Dear Georgs, Thanks for the welcome note and invitation to self-introduce. I am not the John Winter, canoe expert someone was hoping to hear from. Sorry to disappoint, I am the John Winter, the Kiwi who developed and built the Pacific Harmony, 86 ft, long range Power Cat in NZ and sold her 9000 Bluewater miles later in Florida. The voyage captured the interest of many magazines and that helped promote the Powercat cause to the US market. (See Showboats, Power And Motoryacht, Yachting, US Power Multihull, Australian Power Multihull, Australasian based Pacific Motoryacht, mostly 2004 issues.) Background? Growing up in a saltwater addicted family with a furniture manufacture/retail business, cruising the Pacific numerous times in my younger years in mono's (power and sail). I got hooked on cats after seeing the light shining between the two hulls so I had a 42ft Wright/Lavranos motor-sailer built to liveaboard and sold the business to sail the Pacific. After that we built the modern style Powercat passagemaker, Pacific Harmony. I developed her for the luxury America's Cup corporate charter in Auckland 2003 and to safely cross long oceans with the family en-route before selling in the US. Built by Dave Pachoud, an experienced multihull builder who had drawn a 72 footer for the Moorings founder and was using Tennant hulls. I re-styled it, lengthened and re-configured the layout and the rest is history. See www.winteryachts.com Since then I have taken quite an interest in observing the merits and benefits of each designers hulls, sea-trialled many, read every test report, talked to many other owners and Captains to decide whose hulls we are using next time and what the market is looking for. Now I am planning to develop a range of smaller Powercats, 1 displacement 20-25kt long range 55 footer and 2 high speed models, (40 ft and 55 ft Euro style, probably foil assisted 30-40 knot coastal rough water boats) I hope to have a few demonstrators around the world within 2-3 years. Short term I am seeking to develop a good relationship with a Taiwanese builder who has opened a quality plant in China and can build our cats to a high standard at realistic prices. We'll order a selection of their mono's to represent in NZ to ensure they are up to the task of building power-cats before sending someone to China for 12 months to develop the new worldwide range. China ain't easy but the mass trawler builders such as Nordhavn, Marlow, Offshore, Selene, Hampton, and many others have proven the quality is there at a good price if you have the patience, funds and skill to manage it. Many have failed trying but I've seen that in all countries. Mercedes, BMW and Audi are the latest to open factories there, hard to ignore that. I will be at Ft Lauderdale show on US mobile, 561 452 6806 if anyone wants to know more. Kind Regards, John Winter New Zealand mobile, +64 21 454 107. johnwinter@vodafone.net.nz www.winteryachts.com