One of our readers, Travis Blackwell, sent me the following video clip posted on YouTube. It’s way cool. A mini catamaran mounted with a blokart chair for straight-ahead, comfortable sitting / sailing.

What’s a “blokart”? One might say that they’re a “small sailing trimaran on land.” Here are some websites for those who may not have seen them yet:

http://www.blokart.com/

http://www.blokartusa.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blokart

Here is the video Travis sent me the link to …

The following information comes from this webpage, which I found after searching for the “KayalystMarine.com” website mentioned at the end of the Katalyst video (and couldn’t find it)…

Katalyst Marine allows the exciting combination of the blokart and water to give you the ultimate portable sailing experience. The Katalyst is a lightweight catamaran that packs down small enough to be transported without a trailer. Based on the blokart ethos of fun, fast and compact! the Katalyst is ready to sail in minutes; just bolt the hulls together, assemble your blokart and fit it to the hulls, rig your sail and connect your steering and your away sailing!

A blokart could be affixed to a “beach tri” as well as a “beach cat.” (The beach cat version is pretty neat though.) I thought it was certainly unique enough to share with small tri fans.

I hope you agree. We welcome comments below if you’ve sailed a blokart too!

_______________

The following press release was published on 12-20-15 by Windrider International.

Contact information can be obtained on the Windrider website (linked to below) for anyone that has further questions.

Press Release
December 31, 2015
Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.

Merger of WindRider International and Nickels Boat Works

WindRider International has merged with Nickels Boat Works to provide a more comprehensive product and service lineup to the sailing community. Nickels Boat Works, with a 60-plus year history of quality boat building, is the manufacturing division for WindRider and will now build eight models of sailboats, plus import five models of sailing trimarans from Astus in France. WindRider distributes sailboat parts and accessories and www.windrider.com is the exclusive supplier of Nickels Boat Works parts, including parts for Lightning, JY15, Buccaneer, Mutineer and Rebel.

Nickels Boat Works is a world-renowned builder of one-design sailboats and other fiberglass products. It is the prime supplier of the 19 foot Lightning, whose class has over 15,000 boats built since its introduction, and also builds the JY15, Buccaneer, Rebel and Mutineer. Innovations at Nickels Boat Works include approved class refinements in hull shape and refined deck layouts resulting in World, Pan American and North American victories. WindRider trimaran models include the WR17, WR16, WRTango; plus Astus trimaran models 16.5, 18.2, 20.2, 22 and 24.

About WindRider: WindRider encourages people to Go Sail™ by providing products and online information resources that simplify the sailing experience for sailors in all stages of life. From accessible, fun sailboats and accessories to their communities of sailors interacting on-line and on-water, WindRider has everything you need to Go Sail™. Visit www.windrider.com for more information.

Sailor (and self-boatbuilder) Algie Bennett told me about the WindKnife last week. Some of our do-it-yourselfers are really going to love this product.

The WindKnife is essentially a ready-made leading edge for hydrofoils. Anyone building a hydrofoil (regardless of whether it’s a rudder, daggerboard or centerboard) can set the size/shape of what will become the leading edge and then cut the sides to proper size and then glue, rivet or weld them on.

The end result is a strong, light weight foil that fits the design specs of the particular small boat it’ll be mounted on.

I think pictures do a better job of explaining the whole concept. You can find the official WindKnife website here. And the construction explanation can be found on this page.

Our favorite boat supplier, Duckworks, now offers them for sale too. So if you’ve got a boatbuilding project coming up, or need to replace a hydrofoil at any point, then you may want to consider this unique fabrication product.

Sailor Hans Schipper is at it again with another small trimaran building project. Instead of sailing his “Triple A trimaran“ he’ll enjoy a “Cool Finn” tri instead. (See also this original post about the building of the Triple A Tri).

What’s a Cool Finn trimaran?

Let’s find out. I love these diy building projects … especially when they turn out well! All the best to Hans as he works to complete this new sailboat.

( By the way, Hans is selling the “Triple A Tri” … anyone interested should contact him via his email address: fam.schipper AT gmail.com … a couple newer photos of the Triple A can be seen below at the end of this post )

……………..

From Triple A to Cool Finn Trimaran
by Hans Schipper

I have been sailing with my self-built Triple A trimaran for two years now. It gave me such a lot of pleasure that I decided to built another one.

The triple A is a real comfortable one-person sailing boat that reaches a speed up to 12 knots. The floating ability is enough for one person and electric motor.

For two persons or one person with camping stuff it is not enough. That is the second reason to built another
one.

I wanted to make the main hull from Styrodur foam with glass/epoxy. Unfortunately my plan to make a hull failed.

When I glued to half the thickness of the key-pattern foam sheets in the mold, each plate came off with a different rounding. That means I would start off with a bumpy hull.

I did not know how to improve it, so I bought the sleek hull of a Finnjol. For the ama’s, I bought an old Coolcat 15 beach cat. So this will be the base of my *Cool Finn* trimaran.

I am preparing the parts of my new trimaran in a simply isolated and heated party tent at the harbour. The temperature is enough to work with epoxy and 2 component-paint.

My new trimaran has to be not too wide and heavy for trailering, easy folding, also in the water, and enough floating capacity for two persons. I am using aluminum and PVC tubes for the sliding system (like the Astus
trimaran) Because the Coolcat hulls are two feet high.

I’ll place the tubes in a slight v-shape. And I’ll use plexiglass for the adapters to the hulls. I hope I don’t need a daggerboard, but if necessary, I can place a daggerboard in the finn.

The building proces gives me a lot of joy again … except for the failed styrofoam process :-)

I’m so happy to have time to do this now that I am retired. You are seeing some pictures from the work up til now. When the time comes, I’ll show the end result.

Here are a couple pictures of the Triple A Tri .. . Isn’t it a beauty?

John Marples sent the following Seaclipper 16 trimaran information to me today. The Seaclipper 16 is a model originally designed as a 2-person boat with cockpit-style seating.

This new set of plans still allows for that type of setup (should a sailor/builder desire it). But this version offers a fully open cockpit, which of course, allows for traditional sailing/handling of the boat.

I personally can attest to the fact that John’s plans are extremely detailed and the support he offers to builders is 2nd to none. The SC 16 was the first small tri that I built. John always answered any questions I had promptly, via email, and never tired of replying to even my “silly” ones … and I had more than a few of those!

He was very kind to me in that regard :-)

The below description and images come from John. Be sure to contact him if you’re interested in acquiring a set of these boat building plans.

…………….

THE SEACLIPPER 16 TRIMARAN OPEN COCKPIT
Design by John Marples

This new version of the Seaclipper 16 is much like the SC20. It has a large open cockpit, with roomy seating on both sides around a self-draining foot well. It will comfortably accommodate as many as six teenagers, or four large adults. The mission statement for the boat was for a lively, beachable, daysailer with possible overnight tent-camping onboard.

It is as simple as it gets, in construction, layout and trailering operation. Flat, swing aka beams make folding fast and easy. The flat bottom hull design is easy to transport on any flat bed trailer, without form-fitting supports. The rigging is borrowed from the Hobie 14 or other small, popular beach cats. The SC 16 OC exemplifies simplicity, function and low cost.

The first boat from these plans, built by the designer and a friend, Mac MacDevitt, demonstrated the adaption of this basic vessel to suit the needs of the owner. It became a true mini-expedition cruiser, with many simple additions to make it perform its mission. It had a number of closed, watertight compartments, an anchor locker, pedal steering (standard option), windshield, and removable tent fitted to enclose the cockpit.

Mac intended to explore waterways in the Great Lakes region as he had done with his WindRider 17. But this SC16 OC would greatly improve the accommodation qualities with more versatile seating and tent enclosure for overnights. He chose the 16 since it was better suited to expedition cruising with more payload, more deck area, and better sailing performance.

Like the other Seaclippers in this size range, this boat is constructed of plywood and standard lumber sizes. Its major components could be all purchased from the local lumberyard. In its most primitive form, any type of exterior grade wood glue could be used, and the finished boat just painted.

To improve longevity, we recommend construction with epoxy adhesives and coatings, and sheathing with fiberglass cloth, bonded with epoxy, and then painted with a durable coating system. Boats done this way, and maintained reasonably well, will last for 50 years or more.

Most of the economy of costs comes from lack of complexity in design and outfitting. We promote the option of purchasing used outfitting gear – masts, sails, blocks and other rigging hardware – whenever possible. There is a huge inventory of gear available from salvage stores – a list is provided by the designer.

For the beginner, this boat is a good choice. Its basic construction methods are easy to learn and with epoxy adhesives, the quality of workmanship is not a factor. Backyard boats like this have been going on for decades, so lots of information on construction is available.

Jim Brown’s book, SEARUNNER CONSTRUCTION is available as a free download from www.outrigmedia.com. Although his book describes more sophisticated vessels, the methods and techniques are the same. The requirements for building tools are very basic – a few electric handyman power tools like, a saber saw, drill and disc sander. A single car garage is big enough workspace. The plans are very detailed so amateur builders with have few questions, if any.

Sailing the SC16OC will be well worth the few hundred hours of construction time. The narrow hull-form is easily driven by light winds, but big enough to carry a good payload. The daggerboard or optional pivoting centerboard and kick-up rudder make the boat easy to sail from the beach, or from the dock. The decks are wide and flat, easy to walk on. The deep foot-well cockpit adds seating comfort, especially for older persons. The outboard motor is positioned so that steering and operating the motor can be done from the cockpit, without leaving your seat.

To reduce the beam for mooring in a slip, the swing-wing akas can be folded with the rig still standing. They can be folded or unfolded in a few minutes. Sailing performance will not disappoint seasoned sailors. Three widely spaced hulls generate amazing stability for carrying full sail in a good breeze. Because the boat does not heel much, all that wind power going to forward speed. And there is plenty of speed, if you want. A Youtube video of a SC16 at 10 knots shows the lack of drama at that speed. The boat will go faster, but the sails can also be reefed to reduce power and speed if you desire. It is easy to dial in the sail area to make sailing pleasurable in any wind.

In conclusion, the SC16 OC was designed to meet a wide range of requirements. First, it is a simple to build, day-sailing trimaran for amateur builders. Its deep cockpit well, comfortable seating and good sailing manners will please all. It can be fitted with outboard motor auxiliary power, or not. Second, it can be adapted to any level of sailing expertise or function. With a larger rig, it can be a high-performance daysailer for adults or teens.

It will carry a load for inland cruise outings. Or, it can outfitted for expeditions by adding a tent enclosure and watertight compartments. All versions will enjoy the retractable board and rudder for beaching. Sit-in-the-cockpit pedal steering is an option for high comfort seating in a facing forward position. Any of these options can be retrofitted to existing boats. This is a boat that can meet all those requirements, and perform all of them well.

Boat specifications

Length over all – 15’ 11” (4.85 M) (without rudder), Beam over all – 11’3” (3.43 M)
Beam folded – 7’7” (2.3 M), Draft – 11” (280mm) hull only, 2’7” (787mm) bd down
Dry wt. – 400 lb. (180 Kg), Payload – 400 lb. (180 Kg), Full load wt. 800 lb. (360 Kg)
Sail area – 146 sq.ft. (13.6 sq.M), Mast length – 21’7” (6.6M), Max size OB – 4 HP
Bridge clearance – 24’ (7.3M) mast up, 2’ (610mm) mast down

Contents of Plans
Dr. no.
1 – Display arrangement of boat
2 – Sail Plan
3 – Materials and specifications
4 – Lines
5 – Layouts and Amas
6 – Main Hull Assembly
7 – Decking and Cockpit floor
8 – Akas
9 – Misc. parts
10 – Outfitting
11 – Trailer
12 – Full size patterns for bulkheads

Major Materials List

Plywood – marine grade, solid core, water proof glue, 4’ x 8’ (1.219M x 2.438M)
7 sheets ¼” (6mm)
5 sheets 3/8” (9mm)
Lumber – straight, clear, dry, vertical grain fir or equiv.
3 pcs. ¾”x 3 ½” (19 x 89mm) x 16’ (4.88M) stringers, glue strips
2 pcs. ¾” x 5 ½” (19 x 140mm) x 15’ (4.57M)stringers
3 pcs. 1 ½” x 3 ½” (38 x 89mm) x 8’ (2.44M) coamings, stems
Hardwood – mahogany or other
1 pc. 1 ½” x 3 ½” (38 x 89mm) x 3’ (914mm) tiller
Western red cedar
5 pcs. ¾” x 3 ½” (19 x 89mm) x 8’ (2.44M) daggerboard
Akas – straight, clear, dry, vertical grain fir or equiv.
3 pcs. ¾” x 7.5” (19 x 191mm) x 8’ (2.44M)
2 pcs. ¾” x 7.5” (19 x 191mm) x 10’ (2.54M)
3 pcs. ¾” x 9.5” (19 x 241mm) x 8’ (2.44M)
2 pcs. ¾” x 9.5” (19 x 241mm) x 10’ (2.54M)

Epoxy
12 gallons including hardener.
6 lb. wood flour filler
3 lb. silica thickener
misc. supplies – gloves, mixing cup and sticks, squeegees, etc.

Fiberglass cloth – 4 ounce (135 gr./sq.M), plain weave or twill
75 yds. x 38” (965mm) wide

Rigging
Standard Hobie 14 mast, boom and mainsail with “Turbo” jib
Hobie 14 mast step

Plans – Order from designer, $180 + $10 S&H, specify ‘SC16 OC’

John R. Marples
295 Bayview Road, Penobscot, Maine, 04476
email: marplesmarine AT gmail.com, phone: (207) 326 8096

Sailor Greg Hardt shares about his Piver Nugget trimaran in this post. The Nugget is a classic small tri design that helped popularize multihulls in the 1960s.

The cabin makes it an idea boat to use for camp-cruising. And it’s spacious enough to offer a larger degree of comfort than many trailerable tris.

This one that is still turning heads (after many years) on the water. Many thanks to Greg the info and pictures with us.

……………….

Piver Nugget Trimaran Restored and Sailing Today
by Greg Hardt

This is my 24′ cold mold fiber glass Piver Nugget Hull # 42. She was built in 1966 in Alviso California by George Llewellyn, Lasko Marine Co.

I bought her in 1999 for $50 from a gentlemen at the San Leandro Marina in California. At that time she had been wasting away in her slip for 11 years and was on her way to a landfill. I brought her up to the foothills of Berry Creek California for what was to be major restorations.

This boat relaunched on Lake Oroville California by the late summer of 2000. She is easily trailered and I’ve enjoyed sailing her in this area for the last 15 years.

The plans to fabricate the crossbeams came from my first Piver Nugget that I restored in the 70s. I used 1/4 inch stainless steel flat bar to make the hinges that allows the amas to fold down.

The most challenging part of the restoration was designing a new cabin on the main hull. Using the companionway from a 24 ft Macgregor venture, I was able to glass it to the plywood cabin that I built.

DEJAVU is a sweet boat to sail! She points high, comes about easy and fly’s when it’s windy enough to fly an ama.

My greatest adventure on DEJAVU happened a couple weeks from the maiden voyage. I had her flying an ama under a good blow until the mast broke at the spreader. However, it just fell in slow motion and nobody got hurt.

Up until then her was performance was excellent and, all in all, it was a good day!

The original mast was too heavy to use for a trailerable boat so I had replaced it with a mast from the Venture 24.

This mast was lighter and could be raised easily. The venture’s mast was a fractional rig which I rigged as a masthead so I could fly my Genoa. However, it didn’t have a diamond spreader like the original and I believe that’s why it broke.

A week later I replaced that with a Hobie 16 mast fractional rig that I had laying around. It seemed to do OK … I mean, I was able to sail her, but I lost a lot of square foot of sail.

A year later, I gained back the square foot I lost when I acquired a mast from a Nacra 18 fractional rig. Although I gained back my square footage on the main, I am unable to use my Genoa. However, if I put her in a long term slip I would use the original mast so I that can fly the Genoa.

I’m looking forward to sharing more about my first Piver Nugget in the future.

— Greg

We discovered last year that Ezifold Yachts (in New Zealand) will be manufacturing and selling the Bazooka trimaran brand. Toby Johnson, Ezifold’s CEO, sent me the below pricing list for the Bazooka models his company will be producing.

……………

FOR INTERNATIONAL RELEASE BAZOOKA PRICING

Price release as at 27 January 2016

E3 RANGE OF DEMOUNTABLE, ROOF RACK TRANSPORTABLE, BOAT IN A BAG, TRIMARAN

The three boats in the range.

E-3.7 BAZOOKA “INTRO” $6950.36USD
Plus local tax, local customs and import duty’s and freight ex New Zealand workshop.
The original roof rack rocket “Boat in a Bag”
This BAZOOKA “INTRO” is the entry level designed to be Fun with a capital “F”. The boat is priced to match its non-intimidating sailing to get people back on the water experiencing all the fun Bazooka sailing, rowing, paddling, or motoring and generally gunk holing around can be in the BAZOOKA “INTRO”.

E-3.7 BAZOOKA “ACTIVE” $8900.43USD
Plus local tax, local customs and import duty’s and freight ex New Zealand workshop.
This is the Bazooka “Boat in a Bag” redesigned.
The BAZOOKA “ACTIVE” has redesigned larger floats, upgraded build specification post cured infused epoxy build translates to lighter and stronger, composite beams, daggerboard, removable cuddy cabin to keep those camping accessories dry and a modern redesigned rig and sail plan. The BAZOOKA “ACTIVE” is for those who want everything “INTRO” but with a bit more bang.

E-3.9 BAZOOKA “eXcite” $10132.48USD
plus local tax, local customs and import duty’s and freight ex New Zealand workshop.
The BAZOOKA “eXcite” name really explains it all this little rocket has all the goodies, longer waterline, wider beam, upgraded floats (upgrade from the Active redesigned floats) taller rig, larger square top main sail plan, fore sails, dagger board, lower profile removable cuddy, open transom and a few other go faster bits. The BAZOOKA “eXcite” is intended for the sailor young or old who just wants to go thrash it sailing.

For an information and specification pack with pricing people should make contact through the contacts page of our website www.ezifoldyachts.com or email admin AT ezifoldyachts.com

Toby Johnston
CEO
Ezifold Yachts LTD
Christchurch
New Zealand

__________________

Sailor Greg Hardt shares a rare look at an old Tradewinds trimaran that he used to own. (And in case you missed it, he told us about his Piver Nugget here).

There were very few of the Tradewinds trimarans ever built. So this indeed is a treat :-)

I discovered that someone on Cruisers Forum had uploaded images of the original brochure for this boat. And while there, I also found a link about the Tradewinds tri on the SailBoatData website.

Here below is Greg’s info, along with pics of the boat he had. Be sure to click on the images below to enlarge. (Many thanks for taking time to send this to us Greg!)

………………

My Old 28-Foot Tradewinds Trimaran
— Greg Hardt

In 2007 I found this 28ft Tradewinds trimaran wasting away at Hidden Harbor in Rio Vista California. I bought it for $1,200 as a project boat. After I built a motor mount off the crossbeam, fiber glassed a rotted bulkhead in the bow of the main hall, replaced the hallards and Mainsheet she was ready to sail.

When it came to sailing her she didn’t come about easily. When flying an ama the one still in the water would tend to dip. or when flying down wind all three halls would seem to want to dip. I would never to take her out in big waters for fear that she would turtle.

Things to like: what I did like about her was that she had a more modern look for a 1966 vintage and she was easily beached.

Things not to like: What I didn’t like was that she had a soft sandwich core deck and I didn’t care for the cabin layout. It had split bunks and the head was in the galley.

Primarily, I sailed her up and down the Delta in the Rio Vista area with thoughts of taking her coastal.

My best adventure on her was when we ran with the wind all the way back from Benicia to Rio Vista. Although we had a good sail, I could tell by the constant dipping, that I could never take her out of the Golden Gate. So even though there were only 16 ever built and she was the last of them I ended up selling her.

____________

Small trimaran sailor (and self-builder) Gary Baigent is currently constructing a new design. It’s similar to one of the boats he has built before, except this one is being made with trailering especially in mind.

He sent me a few pics of his progress so far (see below). Pretty neat, considering that he told me he is working based on ideas that have been sketched out “on his shed wall.”

Amazing.

By the way, here is another one of Gary’s trimarans — Flash Harry.

Thanks to him for sharing this new building project with us … we’re already looking forward to seeing the end results!

…………

Gary shared the following via email …

The idea for the 6.5 x 7m is to have a swinging beam – to fore and aft for trailering; the floats and foils slope outwards (slightly radical) so as to fit on trailer without having to remove foils.

It’s an idea that started when building Sid.

The 6.5 is pretty much the same overall concept as Sid but with slightly larger hull and not quite so cramped and miserable accommodation.

Rig will be smaller version of Sids … 9m wing mast of around 400mm chord.

Small trimaran friend Anthony Walker shared this link with us. It features information from multihull enthusiast Ian E. Smith’s efforts for building a proa (although the small tri featured on this page is what we think you may want to see).

The entire collection of links for Ian’s “Project Windrigger” can be found here. It’s certainly a look-see for DIYers :-)

___________

Install your own boat dock. One person. Without Herculean effort. That’s the guarantee anyhow.

For those who’ve got both the land and money … a DIY boat dock from a company called Pier of d’ Nort. Then again, if you’ve got the money, do you really want to DIY?

I dunno.

Existential crisis aside … the demo video (below) that shows a guy putting this thing together brings a smile (to me).

How about you?

The following press release was published on 12-20-15 by Windrider International.

Contact information can be obtained on the Windrider website (linked to below) for anyone that has further questions.

Press Release
December 31, 2015
Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.

Merger of WindRider International and Nickels Boat Works

WindRider International has merged with Nickels Boat Works to provide a more comprehensive product and service lineup to the sailing community. Nickels Boat Works, with a 60-plus year history of quality boat building, is the manufacturing division for WindRider and will now build eight models of sailboats, plus import five models of sailing trimarans from Astus in France. WindRider distributes sailboat parts and accessories and www.windrider.com is the exclusive supplier of Nickels Boat Works parts, including parts for Lightning, JY15, Buccaneer, Mutineer and Rebel.

Nickels Boat Works is a world-renowned builder of one-design sailboats and other fiberglass products. It is the prime supplier of the 19 foot Lightning, whose class has over 15,000 boats built since its introduction, and also builds the JY15, Buccaneer, Rebel and Mutineer. Innovations at Nickels Boat Works include approved class refinements in hull shape and refined deck layouts resulting in World, Pan American and North American victories. WindRider trimaran models include the WR17, WR16, WRTango; plus Astus trimaran models 16.5, 18.2, 20.2, 22 and 24.

About WindRider: WindRider encourages people to Go Sail™ by providing products and online information resources that simplify the sailing experience for sailors in all stages of life. From accessible, fun sailboats and accessories to their communities of sailors interacting on-line and on-water, WindRider has everything you need to Go Sail™. Visit www.windrider.com for more information.

The ePoH is a sailboat developed in France.

It’s described as a “stabilized skiff” instead of a “trimaran.”

As you can see from the videos (below) the ride can be fast, wet … and also a ton of fun.

(Many thanks to Algie Bennet for sharing these links with us)!

Barry Warburton publishes a site called Trimaran Journal. It looks like some fun (and there are some nice pictures too).

It features all sorts of tris — large and small — mostly commercial production boats. But here is one article featuring smaller ones.

We wish the folks at TrimaranJournal well.

This small trimaran in Wellington NZ comes to us from sailor Brian Nelson. He provides a great summary of this boat along with a few pictures.

Brian didn’t build this boat but is certainly going to enjoy sailing it. This craft is estimated to be about 16 feet LOA and offers comfortable cockpit seating for a single sailor.

(Thank you for sharing your unique boat with us Brain :-)

………………

Small Trimaran in Wellington NZ
by Brian Nelson

This is actually the sister ship to Russell Maxwell’s “Endorphin Trimaran“. The original biplane rigged tri was designed and built by Russell’s son Phillip as a project for his Marine Design degree at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand. Russell kept the rig and built a new set of hulls, and gave me the original hulls.

I have fitted a 5 square meter rig from a Fed5 land yacht. Possibly under-canvassed, but I am not much of a sailor and it usually blows hard in Wellington. The boat is about 5 metres, or 16 feet long. I don’t know exactly – I should measure it! It weighs about 70 kg or 150 pounds.

The new mast could only go in one place – between the front crossbeam and the centreboard case, and it had to be dead upright, rather than the 5 degree rake that it had on the land yacht. I was worried that the centre of effort would be too far forward, but it is fine.

The cross beams are carbon fibre tubes. I’m not sure of their original source, they came with the hulls.

The report from my from my first sail on Wellington Harbour in a light southerly — no problems except the centre hull did take on a bit of water, which I discovered when I tried to drag it up the beach. This tri accelerates really quickly – at least to this inexperienced dinghy sailor. It was a bit gusty so I came in after a couple of tacks.

The second day, the wind dropped from a southerly breeze to a steady northerly and I got to try her out on many different points of sail. As expected she really took off on a broad reach. Next time I’ll take a GPS to measure her speed.

I am a high school teacher and help out with the school sailing academy. We sail 420s which are a similar length but have double the sail area. It will be interesting to sail alongside them.

Sailor / self-boatbuilder Russell Maxwell emailed me a couple weeks ago with an update about his Endorphin Trimaran. He modified the boat in a very interesting way and shares the results with us here.

Also included is a new video of the boat. See below.

It’s summertime in NZ at the time of this writing. I’d love to be there right now. (Thanks for the update Russel!)

………………

Endorphin Trimaran 2
by Russell Maxwell

Endorphin Features:

• 4.2 metre
• single seater
• bi-plane rig
• 3 hp motor

This summer 2015-2016, I have made a modification to Endorphin; attaching a wing to the stern of main hull. This small modification has worked better than I had expected.

It helps lift the stern on a reach; which was the intention, but the surprise was that it works very well downwind.

As you surf down the wave face and get into the trough the stern does not bury. Rather, you are able to keep speed and roll up the back of the next wave. Very cool.

The small ‘winglets’ on the end of the wing, help with the directional control. I do not need to use as much centre board. I have some adjustment for the angle of attack of the wing.

I have kept the wing high so that I can run the boat onto the beach easily, without fear of damage.

One great advantage of a small, light craft is that you can easily get into shallow areas – such as estuaries.

The fuel use is about 2 litres per hour- depending on the wind strength. (A 3 h.p. – 75 cc, 2 stroke motor.)

Boat designer Bernd Kohler has just released building plans for a new sailboat he calls “Tiny Tri.” This comes on the heels of his successful “Little Tri“.

Bernd sent me the following info after I was first alerted to this new design by Brian Pearson, one of our readers. (Thanks Brian!)

Click on the images below to enlarge for better view.

……………..

TINY TRI
by Bernd Kohler
K-designs

Here my next small outrigger/trimaran – the TINY TRI. This time a tri which is only 4m (13’3“) long.

One main reason is that I want a boat which is easy to transport on a car’s roof rack. The hull will weight about 27 kg.

Okay, a boat is for sailing and not for road transportation in the first place. The very fine hull will slide easy through and over the water. The amas are sort of big water skis. They are mounted high. The have an upwards angle in the longitudinal direction.

The amas are also mounted at an inward angle. In this way, when they touch the water, they will easily plane and generate the least possible water resistance. By the way, I, and owners of the LITTLE TRI, observed the positive effect of the angled amas.

The hull is (again) a sharpie hull. Construction is from 6 panels of 4mm plywood, good quality plywood. As usual, I use the plywood/glass/epoxy technique.

The hull and amas are build on stringers. No stitch and glue technique. Count the steps and you see what I mean.

For a stitch and glue build:
First, drill the holes to the keel and sides.
Second, wire the sides together.
Third, add fillets between the wired areas.
Fourth, remove the wires.
Fifth, fill the gaps and holes between the first fillet parts.
Sixth, sand the fillets to receive the glass strip(s).
Seven, add the bulkheads.

For the slap sided sharpie as this hull is:
First, mount and glue the keel stringers to the sides.
Second, place the bulkheads.
Third, add the keel. There is a raw hull.

The difference is obvious.

I designed wooden akas (beams) because many customers can not get correct aluminum tubes in
their countries. Connection to the hull is by Dynema ropes and to the amas by bolts.

The rudder system is more or less the same as on LITTLE TRI. The open rudder housing is very handy
when the boat is sailed onto a beach. The rudder slides back without damaging the rudder. No rudder
up and down haul because the rudder can be reached from the cockpit.

I again use an outside dagger board. That a boat with an outside board is slower than one with a
centerboard is logical … but 1/10 knot? Or how much? I don’t care. I prefer a torn outside case to a hole in the
boat if something is hit hard by the dagger board.

The dagger board can be canted forward or backwards to trim the boat. I sail the board canted forward. Reason, no ventilation and by ground contact the board slides aft and up by it self. If the board floats then use a wedge from a soft material to keep it in place.

The sail is furled by mast rotation. Nothing new here. It could be sailed without a boom but the drawback is that it’s not very efficient. Low booms can be dangerous. Never pleasant or downright dangerous when hit by a boom. So I designed for a wishbone boom rig. I like these sorts of booms. The wishbone boom is high enough not to be knocked on one’s head.

A wishbone boom needs no boom vang or mainsheet traveler to be set for any given wind angle. To have a sail which furls by mast rotation and a have the wishbone boom was the challenge.

The solution is to mount the wishbone on a pole forward of the mast. The geometry of the wishbone shape and pole position gives freedom of movement of 58° to each side. The boom has a quick to topping lift. The vang rope is mounted on a rotation device on the top of the mast not to interfere with the mast rotation.

Sail Area is a modest 7,2 m². A good quality windsurf mast is used. The mast stands free and is mounted on an Aluminum mast extension. The rotor for the furling rope is also mounted on the extension.

The drawings for the furler, mast rotator, goose neck fitting, wishbone boom are part of the drawing set. Any amateur can make them. And if need be, any good machining shop can also make them.

Construction time will be about 180 hours. Main material: 3 panels of 4 mm plywood, 1 panel 6 mm plywood, 30m fir 19×19mm, 12 m² glass clot 10 kg Epoxy.

The akas are fastened with rope to the hull and with bolts to the amas. Setting up of the boat will take about 15 minutes and can be done by one person. As mentioned, the heaviest part, the hull weights only 27 kg.

The plans consists of 33 drawings, transferred DXF CAD/CAM drawings to PDF and the construction manual. Costs US $60

Building plans are available from both Duckworks –
http://www.duckworksbbs.com/plans/kohler/tinytri/index.htm
and Bernd’s own website –
http://ikarus342000.com/Tinytripage.html

Bazooka trimaran owner/sailor Tony Watermann has been having fun with his boat. He has posted some great detailed comments at the end of an article about the Bazooka here.

He shares further comments about his own sailboat in this post, along with a short video of how it looks on the beach.

Tony writes:

1. My boat has a zipper fit sail which is a PIA for maintaining sail shape at the moment. Turns out the rope friction cleats keep letting go of halyard and downhaul lines and I end up with collapsed sail sections. I believe that my rig was only the 2nd designed for this boat and that the manufacturer is now making them as bolt rope design instead and with better rope retaining locks.

2. Performance in waves. We had a couple of big fishing charters run by close to us and throw up some big swells around 4′ plus. Took them on the rear quarter and surfed along them nicely without any burying of amas or other dramas. Short wind chop however caused us some grief when heading straight to wind with the motor driving us. About 1.5 to 2′ chop with a lot of bow slamming, to be fair most sail boats do not sail or go direct to wind / chop, when I turned off wind / chop 10 deg the bow behaved very nicely and pierced / rode over the chop. Most craft of any bow design will encounter a wave height and frequency that cause them issues so not overly worried about this, one thing it did show before we bore off direct to wind was the strength of the hull and amas / beams as we encountered some heavy slamming with no visible damage.

3. 2.5 hp outboard. Little Mercury 2 stroke has been flawless and has paid it’s worth more than once. Uses next to no fuel and with a decent load every time we have used it, pushes us along very nicely at a comfortable speed. Have had to use it as per point 2 due to issues with sails in point 1 and not being able to rectify completely on the water which severely effected our ability to tac back into shore with a 30 knot head wind. Little motor acted like a motor sail and pushed us through tacs and allowed us much higher pointing to wind, yes I know it’s cheating but when you are a fairly new sailor and still coming to terms with a new boat the comfort of having a small motor to bail you out is worth the cheating. So the little addition of a backup motor that fits very easily to this tri is has been very worthwhile for us.

4. Sail Design. I am seriously considering a way to make the main sail a self furling design in a similar fashion to the Hobie TI design. The existing sail could easily be modified to take vertical batterns and I can make a furler very easily from HDPE or PVC. If any of your readers has done anything similar I would be very interested to see the outcome?

Earlier comments from people mentioned using this type of design as a day sailor / camping tri. I can happily report that we had it loaded to the brim with anchor, rope, sea anchor, fishing gear and rods, snorkelling and gidgee gear, life jackets, beach gear, beach day tent and an esky full of food along with 3 people and their day back packs (2 adults one child) and it was a comfortable ride. I have no doubt that a couple could easily equip this little tri with camping gear in dry bags for a remote area sail and still have some space left over.

My 2 youngest boys and I are planning to do an estuary sail / camping / fishing weekend soon so will report back further details once done.

Best Regards

Tony Watermann

Video marketing has been around for years now. But a lot of my friends in the marine industry aren’t using videos enough (or at all) to help spread the word about their products and services.

Camtasia is both a video editor and screen-capture software that can help. It can be used to quickly edit … and even create (via screen capturing) the types of videos that work well nowadays to communicate with potential customers.

I’ve created an inexpensive, short course that shows how to use most of Camtasia’s features as quickly as possible. Just below is explanation video I recorded (using Camtasia, of course) that shows what we’re talking about.

Anyone interested in knowing more about this short Camtasia course can click here.

Camtasia 8 Quickstart Video Training Course –
https://www.udemy.com/camtasia-8-quickstart-video-training-course/

Twin self-furling jibs on a trimaran? Would that work well?

Small trimaran sailor Tony Watermann shared the following with me a couple weeks ago (via email exchange). In this case, our conversation centered around an interesting way to rig a small tri.

Tony hopes to try this out in the near future. He sent a couple simple concept renderings (just below) along with a couple great links that lend support to this idea.

I love the idea, in theory anyway. (We’d love to hear from others who may have done something similar too :-)

The following are excerpts from my correspondence with Tony (he wrote):

We like to use the Bazooka for off shore drift fishing, a bit like a Hobie TI or similar, but an issue we are having is that we need to leave the sail hoisted and drop a sea anchor, more of a nuisance than a problem as it restricts deck movement and space on our little boat.

The amas are light weight on the bazooka so will not take a mast, however if I reinforce the akas with carbon beams I can mount a carbon tube like a bowsprit and run side stay lines from the central mast down to the bowsprits.

My thinking is that I could then hoist two self furling 4.5m2 jibs but with a joining beam at the back to down haul and trim them. This would allow me to completely furl the sails out of the way and also to trim the area of each sail to suit the wind direction and strength as well as the heeling forces.

… from another email:

Have done some research into a double jib rig.

Most data is based around an aft mast design, unfortunately I do not have an aft mast so will be designing mine with forward mast and stays.

This link make the rig look very promising, strong research done on the design and performance potential. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262797205_Wind_tunnel_and_CFD_investigation_of_unconventional_rigs

My objectives will be good performance (minimal loss against existing single sheet sail) and mostly simplicity and user friendliness to reef (roller furl) the sails.

Pointing performance will be interesting compared to existing design rig.

… and finally, this …

It will be similar to this used on a larger cat called X-IT – http://thecoastalpassage.com/xit.html

Apparently it sails to windward very well.

— end

(Thanks for sharing these great ideas with us Tony :-)