Jay Kantola was an Americannaval architect who is most known for his work designingmultihullsailboats. He began designing multihulls in the 1960s.[1] Kantola was an early proponent of a vessel construction technique calledcold molding and cored construction. Cold molding involves bending strips of wood at room temperature to form a desired shape. The shape is then retained by gluing the wood together usingepoxy. When the shaped construction is coated with layers offiberglass saturated with epoxy, the final construct is termed a cored or composite construction. Kantola was one of several designers that worked closely with Meade Gougeon, Joel Gougeon, and Jan Gougeon. These brothers are collectively known as the Gougeon brothers.[2] They also designed vessels and founded a line of epoxy products called West System.[3]
Kantola primarily produced the plans and blueprints for others to construct the final product. One builder he worked closely with for many years was Richard Barrie in Western Boatworks ofReseda,California.[4] Perhaps the most famous vessel that resulted in this collaboration was the 1/8th scale model of the stern section of the vesselRMSTitanic. The 60-foot-long (18 m) stern section was utilized in the sinking scenes shot for the movieTitanic. A second model of the entire vessel at a scale of 1/20th of its actual size now resides in a museum. To construct both models, Kantola utilized drawings of theTitanic's sister ship, theRMS Olympic.[5]
Kantola also designed the personal sailing vessels built by Ricard Barrie and his wife, Kris Barrie, for their own use. The Barrie family weathered a storm aboard the Kantola designedtrimaran named Fifth Fox in May 1984 that had winds over 50 knots.[6] In the 1990s, they built a much larger trimaran named Windswept. Windswept is believed to have been the largest trimaran designed by Kantola. It took the Barrie couple eight years to build the 65-foot (19.8-meter) long by 40-foot (12.2-meter) wide vessel. It was ultimately launched in 2000. The vessel featured four cabins, two heads, a large living area, and a 79-foot-tall mast. It could sail at speeds in the low 20-knot range.
For sheer poetry and performance, Jay Kantola'stris are a class apart.Spaceity, a 32-foot sloop encountered inPago Pago, presented a symphony of lines, from matchedtransoms to triple bows. Flat-bottom planingfloats give her 180-mile days. A large centerboard provided sportscar handling, but severely restricted her main cabin.