Early Multihulls of the 60's

[brian eiland]

This video reference to some of those early multihull designs of the 60's was posted recently on another forum. This was too good to past up posting as a reference on this forum...in french:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7aHMkaZDVM

...and note the twin keels on that small cat

[yipster]

some rare good footage of cheers
thanks

[frank smith]

Very cool. What was the tri at the end ?

[yipster]

if i'm not mistaken that was cheers folow up project http://www.wingo.com/newick/

[luckystrike]

Originally Posted by frank smith

Very cool. What was the tri at the end ?

This was Three Cheers, the successor of Cheers, also sailed by Tom Follet in the 1972 Ostar. The boat desappeared in the 1976 Ostear with Skipper Mike Mc Mullen. Designer Dick Newick

Grrreetings, Michel

[keysdisease]

Awesome footage of Cheers underway, I had never seen that before. A young Eric Tabarly on that monster alum tri.

Some of those spindly boats look scary.

At the end 3 Cheers is sailing so effortlessly and smoothly, and the substantial sail area carried low is apparently obvious. She's sailing like she's on rails.

Thanks for the blast from the past

Steve

[Alik]

Brian, thanks for excellent link, real nostalgia for those multis.

[catsketcher]

Thanks Brian

There spindly multis entering Milbay Dock all retired from the 1968 OSTAR. They certainly looked frail. The mother of the builder/sailor of Yaksha said "He didn't have enough money to build it strong and fast so he built it fast only".

Three Cheers, Cheers, Pen Duick and Toria. Sadly only one still exists.

I met a guy who saw Tabarly (or Colas - but I think it was Tabarly) take the tri out from the CYC in Sydney. The CYC is in a small bay in the harbour and Tabarly shunned a tow. He pulled the headsail to windward and bore the bow off and tacked his way out of the bay crowded with moored boats. It was very impressive.

[Gary Baigent]

Yes Catsketcher, would that Tabarly's approach be used more often today, sail the boat in and sail it out, but skill is too difficult to achieve (and it might be dangerous, what if, what if?) - so instead we have this fixation with hitting the starter motor button when things get a little difficult. I've been in Islington Bay, Rangitoto Friday nights when around a hundred weekend yachts arrived; it required sailing to windward from Auckland, and aside from a couple of 8.5 catamarans, all the other yachts motored with sails furled. Man has purist sailed for untold centuries, those good blokes could even back their big square riggers into docks, but now everyone is too frightened (and the rules say no, no) to actually figure out how to handle a yacht without a stinker. There is a great pleasure in sailing true, something that most people have forgotten.

[keysdisease]

Gary, I would agree with your except I have to share the water with those that are "learning" the skills necessary to sail at the purist level.

It's scary enough out there without a bunch of newbie sailing purists sharing the water with me.

I will say that in the Carribean you will find some skippers exhibiting those skills in the day charter trade. The show in Cruz Bay on St Johns with a multitude of big day charter cats, ferries, skiffs and dinks on a busy cruise ship day is great entertainment. Some of those skippers will sail em right up and back em right in without internal combustion.

Steve

[ThomD]

I do it the purist way, but there isn't another boat within miles, so that helps. I had a good year last year, but this year I made a lot of bad arrivals, and even some bad departures. I don't know why my second year was so much worse than my first, of course all that really maters is getting back unscathed.

I do wonder whether any of these lifetime skippers benefit from more consistent winds, in the trades perhaps. We had winds from every direction, and towards the end of the summer the anchorage shallowed out to the point where there was no leeway to the shallow side. Get a good day with an onshore wind, and it was tough to get off without going immediately aground, though it never actually happened. We also had the disadvantage of wilderness conditions. At one point after frankly having made a bad approach to one shore, I got hyper organized to get away. But it turned out we were in a cluster of boulders along with everything else. I know these waters well, but the big stuff also moves around with the ice.

I used to have a motor, then someone stole it, and the government added a cynical boat training program for motored craft.

[cavalier mk2]

We have fun barnstorming our Nicol, a 60's design and if there is wind we sail. We use the engine to get through a calm patch if we are trying to cover a distance. While we can sail out of very tight spots (and some times have to) we will power out of a crowded anchorage if it doesn't make sense from a time/safety standpoint. We cruised from southern Puget Sound into BC waters north of Desolation sound and used about 25 gallons of gas over a month while meeting our goals. For boats that power faster than they sail it is hard to overcome the inertia of setting the sails on a vacation timeline. Many of these boats sail better than people expect which is more fun than the opposite. I was fascinated by the footage of the Golden Miller keel cat at the beginning. What a wild way to sail.....I think eventually the boat had keel attachment problems and wasn't quick in light airs but it might inspire someone to try a modern ballast hybrid. Great to see the Newick boats.