Geoff's mold

Geoff Kidd wanted to build a boat for himself. Now Geoff is rather large, 6 foot 6 and as luck would have it, he married a wonderful girl who was 6 foot 3. For these two people to enjoy a modern multihull, it would have to be quite large. 

Geoff looked around, bought a few study prints, and even bought a set of plans from one designer. After very careful scrutinizing of the plans, it became apparent that the boat was just too small. Berths were not long enough, not enough headroom in the galley, companionways were too cramped, and the head…forget it. 

So Geoff and John put their heads together and came up with a plan for a 40-foot catamaran that would be designed to their specifications. 

This is the start of the whole thing. John built a temporary addition to my shed to work in. Boy, temporary was right. You can not build anything out of K3 board and expect it to last. It did last long enough to build this mold and pull 10 panels off 

It was an education watching them do this. Cutting pieces of door skin, layering up a panel, vacuum bagging the panel. They used four layers of 1/8 door skin to make ½ inch thick panels. Did you know you can use old refrigerator compressors for vacuum pumps? One on each end of the mold sucked that panel down like nobodies business. 

Geoff is just putting the finishing touches on his and Margaret’s boat and hopes to have it in the water soon. By the way, the berth looks to be 8 feet long by 8 feet wide with 4-foot headroom.