New hull, new system sells at Seawork

AMC was trying out a wave piercing, 10m catamaran. The twin ‘pronged’ shape of the hull is something of a novelty since this is the first time the technology, more common on craft two or three times larger had been scaled down. It was tricky. Calculations showed that a 10m length seems to be the smallest size of craft that can benefit from this particular, streamlined displacement hull type.

However, putting it together came with its challenges. Firstly, it is simply not easy to form aluminium into three dimensional curves across such a small distance. Secondly, the company didn’t know exactly how the hull would perform, and so they needed advice on the power and handling.

The first was overcome by experience, the two company directors have around 25 years experience each, as well as hard graft. The second was helped by Mitchell Power Systems offering advice on Steyr Motors diesel engines and water jets with joystick control from Alamarin Jet Oy. The developments thus came together at the right time for the AMC boat to take advantage of the new controls, and Seawork saw the first sale of the system.

The new boat now has a pair of 300hp Steyr 306MHWJ engines coupled to a pair of Alamarin 288 jets, all controlled by a user friendly joystick interface. AMC calculates it has actually made around a 40% weight saving by careful matching of component parts and using the Alamarin propulsion.

“We wanted a complete power solution, explaied Mr Holbrooke. “It was important to us that the system worked well together and that we effectively had a ‘turnkey’ package, so the collaborative attitude of Mitchells has been invaluable.”