The Future of Formula 40 Trimarans

Great, hump101 ! - Indeed... a lucky man to call a F40 your own.

Do you have some pictures or vids to show of your boat ? Dont care... doesnt matter what shape it is now.

And can you tell little bit more about the history and specifications of your boat ? (Designer, sail cloth, mast/rigging)...

Tks in advance.

 

I wouldn't want to be accused of thread drift by posting cat pics in this thread, but mine is the third of three Irens cats built by JTA in France in 86 in carbon/kevlar prepreg. Originally "GAJ Neptune" sailed by Yves Parlier. Original sails are kevlar/mylar, I have a new dacron set. Mast is an alloy Francespar (the bigger section from 87), rigging is all stainless.

Edit: Original skipper was Yves Fauconnier according to Histoire des halfs.

 

yeah... it doesnt make sense to think about the F40 Catamaran future "in the same bag". Tri and Cat are two different worlds.

Tks for your understanding.

(P.S.: Checked out the pictures and its history here. Nice boat... guarantees lots of "wet fun".)

 

The future of Crowther 40 Trimaran Verbatim-Bullfrog

The boat was for sale in 2012 again after Ian and Cathy have sold it in 1990 for 85 Thousand US dollars
http://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sailing-trimaran/crowther-trimaran-43/117674

What happened with her since 2012 ?

Ian Johnston and Cathy Hawkins have moved more deeply in to sail education, so to read.

 

Not when you are looking for sponsorship which is the only way it would have any change of working.
Farr 40 class, owner driven still happily existing around the world
same as TP52 ( ok not all owner driven)etc etc
For all the reasons I mentioned earlier

 

Excellent posting,.....both history, and looking forward.

We must learn from history, something often ignored by our politicians.

 

They ARE NOT two different worlds ! If you continue down that thought path you are going to quickly run out of contributors to your postings.

It is still a developing world of multihulls, and all considerations need to be left in an open format for new and interesting ideas

 

Brian, I am not a "yes sayer". If folks still think they can make the same mistake as in the 80ths, they shall keep going to think, that catamarans can compete against Trimarans. A totally nonsense. It would be if you like to race a Formula 1 racing car against a Stockcar.

Clearly the headline here is:
"The Future of Formula 40 Trimarans"

And this will not turn into something different. Point. No further discussions about this. - Shall the F40 Cat enthusiasts start their own thread !

As already mentioned, Trimaran enthusiasts can learn these days from the foiling cats, no doubts about. Here the Cat folks are front... but it is only a short question of time, till the Trimarans again will overtake the lead of speed records as soon they have learnt to foil, too.

It always will be like it was: trimarans are the faster boats.

I remember well when Olivier Kersauson came up with his plans for Geronimo. Originally he wanted participate at "THE RACE", but didnt made it to be ready by time.

That time whole world laughed about Olivier to come along with a Trimaran, as folks like Steve Fossett and other believed that Catamarans will win, so Playstation was built.

Today nobody laughs anymore about Oliver and his vision he had. Instead Gironimo is still the trimaran which gives orientation, so was relaunched as Sodebo in 2013. And Tris set new marks in non stop circumnavigations.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNox9Gj8l80


I dont care about Cats... they are beautifully boats, no doubt... and the circuit in Extreme sailing, little America's Cup or its bigger brother the AC has its own legitimation having decided for Catamarans.

Clearly they sail in their own division of boats, technically spoken. And so its OK. Then we wont have any conflicts by reglementations, F40 rules etc. ... as it was in the past.

All who think, that they must mix up Cats and Tris in one class have nothing understood about the difference of these two boat types.

Soon we see Trimarans foiling... and then the Cat sailors will come along again and ban Tris from their class and regatta circuits because they only will see the stern of trimarans. Such ban happened with Tri Adrenalin just sailed one race in USA against the cats.

I wont discuss this further on... as it doesnt make sense. Start your own threads, guys who are the "believers in catamarans".

Nothing worth in this thread we wont keep our focus onto this endless discussions further on which do not lead us to anywhere. Only wasting of time.

 

If you think so and you demand this attitude as multihull sailor that you must learn from everywhere you should turn away from mast rigged boats...

... and start to steer Kite boats... they are the fastest wind driven boats...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEe8N_f4uq8


I am not a professional sailor, I dont need to look to everywhere to keep me on the maximum level of competitiveness to get highly paid sponsor contracts.

I love Trimarans. Point. Its a fascinating world on its own. No need to turn my head steadily into other direction.

To learn from other boat classes, no doubt... logically it makes sense to proof if there exist solutions (anywhere not only on Cats) which can help Trimarans to develope. But thats all. No need to jump around steadily between Cat trampolins and Tri Trampolins.

Look at Alain Thébault and his Hydropter. Is this guy jumping around on many different other boats ? No, he does not.... he keeps straight on his mission of hydrofoiling. Point.

I admire more people who follow their own dream, and who are believers in their ideas... and not jumping around turning the colour steadily like a cameleon. Today they are yes sayers, tomorrow they become no sayers missing to commit themselfs.

Today cat, tomorrow trimaran, overtomorrow monohull. Not very interesting.

 

I believe you are missing my point. I am saying that IF your desire is to bring back or start a new RACING CLASS, then you need to leave the door open to cats and tris,....same sort of multihull animal. There will be more participation if one or the other thinks they have a better mousetrap within this multihull community. Competition breeds innovation.

You surely can keep on your specific path to proving the virtues of the trimaran, and total ignore the cats that might show up to compete, but if you want to build an international racing class, I believe you must keep in mind including both of these variations of multihulls

 

It has its reasons, why Loick Peyron contracted with the Swedish team Artemis
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2014/03/13/artemis-racing-retains-loick-peyron/

I dont have insights behind the curtains of America's cup teams. But we should not forget all the "misuse" by Oracle/Larry Elliot, all the scandals...

Prada fashion house boss Patrizio Bertelli has announced that he is pulling Italy and his Luna Rossa sailing team out of the next America's Cup

For now AC has no future, it is a spoilt event of some mad folks. Not at all trustworthy. The downsizing of the boats in a decision done nearby over night, the switch from San Diego to Bermudas, countless court trials and police investigations over last years.... AC is a dirty business.

Since many years before 2013 the AC has damaged heavily the sailing world we remember the battle between Alinghi team and Oracle front NewYork court. - With the existing owner the AC has no future in my undersanding.

And who cares about "national flags" in this big business ??? All the teams are mixed up, buy in professional sailors from around the globe like soccer teams do to keep themselves competitivly. Big money involved, so it needs the best people for targeting at the finals.

If you'd really want have such kind of "FR national campaign", at least 60% of the whole team would need a French passport, otherwise its a farce. Such items had been discussed but the rules havent been changed.

All this is a different thematic, on its own. We only can learn from the scandals that no sport management in the world shall manipulate an event on that top level for own benefits. - This has to stop ! - If the Formula 40 Class one day should experience a revival, the F40 class association would need to take lots of care, that it keeps clean.

 

Kite Powered vessels

I have an interest in those kite driven boats as well:

New Age Trawler/Motorsailer....Kite assisted PowerYacht

 

As mentioned, I can live with the Cat world, side-a-side.

But we look at the historical facts and there we have seen the conflicts. How you want avoid it ? Humans are humans... same psychological structure in 21st century as the brains in the 80th. Genetic patterns dont learn so quickly in 3 decades

Shall the Top management of the F40 class association be lead in two divisions ? What if there appear again new conflicts, e.g. Trimaran folks say: We want L-foils ... but the C-Cat divion says: we want C-foils.

Such a simple example, hypotetically spoken can break a "community" quickly.

Yes, we should live all together in harmony, in family, partnerships and in the sailing community But I suppose this is a pure wish never can come true.

As soon teams exist, depending on the money delivered by sponsors who set them under pressure to be seen under first top 3 of the finish line within a race circuit, the rivality and fights might start again.

Just notice such a kind of headline... it demonstrates that sailors have a strong ego... they are not the handsome guys. Racing boats and their teams want win to deal the deals, e.g. being financed by sponsors.

Sailor Snagged in America’s Cup Scandal Sues ISAF

I have no idea how to avoid tremendously conflicts if you keep Cats and Tris together in one class association. Complicated...

More complexity you have within a structure, more problems you will get, same more betraying, more cheating, more corruption. As humans are like as they are with all their strength and (emotional and irrational) weaknesses, sadly to notice after a life of more than 5 decades.

 

Keep it real simply,...set the overall length of the boats permitted, and the total sail area permitted,....that's all
....And see what develops

(if I remember correctly, this was very close to what the original Formula 40 was in France)

 

I have developed more than 10 years ago a race event for kite boats. Yet had no time to realize it. It still would work successfully, no doubt about it.

Yes, I know... SkySails HQ is settled in my city.

But I dont want go so fare to think about, if F40 shall use kites instead of mast rigged sails propulsion. I still like the "old way" of trimming, and having a rotation wing mast on a Tri isnt something wrong I would say.