Cross 27

Any thoughts on this design. Looking for your thoughts for a coastal cruiser.
I'm new to Multihulls, have over 50,000 nm sailing mono's. Getting old and not as sprie as I once was. Go figger huh..Michael..

 

The Cross 26 is a great boat, a round hull 27 would be a little faster. If you want room in that size the Tristar 27-9 has twice as much, the Cross will have more speed. They have done well coastal cruising and racing back in the day. The fixed keel will handle bumps but not let you nose up to the beach. Of course any tri without a skeg or short keel for beaching shouldn't be grounded. I think the 27 has a deeper keel than the 26 though most of the Cross designs have options. A good all rounder.

 

Cav, I've had thought's of placing small keels on the ama's as well and maybe shortening the main keel. Do you think this is a stupid thought? having a shallow draft would be nice for cruising the Key's. Still trying to figure out what to do. The Horstman seems to have a lot of windage. I've been sailing a flush deck Haida and love the low profile. Michael..

 

Actually Norman Cross offered the option on boats that needed super shallow draft. The Nicols were all that way, I'll post the pdf of Clipper here and on the Nicol plan thread to give you an idea about placement.You'd probably want to go a littles deeper. At 25' Clipper is in the size range you're looking at. One was sailed half way round the world. If you can live without the headroom the Cross would be faster to windward. Measure the Tristar freeboard and set up something so you can see if it is too tall for you.

 

Thanks Cav, I was looking at that pdf yesterday, that is what got me thinking. Would like to get the draft @ around 2'. As far as headroom goes, I'm used to 5'4" on my Haida, the Cross is 4'10" and I belive I would raise the trunk 6" w/out causing a mess w/ the lines. I'm 6' and old and bent over anyway. Life is tough as an old salt. Michael..

 

Go to Cruisers & Sailing forum and search the post on Horstman tri-stars, some where there is a post by Fred G with some stat,s on the Horstman 27'9", 31,32XRC, I think the other two were Cross 31, Searunner 31. Rick

 

Haidas are great boats too. If you're looking at travel to different areas the Horstman 26 folder makes sense, for cats a demountable Wharram Tiki or Pahi 26 or one of Richard Woods fine offerings. A Folding tri has a nice cabin and takes less effort to get sailing than a demount. A quick list would be to ask if you plan on changing areas, how much help you'd have etc.....If you are staying in one area a wing deck tri is easy to get around on and drier than the folding variety. These are all easy to build, affordable boats compared to other options but don't make the mistake of thinking they won't take some time to build. Double diagonal construction is actually pretty easy if you are working alone as the planking isn't as awkward as sheet ply.

 

The Cross tri's are good looking boats. The Horstmans I tend to think of as functional boats with a "different" look.. Boat for boat at the same time comparisons usually give an edge to the Cross up into heavy weather when the Horstmans get the edge. Really hard to go wrong with any of the tried and true designs, it just comes down to what you like.

 

The 27'9" was the plans I had in mind to buy, but one of my nephews talked me into the 31, he,s been surffing in S Florida last week and not boat building. I dont think any of the three designs , Cross , Horstmans, Searunners, can be beat by new designs as far as cruisers go. In researching before buying plans I found a lot of post,s about how ugly Horstmans are and windage,but most of those people had never sailed on one. Do plenty of research before you make up your mind. Each design brings something different to the table. One other thing about the Horstman designs is the foam option , which was high on my list. Rick

 

The round hulled Cross tris also offer foam and a few people have built foam Searunners. And of course Nicols kick butt.

 

My big issue with Cross trimarans is the fin keels, kills one of the multi's big advantages, further boards can be retracted in survival weather to stop tripping.

 

There is really nothing to stop you from putting in a board. People have added them to the main hull or amas with great results. I like the Cross 44 performance cruiser. On that design I'd shorten the keel and put a centerboard trunk in it and under the cabin sole. Easy enough to build into the set up and would work fine on the models with deep enough bilges. Daggerboard trunks are also easy to make room for in those interiors. The keels have worked well for cruising, a Cross with a LAR is still going to go to weather better than a bridgedeck cat with LARs.
Appearance is in the eyes of the beholder but the Cross tris have an elegance to them and a sea kindly motion. The Searunners are very utilitarian in looks, the Horstmans unique. Pivers- very 60s. The Marples boats use their CC curves to advantage. All are capable American cruising tri designs that plans are still available for.

 

i have a cross 27, it is a great boat. doesnt go to weather like a modern mono and the windier the worse it is. it doesnt have much room, but i was use to a moor 24 so it is bigger than that. all other conditions it scoots and is fun to sail. definately back packing style cruising. i'm not sure what kind of payload it is capable of carrying as far as criusing is conserned. you would have to go light to cross an ocean but i feel the boat is capable. i would take it to hawaii, in fact i think it could win a race there. the 38r would be a sweet boat, but i'm happy with the 27

 

This is NOT something I would recommend. A Loooong time ago I had a Piver Nimble with "shark fins" on the Ama's. Anytime you got the olde girl moving in a breeze the windward fins would go in and out of the water and the drag from this would cause an evasive torpedo maneuver to become automatic.

A friend with the same boat bought the plans and installed the Cross keel for the Nimble and never looked back, made her perform like a different boat. And this was in Key Largo, the draft difference isn't that big a deal for cruising the keys as one might expect. Less draft is better of course, but anything less than 4ft is not very restricting to get into most places you want to go.

cav's rundown of the various designs in this size is spot on BTW.

Steve

 

Hi Steve, I think the Cross ama keel options were like the Nicol, LAR keels which avoid the squirrely behavior and let the boat ground out flat. A single deeper Cross keel is more efficient but draws about 1 foot more.