Historical multihulls

Thanks for the response Corley -They have a meeting on this Thursday I was planning on dropping into. Good info though - was not sure if it was predominantly hobies and nacras as they seem to congregate around it a bit.

 

Someone should tell Ian Farrier that !

I mostly agree with you except for under 30' where cats become 2 sewer pipes and Tri's come into their own.

 

Yeah, Farriers are probably the exception to the rule in this part of the world, but older tris, especially wooden ones, are definitely a hard sell.

But agree with rr, under 30' cats are toothpaste tubes, with you as the mush inside.

Even a 16' tri like Woods Strike or Kendricks Scarab with their cuddy cabin format and sitting head room is more liveable than any cat up to 30', with the possible exception (before I get flamed by the Wharramisti) of the small Wharrams, where even his 19' Tiki is 'liveable' - at a pinch, and have certainly crossed oceans if not circumnavigated.

And possibly some of the Kiwi boats, but I've not seen inside a GBE or any similar, so perhaps one of the K1W1s can comment from personal experience?

 

I guess I was including the Farrier's in the trailerable trimaran category. The larger ocean going Farrier trimarans have not been built in anywhere near the numbers of the smaller trailerable models.

 

Define 'ocean going'.....seems to me from what I've seen online, most of the Farriers built these days are the bigger boats....with the possible exception of the F22....

Which reflects the popularity of Quornings boats in Europe....sort of 27 - 35' seems to be the 'sweet spot'.

But yeah, the older self-build designs did not include so many over 30'. Pretty sure the Command 10, for which I have a set of plans, was built in double figures, and maybe then only just. Have only ever seen one for sale, here in Oz, with $80K ask for an immaculate boat, called Aussie.

 

Ian generally has a demarcation in mind between ocean going and trailerable. The Command 10, F36 and F39 are intended to be the ocean going designs not that the others cant do it just that it's not recommended.

 

Yeah, take your point...."not recommended".....there's potenital liability issues involved and Ian's smart enough not to go there....

But if Serge Testa can sail a 10' mono around the world, surely a Farrier TT should be able to do so?

Not to say I've heard of anyone doing it, but no doubt someone somewhere has done similar "offshore cruising" in a small trailable tri....??

 

The Command 10 is a big 30' boat I was quite impressed with the volume in the main hull and floats surprisingly spacious we have one on a mooring at Hastings Yacht Club and I've seen it hauled out a few times.

Lots of our club members cruise the Islands in Bass Strait on their trailerable corsairs and farriers not a problem as long as you keep an eye on the weather and have a decent anchor and chain.

An F27 has crossed the Atlantic so it's all quite doable.

 

Well, it's good ot know that trailable tris are capable offshore, as I intend to use mine for that purpose.

But it will be a few years and lotsa dollars before I get the Command 10 on the water.

Gonna 'dip a toe in' with a smaller boat first, and if the bigger boat becomes 'desirable' will then work towards building it.

 

Bussman. Try building a small, simple Cat or Tri for a start to get the hang of things. You can always sell it and build or buy later when you have a better idea of what you really want. I did that and so did Greg. It's a safe way to progress.

 

OS7 - I'm hearin' ya'.....that *is* the plan.

Am using a 14' Paper Tiger for the amas and an old racing dinghy for the vaka (yeah, yeah, I know, wrong hull shape, yada yada, what I got / can afford...).

Will be adding strengthening bulkheads to the amas to take the loads of the beams (rip a section of the deck off and replace after), and will be ripping the deck off the dinghy and increasing the sheer, adding cross-beam aft and ring beam forrard to support beam/mast loads, and a small cuddy cab for sleeping in.

Drawn it 'ruff' on paper, and there will be room, just.....

Also plan to stiffen the mast with web and thin ply, to better resist the higher forces the wider beam will generate on the dinghy mast. The ally profile is more round than elliptical, so this will mean a more wing-like profile as well.

I know it won't be fast - will need bigger rig for that probably - but baby steps....

Planning to do some east coast gunkholing to gain experience and practice.

Have sailed beach cats before...but not overnight...for obvious reasons.... lol

Those guys doning the Atlantic on a beach cat are either brave or nuts or both. Inspirational either way.

 

Way to go Buzz. I did basically the same. I built a Piver Frolic with twin fixed daggers on the amas.
Yours will be similar but with more room in the Vaka.
I built a Piver Nugget, but scrapped the central dagger in place of a Norm Cross style LAR keel. Made room enough for a fold out double in the Vaka and a single in each end.
Cruised for four years with wife and two boys, before moving on to more advanced Tri's and later still ---Cats.

 

I've already got a cat - Ship's Cat, that is... lol

Oh, and techernickly a Paper Tiger as well, so that's *two* cats.

But I'll tri anything at least once.......nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Will start a build thread, I think, save tangential drift from this one......

 

Right Buzz. See you on the new thread.

 

...

Here's an interesting photo, which was posted last year on the Chevaliertaglang blog.

The accompanying text:

"135 years ago, a little racing catamaran, Duster (1877), sailed by one crew was cruising right past front the San Francisco Yacht Club!"




...

A better and larger version of the same photo can be seen here (there are some notes in the margins of the original, and I can't decipher what is written to the left of 'Sausalito' at the top).

Taglang and Chevalier suggest the boat is simply 'cruising' past the yacht club, but I think they are missing something important.

I think this 1877 photo shows the little catamaran coming to the finish line during a race. That is why there is a steamboat full of people in the background, and what looks like a crowd of people on the club dock; and it is probably also why there happens to be a photographer out there on the water!

The flag behind the steamboat and the moving trees on the ridge show that it is a gusty day in spite of the smooth water in front of the club, and Duster is well reefed down on account of that.

I've done some searches but not found anything more about this photo.

So who is the gentleman sailing the boat? The boat itself looks very Herreshoff-inspired, beautifully built with a pristine sail, fine tiller arms going to each stern, where there look to be rudders, and a large centerboard. It was probably a challenge to single-hand it on a windy day, but perhaps the owner has chosen to single-hand it in order to keep the weight down, and come in first? My guess is that he indeed was finishing first in this photo.

(This photo shows the San Francisco YC clubhouse in Sausalito at the time; The SFYC moved their facilities to Belvedere Cove in 1926, at which time dissenting members wishing to remain in San Francisco established the St. Francis)