Conversion of trapeze dinghy [FD] to trimaran?

[Tom Mckinney]

Came across an almost free FD. Was curious if anyone has ever converted one to a tri.

Fairly long [20 ft.] and narrow compared to other racing dinghys [or maybe it just looks that way].

I have seen an old macgregor get converted and owner liked its performance. But have not seen others and was looking to see if someone here might know of one.

 

[Doug Lord]

The main problem would be the additional weight. The FD is a class act as is-not sure a tri mod would add to its performance but it might not matter. For maintaining or exceeding FD performance you might have a chance if the new hulls, crossarms and crew didn't exceed the original crew weight. That would mean a singlehander. Unless the new RM allowed substantially more power.
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The Banshee Ambulance was a tri conversion of a Cherub dinghy:
More info: Banshee [UK-Cherub Class] http://www.uk-cherub.org/doku.php/designs/banshee

 

[Doug Lord]

A light weight performance conversion would be similar to Bethwaites HSP with very small ama's:

 

[Blueknarr]

Is it an original international FD or the insipid American "collegic" FD?

 

[Steve Clark]

Please don’t.
A Flying Dutchman is a pretty big stable dinghy.
If you want to tame it a bit, replace the enormous Genoa with a more reasonable jib.
SHC