Port Royal Group to help launch new catamaran line

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Marine technical and business consultancy the Port Royal Group has signed a long-term contract to manage the production start-up and market introduction of a new line of high performance luxury catamaran motor yachts, it reported in a statement today.

“The new MACS (multiple air cavity ships) series of catamaran sport yachts incorporates patented leading-edge hull form technology and represents a quantum leap forward in performance design,” said Port Royal Group President Phil Friedman.

The new catamaran blends a stepped hull form with underwater pressurized air cavities to produce high speeds using little more than half the propulsion power of conventional single hull vessels of similar length and with similar accommodations, according to Friedman.

MACS inventor/developer Bruce Barsumian is an electronics engineer and manufacturer who has been refining the MACS concept for nearly a decade, according to Port Royal Group. Following successful prototype testing and the securing of appropriate patents on the hull form technology, Barsumian decided to move forward with production. Beforehand, however, he employed megayacht designer and stylist J.C. Espinosa of Stuart, Fla., to style the exterior of the new MACS catamaran and to design her interior accommodations.

Then, he approached Friedman, who not only had experience running a megayacht shipyard, but who had also collaborated with Espinosa on other catamaran motor yacht development projects.

Barsumian and Friedman then negotiated with Vectorworks Marine in Titusville, Fla., to produce the tooling, and handle the molding and assembly of the new yacht. Marine engineering for the project is being handled by the Vectorworks engineering department, which is headed up by professional engineer Bill Kulenguski, whose background reaches back to the U.S. Navy mine hunter days at Intermarine of Savannah. Interiors for the new line of yachts are being produced by AeroLite Interiors LLC of Deerfield Beach, Fla., specialists in the prefabrication and installation of upscale ultralight marine interior cabinetry and furniture.

According to Friedman, most of the tooling for the new yacht has now been produced, utilizing Vectorworks numerical control 5-axis milling machines, and the completion of hull number one is growing near. The first of these new 60 footers is expected to be introduced in February of next year.

“The MACS project is definitely not a seat-of-the-pants operation,” said Barsumian. “We’ve assembled a highly talented, highly experienced team to deal with every aspect of taking this patented, leading-edge technology from concept to design to testing to production. This is an extremely well thought out and pre-engineered project; and we’re confident the result will cut a serious wake though the yachting world.”

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