I only joined this mailing list last week, so this is my first post and really I'm just introducing myself. Although I am relatively new to power catamarans I've been involved with sailing multihulls for a long time. Brian Eiland was selling my boats 30 years ago, while my Eclipse lightning strike, 10 years ago, was mentioned in Domino's excellent blog Although I am British, my (American) wife and I have spent the last eight summers in the PNW as we have a summer house in the BC Gulf Islands. We've done a lot of local cruising, including a trip down from Alaska and racing round Vancouver Island. Initially mainly in sailing catamarans, then in 2010 we launched my first powercat, a 20ft trailerable design. Even though the cabin was only 5ft long we still used it for cruising, a trip to Princess Louisa inlet being our longest. Then last year we launched a professionally built plywood 28ft powercat, the Skoota 28. We spent most of last summer finishing off the boat, but we did get in a trip to Desolation Sound. Right now it is in Port Ludlow marina. We lived on board last fall for about 6 weeks before going to Europe. We got back in December, spent Christmas Day on board, while our last trip out was on New Years day. We plan to get further north this summer, but probably not as far as Alaska. Then, as it is demountable boat (legally transportable without a wide load permit) our next plan is to truck it to the Great Lakes and do a Loop cruise, probably with a side trip to the Bahamas for a couple of years. I come from a lightweight performance sailing background, so my powercat designs reflect that. Furthermore I can still not get used to the very cheap fuel in the USA (gas has been over USD10 a gallon for years in Europe). So I am always amazed at the poor fuel consumption of most cruising powerboats. Our Skoota does between 5-7mpg at 12 knots, depending on loading and seastate, using twin 20hp outboards. Enough on me. If you wish you can see more on my website. www.sailingcatamarans.com or my cruising blog (which by coincidence uses the same template as Domino's) http://woodsdesigns.blogspot.ca/ If this recent list activity hadn't happened, my first post would have been to ask "where do people talk about power multihulls"? There are, after all, lots of them out there being used as charter boats and as cruisers. And there is still a lot of misinformation. The most obvious being that people say "don't buy a powercat - they capsize" ignoring the fact that monohull powerboats, fishing boats, even ships, are not self righting and also stay capsized I've written enough for a first post. I'll read the list daily and comment when I think I can contribute -- Best wishes and smooth cruising Richard Woods of Woods Designs sailing catamaran designers www.sailingcatamarans.com