Northern Century

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Nige Oswald

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Aug 18, 2025, 12:17:06 AMAug 18
to nwMA Google group
Hey All.

Can we get anyone else interested in the Northern Century this year?  We’ll be doing it, as will Makika and Trevor on Chimera so we have something of a fleet.

They seemed really late in getting race docs together but just opened things up yesterday.

It’s a different race this year, 2 weeks later and starting at 8.30am on the Saturday instead of Friday evening.


Just getting the word out!


Cheers

Nige

Paul English

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Sep 10, 2025, 11:05:15 AM (5 days ago) Sep 10
to NWMA
That race hasn't been on my radar, but it IS relevant to my interests. Perhaps next year!

I heard a rumor you might own a small 2-seater power catamaran I saw in Friday Harbor.. I'm very curious about it..

Nigel Oswald

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Sep 10, 2025, 11:13:17 AM (5 days ago) Sep 10
to northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com
Hey Paul,

I have a 24’, 6 seater but maybe what you saw 😊😉. (There are a couple of interesting power boats that make their way through the islands though!)

IMG_3594.jpeg



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Paul English

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Sep 10, 2025, 11:39:40 AM (5 days ago) Sep 10
to NWMA
That is the one - really cool! Does it fully foil? And who designed it?

I'm trying to convince Eric Lindhal to get a power catamaran instead of a Bayliner when he sells his sailing multihull 😂

Eric Lindahl

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Sep 10, 2025, 1:14:33 PM (5 days ago) Sep 10
to northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com, Nigel Oswald, Eric Lindahl
NIge, those are not your AWB (Average White Boats),  They, along with your old blue one, and what ever else you might have had secreted away in the barn would serve as a good subject for a presentation to the club sometime.  I, for one, have always been intrigued by cool boats; yours, Russell's, Turn Point Brandon and others.  Well done to all of you innovators. 
 
I believe we did meet and talk once about 10-12 years ago when you (or someone) drove a ~20' long skinny green trimaran with small amas and a ~ 20 hp outboard down to Shilshole.  I liked that one too.  As a kid I modified a couple small boats for performance but much more crudely.  I was inspired by Boeing's giant experimental jet hydrofoil which would zoom by Lake Washington's East Channel where I grew up back in the 50's & 60's.  I can't imagine they would get permission to run that huge and tremendously loud contraption at ~40 knots down the lake nowadays.   
 
Ok, I googled around and came up with this.  It's similar to what I remember seeing but what I recall was larger, with a taller gantry structure supporting the jet engine some 15' above the deck.  I'm sure they built all kinds of versions down at their Renton skunkworks back then.  Man o man, was it loud!
Eric 
 
 
Screen Shot 2025-09-10 at 10,11,15 AM.png

Nigel Oswald

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Sep 11, 2025, 5:45:27 PM (4 days ago) Sep 11
to Eric Lindahl, northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com
Hey Paul, Eric,

I feel like I’m being baited ;) 

The cat (Totoro) is semi foiling, designed to take about 70% of the displacement at a little over 20kts, the idea being to get a bump in speed/efficiency and ride but without the risk of crashing or complexity of an active foil system.   It works well but there is no free lunch, with all the logs in the water here, with the miles I put on this boat/second car, there are small dings to fix a couple of times a year and the odd big hit every couple of years.  This set of foils is now on its last legs and I need to make some new ones. (Next boat will not have foils in trunks in the hulls).   Totoro was designed and built by Brandon Davis/Turn point design.

Its all pros and cons, but who’d want to be seen in a bayliner ;) 

Eric - the green tri was this one, amazing boat but very very niche and we went a bit too extreme on the efficiency side of the design - 4 people in line, did 22kts with a 20hp outboard at about 12mpg.    But really only a great boat for a tweaky boat person.  This was sold to a sailor on Lopez 7 years ago, who donated it back to the kids sailing foundation I run last year, its now owned by Dan Kaseler (quantum/Raptor Deck) to commute between Bainbridge and shilshole :) 
IMG_1880.jpeg


The biggest downside of selling Makika and now owning the 32SR, Kelona, is that at 23’ wide instead of 19’, I can no longer fit the power cat and the tri in the same pair of slips.  First world problems for sure, but it was such a perfect setup for the 25c.

I have 5.5’ of free dock space between one of Kelona’s floats and the dock and a 28’ long, 36’ wide carbon hull, a 60hp outboard and an A-Class cat in my shop.  Will see what I can come up with as the next commuter boat and see how dumb it might be to make it fit in the double dock with the 32 ;) 

IMG_2837.jpeg

(It will not end up looking like that ⬆️)

Fun times.  Can’t seem to work out why my bank account is always empty though….

On Sep 10, 2025, at 10:14 AM, Eric Lindahl <ejli...@comcast.net> wrote:

NIge, those are not your AWB (Average White Boats),  They, along with your old blue one, and what ever else you might have had secreted away in the barn would serve as a good subject for a presentation to the club sometime.  I, for one, have always been intrigued by cool boats; yours, Russell's, Turn Point Brandon and others.  Well done to all of you innovators. 
 
I believe we did meet and talk once about 10-12 years ago when you (or someone) drove a ~20' long skinny green trimaran with small amas and a ~ 20 hp outboard down to Shilshole.  I liked that one too.  As a kid I modified a couple small boats for performance but much more crudely.  I was inspired by Boeing's giant experimental jet hydrofoil which would zoom by Lake Washington's East Channel where I grew up back in the 50's & 60's.  I can't imagine they would get permission to run that huge and tremendously loud contraption at ~40 knots down the lake nowadays.   
 
Ok, I googled around and came up with this.  It's similar to what I remember seeing but what I recall was larger, with a taller gantry structure supporting the jet engine some 15' above the deck.  I'm sure they built all kinds of versions down at their Renton skunkworks back then.  Man o man, was it loud!
Eric 
On Sep 10, 2025, at 8:39 AM, Paul English <tall...@engmooski.net> wrote:

That is the one - really cool! Does it fully foil? And who designed it?

I'm trying to convince Eric Lindhal to get a power catamaran instead of a Bayliner when he sells his sailing multihull 😂
 
 
On 09/10/2025 8:13 AM PDT Nigel Oswald <ioi....@gmail.com> wrote:
 
 
Hey Paul,
 
I have a 24’, 6 seater but maybe what you saw 😊😉. (There are a couple of interesting power boats that make their way through the islands though!)
 
<Screen Shot 2025-09-10 at 10,11,15 AM.png>

Eric Lindahl

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Sep 11, 2025, 7:57:24 PM (4 days ago) Sep 11
to northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com, Nigel Oswald
Well, yes Nige, it was a bit of a half serious bait, and it yielded:  Thank you for your reply about your fleet.   Yep, that is the green boat I remember. But what is that skinny trimaran about?
 
PS,  I use Bayliner as a generic term, like bandaid.  It doesn't have to be that brand, just a powerboat in that niche; smaller, ~28' flybridge planing cruiser.
 
Cheers,
Eric 

Nigel Oswald

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Sep 12, 2025, 11:53:54 AM (3 days ago) Sep 12
to Eric Lindahl, northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com
The skinny tri as setup in that pic is just me messing around, but it is a 28’ carbon hull, it was going to be the next version of the green tri (more practical from the lessons learned) but is now most likely to become an outrigger as it will be an interesting challenge to see if I can make a practical solution to share the double dock with the F-32 😬🤞.   The current design goal is to use a Dragonfly type swing folding system so the main hull will flare to about 4’ wide and then the outrigger will rotate forward or to make the whole thing dock at less than 66” if possible.  (Might not be, it’s a background project).   Hoping to have some initial version splash in the spring but who knows what that timeline or design end up as!

On Sep 11, 2025, at 4:57 PM, Eric Lindahl <ejli...@comcast.net> wrote:

Well, yes Nige, it was a bit of a half serious bait, and it yielded:  Thank you for your reply about your fleet.   Yep, that is the green boat I remember. But what is that skinny trimaran about?
 
PS,  I use Bayliner as a generic term, like bandaid.  It doesn't have to be that brand, just a powerboat in that niche; smaller, ~28' flybridge planing cruiser.
 
Cheers,
Eric 
On 09/11/2025 2:45 PM PDT Nigel Oswald <ioi....@gmail.com> wrote:
 
 
Hey Paul, Eric,
 
I feel like I’m being baited ;) 
 
The cat (Totoro) is semi foiling, designed to take about 70% of the displacement at a little over 20kts, the idea being to get a bump in speed/efficiency and ride but without the risk of crashing or complexity of an active foil system.   It works well but there is no free lunch, with all the logs in the water here, with the miles I put on this boat/second car, there are small dings to fix a couple of times a year and the odd big hit every couple of years.  This set of foils is now on its last legs and I need to make some new ones. (Next boat will not have foils in trunks in the hulls).   Totoro was designed and built by Brandon Davis/Turn point design.
 
Its all pros and cons, but who’d want to be seen in a bayliner ;) 
 
Eric - the green tri was this one, amazing boat but very very niche and we went a bit too extreme on the efficiency side of the design - 4 people in line, did 22kts with a 20hp outboard at about 12mpg.    But really only a great boat for a tweaky boat person.  This was sold to a sailor on Lopez 7 years ago, who donated it back to the kids sailing foundation I run last year, its now owned by Dan Kaseler (quantum/Raptor Deck) to commute between Bainbridge and shilshole :) 
<IMG_1880.jpeg>
 
 
The biggest downside of selling Makika and now owning the 32SR, Kelona, is that at 23’ wide instead of 19’, I can no longer fit the power cat and the tri in the same pair of slips.  First world problems for sure, but it was such a perfect setup for the 25c.
 
I have 5.5’ of free dock space between one of Kelona’s floats and the dock and a 28’ long, 36’ wide carbon hull, a 60hp outboard and an A-Class cat in my shop.  Will see what I can come up with as the next commuter boat and see how dumb it might be to make it fit in the double dock with the 32 ;) 
 

Paul English

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Sep 12, 2025, 1:48:04 PM (3 days ago) Sep 12
to Nigel Oswald, NWMA, Eric Lindahl
Truly I was curious, but yes also bait I figure our Vice Commodore looking for interesting subjects and speakers is watching RIGHT NOW 👀

There is another commuter power cat with a high bridgedeck out there - Grasshopper I think it is a Bieker design. It was cruising around during the WA360 race start. 

Jeff Oaklief

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Sep 12, 2025, 2:18:36 PM (3 days ago) Sep 12
to northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com, Nigel Oswald, Eric Lindahl
Yes... the VC is always watching...

Totoro totally fits its name.  Love it.

Currently formulating a plan... Nige, if you want to eclipse your current fame and are interested in presenting an overview of all your crazy projects let me know... I think you have my contact info.

😇

Jeff Oaklief

Nige Oswald

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Sep 12, 2025, 3:27:19 PM (3 days ago) Sep 12
to Paul English, NWMA, Eric Lindahl
Yeah that was Russel Brown’s original one (he has a newer slightly larger one but the original is still buzzing around the sound).  That was Russel’s design with tornado hulls originally.  There are a few bieker cats and outriggers around too, all really cool boats. 

Bit of a core design goal difference with most of them (not all). They generally aim to do 16-18kts as efficiently as possible and are open decked.   I’m trying to cruise between 25 and 30 in jeans and a sweater in almost any weather, as efficiently as possible.  Pros and cons, really should just get an axopar and stop worrying about the extremes of efficiency.  

I’m a total hack though, Paul, Russel or Brandon would make much better presentations 😉


Cheers

Nige


On Sep 12, 2025, at 10:48 AM, Paul English <tall...@engmooski.net> wrote:



Tim Knight

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Sep 12, 2025, 4:00:20 PM (3 days ago) Sep 12
to northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com
Off Topic but some Vancouver Island Multihulls are trying to create some interest in some Fall Racing events on the Island...Contact me or The event organisers if your interested...
Cheers Tim 
Redshift Redux (F9AR)

Nige Oswald

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Sep 12, 2025, 4:02:58 PM (3 days ago) Sep 12
to northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com, northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com
I think it would be great to share those to the list when you have the dates?    I may be interested but will likely be out of the water between round the county and march.


Cheers

Nige


On Sep 12, 2025, at 1:00 PM, Tim Knight <oceanp...@gmail.com> wrote:



Tim Knight

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Sep 12, 2025, 4:08:25 PM (3 days ago) Sep 12
to northwest-multi...@googlegroups.com
Whoops forgot the attachment...Free moorage for folks attending and some moorings could be arranged for folks attending then later going on to the Round the County!
Cheers Tim



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