseeker now employees around 2,300.

In 2002 Braithwaite was named Entrepreneur of the Year.
'I was always a person with enormous ambition, but I never dreamed of this,' he told the BBC at the time.
The company has ridden out the economic pressures of the banking crisis with profits last year set to reach £20.8million.

Well guess who's coming to dinner with cash in hand....

A Chinese property group is closing in on a deal to buy Britain's biggest luxury yacht maker, Sunseeker.
The firm, whose Predator 108 model appeared in the James Bond film Casino Royale, is expected to be bought by Beijing-based Dalian Wanda for around £300million.
It is the latest in a string of British companies to have been snapped up by Chinese buyers in recent years.
Wang Jianlin, chairman and founder of Dalian Wanda, told the Financial Times: 'We bought the best yacht company in the UK.'.

Chinese Congomerate Fosun and Prudential of America Buy Israeli Company Alma Lasers.

The Fosun Pharmaceutical Group [Fosun Pharma], based in Shanghai and a leading healthcare company in China, has announced the acquisition of 95.6% of the shares of Alma Lasers Ltd. whose R&D Centre is located in Caesarea Israel. The acquisition is being made together with Pramerica-Fosun Fund and its cost will not exceed US$240 million. CHINA

On the other side of the coin if I may use that term, some American companies are doing well investing in China and Japan.
I focus on one here because they already own so much.
They own,

~Dunkin Donuts.
~Folgers Coffee.
~Jiff [as in peanut butter].
~Crisco
~Pillsbury

They are the J.M. Smucker Company

J.M. Smucker is making a huge investment in the Chinese oatmeal business.

On March 26, 2012, the company bought a 25% interest in Guilin Seamild Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd., a privately-owned manufacturer and marketer of oats products headquartered in the Guangxi province of China, for $35.9 million. The purchase comes with two manufacturing facilities in southern China and a third on the way. In 2013, the deal isn't expected to influence Smucker's revenues, which topped $5.5 billon last year.

And remember the shock [among some] when when two of the four B.R.I.C. nations, India bought Jaguar and China bought Volvo from G.M.?
How has that deal gone so far? Well, things could be better.

Volvo, owned by Chinese company Geely, presented its annual report for 2012 at a press conference in Stockholm on Friday. And there was big interest in how Chinese-owned Volvo is doing.

With economic uncertainty in Europe and around the world, the car industry has been in for tough times.

Many manufacturers have been looking hopefully at the Chinese market as a way out. According to the report, Volvo managed to break even, which is also the expectation for next year. Volvo's total car sales amounted to 421,000 cars, of which 41,000 were sold in China in 2012.This is far below Geely's expectations of 400,000 cars in China alone.

So while China was Volvo's biggest market in April this year, it is still far below expectations.

Geely´s Chairman Li Shufu has announced that to boost sales in China, Volvo needs to be adapted for the Chinese market and become more luxurious.

"We need cars that are valuable and attractive to our customers and they should be a bit more higher in cost than an average car. Also some need to be more luxurious if you look for a car for executives. Long wheel base cars, sedans of course need to be much more elegant and should nor resemble a Scandinavian family car. "


Video: There She Goes - Luxury Yacht Leaves Sturgeon Bay | Door County Daily News

doorcountydailynews.com http://youtu.be/AfgDOYOfdB0

After receiving finishing touches and undergoing three weeks of sea trials, the luxury yacht known as 'Lady M' left Sturgeon Bay on Tuesday.

The 210-foot yacht, built by Palmer Johnson in Sturgeon Bay, left Great Lakes Yacht Services around 1 p.m., motored under the Oregon Street Bridge and made her way into Lake Michigan. The yacht's ultimate destination, according to Palmer Johnson, is the Mediterranean Sea, where a full summer cruising schedule awaits.


Russia's President Putin will attend a party on board once it reaches her home port. The owner, who controls all of Russia's natural gas production and distribution will host. Presently if you check her transponder, you'll see that she is at anchor near the locks and waiting for the lock to be repaired after a tug and barge crashed into the lock. All traffic stopped in Canada for the moment. Before she left town PJ's gave the welder a 2 hour notice that he was going, at least to Norway where the 15 PJ employee's will leave the boat and fly home. The boats not done yet but hopes are high that Tars, and the other guys can get her done.

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