While I am involved financially, this is just an explanation of how this particular project came about. I like projects, like being the first pleasure boat of my size with an anti roll tank, and the resuscitation of my 1976 60' trawler, which I rescued ten years ago from a backwater in eastern Nova Scotia. My previous boat was an 80' steel Dutch beam trawler, which I had a dream of converting to an expedition yacht, a dream my wife rather rudely awakened me from, or was it the chipping hammer? I also own hull #1 of the legendary Seacraft 23's, the first hull design granted a patent. As well, I built custom racing sailboats in the 70's, including the very first all carbon boat, and was the design manager for the Alura 30, now the Mainship Pilot 30. The Seacraft 23 is a center console, which I have taken as far afield as Puerto Rico, 65 miles, and St. Croix, 45 miles of very open water. It rides well, is very wet, and needs 200 horses to perform, and a lot of fuel, for which we commonly pay in excess of $4 a gallon here. I wanted a boat that would run at 25 knots with six people, in 3-6' seas, and only burn 4 gph, performance that is only possible with a light catamaran, and something that I haven't found anywhere on the market. I am fortunate in that a good friend of mine, OH Rodgers, is a boat designer, having apprenticed with Ron Holland and then been involved as a designer/engineer with such diverse projects as Amoco Procyon, the Windship Yachts' 72', 80' and 92' sailing monohulls, several small cats like the A-Class, converting race boats to cruising boats and vice-versa. He had his own boat building company, Rodgers Yacht and Design, building production boats of his design. I use OH when I need engineering or design work as he is a very hands on type who has physically done all the aspects of boat building or modification. At the moment he is building, not having built, his own 42' fast cruising cat, which, like the Rodgers 29 power cat is an all epoxy boat. What OH designed for me was a 26' cat, which we stretched to 29', powered by two 50 hp outboards. Weighing around 2700 pounds with full fuel tanks, 56 gallons, and the gear a day boat would carry. In order to keep the weight down and have the necessary strength the boat is being laminated with epoxy resin and bi and tri-axial fabrics and is cored with Divinycell 1/2" foam coring in the flat panels. Our first hull came out of the mold at 400 lb. with all the bulkheads in place, the second hull at 370 lb. The decks and beams will be glassed to the hulls and bulkheads making it a very rigid and strong structure. The finish is epoxy primer and Alwgrip, applied after the boat is assembled. The weight of the finished glass structure will be under 1500 pounds. At twelve feet of beam, the open deck space between the front and aft beams is approximately 12' x 12'. There is storage in each of the beams, which are laminated structures, making them strong and of a size to be used as seating and storage. The console will likely be three people wide with leaning post type seating. Additional seating will be coolers. There will be a hard top, from which will hang clear panels for a windshield and enclosure for running in inclement weather. A very simple boat that can be ridden hard and put away wet, as they say, with not a lot of fluff. Lot's of room, a comfortable ride, and inexpensive to run. We're hoping to have the boats in the water for under 70K, which we are on track to do at one boat a month. I will let you all know more as soon as we have hull #1 in the water, hopefully in about three weeks. Robert Phillips Another Asylum, 60' Custom Trawler Tortola, BVI