Cosmos 1160

Home-built from plans or kit

Brand:: Schionning

Designed by:: Schionning Designs

Description:

The Cosmos 1160 is a performance cruiser with slim, easily driven hulls. She will sail very well with a moderately sized rig, and thus can easily be sailed short-handed. The boat, which is designed for liveaboard or long-term ocean cruising, is quicker and cheaper to build than many other cruisers of similar length because of the low volume of the hulls and accommodation. Like all the Cosmos range the 1160 is strongly but lightly built in cedar or Durakore and carries a good payload for a performance boat. The bows are designed with excellent reserve buoyancy forward, making her safe when running downwind at speed.

Building the Cosmos range
Plans for the Cosmos range of performance cruising catamarans are available for home builders and professional boat yards. The boats are strip planked in either Durakore (manufactured compound planks with a balsa wood core) or Western Red Cedar. With this method of construction the compound curves of the hulls and decks can be relatively easily accurately formed and building requires only a moderate level of skill and no complex or expensive tools. The result is a sleek looking, strong and light boat. Western Red Cedar is cheaper and a little easier to use but Durakore planking is about 30% lighter because of the significant weight saving in the core. The construction with Durakore gives a very high strength to weight ratio and will produces a lighter boat allowing either a little more performance perhaps for club racing, or a better payload for cruising.

Hulls are built separately upside down on temporary building frames. After being planked, the hulls are sealed with epoxy resin and glass, then turned by hand for sealing inside.

Type:: Performance cruiser

Multihull type:: Catamaran

Construction:

Strip planked in Western Red Cedar (cheaper and easier), or Durakore (lighter)
Balsa cored bulkheads
Sealed with epoxy resin and glass
Composite forward beam with striker

Sails and rigging:

Fractional sloop rig
Fully battened main
Fixed or rotating mast
Roller furling genoa
Asymmetric spinnaker flown from the bowsprit

Sails and rigging images:

Deck layout and gear:

Flat decks with non-slip surface
Targa bar carries solar panels and aerials, and lifts and carries a dinghy
Wheel steering
Aft anchoring roller and storage
Main sheet traveller track on the cockpit seatback
Drop down swimming platform aft which can be raised for storage when under way
Good forward visibility from the helm
Hardtop bimini with side curtains
Garbage and fish lockers under the cockpit sole

Deck layout images:

Keels, boards and rudders:

Kick-up rudders mounted in the bottom step of the transoms
Daggerboards - offset in the hulls to give more accommodation space

Accommodation:: Port hull: Double cabin aft; navigation area midships; double berth forward
Bridgedeck cabin: Saloon with 360 degree visibility; dinette; windows open on to the cockpit for ventilation
Starboard hull: Head and shower compartment aft; galley midships; double berth forward