Great link here shared with us by smalltri friend Edward Hiestand. The following link takes us to a nice blog about paddling and sailing double outrigger canoes a.k.a. — Canoetri — http://www.canoetri.com/canoetri.html

I link to a couple images of the boat featured on the Canoetri website:

Be sure to visit the Canoetri website to see a lot more great pics and to read some fun info.

I’ve been wanting to recommend a great book that I bought on Amazon a couple years ago. It’s entitled, “Canoe and Kayak Building the Light and Easy Way: How to Build Tough, Super-Safe Boats in Kevlar, Carbon, or Fiberglass“

The author is an extremely knowlegeable guy named Sam Rizzetta. I emailed Sam after I read this book with a couple of follow-up question I had and he warmly replied and provided me with additional helpful information.

If you go to Sam’s website (listed in the book) you discover that he is a super-talented, artistic individual who builds all kinds of things.

My interest in his book developed because of my desire to build a super-lightweight, yet tough small trimaran. When I say, super-light I mean something where the main hull is under 40 lbs. and the outriggers even lighter. I love, for example, the boat this sailor built in kevlar and I’ve always wondered how I might be able to build something similar one day.

For me, building in Kevlar instead of wood was a conceptual challenge. Enter Sam’s book. Not only does he explain his process in great detail, he also give lots of pictures to illustrate things.

The only weakness with this book, in my opinion, is that the explanation of how to finish off the boat (after its initial form creation) is so detailed that one might get a little confused about a few of the steps … meaning you might have a question about what to do in what order. This means one needs to read SLOWLY in order to digest Sam’s directions.

One cool thing about this book is Sam’s emphasis on safety. He really emphasized the need for a boat to have enough flotation built into it so that if a paddler / sailor gets into any trouble on the water they’ll be able to self-recover.

Anyhow, if you’re thinking about building a small tri (or any type of small boat for that matter) this book is a pure FunFest. It is a delightful take on a boatbuilding method from a guy who is clearly an expert.

Anyhow, if you’re so inclined, check out the book and enjoy (it even comes in a Kindle version). I promise you won’t feel like you didn’t get your money’s worth with this one.

Here is a very unique trailerable trimaran. It’s got both a Cat-Ketch sail rig and a little cabin — at just 18′ LOA. Small tri friend Edward Hiestand sent me the link to this boat via its current Craigslist ad.

The boat is for sale and its owner gave me permission to post it’s pics and and info from his write-up of the boat. Contact the owner of this boat via the contact info on the Craigslist page to inquire about purchasing it.

Here is the CL description of this sailboat, currently for sale in Stillwater, near the Twin Cities, in MN:

Go Sailing on a Unique Trimaran
Sail the Clipper 18 – Sturdy and Well Designed it’s built for fun for family and friends!

This beautiful custom wooden sailboat glides on top of the water very nicely; it has a roomy cuddy (cabin). It was two masts and 3 sails, which are in excellent condition: the main mast has been reconditioned. Both masts have an elbow joint and a sleeve, and can be set up by one person.

It goes in and out of the water easily, and trails down the road very nice at 65 mph.

Own a Piece of History; The Clipper 18 is a Fred Hull design, with 3 hulls: a Trimaran. Mr. Hull, who has built and designed sailboats for over 40 years, says he produced Clipper 18 and sold kits “in the late 90’s – about 20 years ago.”

The two light-weight booms are rigged using his ingenious design, and are stored easily for travel. The twin side hulls fold easily up, and when down are kept in place with varnished wooden stays and cabled turnbuckles.

The dual-axle trailer is heavy duty, now comes with upgraded submersible LED tail lights, and wiring harness: the pros at Hooper Yachts secured the rear braces, and welded on a new front bracket, with a heavy duty rubber Y shape to hold the bow on the trailer. The wench has been reconfigured with a streamlined welded mounting bracket. Also new are the towing chains and safety chain.

Boat designer John Marples has just released boat trailer building plans for small boats. Although officially geared to fit the Seacilipper 16 trimaran, a modification of the “bunk” would allow other small boats to fit onto the trailer.

John believes these plans comply with the laws of most states, but the rules regarding trailers do vary, so builders are encouraged to be familiar with their own State’s laws. They are available for purchase from John for just $20.

Contact John directly via his email address if interested. His email is posted on his website at website at www.Searunner.com

A sailor named “Dutchy,” from the Netherlands, shares his trimaran windsurfer with us here. He built it mostly using materials he already owned.

Pretty neat. He even added a YouTube video so we can see this little craft in action. Many thanks Dutchy!

…………………..

Dutchy’s Design

Being interested in sailing, I started sailing at age of 7 years old in my fathers Sunflower. A small two and a half meter boat with a strange triangle sail.

After that windsurfing hype took off, me and my brother went windsurfing on very large windsurfboards like everybody else in the netherlands. After a while, I was still studying, I sailed an under 2,7 meter windsurfboard, the Bic Electric Rock. This was a very fast board from which I learned a lot about wetted surface and sailprofiles.

Then I was ready studying and I got a job, married an got three kids. Then I had some time off and I needed some kind of project. I had not been windsurfing for like 25 years and gained a lot of weight (100 kg). So my windsurfboard had become a sinker. I needed like 5 to 6 beaufort to even start. Having some back issue´s also, I decided to go sailing again!

My first goal was using all the windsurf stuff I still had laying somewhere, cost should be minimized and I wanted it to be fast. I used my old windsurfboard and managed to install the sail and ruder and added some old waterski´s on it. See attachments. Turned out that even with some added pvc floats, I was simply to large and heavy for the boat to get normal speeds. Only my children could sail on it (and pretty fast).

Dutchy (from the Netherlands)

This post is a follow up from boat designer Petr Podobsky of Czech Multihulls. In a previous post from Petr he offered free building plans to anyone who was serious about building his new CM 25 design.

He did hear from several people, and eventually found a couple who were serious about building a boat. Petr’s concept developed a bit in the process and he provides an update for us here in the below.

…………………

The CM 26 Trimaran

I got about 20 requests about the free trimaran plan. Mostly in the style of, “Hey, send me the plans”. Two guys are serious now.

As CM-25 was not much intended for amateur builders I offered them trimaran CM-26 which is primarily designed for amateur builders. They agreed. CM-26 is that I want to tell you about now. You can publish it as the first on your site ( of course I hope you want :) )

CM-26 trimaran is version of CM-25 for amateur builders. She has high volume negative asymmetrical floats. Simple aluminum beams. Plenty of room inside and she is compact on trailer. I used all my previous trimaran building experiences by designing her.

I have been thinking why building Farrier-82 takes us as custom boat builders so much time. I made this short list.

1) Sandwich laminate construction – laminating and sanding is very time consuming process

2) CMM (central mounting modules) and beams

3) (Not only) Folding system details and accuracy needed

4) Concave surface areas when sanding

Then I put myself a question: why amateurs are building a boats? I know a lot of them. My answer was: because they want to enjoy the building process.

Then I put myself a second question: What is the biggest enemy of amateur boat builder? (not a wife please :( ) My answer was: time.

Put it together you will get two little bit different boats. One you want to have and second you want to build. Everyone needs to find his compromise.

I chose build from plywood panels. Working with plywood is much nicer and faster job than with sandwich laminate. Of course GRP boats are much more appreciated by the market. But for example RM yachts are using also plywood and they are doing very well on market.

I choose simple demountable system and aluminum beams. It reduces the building time significantly and building accuracy is not critical. It also reduces the price.

At the end I was very satisfied with the result. Building time is half in comparison to CM-25 or Farrier F-82 and the design is still great. Another time saving can be achieved by purchasing some boat parts from us. (rudder, centerboard, centerboard case etc, beams, tiller etc.)

I’m looking forward to see her on the water.

One boat will be built in Czech republic and the second in Australia.

Best Regards,

Petr Podobsky
+420 773 123 050
petr AT multihulls.cz
www.multihulls.cz

Here is a second double outrigger craft built by Dutchy. (His first one is here).

He explains how it came about in the below. He calls his self-designed and constructed boat Woodmax.

Dutchy also shares 2 YouTube videos of this boat sailing below.

……………….

Woodmax

After seeing my kids sailing on my “surfboat” I decided to make a real boat. So I could sail too.

With the help of several sites, including, of course, smalltrimarans.com about making a boat, I made this boat.

It took me last winter. The vaka weights 50 kg (the total boat as on second picture weights 102 kg). I only used plywood 5,5 mm, wood screws and a lot of wood glue, a product called “Woodmax”. No epoxy used yet because I plan to experiment with the amount of rocker.

I used the 5,8 m2 main (windsurfboard) sail from my old “surfboat”.

About the ama’s: they do not have enough volume to balance the boat in a save way, but:

As you probably noticed there are two daggerboards, on each side one, just behind the ama’s

Because they are non-asymmetric profiled and put under and angle of 45 degrees, the give some lift.

As the boat is gaining speed, this lift-force will increase. As from about 10 knots wind, this force is large enough to separate both grey ama’s from the water totally. This is the whole idea about these system, it helps me straighten this very narrow (60 cm wide) vaka.

The daggerboard-foils are not meant to lift the aka totally out of the water but just help reducing wet area.

This is why they do not have to be very large or deep.

I am still investigating on how small these daggerboard foils should/could be.

It sails good , even with very little wind (I have no idea how fast) . Jibing is easy and tacking is no problem also.

Kind Regards,
Dutchy

The following image snip (below) comes from an email I received from Windrider/Nickels today. As you will read, the market for all types of production-built sailboats is going down.

According to a friend of mine who pays attention to such things, the average age of a sailor is 60 yrs. old in the United States. As a sport, sailing seems to be shrinking … at least here in the US.

If there is going to be a revival at some point, I imagine it will have to come from guys and gals putting sails on small boats. The small pedal cat fishing boat Jim Brown has designed for his friends at Blue Sky Boatworks is one very positive example of what is currently happening in the boating market.

Their small, mulithull platforms are now being offered with a small sail option. As a result, a lot of the users are going sailing for the first time in their lives, and they’re really digging it.

Hopefully, there will be more innovation like this to come. In the meantime, here is the commentary from Windrider/Nickels:

Sailor Jim Gallant sent me a new photo of him sailing his foiler today. So cool.

Click on the image to enlarge it…

Sailor Greg Hardt is currently building a trimaran made with hulls taken from beach cats. He is combining Hobie 16 hulls with another hull taken from a Hobie 18.

Greg has shared some great info with us before, including his old Piver Nugget. He’s got lots of multihull experience.

He told me his first sailing was on Lake Merritt, in Oakland, when he was 5 years old, on a Sunfish, around 1963. Pretty neat.

Greg writes:

I’ve had some Hobie 18 hulls laying around for years. Always wanted to try to merge Hobie 16 Hulls with one from the 18. Last week somebody gave me Hobie 16 hulls.

Right now I’m just using a Hobie 14 rig. Just Parts I have laying around. And see how it performs. If it does well I’ll be looking probably Hobie 18 rig.

Pretty much just trying to find the time to do this. I’ve been probably thinking about this for about 8 years.

I will follow up with pictures when I get her in the water.

I received the following message this week from sailor Bill G. It appears he has a lovely trimaran for sale. And it looks like a great deal too!

If you’ve always wanted a DIY project (minus most of the DIY :-) then check out the info below.

I sure hope someone gets this boat, puts it in the water, and then shares some pics while also letting us know how she sails. Click on the images below to enlarge them.

……………………

3-Meter Trimaran for Sale

Hello Joe,

Hope this finds you well. Thanks again for keeping the small trimaran flame burning. Wanted to let you and your readers know that I am reluctantly offering one of my (too many?) projects for sale.

It is a cold molded 3 meter tri built to John Marples plans, photos attached. The boat was complete and sailing (even has a spinnaker) about 10 years ago. The owner prior to me (he was second owner) sailed it and then took it apart to do some refinishing.

He passed away before finishing the job and I purchased it from his widow. I spent quite a bit of time sanding and epoxy coating (with fiberglass cloth) the hulls. The cockpit is quite large and can accommodate people over 6 feet tall.

Got side tracked with other boats, including another Marples 3 meter, and trying to grow my business. So this boat is now for sale and while not perfect, it is a beautiful shape with decent workmanship and I have enjoyed just looking at it.

6 boats is at least 1 too many so it is time for this one to go to a new home. I would really like to see it finished and maybe come to a 3 meter tri reunion. Many parts go with it so think of it a sort of a small tri kit.

I may be reached by text at 949-680-0085. I do not answer numbers I don’t know because of scams. $475 is asking price.

Thanks again. Hopefully somebody in the small tri community can complete this project.

Regards,
Bill Genevro
TEXT – 949-680-0085

Sailor Bill Atherholt has reluctantly put his Farrier F25A trimaran, which is named GAZELLE on the market. This is a lovely, high-performance small tri that also offers genuine cruising capability.

We featured it last year in a post that can read here. There is quite a bit of info and images about it contained in the links given here.

The boat is located in Florida. Serious inquiries can be made via Bill’s Craigslist ad.

He writes:

It is with some sadness that I let you know that I’ve put gazelle on the market. I’ve purchased a live-aboard trawler and will be going over to the dark side for a while at least. The Craigslist ad for gazelle can be found here:
https://fortmyers.craigslist.org/chl/boa/d/25-trimaran-sailboat/6726651251.html

And of course the www.trigazelle.com website showing the restoration is still up as well. Feel free to let the community know about this boat becoming available if you would like. As I’m sure you can imagine I would love to see gazelle go to someone who’s passionate about small trimarans.

All the best,
Bill Atherholt

PS – The proceeds from gazelle and the reason for my change to a more comfortable live-aboard is that I’ve started a non-profit called www.Fishingforplastic.com which will be occupying a lot of my time in the near future.

Sailor Greg Hardt now has his self-built trimaran (utilizing Hobie hulls) in the water. He sent me the following pics and short video clip this past week.

He has been working on this one. But now it’s in the water and it looks so cool too. Thanks for sharing this “new” craft with us Greg :-)

Greg writes:

“I splashed her today at the North forebay in Oroville California. I was happy the way she performed in light wind. I think I need to move the shrouds back a little bit. Need to make some modifications on the Tramp. So I can use the dagger board on the main hull. I was really pleased on how stable she was in the water. Hobie 16 really Tippy unless you’re moving. Here’s a couple pics and video.”

In this post we hear once again from sailor Eric Dahlkamp about a small trimaran he is building. This boat will replace his current one after he sells it.

The center hull is a repurposed Snark sailboat. It’s a very interesting project. (Thanks for sharing it with us Eric!)

Eric writes:

My little replacement for Crosswins is coming along – slowly. No rush.

Plan to use her exclusively after I sell Crosswinds following the EC2020.

Here she is on her float trial at Willard Bay in northern Utah. Lovely Fall day.

Sailor Andy White shares his boat conversion with us in this post. He says it sails really well too.

Andy is also offering to share more information with us in the near future. I say, “YES SIR … more info.”

Thanks for sharing this with us Andy!

……………….

International 420 Dinghy Converted to Small Trimaran

I have converted my 420 racing dinghy into a trimaran, with the option of sailing it as a monohull or as a multihull. Launched it in October 2018, I have sailed on flat water in about 5-18 knots of wind.

The tri is stable. easy to sail, tacks and gybes quickly, planes readily and is fast and dry. The outriggers are simple to attach.

I am looking forward to testing it in much stronger winds and choppy water. So far it has exceeded my expectations.

I’ve written a detailed account of the conversion, but I don’t want to put out more information until I am satisfied the boat will perform well in wide a range of wind and water conditions, backed up with a video of it in action.

If it continues to meet my expectations, would you like me provide you with more information? I have attached two images taken on launching day at East Fremantle Yacht Club, Western Australia.

Regards
Andy White

The below is a follow-up from sailor Andy White. He shares more information about the 420 Dinghy he has converted into a trimaran. Andy answers a some questions that resulted from the first post.

…………………..

Follow Up…
by Andy White

My response to Thom Davis’ query and comment is based on my present experience in sailing my small trimaran. I don’t think extra buoyancy in the floats is needed because I am happy with they way they have performed. I know they look small when compared to floats on other small small trimarans, but looks can be a bit deceptive.

Perhaps the following description will clarify what I mean. When you read it, I would like you to bear in mind that I have yet to test the boat in stronger winds and rougher water. I will limit my sailing to enclosed waters, not venture out on the open ocean in Western Australia where condition get pretty wild, especially in the Southern Ocean, the home of Great White sharks, Humpback Wales and ferral kitesurfers near where I do much of my summer sailing on the Hardy inlet in the town of Augusta near Cape Leeuwin.

The size of the floats on the 420 Dinghy converted to a trimaran

Firstly, I will give you some numbers: The floats are each 3.5 metres (11 feet 6 inches) long. They are made from 165mm (6 inch) diameter poly pipe with a 4mm (3/16 inch) wall thickness. They each weigh 9kg (20 pounds) which includes the weight of the aluminium fittings used to attach them to the cross beams. Each float has a volume of approximately 0.566 cubic metres (2 cubic feet), giving a buoyancy at rest of about 55kg (120 pounds).This seems adequate for the trimaran’s overall beam of 3.2 metres (10 feet 6 inches), bearing in mind that the lift from a float increases with speed through the water. Because the floats have no fore and aft spring or curvature, they use all of their length at all times for buoyancy and lift.

The size of the floats has, so far, proved adequate when combined with the hull’s stability. They have been designed to play a secondary or supplementary role in giving the trimaran sufficient stability, whereas a small trimaran with a narrower, less stable hull, relies on the floats to play a greater role in keeping it upright. On my trimaran they are intended to provide enough additional stability to help prevent a capsize, but if driven too hard without easing the sails, the boat will probably capsize – all small trimarans are the same and depend on the crew having sufficient sailing skill to prevent them capsizing in strong winds. However if you examine the image in the original post that gives a stern view of the 420, you will see the boat has wide rolled side decks, a fairly deep cockpit and hiking straps for the skipper (the forward hand normally uses a trapeze, but this is not used on my trimaran). The comfortable hiking configuration, with the wide beam, really helps the crew in keeping the boat upright in strong strong winds. This is an important factor in the stability of this trimaran. Even so, I was surprised how effectively the floats contribute to the overall stability, and smooth out the ride upwind and downwind.

My trimaran was designed as a simple, low cost conversion, using readily available materials. In this respect it has been successful. It points to similar success using boats like the International 470, the current 2-handed Olympic design. The drawback is the weight of the fibreglass hulls of the 420 and 470 – they are fairly heavy and this makes their launching and retrieval a bit more difficult than with a lighter hull. But this does not seem to affect their speed and boat handling qualities very much. The total sailing weight of my trimaran (without crew) is 129 kg (284 pounds) and the hull alone weighs 80kg (176 pounds). I wish it were lighter.

The floats do look quite small. This is partly due to their appearance next to the much larger 420 hull, which has a maximum beam of 1.63 metres (5 feet 4 inches).

When it comes to the amount of lift generated by the floats, I can change that quite easily by the way in which they are attached to the cross beams. I can raise their bows to increase their lift, or to help prevent them nose-diving should that be necessary. This is done by changing the bolt holes which are used to attach the floats to the 6 mm (1/14 inch) thick aluminium angle brackets bolted to the ends of the cross beams. This system of attachment also makes it easy to assemble the floats on the trimaran, because each float is attached to an angle bracket on the end of a cross beam by a single 6mm stainless steel bolt. I bolt one end of a float to an angle bracket while the other end rests on the ground. When the first end is bolted in place, the second end is swivelled up for attachment. I think the bolts are strong enough because they mainly rely on shear strength to cope with the upward thrust of the floats, and while the angle brackets alone may be strong enough to cope with sudden loads, lateral support is also provided on the forward end of the floats by an angled strut connecting the top of the float to the bottom of the cross beam. There is no angled strut for the aft end of each float because they are much closer to the point of attachment. The 4mm thick marine grade aluminium plate used for the attachments is very strong. This consists of a vertical plate welded to a 150mm (6 inch) long curved plate that wraps around the top of the float. The floats are held in place by large industrial stainless steel hose clamps,T-bolted through a slot at the top of each curved plate. This system allows the floats to be moved forward or back if necessary for trim and makes it easy to align the two vertical plates used for the attachment of each float. The attachments were quite easy to make, but I won’t go into that now. The upward thrust of the floats is countered by water stays of 4mm single braid, low stretch dyneema fibre rope with a nominal breaking strain of 1250 kg (2700 pounds). These help reduce the load on the hull flanges to which the cross beams are attached and eliminate bend in cross beams. Quite a lot of thought went into designing this system because I wanted it to be relatively simple to make and apply, and to keep water resistance to a minimum by using single rather than twin parallel struts for attaching the poly pipe floats. Besides, I had little faith in using materials like plywood or fibreglass to make the attachments because of the difficulty of bonding them strongly enough to poly pipe and being able to vary the angle of attack of the floats, as described above. I hope this description has been useful.

The following image shows how the floats are connected…

As I pointed out in my introduction, the trimaran has not been tested in the strong winds (18-20 knots or more) we often experience in Western Australia. If the wind is too strong to carry full sail, I will sail with mainsail and no headsail. If I need to re-balance the boat to alter weather helm for windward work, I will simply rake the centreboard to do this. I doubt that shortening sail will have much effect on the trimarans abillity to tack or gybe.

In 1961, a GP14 sailing dinghy in England was fitted with floats. The results, which are similar to what I have experienced with my trimaran, make interesting reading and help explain how such a conversion can work. For more information, see the artice titled ‘Trimaran Conversion’, in Floats, Foils and Fluid Flows, published by the Amateur Yacht Research Society, publication no.36, pages 15-17, available on the Internet. You may also find another article in the same publication of interest on pages 6-7 It describes Trifold, a 15 foot long trimaran designed by Eric Manners in the 1950s that also uses small floats with strut attachments, but they are v-section and asymetrical to generate a lot of lift. Sadly, the plans are no longer available.

I have attached 2 images. The first gives a different view of the size of the floats compared to images in the original post. The second shows the result of a static heeling test with a combined crew weight of about 165kg (364 pounds). The float did not fully submerge. I would expect a narrower, less stable hull to heel more.

I have had experience with small multihulls going back to the 1960s, but most of my sailing has been in racing dinghies and keelboats. I think the combination of experience in mono and multihulls has been useful in designing my small trimaran.

I hope this message helps with your query about the size and adequacy of the floats.

Along the rack track

I’m not sure I understand Thom’s comment, so I will answer as best I can.

I presume a rack is what we call a trampoline, as used on off the beach cats, like Hobies, or it could mean a frame like those used on Australian 18 foot skiffs, which have a trampoline within the frame:

I have used both. In 1963 I designed and built a 23 foot trimaran out of 3/16 inch thick plywood. It was light, fast, and had a what might be descibed as a rack – a plank spanning the cross beams that could be used to sit out on. Very basic! I sailed the tri from a trapeze when necessary:

The 420 conversion is a lot safer, more comfortable and stable. I’m past high performance dinghy and multihull sailing and don’t think a rack would improve the 420. There are much better platforms out there for speed. Besides we are now into the next generation – foiling multis and monos, and the foiling Moth class, which gave a boost to this, originated where I live and sail.

Regards,
Andy White

The questions keep coming for sailor Andy White regarding his dinghy-to-small-trimaran design.

The following question (just below) came from our friend Tom Williams and I continued the thread here in a new post because Andy shared another picture of his outrigger sailing canoe in his reply to Tom. I wanted to post the full pic of this other boat. With that in mind, here is Tom’s question:

“Thanks Andy. So, if you are going to sit in the center hull, like the Frank Smoot Slingshot 19, and not hike out, are you saying that you would then want higher volume amas?”

And here is Andy’s reply:

Tony,

When we sail the 420 we sit on the side deck, not in the cockpit facing forward like the skipper of the Slingshot 19. In this respect there is no difference between sailing the 420 converted to a trimaran and the 420 sailed as a racing dinghy – we can and do hike out. When running, or if the wind is very light, one of us may sit on the windward side deck with the other sitting on the leeward side or on top of the centre case, but the skipper can’t easily sit in the boat because in a 420 there is not enough room. The ease of hiking out appears to make higher volume amas unnecessary, if the boat is handled properly.

I have a sailing canoe I sit in. It sails well but is is not designed for hiking out. I have found the experience of sailing it useful for designing the 420 conversion, even though the main hulls are very different. This is because I discovered small amas can be efficient and provide quite a lot of lift at speed when the wind freshens. However it does take skill to handle it at times, especially with a larger sail, and it probably could use bigger amas. But the trade off may require two cross beams, not one, which would take longer to assemble and restrict the ease of getting in and out of the canoe.

I hope this answers your question.

Regards
Andy

Click on the image to enlarge it…

Sailor Hans Schipper shares some details below about his boat. Up to this point, we’ve known her as the Cool Finn.

Hans has enjoyed sailing it, but also likes his other boat, called the Triple A. (He talks about both boats in this post).

An update of Cool Finn’s center hull has become necessary though. And in the process, has become a new craft.

Thanks for sharing Hans!

…………………..

End of Cool Finn, Beginning of a New Finn
by Hans Schipper

Although the cool finn looked beautiful, it did not meet what I had in mind. I therefore continued sailing with the Triple A which with the canards up to 5 Beaufort is sufficiently stable and spectacularly speeds up to 13 knots.

Last winter, the cool finn was blown off the trailer with 10 beaufort and damage with a crack in the deck. I have not started repairing a boat that it was not for me. I was offered a piece of hull by an acquaintance from an unfinished paraw.

So I am building a brand new center hull for Cool Finn.

I cut the finnjol hull with a reciprocating saw in pieces. And with the empty trailer and the saw I collected a piece of the new hull. You understand that I can still keep the name Cool but I have to replace the Finn part of the name. I am still thinking about a new name.

The maximum length that I could carry on my trailer was 5.75 meters( nearly 19 feet) so that will be the length of my new Tri. I was able to use the amas and the beams that slide past each other and even the trampolines.

I was able to make the cockpit and the rear mirror outside in a beautiful late summer.

I assumed an estimated waterline before making the cockpit and rear mirror. In reality, the boat was slightly more forward. But with one or two people on board, the angle of the water line was correct. I am considering whether I will add canards to it.

The Tri will be about ten feet wide with a mast from 31 feet, so stability can be a point, despite the buoyancy of the amas.

I think a small tri and canards are a perfect combination. I try to find out what is the best shape for canards,minimum resistance and maximum lift without picking up waterplants.

What other readers have experienced, I will be pleased to hear about it.

In the meantime it is too cold here to work with 2 component materials and I finish the boat in the spring.

That is a long wait when you are curious about how it will sail. But also something to look forward to.

It is just as important to admit that the original design is not as successful as I thought beforehand. It took me a year to come that far. And now I’m happy to build a better version, at least that’s what I think ;-).

And luckily I was offered a nice piece of hull at the right time so that I could remain loyal to my reuse principle. There are a lot of used boat stuff in our water-rich country. For a few hundred euros you can build very nice things. Because of this experience, I also appreciated my triple A design even more.

That is the fate of the amateur designer. Sometimes it is not so bad and usually it is a little less than you had in mind. So I must also let you know that I have disassembled my rowing machines on the triple A again.

They worked well but the tips of the flappers who stuck in the water for a short while in a stowed position turned a knot in speed and sometimes a wave caught the flapper and hit him with a bang to the ama. There was also a lot of work in that which did not lead to the intended result. I use the electric motor again with a battery and solar panel.

I hope that my story will also encourage others to let the less successful sides of their work know. That makes this site even more valuable.

Here is a model I’ve never seen before. Small tri friend Ian McGehee sent me the following links last week.

So now we get to share a peek.

Is this Zephyr trimaran currently in production? Not sure.

The ad copy on the Zephyr homepage says:

“The Zephyr sailboat is a completely new sailing concept offering cutting-edge performance and stability that exceeds any sailing craft to date. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter for get updates on this revolutionary new sailing craft.”

The website is here: http://zephyrsail.com/

And a short article about this boat can be read here: https://www.pressreader.com/usa/sail/20181113/282102047686162

Small tri friend Stefano send me the following YouTube link last week. This boat is a foiler, and it really moves.

Whoosh.

Stef commented: “This little tri is truly impressive. We need to learn some more about DIY foils … can you get the guy to expand more on his boat?”

Perhaps we can my friend. I’ve reached out to this fellow on YouTube.

The video description says, “Broomstick & Doug Halsey sailing at Lake Perris, CA on 5-21-2012”

I assume “Broomstick” is the name of the boat, but perhaps not. Let hope we hear back from this fellow named Doug.

Update – 11/3-/18: I am adding a link to the following video because of the info on this page shared by Dutchy (below)…

Broomstick Sailing at LakePerris 5-21-12 from Doug Halsey on Vimeo.