Hedley Nicol Trimaran Plans

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by oldsailor7, Mar 12, 2010.

  1. cavalier mk2
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    cavalier mk2 Senior Member

    You as well Alex. My advise is sail what you have then sort it out. We've worked out our changes after using the boat so we know what we really need/want after living with it. These boats can scoot but it takes some wind and when the wind does kick up you don't need more sail...We've gone our fastest when its blowing 20-30 knots and we have a reef in, some jib rolled up and someone riding the mainsheet. With the shorter amas you will have to ease off sooner. We set a cruising redline of about 10 degrees heel and spend most of the time around 4-7. Daysailing we might go up to 15 degrees when pushing it to windward which is still keeping plenty in reserve. If you want to try a higher boom try tieing in a reef and raising it to see if you notice. We do some work every year so we can keep sailing. I read one website where a guy built a big Marples Tri. When he started his son was about 10 and when he finished his son was a 26 year old Med tech. and not free to cruise which puts things in perspective.
     
  2. oldsailor7
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    oldsailor7 Senior Member

    Yes I can relate to that. :eek:
    I am too impatient to take years to build a boat.
    Thats why my Buccaneer 24 took six weeks to build and nine weeks to sailing. My B28 took longer at six months because we built two in parallel.
    That was working full time of course.
    It's much harder when you have to build in your spare time.
    My first Tri, a Piver Nugget, took a year of spare time work and weekends.
    The important thing is to achieve small goals and do one thing at a time.
    It also helps to plan ahead with acquisition of parts and materials, so you don't have to keep stopping to go and buy things or wait for deliveries. Even if you can only work for one hour, complete a small job-----they all add up. :D
     
  3. cavalier mk2
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    cavalier mk2 Senior Member

    See what you started with this thread Patrick, Nicols of the world unite! Seriously I know what you mean,I'd rather be sailing so I plan ahead and work fast. My suppliers in this part of the world however all managed to screw their end up. Fortunately they have enough competition so you can get what you need by going elsewhere. Surprisingly the major supplier in a large boat building center proved the most incompetent and nasty. They are downsizing and it is easy to see why. I love wood and the fact it is a renewable resource but so many vendors try to resort to trickery that it is easy to see why people might start to prefer synthetics......(that Marples is, however, one of the best builds I have ever seen.)
     
  4. gypsy28
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    gypsy28 Senior Member

    The best sail I had on Chilli Magic was off Southport (just south of Brisbane, QLD Australia for our International friends) in similar conditions, 20ish knots blowing full main, most of the 150 genoa out in largish seas, just an absolute brilliant ride. No worries about floats breaking or capsizing on Chilli, she loved a good breeze to get her moving.

    ps Top speed Chillis skipper has got was (if my memory serves me) 19 knots surfing downwind in a blow at night, pretty devostated I missed that!
     
  5. taow
    Joined: May 2011
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    taow Junior Member

    hey gyps28 hows it matey, chilli magic? is she still afloat, or is she the one that was taken out in the cyclone up north?, and 19kt, wow thats about 30klm give or take, i was talking with the old owner of my boat and told him i managed 9.8kt he replied "oh no i wouldnt get her going that fast," im like WFT? something i should know? any way i asked him why was it a concern, that surely she should have little problem with that, being a rather good survey report, other then the bodgey riggin that was on it, but i had it all replaced along with the cracked chain plates and dodgey home made turn buckles, any way back to the story, i asked him why was it a worry to have made 9.8 kts, he replied " oh i only ever had her up to 8kts once and the mast fell off" im like OMFG, hence the full rerigging i had done before she was even taken back near the water, but i guess i cant complain the boat did come with out dated flares and outdated epirb, the epirb im still waiting to have sent to me, which just reminded me to send a reminder text, ok well with all going well im hoping to be on track again very soon,

    oh and cav yes mate im just dreaming and thinking out aloud, ive already spend 3weeks aboard her making many repairs already, just no modifications yet, i stand corrected lol i modified the wiring so it worked :p lol
     
  6. cavalier mk2
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    cavalier mk2 Senior Member

    The hull are easily driven , you'll get more improvement by putting on a folding prop ;)
    Hi Gypsy we've got up to 17+kts in flat water and strong winds. Once under full main and spinnaker, the last time reefed down for windward in 30kts of wind. The ama was in deep but when we went on to a close reach it climbed up as our speed doubled. We haven't felt close to capsizing but I read Hedley said they went faster sailed flat and I have to agree. I watched a local F boat in a race have to keep his full main luffing in strong wind and he would have been faster with a reef. You should post some of your Chili magic and Renegade pictures!
     
  7. taow
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    taow Junior Member

    hey well I did look into that after we last spoke on it, cant remember the company name is on the other computer, but there made for the yamnar motor (prob spelt that wrong) I’m running a 30hp with a of the top of my head 24 or26D pitch cant remember is also on the other house computer, but I rang and had a yack with the sales bloke I’m looking at a cost around $3,000 so a little down the track its on the list now,

    and I noticed in triwanderer pics the rudder and prop are much further back then on mine, but she’s the 1st boat I’ve had that turns on the spot, I was told it did and sure enough when I tried it out in some open space round I went like a spinning top, I thought it was quite impressive, and handy in tight spots and when scanning and anchorage point you can spin around and take a good look at what’s about hate nasty surprise’s,

    wondering is yours 36ft triwanderer? And after looking at some pics of my side hulls yeah I see the extra length you have and wonder if I should or would be better of extending mine some day? Is this some thing that can be done or is even worth thinking about down the track? And I swear I still cant get over how good your engine area came up triwanderer I drool at the pic, could you maybe give a bit of a run down on each of your photos matey? Id be interested in reading it, prob a stupid Q. did you glass the engine bay,

    makes men wanna do so much more to mine now then I thought possible, so hats off to you for posting them pics, bet you got a smile on your face from the reaction to the pics, well earned well earned

    think I’ve rambled enough now as its 2:04am I’m sitting it a tin shed meant to be writing up a list and description of the jobs needed to take care of before we re-float, give my mate/crew member a heads up and what’s needed, this what we get things moving a little faster (hopefully)
     
  8. cavalier mk2
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    cavalier mk2 Senior Member

    Your rudder is in the stock location taow. I won't speak for triwanderer but lengthening amas is pretty straight forward, longer ones will let you carry more sail and a little more weight aft. I'll see if I can find some pictures of the Wanderer Hawk. They lengthened the main stern with a reverse transom that really looked good. Triwanderer I noticed the for sale sign on your boat, is it on the market?
     
  9. triwanderer
    Joined: Jun 2011
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    triwanderer Junior Member

    Thanks for your kind words. Yes mine is a long float wanderer. Talking to Shawn, Hedley realised very quickly the short float wanderer needed more ama bouyancy and altered the cav ama's to suit the wanderer. This occurred fairly early, so not many short float wanderers around.

    The pic with the tools is the new aft toilet and shower. As Cavalier stated, this was a small toilet area when I getted her from stem to stern I was able to extend the aft cabin up for standing headroom and forward for more space. I did a similar thing on my last tri. You can see the old outboard area which I kept and used for storeage. Basically, when I got the boat in Cairns and broudht it back it had two rudders lol. They worked okay but sailing into the duckpond at Mooloolaba, the cables jumped and I lost steering among the anchored boats. As I was sailing single handed, it was an insane time for a while and the boat had no anchor winch. It appears that like most tri's of this age it had an outboard and an underslung rudded. From the paperwork I have it appears in the early 70's thye installed a 20hp Yanmar, which I have rebuilt and put back in. However, when they installed the engine then they thought it was a good idea to mount the engine offset the the starboard side to miss the underslung rudder. However, this caused the shaft to go past the rudder and while motoring particularly, manouevring, they had no steerage. There answer was to build another smaller rudder and bolt it to the stern behind where the prop ended up. These two rudders were then joined by cables. Of course, when the cable jumped on me I had minimal steering. Why they thought this was the answer to the problem they caused, I have no idea. The first thing I did when I pulled her into the boat yard was remove the engine for a rebuild, clean the engine bay, which took weeks to get the old diesel etc out of the timber so it could be glassed. I then did what they should have done and removed the rudder, rebuilt it and moved it aft, moved the rebuilt engine beds to the centre and moved the engine forward to improve the weight distribution. As you can see, I then rebuillt, strenghtened and glassed the engine bay. Any drips of water or diesel now stay in the glassed bay with a bilge pump instead of flooding through the boat as a wet bilge. Since, I was moving everything anyway and realigning the engine and shaft, I got rid of the old P bracket and glassed in a carbon tube which you can see I glassed to the hull. I'm not a fan of bolts and metal under the water line, if I can help it. I then glassed a carbon rudder tube in through the old outboard area, which you can see in the photo.
     
  10. triwanderer
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    triwanderer Junior Member

    No that is a photo from when I bought it in Cairns. Not for sale Lol - the last boat I built and sold, the next owner ran it up a beach so very gun shy.
     
  11. triwanderer
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    triwanderer Junior Member

    Taow, I have been building boats part time since the mid 90's, and as I said, I can't help myself and am rebuilding this boat to that standard, just for fun and to keep tri's on the water. As far as I am concerned, any tri that someone wants to take the time to keep on the water, is fantastic. With regard to your floats, it would be interesting if you floated the lines back, it they would clear the was and mayby not do everything you want. I xan chat to Shaw Arber, if you want, he has dome more with Nichols than most and is a fint of knowledge.
     
  12. cavalier mk2
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    cavalier mk2 Senior Member

    Here is the picture of Hawk's transom, I'll PM both you guys with the pdf from when it was on the market. Most of the Wanderers I've seen are the short float versions.
     

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  13. cavalier mk2
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    cavalier mk2 Senior Member

    Can't PM the PDF so here it is. This wanderer sold faster than the others I've seen listed a on the market a few years ago. Some good ideas.
     

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  14. taow
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    taow Junior Member

    well why not, might as well get as much knowledge as we can find and all put together, and it will or may help those that come after us
     

  15. taow
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    taow Junior Member

    well I found a few pics, how do you upload them like triwanderer did in his post, sorry i'm not a reg forum user in the past, and only came across this one when looking for info before buying her, not a lot of nicol's boat info around that I’ve found so far, bits and pieces here and there, mostly here lol, but has been interesting learning and meeting a few others with or who've had some time with the nicol's design, I tell you I fell in love the moment I drove through the gate, and if the owner hadn’t have budged on the price I believe I still would have bought her, even though I feel I still pay a little to much for her as is, and I say that not because of her age but more so the condition she was in and the extra $20,000 spent to even get her to the sea test stage, that money meant to be for the hard standing in bris and her full refit and clean up and refinish her skin and paint a nice 2pak, but it will now have to wait another year or 2, with the wife having her fall and the trip cancelled then the father in-law having a heart attack and things for him still looking either way at moment, this stressing the wife a little the need and want to get the boat back, yes life sure does give us some tests and or trying times at times, and ill just do bits and pieces for now, starting with the needed working to the wanted bits :) she already looks so much smarter just from the little i've done so far, as much as I love boating, I think if it wasn’t for the up keeping needed, id only get half the fun out of it, ok well until I figure out the photo up load i've put a pic on my profile pic, its her pre sale, its a pic from the brokers web sight when I first came across her, and is the only pic I have small enough that will upload, Note! the first time I actually went and saw her she looked only a little like this, I was told the pics were only taken 6months before I first looked at her, when you see the pics you’ll see just how nice the hot wet air can be up north also you can search face book for Toroa Tri, my son made it up for me to upload pics and info ETC.

    temp up there as of 12:28am 10c hmm cool nights
    so just to check when I leave port I turn to port and sail for a few days and i'm in bris right :p:p phone call to wife, **** darl the weathers turned ugly up here ill have to head north to get around it only its gonna take 2 months more, should be warmer in bris by then? your right better make it 4 months :p ha-ha
     
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