Lex Nicol, did he ever create any stock plans?

Hi mate, would be keen to have a look at cliffhanger at some stage, its been a while, if ever looking for crew please fwd my number on to owner, 0438221968, Craig ( Cliff Fraser's son)

 

Speaking of CliffHanger!....

Well, I guess you could say that I, too, am an interested party, wanting to see CliffHanger again.... I first saw here in action at Seabornia Marina, In Miura Peninsula, near Tokyo, Japan.... When Terry Purcelle(sp?) and Diane sailed her up the coast, and spent about 4 months or so blowing the minds of all the tradition-bound Japan-based monohullists....

Cliffhanger was the very first REAL trimaran that conclusively could do all those things that monohullists loved to say that multihulls can't do!

It had real speed on almost every point, was smoother, faster, and far more comfortable than any monohull in the infamous Tokyo Bay "slam-dunk" chop, and she pointed so high that we were getting altitude sickness! Once the sails were set, Diane could pretty much run the boat by herself (The guys were all so lazy in those days!)

At least, it was the first one to visit Japan and get a lot of good press!

Every time there was a local regatta for the "big boys", Terry would hold back, well behind wherever the starting line was, and wait until the first boat went around the first up-wind mark.... and....

UP went the sails, on came the blasting rock music, and out came the lawn furniture and drinks (mostly soft!), and we simply screamed through the middle of the field, twice as fast as anything else on the water, pointing higher than most of the monos (with their crews draped over the windward rail, very wet and cold, and we would be toasting their health as we went by, lounging on the deck or tramp.... in bathing suits, (Hey! We had to maintain our tans!)

What was particularly cool about all this (not to mention patently perverse!), was the fact that since we had to take on a certain "minimum crew", he usually grabbed a bunch of youngsters who were not yet "good enough" to be allowed to join any of the other boat's crews! Think what an impact THAT experience had on those young sailors' expectations!!!!

I think that Jim Brown probably said it best with his old saw about "It is VERY difficult to settle for tomato when you have come to expect papaya and mango!"

By the way..... I think it was the year after Terry and Diane's visit that was the first time that there was a good showing of Cats and Tris at the Tokyo Boat Show.... and they got a LOT of attention, too!!!!

I think, too, it was the next year after that a local importer purchased MacSnorter, an OSTAC Parallax 11, a Robin Chamberlin design, and totally blew every body away at the show that year! It, too, got a lot of good press, too..... More about how that unfolded over time, another time.

(Lucky me, being in the right place at the right time: I was lucky enough to become her skipper for that first year.... and I loved every minute of it!)

Sorry that this was so much longer than I intended.... but I just wanted to point out to many of you dyed in the wool, long time, old-timer multi-hullers, that there was once a VERY different world out there, outside of Europe and Oz, where a young couple like Terry and Diane, "cruising" the world in a boat like CliffHanger, changed EVERYthing, almost overnight!!!!

What I am curious about.... aside from what happened to the promised pictures of CliffHanger, is
"Who are the torch bearers for today?!?!"

Mast-less kite rigs, no more fossil fuels on board, energy self-sufficiency?!?! Where are these topics being discussed, designed, implemented, tested, shared, improved?!?!

I just discovered this resource, and I think it is HUGE.... but a quick look over the main forum catagories still don't distinguish between sailing and power multihulls, still has nothing for alternative non-fossil fuel-based power generation.....

Propulsion (42 Viewing)
Discuss marine engines, drives, and propulsion systems.
Sub-Forums: Props, Surface Drives, Jet Drives, Outboards, Sterndrives, Pod Drives, Inboards, Diesel Engines, Gas Engines, Hybrid, DIY Marinizing

No electric only? No sail "re-generation"?

Somebody show me the error of my ways.... Slap my face (nicely, please!), send me links, so that I can find "the REST of the story", as quickly as possible.

My hope is that We, our generation, do not become the 21 Century's version of the traditionalistic monohullists of bygone years.

Milo (66)
(Tokyo, Japan)

 

Hey Milo, interesting story but it's funny you mention this as I remember being at the Hamo race week in the late eighties on Dad's cat "Nudgie Budgee" and looking round the marina and seeing both Devils3 and Cliffhanger all at the same time, one morning before race start a young Japanese couple were standing there admiring our boat when the old man invited them on board for a look, once they understood what we were asking they quickly ran off and returned soon after with two large bottles of orange juice? Apparently well sort after in Japan, they were newlyweds on their honeymoon and enjoyed looking over the boat, dad then pointed out the other two trimarans just near bye that he had previously built and raced, without hesitating the young Japanese man shouts out "criffhanger, criffhanger", they had raced against her in Japan and he couldn't believe he had just met the builder and original owner, small world hey, we did invite them out for the day but they already had things organized, later we witnessed them trying to negotiate crossing the marina in a dinghy amongst all the outgoing boats for race day, a little funny as I don't think he was overly nimble in his little vessel.
Dad always said Cliffhanger had the most potential out of all his past boats, a lot of great memories.

 

Cliffy was one of a kind, in every sense of the expression. On so many levels, in so many ways!

Just out of curiosity, who is the current owner. That was so long ago, yet I simply can't imagine Terry ever letting her go! <<smile>>

 

For Pete's sake sombody buy her!
http://www.boatpoint.com.au/boats-for-sale/boatdetails.aspx?R=11620215
I want...
but there's just no way my wife would come at those $ for a 33yr old tri

 

I was given a tour of Cliffhanger in mid 2011 on a MYCQ Moreton Bay cruise weekend anchored off North Stradbroke Island.

She's a gorgeous old trimaran with a surprising amount of space down below considering how sleek she looks. Oh if only I had a spare 99 grand

DAVE

 

Mooloolaba fire truck designed by Lex Nicol photo courtesy of "Y-Bar" on Sailing Anarchy Forums.

 

H

 

Lex Nicol has recently passed away, he was a genuinely innovative designer on the Australian performance multihull scene. Vale and fair winds Lex.

 

Lex was a truly innovative designer. Some of his designs were years ahead of there time. A true loss.

 

I had a nice chat to him many years ago on the phone, considered building an updated version of Hired Hand but ultimately decided on a different design. He was still focussed on the importance of lightweight design and had lost none of his insight when it came to racing and what was needed to win.

 

Cliffhanger anecdote:
Rabaul, PNG, ~12/1985
10 or so cruisers anchored in the bay, killing time until end of cyclone season allowed going further south.
On the ham-radio grapevine there is talk of an Australian trimaran due in within the next week, a bloke with TWO (2!) women on board.
True enough, one day Cliffhanger comes around the headland heading for the anchorage, skipper steering, ladys sitting on the side deck, one gorgeous lady brushing the other gorgeous lady's long hair.
All the other skippers riveted at their lifelines, slavering. "Idiots!" says my lady, "you too!"

 

I agree that it would be a good idea to catalogue the history of these things as Aussies and Kiwis punch well above their weight in innovation and design excellence. I never got into sail boat racing much, and tended to focus on smaller commercial vessels mostly as it is hard to get a quid out of yachties. The old line was that "the wind is free and they expect every thing else to be free". Of course some retort involving "stink boats" and "regurgitation" normally followed, as tends to happen at pubs and clubs around the waterfront. We are after all brothers and sisters united by a love of barnacle cuts, abysmal conditions and brine showers.