1977 26' simpson-wild trimaran

Hi Angus,
Good to have contact with Andrew's closest relative.
I was writing to Andy recently, regarding the trimaran that I have salvaged last November, but received no reply.
It is his construction, the 28' Paradigm...
Now I'm trying to establish the whereabout of the last owner in order to obtain the property deed quicker than through the receiver of wreck.
I'm wondering if Andy would have any contact to the owners, especially these from poole harbour.

 

Well I owned the third build of this design; all were built in Poole, UK, by Simpson Wild, on-time and on-budget; the first was named "Sloopy"(went to Germany); second "Paradigm"; third "Silmaril".
I think the original owner of your boat was Ewan Lacey (?) (his brother, Simon, owned the S/W design "Three Fingered Jack"): it was a very long time ago so you might need to check this!
I sailed briefly on the boat you have salvaged, it was very tender as the float volumes were far too low; as a result of this test sail the float volume on Silmaril was increased by the simple expedient of increasing the width of the float. This gave a very useful increase in float volume but the process was limited by the construction method; if I recall correctly the float hull sides were already joined along the keel line so only limited changes were possible. Even modified the float could be readily buried, I'd guess <100% displacement.
The other unusual "feature" of this design was the pronounced overhang of the deck at the bows. While this was great for crew security working on the foredeck (hanked-on sails were the norm in those days) it was a very poor idea. The main hull was quite fine forward and when running in (short) steep seas it was easy to see that over pressing the boat might lead to a pitch-pole accident; we came very close to doing just this off Portland Bill. I would strongly suggest the bow deck overhang be removed.
As is common with many trimaran designs there was inadequate main hull buoyancy at the transom, so even just 3 light crew in the cockpit meant dragging the transom. Some improvements we made were to lengthen the main hull and float hulls at the sterns, by 3 foot, (and incorporated a permanent O/B well housing). I think by this time Andrew Simpson and Bruce Wild had decamped to Texas so Andrew had no input into our modifications of his design.
The dagger boards in the floats were less than ideal, too thin, too short & with too much chord. We built longer boards from laminated Douglas Fir. If I recall the original boards were built of ply and were far too weak. If you still have the original plywood boards I'd bin them. We broke both boards (of similar construction) on another S/W design, a sister ship to "Day Tripper" somewhere off Cadiz. (As an aside these original dagger boards in the floats never worked very well. I helped Bruce Wild fit a main hull daggerboard to the 50 foot Simpson-Wilde racing trimaran "Triple Arrow", (it originally had float dagger boards), I was told it then went much better up-wind however fitting a main hull daggerboard to your boat would severely compromise the accommodation). While you are tearing things apart the original skeg/rudder profile can be easily improved.

Silmaril, the sister ship to your wreck, had a very advantageous rating and won a Crystal Trophy Race back in the day, rather undeserved as we sailed a poor tactical race. She was sold to Slade Penoyre who capsized out in the Atlantic somewhere; I am told she was salvaged and ended up in France.

You can find more info and some photos in the ybw.com forums; search "Three Fingered Jack"; "Mad Pad"; Silmaril etc

Best of luck,
David Walsh