Victory 21 conversion to trimaran

Hello fellow sailors,
I've had this early 70's Victory 21' sailboat sitting in my backyard for last 10 years. The bulb keel is worn out from years of hitting rocks when someone was sailing her in Boston and she has a cracked aluminum mast base. When I picked her up she was sitting on a rotted trailer and rotted tires that were half buried. At the time I knew her hull was sound because she was full to the top with years of Boston rain water. I drained the water out of her, winched the whole mess up on my flatbed and hauled it back to SoCal with dreams of sailing to Catalina Island someday. That dream is still alive, but with a warped twist now... A trimaran dayrunner motorized sailing deckboat.

I can easily fix the mast base so it is stronger than it was back in the day. Im going to cut the bulb keel off at the base of the hull, add outriggers, pontoons, canopied deck, and a gas motor just for the fun of new hobby project to waste time, sweat, and money on.

I have several aluminum masts 20' to 36' and many different sail configurations to play with from three other sailboats that are long gone.
Here's some info I found on the Victory 21
http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=140
http://www.abraxasdesign.net/victory21/dissail.html

Basically, it's going to be a motorized sailing houseboat with a ~12'x14' canopied aluminum deck when I'm done. It has to be no more than 8'-6" wide with the telescoped outriggers tucked in when I'm towing it. The beam is only 6.3' so I have enough room for ~12" pontoons.

I've read a few threads on here about building pontoon houseboats and picked up some interesting ideas.

I realize I will have to beef up the hull to account for the extra stress on the hull from the mast and the outriggers since she wont be able to lean mch anymore.

Her draft is 3' with the bulb keel, so without the 685 pound bulb keel, if I did my calcs right, I think she should only displace 850 pounds "by herself" and allow for 1250 pounds of add ons, i.e., deck, canopy, pontoons, outriggers, fresh water tank in the cockpit, motor and fuel tank, etc?

A few things I'm wondering about is the length, width, diameter, shape, length and draft of the pontoons? And the pontoons distance away from the side of the hull to give her some stability when sailing? I want to stay in the 3" draft range for shallow water.

Any ideas other than sell it and buy a deck boat would be much appreciated.

 

I would use the structural setup for a mast to hold the main beam. That is, make the beam attach to the mast step area and then to the chainplates. The deck will give you enough longitudinal rigidity so the beam doesn't have too much fore and aft stress. If you are thinking of the same type of use as a pontoon-protected waters in fair weather-it should work.

 

Victory conversion

Thanks Gonzo. I hadn't thought about doing that since the roof is raised up above the deck and the mast pins to a pipe through the roof of the cabin to the cabin floor. I just climbed in the boat to get a closer look at the mast
supports. There are none. The thin cabin roof is the only support for the top of the mast pipe. There is bulkhead right at the front of the roof. So I think I have to mount the front outrigger to the deck in front of the cabin roof where the bulkhead is at for extra strength, like in the drawing I have attached.

 

Victory

I went shopping for pontoons today. The more I looked the more ideas I came up with. The Victory trimaran idea is on hold. I went to a scrape yard today looking for 6061 Aluminum 12" pipe tubes. I found them but the scrape yard also had a big aluminum V hull boat and a large rectangular flat bottom aluminum tank. I going to start a new thread on hull designs

 

It is possible to build with recycled materials. You may not get the ideal design, but may be done with less money. I just found, for a friend of mine that wants to make a floating platform to dock, swim, etc., some old fiberglass water tanks for $100.00. You need to do some scavenging and have some luck.

 

Thats basically what I want to do.. a self-powered moveable dock (lol) but Im calling it a Dayrunner houseboat with a canopy.
I think I got lucky this time... if my new best friend, the scrape yard owner, doesnt try to get rich off of me. He was going to give me the tubes at scrape prices but I didnt think about buying the boat and tank until I got home. He is a 30 year friend of my friend who sent me to see him. I'm going to see him today and haggle with him, with his surprise lunch in my hands
I sadly decided to donate the Victory 21 to Goodwill. I took a good long look at the Victory hull this morning and its not a pretty sight anymore. Two of the trailer pads wore out and have damaged two spots on the hull and caused the bulb keel cracked the bottom of the hull. Good Will is supposed to pick it up tomorrow. If the dont, then I will keep it and fix the hull.

Which one of these boat hull designs do you like the best for a moveable dock as far as stability, payload and handling? I think F for stability and payload, and A for handling. What do you think Gonzo?

I just noticed that you are in Wisconsin. Years ago I bought a trailer for a 40' catamaran in WI and hauled it back to SoCal. Here's a cleaned up so you can see it and an original dirty pic of it. It is 8' x 20' flat and will make a perfect self powered moveable dock trailer. I just need to cut off the pad frames

 

I think F will give you more stability and carrying capacity. Also, it will be easier to build.