Basket case help

[Mitchell]

Hi everyone, I recently picked up this trimaran off of evilbay as a long term project. It is supposedly a Piver nugget but from what I have been able to reasearch she doesnt resemble the nugget. I spoke with the present owner several times before deciding to purchase her. The story goes It was built by his uncle in the mid 1960's with the help of an experienced boat builder, and all wood is supposed to be teak. She supposedly survived a tornado only to lose the mast and no damage anywhere else. The owner then lost interest in her cut her into 3 pieces to save the transportaton expense and she has been in storage since.
This will be my first trimaran and sadly I have no experience with them. We transport sailboats, do restorations, sailmaking and repair for a living so it will be an interesting journey but one we are willing to take on. Here are a few of the pictures that were posted on ebay. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[alex folen]

Heck yeah, go for it!. The cut up parts can be put back together no problem. Got a good price on evilbay I'm thinking? Have fun!

[Mitchell]

Got it for a whole $255 but going to cost about $700 in fuel for the semi to go get it, luckily we have a run from north carolina to mid ohio that will help a bit.
But what is it? Main hull is 24 to 27 feet outer hulls 18 feet main hull beam is 5 feet and overall beam is 16 feet.

[Mitchell]

Well it appears ive come to the wrong forum. I will search elsewhere.

[PortTacker]

Don't know about anyone else, but I can't enlarge the images, so can't see it well enough to even try to identify it.

[Manie B]

me too

but I can't enlarge the images, so can't see it well enough to even try to identify it.

wiil try and help if i can see what we are talking about

[Mitchell]

It still pulls up on ebay. The item number is 180322125743 Pictures can be supersized but dont know how long you will be able to pull it up under item number.

[Mitchell]

So does anyone have any ideas or is it one of the what the hell is that situations.

[bruceb]

I looked at the larger pics- it didn't help. There are several forum members with experience in multis built around then, if they take interest- it was before my time. (a little) The wooden blocks and boards are worth the price- put them on display and re-fit it with something modern. It is an older design, but with a good rig it should work fine. Bruce

[catsketcher]

What you have here is a real piece of multihull history. This is a very early Piver Nugget. Later Pivers had flat float decks but your has the triangular decks of the very first models.

The timber looks in fine shape and the boat appears to be in good nick for its age. The crossbeams are a little hard to understand from the pictures. I have some shots of a nugget like this in an old AYRS magazine and Arthur Pivers first book - Transatlantic trimaran - also features a 30 ft version, the Nimble, with triangular decks and bolted on floats/crossbeam connections.

I had a Nugget 20 years ago. Mine had flat decks. Good little day sailer. Any problems you can contact me at

www.foldingcats.com

cheers

Phil Thompson

[catsketcher]

Just had another quick look at the pics. She is a folding tri. These versions had long piano hinges that seemed to work quite well. There are people on this forum who owned folding nuggets. Search the forums for folding Nuggets because I read someone's recount of their nugget quite recently.

Cheers

Phil

[Mitchell]

Thanks so much Phil. She will be fully restored and back on the water again. The marina where we have one of our sailboats is not land locked like many in Alabama are and I have been wanting to sail from North Alabama down to Florida eversince I found the marina. Now I have found the boat to use on my adventure.
There is a Mariner's museum in Virginia that is supposed to have the complete set of plans for all of Pivers designs. Hopefully the will have a set for this one.
Now another question is raised. Are there any more like this one in existance?

[Mitchell]

I just spoke with the museum in Virginia and the gentleman that I spoke with was in charge of the Piver collection which was donated by Pivers daughter. It includes all of his known plans as well as well as hundreds of pages of notes and sketches. I gave him the item number and he looked at the pictures of the boat and said it didnt match the plans that he had but it was a Piver design. What he had as far as plans for the nugget were the nugget and nuget 2 but there were several sketches of what appeared to be of the nugget before the final design was arrived on. So I will be visiting the museum and will have the opportunity to be guided through the notes, sketches and plans to help narrow things down a bit further.

[catsketcher]

Hello Mitchell

I think one reason why the plans may not be like your boat is because almost all of Pivers designs had flat float decks and large flat side decks. That is probably the reason why she doesn't look like the Nugget plans. The first Nugget was for a guy in San Fransisco called Carlton Eugene. The first guy to take one off shore was Jim Brown. Yours looks just like Jim Browns. If you search through Wooden boat magazine from about 14 years ago you will see an article on Trimaran Jim and get a photo of his early Nugget - just like yours. You could try to contact Brown. He lives somewhere in the States. The guys at Windrider may be able to get you in touch. He likes history and may be inclined to help.

cheers

Phil

[Mitchell]

Got in touch with Max at windrider and suggested I talk to Jim Brown which was a very interesting conversation. He said he didnt remember any rounded amas like my boat has and suggested the museum on Virginia. Will download the copy of wooden boat that has the article on Jim and his boat. And the search continues.