Small tri for single handed transpac

Nothing like some time on the water with the whole family to consider a long single handed trip!

To be serious, I have been thinking for some time in racing in the single handed transpac or the Jester challenge. I think the TP better suit my climate preferences.

It would be ideal to sail my Woods Vardo, but the logistics of getting to San Fransico for 2016 is too unrealistic.

I am thinking of building something like a modernized Piver Dart 25. There happens to be a Maine Cat 22 I can by for likely less than the cost of ama materials. The mast would no work as it has some very short motor sailer rig. Doubt it is over 20' but fully rigged with boom and furler.

Anyway, would prefer simple construction possibly using the Maine cat hulls. They might be too heavy, not sure. It would need to be demountable for the trip across country.

After the race, I might sail here down to Tonga and attempt to bareboat charter online in Vavu. I think Kiwis especially would be keen to charter it there and I have some friends in the area that could look after her.

Thoughts?

 

Try to talk Richard into going larger with his tris. I've teased him that he will eventually cave and start drawing bigger ones, this may be the push it takes.

After that something like a Cross 26 hard chine would work better than you think or a Scarab etc.....

First I recommend counseling for you and your wife because this sort of impulse can have serious side effects.

 

She'll be along for vacation in Hawaii and all that. I think the next Jester is 2018, but I'm honestly not that keen on that one could do both. Maybe going the other way from Newport and use the center hull for canal cruising something like a Bolger Tennessee.

I've obviously given up all efforts at a career!

I was thinking a Strike 25 would match up with the Maine Cat hulls. Exact same concept, mostly......

 

The Hawaii vacation is pure genius....keep it up Jeff and you might pull this off.

 

If you think of working in Tonga, check this out. The process is long and difficult.
http://www.vavau.to/facts5.html

 

It would be just the boat working. I have some friends with established businesses there that would be doing the management. They are thinking of moving on so perhaps things are changing. Beautiful place to spend a few weeks on a small tri. What weeks will you want?

 

as you know, the Jester race and TP are very different, the former is a long wet cold windward bash, the latter a much shorter, downwind, warm sleighride. So I can see why you prefer the TP!

But I would suggest the Salish 28 rather than a small trimaran. Still an easy build and trailable, but it will be quicker off wind and will have more load carrying

http://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/3-25ft-to-30ft-catamarans-designs/432-salish-28

The similar sized Skua has sailed across the Atlantic so a Salish 28 can do it, and I know you can

Where are you now? Velcro Beach?

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

Yes was here last night and tonight, plan to depart tomorrow.

Borrowed a jig saw this morning from some mates haven't seen in a few years on the next mooring over. Why I was thinking of naming the boat "Happenstance".

They have been here since Xmas day (last year) guess that's where the Velcro comes in.

I'll see what kind of deal I can swing on the Maine cat in a few months. Hulls may have a bunch of water in them been on a lift for a long time seriously neglected. Tide come high enough to keep the bottom well coated in fouling. Maybe just make it into a summer cruiser for Michigan.

 

An option that would not need building, would out perform the tri and, if you can find a couple of others to share the shipping, would be cheaper to campaign: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttXu3pRTzs8. Either charter it for the race, or build/buy one. More suited for the TP than the Jester challenge, but this applies to almost all boats! Would blow the kiwis away in Tonga as a high performance modern variation on a traditional theme.

rob

 

Sounds like it is more than you want to take on, but you might look at a Hughes tri. Fast to build and sorta conventional at this point. Fastest option on the water suggested so far, until the HP is actually proven. Which I see no reason why it can't be.

You can do an ama a week of 20 hours a week for a Hughes, and the main hull goes fast but you pretty much need a real place to build. I think it is the fastest cheap way to build that uses ply, if that is what you are looking for. But you need a space. There are a lot of things you can do to make this boat cheap if you are only thinking one way. You could fairly cheaply ship everything but the hulls back, you can ship those also. But for what they cost to build, they can be dumped.

 

Rob, when you get your program off the ground, one potential add on would be to use the containers as a means of getting spars and boards, or materials to market. I would probably have bought a spar if I had known you were shipping all those poles to Canada, particularly if I had had a west coast address. But there wasn't that option (didn't know it was there). Great way to spread the more technical parts to new markets, or to up your profit margin on them.

 

I'd be surprised if you can build three round bilge ply hulls quicker than two hard chine flat panel ones, but still

I was googling for race results for Hughes designs, which surely would prove that they are the "fastest option" but couldn't find anything recent.

OK on his site he says Chaak won the Swiftsure, but it was, as far as I can tell, also from his site, a modified Searunner. And anyway it hasn't raced since 1990.

See here, page 97

http://www.swiftsure.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014-Facts-and-Stats.pdf

I have been racing multihulls in the PNW for 10 years and never seen a Hughes out racing.

OK again, there is Gecko, his 15ft trimaran, also quoted as a "winner" on his site. I have sailed on that boat but the Pender regatta it "won" is a fun race, as are the Saturna regatta and BCMS Pender races (I've "won" those in my Merlin and Strike 18) so dinghies and cruising monohulls also race. And prizes are awarded according to an arbitary system, usually adjusted so that tail enders or newcomers win...

So tell me I'm wrong, and his designs have won races recently against "known" designs like the F31, for example (I also see people asked the same question here 3 years ago). It's really surprising that there is no list of race results, because claiming race wins is the easiest way to independently prove the speed of a design

Shipping the mast home would be the expensive bit, the rest will all fit in one container. Not sure if you can just "dump" a boat anywhere, and especially not in the USA. "Donate" to a school maybe

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

I couldn't find any Hughes results either when I checked a few years back when he was criticizing Newick on his blog.....

To get back to Jeff, he wanted to build one hull not 2 or 3 for the obvious reasons.

 

Gecko was Kurt's 40' trimaran, Gizmo was the 15' trimaran. I've heard from the Claringbold's who sailed their 40' trimaran Spirit of Emu in Seattle that Kurt's F40 trimaran was very fast and easily outpaced their much heavier boat it was also faster than Biscuits Cantreau 2/Running with Scissors in the light conditions around Seattle. Gecko is being rebuilt by it's new owner so hopefully we will be able to see how it stacks up in the modern context soon.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gecko/328374460702512

 

My apologies, doing it all by memory, too many G's. It was Gizmo I sailed, I've not seen Kurt out sailing either on any boat, guess he doesn't race any more

RW