开云体育

Hello everyone,

I recognize this forum is for those building Mr. Kohler's multihulls and I'd like to preface this post by acknowledging how much respect I have for all of you who are building these!? Having just gone through a 16 month refit of Lucia (weekends only and not over the winter) I can only imagine how much time, effort, and resources it must take to start such a project from only plans and dreams. I hope it brings comfort to Mr. Kohler and Lucia's previous owners (I believe at least 1 may be on this forum) to know that once again this wonderful Manta is on the water :) I credit Nova Scotia fishing captain Jody for saving Lucia as she was severely damaged in Hurricane Fiona a few years ago.? She broke loose from her lines and slammed into a tug boat he was working on which made a couple of holes on the exterior of the starboard hull along with some other issues.? The former owner had regrettably passed away and she had been neglected before the hurricane.? Jody was able to track down the caretaker and purchased the boat, patched it up and brought it to Shelburne, Nova Scotia sometime in 2020.? We purchased it from him in April 2022 and we were able to finally launch it Aug 2023 after a lot of work refitting the large majority of it's systems and a lot of hull work above the waterline.? The build quality of this vessel was incredible and I believe it was built in the UK.? The surveyor was amazed that a wood/epoxy boat from 1988 had hulls, below the water line, in such pristine condition which is what gave us confidence to buy the boat in the condition it was in.? This will be an ongoing project for us and our family are greatly looking forward to new adventures.? We sailed it home to Saint John, New Brunswick a week a half ago.? It was an amazing journey and we were delighted to see how well it handled everything the coast of Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy could throw at it.? From 35-40 knot gusts, to 9-11ft waves, the highest tides in the world which bring with it very strong currents and an always changing sea state.? We did not push it hard as as this was in essence a shakedown sail, but we easily managed to hit 12kts downwind, against 2kts of current with a second reef in the main.? It handled everything expertly and we are very grateful to Mr. Kohler and the builders for such a seaworthy vessel.? You will notice in the pictures that it is heavy in the stern.? We went with 2 x 20hp outboards for the next few years.? As hybrid diesel and battery technology improves we will return to inboards in 3-5 yrs.? The brackets we built are a couple of inches too short so there is weight in the stern to compensate and ensure there was no cavitation from the outboards.? Mr. Kohler, we haven't installed the vortex panels based on the plans you sent me this spring (that's a project for next year) but having heard how multi hulls are terrible at pointing upwind (and my background racing monohulls including our J24 and crewing on many different 30ft boats) I was pleasantly surprised how well it did upwind considering everything it has been through!? ?We still have much work to do but we are incredibly happy with where things are currently :)? for all of you building these vessels... Persevere! It will be worth it in the end!? I'd also like to take a moment to thank the gentlemen in a couple of the pictures, Paulo, from Brazil who has sailed oceans and catamarans and got our boat and our family home safe :) Thanks Paulo!!!