Project Description
The design criteria was to design a small trimaran that was:
1. easy for build for the “backyard builder”
2. Inexpensive
3. Fast
4. Easy to trailer and fold
5. Embraced the KISS principal
What we achieved was a very fast, easy to sail, trimaran which sold, complete for $30K and was faster than the F-24’s, F-27’s and in most conditions even beat the average, cruising F/C 31.
Easy to build? We provided the below water shape with a glass/epoxy “boot” to which sides of plywood/glass/epoxy were attached. Then, a foam sandwich, flat deck was put on and voila…..the hull or float was ready. For cross-arms we used “off the shelf” pultruded fiberglass I-beams. Folding was done horizontally….the beams slide past each other. If you wanted to keep the mast up you just moved the running backstays to the main hull and the shrouds could go slack when you pushed each float in. On person could do it easily.
Innovative ideas:
1. sliding system
2. Mast raising system….using the running backstays as temp. Shrouds and the daggerboard as the “gin pole”
