Launching the Final Kisscat Catamaran

After a late night the day before watching the last Kisscat Catamaran being moved from its construction building to the seawall, I awoke early the next morning to witness the launching of this fine Philippines built sailing catamaran.

This catamaran is for sale. You can see more details about this boat at Kisscat Catamarans as this boat is very nearly identical to its sister ship, which was launched more than a year ago, in-so-far as sleeping quarters and outfitting is concerned.

The crane that came from the Cagayan de Oro seaport did not show up on time, and when it did it malfunctioned. Something in the hydraulics jammed and the crane when pivoting lost control and swung into the power lines on the side of the road, shorting out electricity for the neighborhood. We had to wait about an hour and a half before the Cagayan de Or electric power company, Cepalco, came and assured us the power was out on the lines in question and the crane operator could safely swing the boom away from the power lines. Meanwhile, while waiting for Cepalco to show up, the mechanics from the CdO Port Authority made hasty repairs to the crane, replacing a hydraulic pump that had malfunctioned, ostensibly causing the crane to malfunction and swing into the power lines.

After that excitement was over (I did catch myself washing tears from my eyes out of sheer boredom during this waiting period), the launch proceeded all but perfectly. The rope straps that connected to the overhead steel spreader were wrapped around the hull too close to the front of the boat, just slightly ahead of the boat’s center of gravity and when the crane first hoisted the boat, it tilted back upon its rudders. The boat had to be lowered and the ropes slid back to better balance the boat.

Once this corrections was made this fine Philippines manufactured sailing catamaran was in the water within a very short period of time.

There’s a full photo gallery of the launching of the Philippines constructed catamaran here.

I broke the videos of the launching into four 10 MB files

Philippines catamaran launching Video 1

Philippines catamaran launching Video 2

Philippines catamaran launching Video 3

Philippines catamaran launching Video 4

This boat is for sale or charter.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 11:49 and is filed under Cagayan de Oro, Philippines Business, Philippines Expat Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.