TC601 trimaran design by Tim Clissold

A new trimaran design by Tim Clissold (TC601) which is designed to use F18 beach cat hulls as floats and provide some useful volume in the main hull for racing and daysailing:

http://www.tcdesign.co.nz/TC_Design/Sport_Multihulls/Pages/New_TC_601_Wedge.html

and the build blog for the new design hull #1 to be built in the UK:

http://lwr600.co.uk/TC601/index.html

 

Don't see a lot of difference between this and the Corsair 600, do you?

 

It uses F18 donor hulls and rig which makes it a more feasible home build option.

 

Any idea when the build will start?
That is not much of a build blog yet.
Mostly an advertisement.

 

The build is underway but not much to show yet. I guess they want to make their first update a good one.

 

Doug, its quite a different hull shape to the Pulse 600, in particular the cabin is a proper cabin rather than a cuddy. Its not a house but more a bedsit rather than a bunkroom.

I'll get the build blog up to date this weekend, its quite an easy build as all the panels were designed to be relatively flat, with only the front 1.5 metres at the bow, needing any sort of heat on the foam. We're quite surprised at that considering we are using 10mm foam.

Its taken 10 man days to get the hard back set up, formers in and stringered and 1/2 hull made and out of the formers, I would guess the next 1/2 will take much less time as we are evolving a technique a little I'm not used to.

The boat is a very pleasant looking shape in the flesh and I'm looking forward to getting it on the water.

 

Tc601

Looks like a great project, Wayne-good luck! Do you already have the F18?

 

Yes I have a Capricorn, it is really the first "2nd" generation boat with volume well foward, great mast and modern sail plan, and bought at a price I couldn't buy the sails for.

The F18 is a class in decline and there are some bargain boats up for sale with very very modern sail plans and very modern hulls. They are a simple way to circumvent making all three hulls and supplying very up to date sails and equipment.

Tim and I agree that for the home builder the hulls are not quite what you would design for a small Tri, but if you take the whole package at the price you would pay for one and how close the later generation boats are to being in the ball park, what a way to start.

But why limit the boat to F18's, as has been discussed, why not an A Class with C boards, perhaps a Prindle 18 or 19, there are a huge number of boats that could be used as donor boats.

 

Whatever works in a particular case. I like the donor rig approach. On small tris the amas are pretty critical since the weight budget and other factors are critical. Meanwhile you can get the amas to the point you want them at when building a tri out of them, in about 10-20 hours, each. Pretty much has to be developed ply, but that's the best method in most respects at this scale factor. Even with a foam main hull I think ply is faster and cheaper, and often lighter in this size range, for amas. But then again donor can even be free, which is pretty hard to turn down. Around here though, a donor can be as expensive as a home built boat, all up. People want crazy prices for stuff, the local auction site has several clapped out H 16s for 2500 to 4000 dollars.

 

I would say 10 - 20 hours for an Ama shape even in carbon and foam would be possible, but building the shape is just one stage, fitting the bulkheads, fitting the beam supports, fitting the stay connection point would probably take 10 hours. Painting I would say at least 10 hours, fitting the beams and lining them up ready for the central hull, that's a day.

Either I'm dead slow at building things or there are some incredibly optimistic times mentioned by some, if I mention build times they include all the peripheral times involved. Take the TC601 I'm building, I mentioned 10 man days to build 1/2 of the main hull. Now I would doubt I've spent 2 actual days working on the hull, the other 3 days I've spent driving to the timber yard to get tiling batten for the hull stringers, then I had to make 2 trips to the local hardware store for screws and tapes. I had to check on quantities of carbon and resin, order that up. One has to study the plans and make sure what we are doing is correct, in truth that's 1/2 a day if you take in a few coffees and chat.

So which would readers prefer as I can say we took 3 man days to lay in the foam and resin the cloth which is all the time it took to make 1/2 the hull or do I be a little more truthful and say it took 10 man days as that's what it took from the moment we stepped into the workshop, to having 1/2 a hull out of the jig ?

Don't knock donor boats as its the rig and sails together with all the hardware such as main sheets and things like launching trolleys with nice CatTrac wheels, trailers with storage boxes on, all the things you will need for your boat to go sailing, that's where buying an existing boat will save a lot of time and money. Don't go with a very old dog of a boat with worn out everything, you will be replacing everything in a short time, do spend a bit more cash and you will get much better value for money.

 

The first of the Build Blog for this boat is now up on the web at http://lwr600.co.uk/TC601/build1.html

Quite an easy build with all the foam panels bent through only minimal curves apart from the cabin section forward needing a bit of help with a heat gun.

We now have two halves complete and released from the jig and this week we have been constructing all the bulkheads and beginning to assemble them in the boat. This bit is more time consuming than I would have thought as you have to first create a pattern and then construct a bulkhead to suit.

The middle bulkhead which takes all the mast and front beam landing loads layup is quite time consuming and has taken nearly 3 man days just for this bulkhead alone to make the former and layup the cloth. Lots of different cloth angles and small detail to understand in the layup but I would guess thats the penalty for having the beam " engineered" to try and mimimise the intrusion into the cabin. As it forms a sort of doorway to the bunk area I guess it doesn't matter so much but when you are limited in size then every less intrusion the better.

The other bulkheads are all pretty straight forward and relatively simple layups.

 

Build update

The build continues on this interesting 20ft Tri, an update can be found at http://lwr600.co.uk/TC601/build5.html with the hull halves now together in its jig.

 

It's a nice looking design.

I'm seriously considering something like this, but probably won't have time to build it myself. I'm looking at the pulse 600 too, but the TC601 has a bigger cabin which could be the decisive factor in my case.

I'm thinking about getting the plans to get quotes to have one built.

Any wild quesses on how much would it be to get one built?

Whats the materials cost over there in the uk?..and whats the price difference between using carbon instead of e-glass?

I'll be waiting for the next build update with interest.

 

Have you considered the Farrier F22? - It has a reasonably large cabin for the size of boat and it is in batch production so might be a good alternative to a professional one-off build.

 

Hi John,

Yes, i have looked at the F-22. It's a nice boat, but in a whole other league compared to the TC601. you know, size and cost wise.. The f-22 -stage 2 kit would be around 45kEur + freight + 5% customs fee + 20%vat = ~60keur + sails.

To compare, the pulse 600 would be under 40kEur ready to sail delivered to my doorstep..

I'm hoping that probuilt TC601 would be less expensive than the pulse.