Kinetic Catamarans Build Q&A with Leon Scheepers
South African Boat Building is renowned for its unparalleled quality. Hours of man power poured into every detail makes for exceptional craftsmanship. The combination of considered design, materials and build quality makes for a rigid catamaran that negotiates the toughest of conditions with ease, never groaning or complaining and effortlessly slicing through the oceans. Leon Scheepers, Managing Director of Kinetic Catamarans SA Operations and renowned boat builder, tells us how.
Hi Leon. We’re super excited about the new KC54 currently in build. Can you give us an overview of your boat building background?
Hi guys. I started building boats, inflatable boats in 1987… designing, building and racing them. One of my biggest achievements have been to design, build and race a boat to win the South African Provincial Championships. Since those early days I’ve steadily built bigger and bigger boats (all powerboats) until I joined St Francis Marine in 1999 as factory manager, building sailboats. I spent 8 years there with a two year sojourn at Robertson and Caine to head up their powerboat production line. From there I moved to high end carbon/epoxy projects before working overseas for a couple of years and then to return, joining Harvey Yachts to take over the production team on the Harvey 58. So, I have about 30 years powerboat and sailboat experience in both production and semi-custom yards.
How is the build for the KC54 different from boats you have built in the past?
Most boats are built using polyester resin and e-glass with a gelcoat finish …. By far the majority of boats are built this way, using female molds to achieve an acceptable finish. This also limits you in terms of styling as every thing comes out of a mold and its shape is predetermined with very little actual customization. At Kinetic we have minimal molds and we use epoxy and carbon fibre for everything. Our hulls, window surrounds and coach roof are molded but the rest of the panels and webs are manufactured/infused and bonded, then tabbed, faired and painted. This allows for a large amount of customization such as cockpit layouts and deck detailing.
Can you run us through the build phases of the KC54?
Firstly, all the major parts are infused (a process whereby epoxy resin is drawn by vacuum through a dry laminate stack to infuse the whole structure with resin, leaving 0% voids). Then these large parts are joined together to form what is known as the hull, deck and bulkheads. Immediately at this stage we start fairing and painting the interior, to prepare for installation. When the interior has been faired and painted, interior fit-out commences (furniture and systems) whilst the fairing team concentrates on finishing the deck for deck-fitting to commence. Then the fairing team move onto the hulls whilst the rest of the boat is completely fitted out. As you can imagine, the fairing and painting on a project like this is the single biggest job. We estimate a build time of less than 16 months for the 54.
What are the biggest design features and innovations in the KC54 that you’re excited about?
I really like the look of the boat, It is evident the 62 and 54 are from the same stable. Building the tooling introduced me to some of the subtle design features introduced by Maarten and Alex from Simonis-Voogd Yacht Design. She is going to be a looker … very spacious for her size with a wonderfully large feeling, from the aft cockpit right through the boat to the forward cockpit …. And she’s going to sail like a demon! We also have a couple of innovative functional design features up our sleeves which we'll introduce on the new 54. We'll be introducing a new helm and seating solution which I believe will be better than anything else out there ... then there are changes to the aft bridgedeck to once again make it more functional and unique. The 54 will also have a 3 wheel set-up which is another step up. The new boat is bristling with new clever features and I can't wait to show it to the world.
What are the main build differences between the KC62 and KC54?
The single biggest difference is that the 62 is built over a male plug, which leaves the insides of the hulls smooth whilst the 54 is built in a female mold, leaving the outsides of the hulls smooth. This leaves an obvious difference on how the fairing and painting is tackled on the two models. I believe we will have a weight saving in fairing by adopting the female tooling used for the 54.
Tell us about the forward cockpit and why it’s an important feature?
We have, with uncanny regularity, found that we congregate in the forward cockpit in a breeze on anchor. The forward cockpit is big enough. Originally, the 54 was not going to have a forward cockpit … but … since attending the Annapolis show and seeing the public excitement/acceptance of this feature on the 62, we decided to incorporate it on the 54 as well. Personally I am thrilled we are … we are sticking to the principals and DNA of the original design and these are becoming our signature features.
All Kinetic Catamarans are 100% carbon fibre. Why do you choose to build in carbon fibre and what are the benefits?
When talking about carbon fibre one should also mention epoxy resin. Epoxy is a fantastic material to use – it gives you choices regarding hardeners which in turn affect your working window, which affects your quality. With epoxies, you can formulate the product for the job at hand. Epoxies are also osmosis resistant. This, combined with carbon fibre gives you one of the best composite structures around. It gives you stiffness for less weight – that is the long and the short of it. An e-glass boat is going to flex more … so much more that it can affect sail shape and furniture fitment.
How does this affect the performance of the boats?
With a carbon boat you have a very stiff structure, for less weight, which can be highly tuned, to perform. All of this adds up to more speed.
What unique build processes does Kinetic take to minimize weight?
We take great care to shed excess weight …. I could mention infusion (… which actually adds a little bit of weight, but also adds peace of mind). However, I have to mention our furniture manufacturing. Each furniture panel is made individually. Each piece consists of a thin hardwood frame around a 15mm 40kg/m³ foam core. Hardwood inserts for fasteners, catches and hinges are also incorporated. This composite panel is then laminated using a layer of 200g/m² carbon fibre twill on each side. Finally the veneers are pressed onto the panel for the finished look. These panels are extremely labor intensive to manufacture but ensures our furniture is super light and stiff. We also mill our counter tops down to 6mm and add a carbon fibre substrate to retain stiffness yet shed weight. The interior furniture and layout is highly customizable, with no two boats the same.
How is Kinetic Catamarans different from other yards?
To me, people are the difference. People are the ones who make a company great. We have a great team here … the best people I’ve worked with. We are building a highly customizable boat (more so than any other yard I know) and we have the skills, know-how and facilities to do this – to me, this is our competitive advantage. We can build you exactly what you want, to the highest standards, with the best materials, with the best people.
What are your main goals you’re focused on for Kinetic in 2020?
This Covid19 pandemic may have the last say on this one! My goals were to launch our next 62, which is the racing version of our flagship … and to continue developing and building the first 54 to launch early next year. Our plans have changed somewhat in light of the pandemic – we are going to concentrate on building some stock of almost finished 62’s and 54’s until the market recovers. We want to be in the position to have a range of boats ready to be finished in the colors and equipment the owner wants, when the market normalizes.