Hedley Nicol Trimaran Plans

nice glen. im still no where near finishing my upgrades, will be next year i get up your way now, unless i pull the stick out of me butt and get into it, i could still head off late july earlie to mid august and prob get atleast 4-5months in before needing to turn back, november be the lastest though, get out before cyclone time jumps in, can only cross my fingers, not looking likely at moment sadly, but one never knows what tomorrow may bring gday to bruce from me aswel bud, oh new phone, lost all my numbers go figure im not tech enough to have saved from old phone, anyway ill get it off ya next im back up, gday to all on the forum as well

 

Ama keel question...

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have cut the side hull keels back to original and they look pretty good. lots of work though as the last repair work done there were air bubbles and even un-wet fibre the keel reinforcement was made up of one layer of 250mesh believe it or not.

poor repairs made to each nose of each side hull it seems some one seem to run into a thing or two removing some sand inbeded glue from the gunal a tennis ball size hole was found, just in that one spot on each side and to the tips of each nose, mainly just being poor glass work air bubbles all over but least there found and can be repaired properly now once and for all.

i found that in most places any repairs done were full or air bubbles and glass in most cases was laid straight over anti foul, often the anti foul being right at the edge of the added glass and lifting

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I have an Islander "Ceil" out here in California, she is anchored in the great big Pacific ocean 27 miles off the coast of Long Beach, CA. (ok she's anchored 100 yards off Catalina Island but not in the harbor..)

My main keel was 4.5 ft deep when I got the boat and I quickly cut it down to 2 ft as I had no plans to work from. There are no keels on the amas and this makes for a problem as I can't beach the boat gracefully at all. The leaning is so severe that I'm afraid the stress will break the keel/hull joint. The keel was hollow 1/4" ply and not from the same wood as the rest of the boat so I'm assuming it was added...

Your post mentions the original keel sizes - could you recall what those might be and the location (from bow or stem) of the ama keels?

Much appreciated!

Here's a view from the deck.... love that rooster tail under sail!

 

Hopefully this thread can be revived! I'm in Mill Valley, CA (near Piver's old place). "Ceil" is located down off Santa Catalina Island, outside the Avalon harbor.. here's a google map link: https://www.google.com/maps/place/A...2!3m1!1s0x80dd7298e1d2952b:0x99cade704d6a62b4

Zoom in a bit to the boats off Pebbly Beach - Ceil is the only trimarn out there.... I'm hoping to bring her north this year as remote sailing doesn't really feel that great...

She's anchored in 95 ft of Pacific Ocean...

There's a couple Nicol boats here in SF -

Anyone out there?
nm

 

Ill get back to you tonight, I'm boat working now. I can give you a pretty good idea of the keel sizes then. The stock keels are solid about 2" thick for the amas and 4" for the main hull. Easy to add a ply or foam foil fairing to those and with them the boat will bounce off rocks and not lean. They were joined with heavy glass radius and bolts.

 

new motor in

finally engine in and done trials got 7 knots and really responsive
the bottom needs a good clean been neglected has about in inch thick of barnikles next job to do

 

Hey Bluetriguy, I've just had time to take a quick look through my archives.

The Islanders like the Wanderers had very shallow keels, about 6 inches deep so they weren't great to windward. I'd make them about 12" deep like the Cavalier and Vagabond MK2.

Location wise the leading edge of the ama keel was close to the main keel leading edge, about across from the maststep. Length was about half the length of the main keel. Check in your amas for signs of the old bolt holes for more detail.

I'm glad you are trimming the main keel down on Ceil. I've always thought that was hazardous for that boat because of the tripping hazard. Nicols with a close to stock set up can still sideslip if they have to. The original rudder was pretty small, if made to be just under the depth of the 12" main keel control is improved a lot.

Try to find a copy of Francis Smith's book Pelinta as it covers the building and sailing of an Islander back in the day. I'll keep looking for more information.

 

Geez Glenn, an inch of barnacles and you are still getting 7 knots? Plenty of power now.

 

The keel on my Vagabond was deepened to about 18" , foil fairing added and the ama keels removed. It can handle grounding out fine but the lousy foil section hurts speed. Eventually I'll put shallow float keels on for grounding protection, 4" to 6" deep and trim the main keel back to 12". This set up will handle shallow water use, for windward work we incorporated a daggerboard trunk into the new interior but it will be a year yet before I put the slot through and make the board.

Ama daggers for a Islander could be considered to save main cabin room but they have to be built right and the ama/ beams connective structure should be beefed up.

The Nicols were designed to be sailed through the reefs and beach etc...Keels were a wear part to be replaced after too many coral crunches. For a cruising tri this gives some peace of mind but low windage was part of the design to minimize leeway.
Keeping these features but adding a board is a good cruising compromise,especially for shallow water areas, for all out performance the keels were often removed entirely and a board added, often a centerboard.

 

Cavalier mk2, thanks for taking the time to check the placement of the keels. I'll look up the book as well. I had already shortened the keel and the boat goes great to the wind - I am looking for the ama keels so that she doesn't snap the main keel if grounded. The main is at least 4" at the join but as it was completely waterlogged when cut I'm not really confident in it's ability to take the stress of holding the weight.

This boat has all the insides correct I think - except that the small cabin extension between the mast and the chain locker weren't built. We closed off the massive forward windows (6 feet wide on each side!) and built that area up with foam and ply, then I just added some small ports in the head. The larger windows were plex and had cracked, I have had green water come over the mast step more than once and didn't like the large expanse of plex being the only thing between the Pacific and the inside of the boat.

The rudder that was on the boat was a 5' long blade which I removed as there are two many crab pots and nets laying around in my area and didn't want to snap the rudder. I fabricated a much shorter and longer chord rudder that works great and doesn't extend below the main keel or the prop. This boat has a 2cyl Yanmar..

 

They put a skeg rudder on Pelinta, it worked well, the drawing is in the book.

The ama keels will also help protect the ama bottoms if you ground on anything.

You might look on the net at yachtworld for a Nicol Islander that is somewhere in California, I think around Newport Beach. It looked like it had the stock keels and could be used as a reference. This thread has various drawings posted that show the other boats keels. Hedley's son Alan has the Islander plan transparencies in Oz, I don't know what it would take to get him to print them out.

 

Just back from a month up around the Broughton Archipelago and Queen Charlotte Straight area near the North end of Vancouver Island in BC.

I'll stick up for the big windows if suitably braced. The only Nicol reference I could find where one was punched out was a small Clipper that was overloaded and half swamped and lost a side window when rolled.

Everything was coated with salt spray for the reefed down bash to windward through the Johnstone Straight area going North where the gale warnings came in stretches lasting days but after that the views while sailing and anchored are great.

Here is the Vagabond getting ready to head North

 

Drumbeat

Hello, My father recently purchased the Hedley Nichol tri "Drumbeat". I saw several posts that mentioned this boat. Any information and/or photos that I can get on this boat would be greatly appreciated.
Today will be my first sail aboard her, but we plan on cruising the East Coast of New Zealand starting next week.
We sailed a Searunner 37 from Los Angeles to get here in the first place and have been through several multihulls in the meantime. Fred put about 50,000 ocean miles on his old Searunner and I'm anxious to see how this new space age looking boat compares.

 

Let us know how it goes. Gary used to race on Drumbeat so would be the one to talk to. I love my Vagabond, it's been a great PNW cruising boat.

 

Thanks cavalier mk2. I'm a little confused about which design she is. We measured her today and she is 39'2" on deck with a beam of 20'8". The mast appears very tall and measures 47'8". Does this sound like the Drumbeat that you refer to?

 

You'd better post a picture Fred. Early on Gary posted a couple black and white deck pictures of the Nicol Drumbeat. It looked like a Vagabond MK2 design, however your dimensions are closer to a Nicol Buccaneer, a few inches wider and just over 39 feet on deck. Many Nicols have been stretched in the stern however. Stock Vagabond MK2 length is 36 feet, mine like Hedley's is a bit longer because the stem has a more gentle curve. The Vagabond MK2 and Cavalier used a 38 foot mast. The Buccaneer was a unfinished plan set but was intended for a larger rig, I've only seen drawings for the ketch but have seen photos of several rigged as sloops. Perhaps the previous owner can help you?