Small trimarans under 20'

I had a Bucc 24 for two years, (before I built a B 28). It was pretty light and the floats didn't touch the water. As a result it tacked very fast. A real asset.
At anchor we simply lashed our folding dinghy in a side net and ---no rocking.
I think the fear of "rocking", expressed in this forum is over done, as in practice it is no big deal.
My first 24ft Tri was a Piver "Nugget". It was a great boat, but now the rocking was very bad. It had floats which were immersed at rest, but as they were of deep V section it rocked violently in the wake of a passing power boat, the floats acting like squeezing an orange pip between thumb and fore finger.

 

Zeta

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Richard, I've looked and looked but haven't been able to find the design sail area for the Zeta or at least the area of the main in the pictures. I apologize if I've missed it somehow but could you help?

 

Richard I must commend you on the fact that you actually finish a design and then actually build it when you publish designs.
It is a refreshing change from the plethora of rendered "designs" that are nothing more than vapourware !
A picture of an idea is not a "design".
Cheers,
RR

 

If you go to this page

http://sailingcatamarans.com/index....-under-25/458-zeta-14ft-singlehanded-trimaran

you can see a link to the pdf study sheet just below the sail plan drawing

as I say there, and elsewhere, the mainsail I used this year is a cut down 18 year old sail. This is the 4th boat it has been on. 8.5sqm. So smaller than the "official" size. I recommend a jib, but I didn't have time to cut down the one I do have, fit jib halyard, sheet leads etc before the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival in September. We did make a screecher though, but, being nylon and free flying, it doesn't work too well to windward.

So the jib will have to wait until next year as right now I am 5000 miles from the boat

I hope that helps

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

Thank you for the compliment. I am not very good at drawing pictures of boats. I think I am quite good at drawing boats though.

Even so I much prefer sailing to designing or building.

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

Zeta

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Thanks!

 

Zeta

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Richard, I'm curious about your thinking about a circumstance where the Zeta might capsize or pitchpole and throw the crew overboard. If that happened given the ama displacement of about 271lb and the boat weight of 160, would it be likely to turn turtle? I know this happens on a Weta and was curious what you thought about the possibility of it happening on a Zeta?
I'd appreciate your thinking on this......

 

Weta Righting from Turtled

It would be interesting to know of other righting systems for turtled small trimarans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xXm-x3OgD0

 

My Solway Dory tri is designed not to capsize - it has a modest bermudan ketch rig of just 88 square feet, and 200kg of buoyancy in each outrigger. However, never say never, and it is designed to be righted by opening the stern buoyancy and allowing it to flood, and attaching a bridle to the forward cross beam either side of the main hull. Stand on the inverted stern to sink it, while pulling on the bridle. They do, apparently, come down gently! Here are some photos of the technique applied to the smaller Osprey trimaran. Sorry, no video.

Solway Dory Righting Osprey: capsize recovery tests

 

righting a small tri

Thanks, TT-I wasn't able to get your pictures-it came up : "about:blank".
Sounds like the Weta system-will your boat turn turtle like the Weta? What does the boat weight w/o the crew?
---
UPDATE: I got the url to work w/o the http:// but when I copied it here it came out with it--and worked-don't know why!

http://www.solwaydory.co.uk/articles/righting-osprey-capsizerecovery-tests/

 

18ft A-cat vs 18 ft trimaran

Update from Chryz Outlaw
Finally we where able to race my 18ft A Class catamaran vs 18 ft home built trimaran (Chryz Outlaw). Probably the last sailing day in sweden for me before winter. It was very light wind, but really super great sailing day
We put one action cam on each boat. Please comment if you like it.
https://youtu.be/vEHXJQNaxXM



br
Chris
www.chryz10.com

 

Turning Turtle

Not a tri but I have a 32ft cat that be put right with one person after capsize in short order. Very clever system for it's time. I'm a sucker for old unique multi-hulls.

 

rightable cat

olsurfer, do you have any pictures or a link to show how it works?

 

I'd be surprised if you haven't seen this www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIsbtjvseZs and you want to see part 1.

 

G 32

I hadn't seen that system but I'd heard of it-thanks for the video!