The Looper!

[Jknight611]

Well, we became interested in “The Great Loop” several years ago, we looked at various ready built boats and each had good and less desirable traits.  We came close to to purchasing a design till the seller mentioned the fuel flow was slightly less than 5 gallon per hour.  A deal breaker at 12 kts for 6000 nm.  During a visit with Kalos at B&B Skunkworks, Graham and Alan were 3D printing various hull shapes for an easily driven trailerable powerboat.  After our previous experiences with B&B designs we knew we found our design . We picked up the basic hull on July 18, 2024.  First panel bonded July 23.  Most people identify it as a boat in a month.   

30 ft long 8.5 beam, powered by a Beta 38 hp diesel which is aft of the main cabin and well soundproofed the boat will be a pleasant place for a sailor to spend time.  Lots of solar for climate control and house loads with an extremely innovative dingy davit. 
Here is a Google link for more pictures https://photos.app.goo.gl/8ady6twen48hxSv68

[Don Silsbe]

What a project!!! I will be building alongside you, vicariously.  
 

I have several non-related questions.  Please email me .  Donsilsbe@gmail.com.

[Joe Anderson]

Jay

 

Looks like a fun, comfortable boat. And fuel efficient!

Yeah it will be fun to see how that dinghy gets into position.

[Steve W]

I have a 50' dock on the Erie Canal in Pittsford NY. Plenty of room to tie up if you get out this way. 

 

What do you expect the displacement to be? 

 

Take Care, 

Steve

[Jknight611]

Hi Steve, not completely sure I know, I suspect it will be in the 6500 lb range.  Still have tankage to work out and a few minor “boy that would be nice” things as happens in all boat builds.  Will finish planking the hull next week, then glassing the inside of the hull panels. I want to add the cabinetry etc before the big “ally-opp”.  Won’t make it much heavier and it will give the hull more support.  All my friends have been making suggestions on the big roll over.  May just supply bbq chicken and beer and have them call me when it’s inverted.  
 

And we definitely will take you up on dockage, that is the area we want to explore! 

[Jknight611]

Finished planking, this is the part that you mess around 20 minutes and it look like huge progress,  I’ll start filling and sanding tomorrow.  That’ll slow thing a bit!  
 

[Don Silsbe]

Wow!  She’s a big-un!

[AmosSwogger]

Jay, once again you are first at a new boat design.  Very cool.

[Jknight611]

We just  got home from “The Skunkworks “ of boat design……. 
 

Sure is a LOT of parts. Some little, some not!  Our entire game room is covered with 18 inches of boat!  So far each and every part has fit perfectly,  hope to keep that trend going! 
 

Plan is, one more trip to pick up engine and deckhouse.  I have been messing about with boats for nearly 60 years, my first with a “power boat”,  both Carol an I are excited! 

[Jknight611]

With a lot of help from our friends the Looper is upside down!  The inside is all glassed and all the cabinetry and soles has been in but removed for the flop.  The outside is glassed almost to the waterline and as you can see the filling of the glass has started. Amazing how accurate the parts fit together, there are/were a bunch of parts but been reasonably easy to assemble.  Poor epoxy pump! 

[Joe Anderson]

Great to see your progress Jay. Looks like you used a different technique for the flip.

 

You and Carol are amazing!

[Jknight611]

Hi Joe, hope your project is going well,  yea, with the cabinets already installed ( wanted the structure of the cabinetry to help spread the load) and the boarding platform on the rear kinda hard to figure a reasonable way to turn it over.  We had 4 guys and 1 lady, took about 30 minutes start to finish to flip it over.  Been sailing a few days but plan on starting glassing the bottom soon. Got a killer deal on 7 “kits” of Coppercoat so want to complete the bottom before going back upright.  The bow is so tall, angled and slick so I am fabricating scaffolding to complete the forward 4-5 feet of the bow area. 

[Jknight611]

Well, with it being spring in the south, the wasps are homesteading all over the place.  I have been doing some clean up and auxiliary filetting inside the boat.  Know how crowded it gets under the boat with a bunch of angry wasps…..

[Jknight611]

Almost finished with the “fill a fair, fill a fair, fill a fair, fill a fair….etc. 

[Bryan Rolfe]

Seems like a fun little project! 

In all seriousness, how epic and ambitious -- how much solar is on that cabin top? Looks like maybe 1 kW?

We're considering putting a Beta 35/38 in our Westsail 32 as well, had a smaller beta on my last boat and it treated me well. 

[Jknight611]

Glad to hear about the Beta 38, we will be picking ours up next month.
 The plan to put as much solar on top as possible, and have as much the domestic loads done by the solar system as possible.  It seems the solar panel technology is still accelerating so 1KW plus is entirely feasible.   We have space allocated for 3 Epoch 460 ah (or similar ) batteries.  The solar system on Kalos, our sailboat has exceeded all expectations.  In the almost 3 years we have only plugged into shore power once last winter (our version of winter..35 degrees) to run a small electric heater when we were not in our home marina.