Dennis o'Connor's description of what he is not having on his boat makes
fascinating reading. This is because what he has left is a typical New
Zealand Boat. Take our Escape design as an example: does it have a gen set?
NO, aircon- NO, shore power- NO, plasma screen TV- NO, trash compactor-NO,
icemaker-NO, fridge-YES, freezer-YES, extremely good fuel economy-YES. This
doesn't mean that this design will not carry all these extra systems, it was
designed so that it will for American consumption but not usually in New
Zealand. However this does highlight the differnces in the boating
requirements from country to country and that a designer must be very aware
of the market that he is designing for.

When New Zealand builders started exporting power catamarans to the USA they
got a very rude awakening. By the time all the "American" gear was loaded
onto a stock Kiwi design they were very seriously overloaded. So a very
radical redesign, and re think, was needed to overcome the initial problem.

Of course what is happening in New Zealand is that the Kiwi boaters are
starting to increase the number of items that they see as absolutely
necessary to have on a boat.

Regards,

Malcolm Tennant.

Malcolm Tennant Multihull Design Ltd
PO Box 60513 Titirangi,
Auckland 1007
NEW ZEALAND

ph +64 9 817 1988
fax +64 9 817 6080

e-mail malcolm@tennantdesign.co.nz
www.tennantdesign.co.nz
www.catdesigners.com

" Of course what is happening in New Zealand is that the Kiwi boaters
are
starting to increase the number of items that they see as absolutely
necessary to have on a boat."

Interesting observation.  For many years I explored SE Alaska and the BC
coast by sea kayak, going out for weeks at a time.  Every single item
that came along had to pass the "necessity test".  And yet I lived
pretty luxuriously and some of my very best memories are from those
trips.

Over the years the American concept of "getting away from it all" has
morphed into "take it all with you".  Part of it's due to "keeping up
with the guy next door", and part of it's due to marketing.  Been to an
American boat show lately?  What CAN'T you bring on your boat?

Each extra gizmo brings with it a series of cascading effects.  Take
that television for instance.  You'll probably need AC power for it, so
if you didn't have an inverter or genset before, you do now.  Larger
batteries?  Increased power generation?  A bit more fuel required?  Then
there's the signal reception - if you actually GO anywhere with the boat
you quickly leave VHF reception behind so now you're into a satellite
system with all of the attendant complexities, as well as costs.

And was it worth it in the end?  There I sit, anchored inside Ford's
Terror fjord in SE Alaska, one of the most spectacularly beautiful
places in the world... watching sitcoms??  No thank you.

Bob Deering
Juneau Alaska