Big task – little time – Part I
Brandon Linton and his build team at Hodgdon Yachts look at the (extremely rapid) build of the mighty Comanche
Tim Hacket (project manager), Casey Smith (boat captain, systems and deck layout) and myself had built race yachts together before. We had previously directed the build of both Puma Ocean Racing VO70 boats for Ken Read and Kimo Worthington, but what we didn’t know was that this boat, Comanche, was going to be a whole new challenge. Along with a very compressed schedule, her size created countless issues that had not been
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seen in smaller yachts. We had to rethink everything that we had done before… In May 2013 Kimo Worthington and I looked at several construction facility options around the New England area that could be capable of building a yacht 100ft long and up to 26ft wide. We needed enough floor space for a hull, a deck, struc- ture construction, structure assembly and the infrastructure to make it all happen. Hodgdon Yachts in East Boothbay, Maine, USA was originally set up for timber construction while in recent years they have ventured into infused compos- ites. Although they did not have any previous experience in pre-preg structures, they were eager to expand into this tech- nology. With a willingness to learn from our team of composite boatbuilders, they saw the benefits of this project and agreed
to transform their facility into a yard capable of building these types of yachts. Hodgdon have several work facilities but their main shed in East Boothbay, which is the largest, was the only real option for us. Along with extending the shed to accommodate a 10m oven, with a heat source from three electric heaters pro- ducing a combined output of 276,000 BTU for manufacturing the boat’s structure, Hodgdon designed and erected a 35m oven to manufacture the hull and deck. This main oven extended to the majority of the main workshop floor and, knowing that access to the already existing overhead gantry cranes was essential, a removable modular roof was fitted onto the fixed oven walls. The single PID temperature- controlled heat source was supplied by LPG burners with a combined capacity of
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