Carbon composite chainplates laminated to
hull inside and outside spread rig load
through skin, longitudinals and bulkheads. |
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39" center bridgedeck clearance
minimizes slamming |
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Deck layout |
|
| Dix-Harvey 550 Cat |
|
The 550 is a collaboration between prolific designer Dudley Dix of Virginia, USA and Phil Harvey. It's being built by Laine Boatworks of Trinidad and Tobago. Strong, simple to build and easy on the pocketbook, the 55' LOA, epoxy-plywood design is proving extremely popular: Four boats were sold before the first, Wild Vanilla, was launched.
The owner of the third 550 hull has specified E motion hybrid electric drive. The complete system will include twin 16 kw electric motors turning 20 inch feathering propellers, a pair of 16 kw Polar Power diesel generators for extra redundancy and a 6 kw Dimensions inverter to run AC appliances.
Dudley Dix's radius chine technique for coaxing compound curves from plywood has been a huge success. More than 300 boats have been built with it so far. The technique neatly solves what once was a major drawback with plywood. Although plywood is enormously strong and stiff - qualities desired in any boat - its flat rectangles are hard to force into the compound curves required for a smoothly rounded hull. Most early plywood sail and power boats featured hard chines and flat panels that curved in one direction only.
But Dix's radius chine technique has solved the problem, allowing builders to take advantage of epoxy-coated plywood's strength, low cost and construction simplicity. First used on monohulls, the technique works even better for multihulls, producing beautiful, fair boats that are lovely to look at and quick to construct.
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|
| Specs |
| LOA |
|
16.75 m |
|
60' |
| LWL |
|
15.7 m |
|
51'6" |
| Beam |
|
8.7 m |
|
28'5" |
| Hull beam |
|
2 m |
|
6'7" |
| Draft |
|
0.75/2.19 m |
|
2'6"/7'2" |
| Disp |
|
12,500 kg |
|
27,550 lb |
| Sail area |
|
127.7 m2 |
|
1,374 ft2 |
| Genset |
|
16 kw (2) |
| Motor |
|
E motion 16 kw (2) |
| Prop |
|
20 in. feathering |
| 144V battery pack |
|
4D AGM (12) |
| 12V house batteries |
|
Grp 31 (2) |
| Inverter |
|
Dimensions 6 kw |
|
|
|
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Roof overhang shelters cockpit; bridgedeck
platform gives easy access to transom steps |
|
 |
| Sail plan |
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