twiggy drawings

Does any one have drawings of the twiggy trimarans.

The only drawing and photos I have access to are in Cathy Hawkins book return in the wake.

There may have been some in a magazine, possibly cat sailor from Australia
Cathy may have also written for the same magazine?

Form what I can remember it had a wide beam, was the floats low buoyancy or a moderate buoyancy. How ever it would be a relative volume compared to today's trimarans.

Thanks if anyone can help.

 

A friend of mine has the plans for the Mk 2 version. I had some plans there for a while.

My old Twiggy is now very sad - it was a beautiful boat before.

Why do you want the photos?

Phil

 

Theres a cheap Twiggy on Yachthub at the moment, needs a bit of work from the looks of it

http://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sailing-trimaran/31-crowther-twiggy/112601

DAVE

 

My interest is in the design aspects of the twiggy. As mentioned earlier from what I under stood it had a wide overall beam and medium to low buoyancy floats. Was it also designed for the ORSTAR race of that period?

It just part of my relearning process ( I have had a 10 year break from my interest in boats) as I am working on the Idea of a 21 foot trimaran so I am also following thee buccaneer 24 threads as well.

The twiggy has been mentioned for reverse engineering. I am observing all forms to learn from them.

 

A Twiggy with foil assist would be a top boat. Plus rotating wing mast of course. If this Twiggy is basically sound, go get it Warwick, dump the clutter and take it back to "bare essentials" and bring it over here. Catsketcher Phil knows all about them; has been covered here before, go hunt. A tuned Twiggy bis version would be a cat amongst the local fat pigeons.
Or maybe you could check out my long float version of Sid (two beams, conventional rig) that I'm drawing up for Jacques.

 

A this stage I am working through my requirements. I aim to keep it simple and functional.

Gary do you have any drawings of your long float sid up up on the forum?
I only found the forum earlier this year, so have followed Your progress with sid.

I had started working my own project on and off a year ago, and found it similar to a new buccaneer 24 but at 22 feet similar aims a modern version.

I plan to put it up once I get further advanced for advice comments.

 

Well, I'm still playing around with "Three Devils": here's the tentative main hull and floats, platform is 8 x 8 metres, floats are full length but needles, round in section except bow, needs angled foils.

 

Another ultra cool design from Gary, I love the way your head works

I assume simmilar construction to Sid, tortured ply?

DAVE

 

Twiggy

Lock Crowther designed the Twiggy in about 1977 for a client in England. She was designed to fit in the Jester class like Newick's Val trimarans.

The Twiggy had about over 100% floats supposedly. My brother interviewed Lock for an article on the Twiggy and Lock said if the floats were submersible they would implode when 14ft underwater - maybe he was joking. That said the you will never see a Twiggy flying on her ama - they need to be fatter to do so.

They were an interesting but flawed design. They were too fine in the bows and their fore and aft stability was less than their sideways stability - a really bad combination. I loved my Twiggy

Phil

 

thanks Phil,

it has clear up some things I had thought of the design. I wasn't exactly to sure of float volume. Was it a case Lock went for extra beam to compensate for float volume. As well to what degree the relationship between length and beam stability was understood at that time. By increasing one aspect created problems with the other in terms of stability.

In some ways Ian and Cathy almost achieved its goal, to compete in a transatlantic race.

Hind sight is a wonder full thing these days.

 

Twiggy was one of the first boats that were computer designed - well computers helped a bit. Lock had a program that he used to work out that the vector from the rig is always about 45 degrees forward of the beam and further forward IF you sail like Tornados and other boats do. That is never square run.

The problem is people do square run and so the greater stability due to beam led to increased sail area which was far greater than any torque the thin bows could generate, If you look at the mods Ian did after the capsize he then made matters worse by increasing the volume up high so that it could only come into effect too late and then cause greater tripping. No other Twiggys did this.

The Mk 2 boats had a lot more buoyancy lower down which made them safer but no Mk 2s were ever raced hard. They seem safer but Formula 40s were the rage when the Mk 2s were around and it seemed like cats were the future of cruising and racing.

If I were to design a modern 21ft tri I would look at Farrier of course but also a little tri Troy Munnery built. Great little thing.

cheers

Phil

 

Catsketcher Phil, Remembering those cartwheel times, it seemed to me that Ian was running flat off in fresh winds with masthead (and I bet a baggy version) kite - just asking for trouble. He did it twice. Even in those days, no one in Auckland did that, they gybed downhill with flatter extras. What I'm saying is that Twiggy's bad press arose because of a certain old fashioned sailing technique. Okay, blaze away.

 

One of the last photos of twiggy before the second capsize, taken from caths book showing the alteration.

Or was the bad press caused by a combination of both aspects, and trying chase down a 60 footer (shot over 1) as for sail maker and hired hand. As well as a Pro monohull media.

 

What I can find on the Twiggy design.......

 

And on sailing the boat......somewhere I have something on her capsize, but it may take a bit to find.......