Historical multihulls

Gary Baigent · Apr 14, 2021

Beautiful early Nigel Irens design Gordano Goose.

Dolfiman · Apr 14, 2021

Gary Baigent said: ↑

Beautiful early Nigel Irens design Gordano Goose.
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Boat story, from 1981 up to its recent refit in 2018 by current owner Charles Alibert :
Document sans titre (histoiredeshalfs.com)
Video in this article : Gordano Goose, l'oie miraculée (ouest-france.fr)

Will Gilmore · Apr 14, 2021

The Double Eagle, launched 1967 as the first powered catamaran licensed by the USCG to carry passengers. Builder: Clark Mills, Clearwater Bay Marine Ways for the Old Man and Double Eagle Enterprises. The Number II and III are still in operation out of Clearwater. The DE II was also designed by Clark.

-Will (Dragonfly)

BobBill · Apr 14, 2021

Back in the day...when water was not crowded and when Malibu Outriggers began to rake the surf in CA...without masks, doncha know!

Gary Baigent · May 5, 2021

New faired box main beam, new 465mm chord wing mast for 40 year old Groucho.

John G 830J · Oct 14, 2022

Northern 11 1987. Just putting it back together now. Has it made the past historical multihull designs?

brian eiland · Nov 17, 2025

For the past 2 days, I've been reading back thru this long and interesting subject thread. Then this morning I came to the latter postings, and found this one of mine. I was rather surprised that not many (any?) folks bothered to reply to it??

I'd still be interested in issuing that le-Mans 'Sailing Challenge'
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brian eiland said: ↑

Ppalu sailing trip

We finally got out of the inlet at St Augustine on Sat morning. Turned south towards Daytona and made it on one tack.

We put up her full sail ketch rig and sailed very relaxed at 8-11 knots on a close reach. The winds started somewhere around 10-15 knots out of the east and increased to 17-22 knots by the afternoon. (we did not have wind measurement instruments, so these are estimates of mine and the skipper/owner Randy West.
Our speeds were derived via hand held GPS.

We experience a considerable ocean swell on our beam as a result of the wind having blown all night and day the day before. The swell got bigger as we approached the inlet at Ponce. We ended up surfing in a sizable swell. In fact Randy West who grew up in this area commented it was one of the largest he had ever tried to navigate thru.

Its been awhile since I've been out on a big multihull (Ppalu is 75 feet). Some of my thoughts on such designs for aging sailors have been fully reinforced:

1) The ketch rig is a godsend. There were 3 of us on the boat,...all over 55 years of age. Handling that mainsail was a chore, and I could just imagine trying to do it any shorter-handed, and in much heavier winds. Then I thought about this vessel being rigged as a sloop....WOW just that much more difficult. Even as a ketch the main mast is 63 foot tall. As a sloop it might have been 80 plus.

The mainsail was a 'stack pack' arrangement with some laze jacks. When dropping it prior to surfing in the inlet it did not what to just drop into the stack pack,...but rather this rather big heavy sail wanted to flake out over the boom and impede our view forward to help negotiate the waves we were going to surf in. It would not have been a one-person job!

Even the non-overlapping jib was a heavy sail, even while constructed of modern materials.

The mizzen was a great sail to maintain balance. We barely had to touch the wheel to keep her on course, while sailing thru a good size ocean swell. (we did not expend a lot of extra energy on tweaking the sails for max drive).

Then we had to put those sails away in the bags and covers once we were at dock. That took at least another hour, with 2 people.

It all went to reinforce my beliefs in my all-furling single-masted ketch sail plan.

Sailing Challenge

Ketch Rigged Catamaran, Chris White

Deketchification of America

Aftmast rigs??? http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailboats/aftmast-rigs-623-53.html#post753573

Overlapping Genoa and all-furling rig

2) I would prefer a dual helm station to the single one on Ppalu. It would allow one to read the sails more easily, and to get out of the shade of the mainsail at times. It was a cable system with a very large diameter wheel which gave plenty of steering power, and feedback (unlike hydraulic systems).

3) The single big outboard engine on a lowerable skid under the bridgedeck is a very adequate propulsion option for a sailboat auxiliary. Ppalu's needs to be hooked up so as to steer with the helm when docking and maneuvering under power. And I would likely modify the pivoting skid some what. What night even be more applicable without getting too fancy, would be to be able to separate the 'powerhead portion' of the engine from the drive leg. It would certainly be nice to just have a simple retractable drive leg/prop arrangement, with the powerhead portion up in a accessible 'engine box' on the wing deck.

Ppalu's outboard was adequately forward enough to not jump out of the water that often even in the considerable swells we were in. But it would have been even better had we not had that big (150hp) outboard hanging down there, but rather just a silent chain driven prop drive leg.

4) There is a lot to be said for keeping the systems simple, even on a large vessel. Her refrig and LED lighting, and cooling fans, and navigation computer were all powered by two solar panels
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Historical multihulls

Gary Baigent Senior Member

Attached Files:

GordanoGoose .jpg

Dolfiman Senior Member

Will Gilmore Senior Member

BobBill Senior Member

Gary Baigent Senior Member

Attached Files:

757U0018.JPG

757U0019.JPG

John G 830J New Member

Attached Files:

09703BE8-3111-4D5E-B069-AB40FD906E98.jpeg

4394053F-0EA8-4B46-A563-19150D810B4D.jpeg

brian eiland Senior Member

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