Builders - Gallery

KSS Field Trip

by Scott McCulley12 Oct 2002

On Thursday I received an e-mail invitation to come down to Tacoma to watch a new catamaran take shape Saturday morning. The OSU vs. Kansas State football game was not being televised so I needed something to do for the day. Tacoma is an easy drive down I-5 from Renton. Why not?

Tucked in behind the Tacoma Dome at 601 E 26th Street is HJB Marine Repair. Sharing space in the same building is Tacoma Cats. Hugo Beutel and Tom Hales are building a Kelsaw designed catamaran there. For readers with long memories, Tom is a founding member of the NW Multihull Association, over 35 years ago.

As I walked in the overhead door, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my camera to take some pictures. There were two gentlemen standing by the bow taking digital pictures. I asked if it would be possible to have a few e-mailed to me to post on the NW Mulithull website. “Certainly” was the reply “My name is Derrick Kelsaw. What’s yours?”

Derrick is the innovator of the KSS building method. The basic premise is that the majority of the fiberglass work is done on a flat table where quality can be tightly controlled. The flat panels are then carefully scarfed to allow them to be formed into curved shapes. Each hull is made up of two flat panels. The panels are joined with a temporary keel using plastic tie wraps. The panels are positioned over a frame. Lines are pulled from the temporary keel to form the hull shape on the frame. The result is a well proportioned hull with good shape and minimal fairing required.

I was surprised how little tension was required on the lines to hold the hull shape. The major curvature occurs over the exposed foam core. The next step will be to add the bow and stern bulkheads to hold the shape. Then the bottom will take two layers of fiberglass, inside and outside, to cover the exposed foam core. Maybe 1/10th of the surface area remained to be covered and gel coated to a luxurious orange finish. Tom mentioned something about the color of the boat matching the color of the beer label they were drinking that evening. Very 70’s retro looking. (This comment coming from the owner of an orange boat.)

This particular boat is being planned with a fixed keel. Today’s shape up was for the port hull. The starboard hull, keel and cabin sections were all stored flat against the wall waiting for their turn to be assembled.

Hugo pointed out the table used to produce the flat panels. They are using a composite surface manufactured in Tacoma because they expect to build additional boats. It releases the finished product better than Formica. The table certainly looks solid with steel framing to ensure a level surface. There is not enough space to have the table setup while assembling the boat, so they finished all of their flat panels before storing the table.

Afterwards we adjourned to Freighthouse Square behind the shop for Pho and Teriyaki. Over the past few years living in the Seattle area, I have had the good fortune to meet several successful multihull designers and listen to them talk about building. I found Derrick to be very low key with a mellow personality as Tom and Hugo debriefed what worked and where they had difficulties. Of course, getting on an airplane at 5:00 AM may have had something to do with that. I think he was a little tired but elated to see another boat start to come together.

More information: www.kelsall.com

Update 5/31/2005 Hugo contacted me about their new website and photos.    It's been some time, just wanted to pass on my web site address www.HJBMarine.com
which include pictures of the boat. take in touch Hugo