micro cruising trimaran

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Best small cruising trimaran revealed

Oct 22, 2020

less than a min

A trimaran is a boat categorized as a multihull. What it means is that this particular vessel is composed of three hulls that aid the boat during sailing but also provide interior spaces for the crew and guests to enjoy.

Trimarans are very popular in the sailboat market. They are mainly appreciated for their speed but also for their cruising character that can address families’ interests as well. Trimarans allow for leveled sailing, ample deck space, stability, comfort, shallow draft, and most importantly the good old family fun time.

A small cruising trimaran is probably one of the most popular boats nowadays as it provides an affordable but also an interesting way how to spend your free time and enjoy what nature has to offer. Let’s get to the gist of it then. Which is the best small trimaran nowadays?

Most popular small cruising trimaran

The best small cruising trimaran so far remains the F22 . The F22 Trimaran is designed by Ian Farrier and built by Farrier Marine company. It features a swan design and can be purchased in two versions, racing or cruiser form. This is a small trimaran that includes many interesting features within a compact space. It has a slightly offset centerboard trunk that allows for an ample interior.

In addition, it has an ama folding system. This is an advantageous feature as it allows the ama beam strength to remain to a maximum while the interior is free from any structural support structure for the beam. Fly spray is also reduced due to the folding struts being carried higher than before in case of deployment. This feature allows the F22 trimaran to have a greater performance under sail.

This small cruising trimaran comes in two versions, either with a carbon mast or an aluminum one. In addition, it is equipped with a boomless mainsail furling rig which makes sail handling easier. Most importantly, sailing efficiency is not sacrificed in any case.

What makes this boat the best small cruising trimaran is the fact that it can be used as a cruiser due to its interior. The galley has a two-burner Origo stove, a small sink, and a stow for sailing. In addition, the companionway has a pop-top that increases the headroom. Moreover, the F22 is equipped with a small chemical toilet that is quite private due to a roll-up screen and bulkhead that can be folded. All in all, the F22 contains 4 berths and can be used by families as well.

Compare the best small trimaran with other multihulls

You can learn more about the F22 trimaran on TheBoatDB . TheBoatDB provides an organized platform that anyone can use for free with a no time limitation account or what we like to call a “Forever free account”.

You can compare the F22 to other trimarans or even catamarans and single-hull boats and see for yourself whether this boat is up to the challenge for you. In addition, you can shortlist this trimaran or select a few different boats for future references. All in all, you will get your boating life on one platform as we like to say!

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Micro Cruising Multihulls

Discussion in ' Multihulls ' started by Skint For Life , Jul 31, 2011 .

Skint For Life Junior Member

Hi everyone, I've searched the forums and haven't found what I'm after. I want to create a discussion about Micro cruising multihulls, also known as pocket cruisers. I welcome any designs and ideas regarding these boats. I'm leaning towards a catamaran, but would like to see any trimarans that fit the bill. My main area of interest is in boats that fit the 2.5meter maximum trailer width without folding, quick setup and launch time, cabin, low COE and COG, unstayed rig, double berth with camping type accomodations, small porta potti, gas cooker etc. One of my favourite boats I have found so far is the amazing "miss cindy" Built and sailed by tony bigras over 4000 nautical miles! http://turtleislands.net/tmc/ I've just finished reading the 19 page blog of his adventures, truly inspirational. I was quite surprised by the advantages of having a boat that small cruising that far, for example. Less systems to fail, lower loads and strain on the captain, buying a small amount of fuel from fishermen got his little boat alot further than it would a large boat, being able to lighten the boat quickly to drag it over sand bars with just the crew dragging it, lifting the boat in and out of the water with man power (this could be very handy when in a third world country and a massive storm/hurricane is approaching). I'm not really interested in boats that increase the length to beam above the 2:1 ratio. A boat that seems to fit is the jarcat 5 http://jarcatmarine.com/Jarcat5_6.html The Gato possibly I'm sure there are many others, so feel free to post them up. Some info on the cabin cats from this list would be good: http://www.ee.hacettepe.edu.tr/~semih/d4/ I like the rounded shape of the cabin of miss cindy, I wonder if having rounded bilges/keels perhaps like the cylinder mould technique produces and running dagger boards/ a center board would be an advantage, would the boat point higher to the wind? In large breaking seas the daggers could be pulled so that the boat gets pushed around rather than tripping over it's deep "V" keels. I would think in a boat this size being sailed conservatively that wave induced capsize would be a major concern. I want to point out that I am not proposing taking a boat like this far offshore, I do think a boat like this should be built as safe as is possible. A righting system should be a serious consideration, as is obviously plenty of built in bouyancy. So lets see what is already out there and ideas people have on improving existing designs, completely new designs etc

Attached Files:

Miss cindy.jpg, gato-nuevo-bow-obl-8-w-450x300.jpg, gato-nuevo-aft-obl-8-w.jpg.

rapscallion Senior Member

The ECOcat fits the bill. http://www.ikarus342000.com/ECO6page.htm

peterchech Senior Member

Once u decide that non folders are the way to go, that 8'6" beam limitation really gets rid of many of the advantages of a multihull and it looks like a monohull is what is really gonna fit the bill in a rational sense

peterchech. If your read the post by Tony Bigras "05-11-2009, 04:46 PM" on the link below you will see why he chose a multi over a mono. http://forum.woodenboat.com/archive/index.php/t-94656.html I agree with his point of view. I like the stable upright ride, less heeling, no lead weight to drag you to the bottom of the ocean etc. rapscallion. I can't get that page to load properly with the eco6. It loads a bit then goes blank and shows an error. Is there any other websites with that design on?

redreuben redreuben

Trimarans are hard to beat for useable space in this size range and the Scarabs are as good as it gets, imo ! http://www.teamscarab.com.au/index.html

Steve W Senior Member

Bernard Rhodes in NZ built a little 16ft cat years ago of this style,it even had an aft cabin and could be righted by i guy. There was a story in Sea Spray years ago. Steve.

rayaldridge Senior Member

Peter I have to disagree that a multi with a 8.5 foot beam is necessarily inferior to a monohull, except in load-carrying ability. My Slider is just under 16 feet in length, and is faster, more stable, more comfortable, and a better camping platform than any 16 foot open beachcruising monohull I've ever seen or sailed. How many 16 foot open monohulls can have a queensize airbed on the deck and still have undiminished seating in the hulls? For a cabin cat in this size range, my favorite is Thomas Firth Jones' 18 foot Weekender, which uses asymmetric hulls to get the centerlines a little further apart. http://www.jonesboats.com/Images/weekendplan.jpg

redreuben. I checked out the scarab 16 as that is a comparable length to a fixed max trailerable beam catamaran like miss cindy. The scarab appears to have alot less useable space. It also is a folding or demount boat, not fixed beam. I'm obviously missing something. Was I supposed to be looking at a different trimaran? Steve W. That sounds interesting, do you know the technique he used for righting it? Does anyone know about this boat? pictures? links?

Skint, Bernard Rhodes is an expat English boatbuilder who designed and built a little 23ft plywood trimaran in England and sailed it halfway around the world to NZ back in the late 60s i think, then built an updated version with lifting foils in the amas and raced it in Auckland, so, lots of experience there. I belive he lives on Weiheke island in Auckland so you should be able to contact him direct. Steve.

Oh, i think he righted it like a beachcat with his own weight and a masthead float to prevent it from inverting, hes not a big guy either, maybe he used a waterbag too? Steve.

Skint, you may well be right volume for volume, but I would argue the tri has a more liveable area in the main hull rather than 2 sewer pipes. But maybe I am just more performance orientated than you. The Jarcat type doesn't do it for me too boxy and narrow. There is also the 18 and 22. He also has a small cat, http://www.teamscarab.com.au/5.6cat/design.html RR

That weekender is an interesting design ray. I certainly didn't mean to imply anything against multihulls, especially since I will begin building Richard Woods' Acorn 21' catamaran this september. (I decided against the buc 24 trimaran for cost and build-time reasons). Not willing to have a multihull that disassembles for trailering is just counter-intuitive to me. Especially with all the super easy trimaran folding systems out there (think farrier). What takes time in setting up a boat is stepping the mast and setting up the boom/etc. Trimarans may win here again because an unstayed mast could be used (instead of two in a cat). But honestly I have a staying system on my current boat that uses a clam cleated forestay and polyester line, and takes less than 60 seconds to set up. So... By allowing the boat to have the proper amount of beam, you have a much safer, more comfortable and faster boat at the cost of 5-20 minutes more setup time (5 minutes for a farrier-style tri and more for a catamaran). I guess you give up on any sort of real bridgedeck though (if a cat)... That scarab 18 is one good looking boat, a bit more of a "real" boat than the 16 IMHO and wouldn't cost so much more...

I am rambling, but I have a very limited budget and equally limited build time for my next boat. I looked at many many designs, and made many many considerations. It seems to me that although trimarans under, say, 28' usually have more comfortable living space and are often faster than catamarans, they are also much more costly and take much longer to build than a non-bridgedecked cat. So as far as "bang for the buck", you get the same carrying capacity at less money and a quicker build generally with a cat. I came to this determination painfully, since there is something just magical to me about watching the amas of a trimaran plodding and popping through swells and chop

peterchech said: ↑ That weekender is an interesting design ray. Not willing to have a multihull that disassembles for trailering is just counter-intuitive to me. Especially with all the super easy trimaran folding systems out there (think farrier). What takes time in setting up a boat is stepping the mast and setting up the boom/etc. Trimarans may win here again because an unstayed mast could be used (instead of two in a cat). But honestly I have a staying system on my current boat that uses a clam cleated forestay and polyester line, and takes less than 60 seconds to set up. So... By allowing the boat to have the proper amount of beam, you have a much safer, more comfortable and faster boat at the cost of 5-20 minutes more setup time (5 minutes for a farrier-style tri and more for a catamaran). Click to expand...

DarthCluin Senior Member

On the other hand, if you have an about an hour to set up or take down:

brine03.jpg

Brine02.jpg, brine06.jpg, brshrimplan.jpg.

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Rough sea proa cruising, shunting is the future... balkan shipyards.

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Digital edition

Coast 250: The mighty micro cruiser

March 30, 2020

Producing a boat that planes under power and sails like a thoroughbred has been an elusive quest for decades. Has Swallow Yachts’ Coast 250 succeeded where others have failed? David Harding went to find out

A carbon rig and laminate sails contribute to the sprightly performance. Credit: David Harding

Product Overview

Fast and easy to handle under sail
Smooth and efficient planing under power
Roomy and practical layout
Engine could do with more sound proofing
Foot-braces on cockpit seats would be useful
Self-tacking jib presents limitations

Price as reviewed:

Sailing yachts are designed to sail and motorboats to motor, right? And never the twain shall interbreed – at least not successfully? This hasn’t stopped people trying.

Motor-sailers have always been around. More recently we have also seen the planing power-sailer, as epitomised by the phenomenally successful MacGregor 26.

Some might argue that power-sailers, like motor-sailers, have been compromises that neither motor nor sail particularly well.

But whatever your views, the fact is that now, nearly 25 years after the power-sailing version of the MacGregor (the MacGregor 26X) appeared, we have a British-built boat of similar size that will motor efficiently and comfortably at 15 knots without compromise to its sailing ability.

If you’re helming from the coaming, the engine box can be used as a foot brace. Credit: David Harding

So how has this been achieved, and what lessons have been learned from the attempts of earlier builders?

Well, all previous power-sailers that have sold in any number have had certain characteristics in common.

One is lacklustre sailing performance, even though I have met MacGregor owners who defend them to the hilt.

After MacGregor’s 26X came the 26M. It sailed slightly better but was still heavily compromised, as was the Polish-built Odin 26 (later reincarnated as the Imexus 27) and Legend’s Edge 27.

Video: Trailer sailing made easy

The best performer under sail was the Tide 28, which made the headlines when a 14-year-old Michael Perham sailed Cheeky Monkey across the Atlantic in 2007.

The challenge with designing a power-sailer is that sailing yachts and planing powerboats tend to have very different hull forms for good reason, even before you consider fundamentals like the sailing yacht’s need for ballast, a rig, and foils that generate lift.

Most power-sailers have had a large outboard on the broad stern of a hull with very little rocker, leading to an immersed transom to support the outboard’s weight and create sufficient lift for them to plane.

The folding solid-wood oak table sits on top of the lifting keel housing. Credit: David Harding

In this respect they have been just like conventional planing powerboats.

The problem is that sailing yachts need rocker (fore-and-aft curvature to the underside of the hull) and a transom that’s clear of the water at rest. They don’t like a lot of weight in the stern either, so the shape of the conventional power-sailer does it no favours under sail.

An idea whose time has come?

It so happens that I have sailed (and motored) all these power-sailers over the past 20-odd years.

I was also living on the Dart in the 1980s when Ian Anderson launched his 37ft (11.3m) MRCB (multi-role cruising boat), which was powered by 165hp of Volvo Penta diesel and helped along when the throttle was opened by ‘variable hull geometry’ – essentially integrated trim tabs that flattened the stern sections.

I remember seeing the MRCB in its creamy-yellow livery charging around at high speed off the mouth of the river.

A 70hp in its central well drives the Coast at up to 15 knots – or you can stick with 10hp for displacement speeds. Credit: David Harding

Sadly the idea never took off commercially but it was unquestionably ahead of its time.

Remembering the MRCB and having tested various power-sailers as well as many of the day-sailers and small cruisers built by Swallow Yachts, I was more than a little interested when Swallow’s Matt Newland mentioned that he was planning to develop a power-sailer whose sailing ability, he assured me, would not be compromised by its motoring performance.

This was a few years ago now — such projects take time.

It was clear from the outset that this boat would be very different from the MacGregor 26 and its ilk.

Swallow’s Coast 250 was to have – and does have – the 70hp outboard mounted in a well at the forward end of the cockpit, immediately abaft the keel case.

This overcomes the need for a broad, immersed transom that creates an enormous amount of drag under sail.

An optional carbon bowsprit for the asymmetric retracts into the anchor well. Credit: David Harding

Moving the engine was the starting point.

Through CFD (computational fluid dynamics) testing with the Wolfson Unit in Southampton, Matt soon came to realise that, with an uncompromised sailing-boat hull form, this shift of weight alone was not the solution.

The boat still trimmed bow-up and created too much drag under power to achieve the speeds he wanted.

His solution was to fit trim tabs on the transom to eliminate stern-squat and bring the bow down at planing speeds.

Further CFD analysis, followed by on-the-water testing with a full-size plywood hull ballasted to sailing weight, showed that the tabs made the crucial difference and allowed efficient planing at 15 knots.

That’s how the Coast evolved, but what’s she like to motor and sail and how does she perform in testing conditions?

THE TEST VERDICT

In the words of Matt Newland, the Coast’s designer and builder, ‘this is not a perfect motorboat. It’s a sailing boat that has a big engine and some trim tabs. It’s not going to set any motorboater’s heart alight and I’m not expecting to convert any motorboaters to sailing, though I would love to.’

Whether or not Matt and the Coast succeed in introducing motorboaters to the delights of sailing, I’m sure they will gain converts in the form of sailors who might otherwise have moved to motorboating or chosen a more conventional sailing yacht.

The wide, offset companionway allows easy access to the cabin around the engine box. The head compartment is to starboard. Credit: David Harding

He might also attract former (or current) owners of other power-sailers that they have found unrewarding or plain disappointing under sail.

The power-sailer concept has always had its appeal but, apart from the MRCB, the Coast is the only one I have come across that really seems to deliver the goods in both modes.

Great attention to detail has been paid to every aspect of the design.

WOULD SHE SUIT YOU AND YOUR CREW?

In many ways it’s a simple choice: do you want a boat of this size that sails well, offers roomy accommodation, will sit on a drying mooring, can be trailed behind a large family car and motors at 15 knots?

You will find precious little else, if anything, that does all that.

Even if the planing performance under power is of no consequence to you, the Coast’s other attributes make her worthy of attention.

She’s not cheap because of what she is.

For example, the carbon rig makes so much sense under both power and sail.

A cassette system around the gooseneck simplifies removal of the boom.

A boat of this size and weight can’t be described as a trailer-sailer, but she’s certainly a trailable sailer and an extremely clever, well-conceived, versatile and practical one too.

FACTS AND FIGURES

Price as tested: £77,771 LOA (including rudders): 7.95m(26ft 1in) Hull Length: 7.57m (24ft 10in) LWL: 7.57m (24ft 10in) Beam: 2.55m (8ft 4in) Draught: keel up 0.4m (1ft 4in) Keel down : 1.85m (6ft 1in) Displacement: 1,300kg (2,866lb) Ballast: 300kg (661lb) Ballast ratio: 23% Displacement/Length: 83.60 Sail area: 28.6m2 (307.86sq ft) SA/D ratio: 24.40 Fuel: 75 litres (16.5gal) Water: 70 litres (15.4 gal) Engine: 10 or 70hp Transmission: Outboard RCD category: C Designer: Swallow Yachts Builder: Swallow Yachts Tel: 01239 615482 Website : Swallowyachts.com

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Digital Edition

Smallest boats: The bonkers world of Microyacht adventures

Elaine Bunting
November 28, 2022

What are the smallest boats sailors consider for crossing and ocean? For ‘microyacht’ voyagers, there's no limit. Elaine Bunting finds out why they put to sea in tiny vessels

Often the smallest boats to cross oceans look much like a child’s crayon picture of a little boat on a big sea, certainly Yann Quenet’s Baluchon does. Baluchon is only 13ft 1in (4m long), with one simple sail and a stubby, blunt-nosed hull painted cherry red and ice cream white.

Baluchon is no toy, though. When Quenet sailed it back to Brittany in August, he had fulfilled his childhood ambition of circumnavigating in a tiny boat. Its simple appearance is emblematic of his philosophy. “I have loved little boats since I was a child,” he says, “and I am still a child at heart. Sailing round the world on a little boat is something I have dreamed about since I was a teenager.”

Quenet, now 51, has dedicated much of his adult life to designing, building and sailing microyachts. Whereas most of us progress in incrementally larger boats, Quenet’s craft have always been minuscule. He has created numerous self-build designs for plywood construction from a 9m gaffer to a 5m trimaran and a 6.5m gaff yawl (see them at boat-et-koad.com ).

In 2015, Quenet attempted to cross the Atlantic in a 14ft 1in (4.3m) plywood scow, but it capsized in a storm off the coast of Spain and he was rescued by a ship. After that experience he resolved to come up with a bulletproof self-righting microyacht suitable for ocean sailing, and went back to the drawing board.

His solution was a pram-style design that could be built in plywood in under 4,000 hours and would cost no more than €4,000. Baluchon is the result, a tiny boat to be sailed by one person for up to six weeks at a time and resilient enough to take anything the oceans throw at it.

Yann Quenet’s 4m long Baluchon

Smallest boats getting smaller

The history of sailing across oceans in the smallest boats is a surprisingly long one. With a few exceptions (of which more later), it is not about breaking records. This is about stripping away everything complex and extraneous – including other people.

One of the most famous small boat voyages was nearly 70 years ago when Patrick Elam and Colin Mudie made several ocean passages in Sopranino , which was only 17ft 9in (5.4m) on the waterline. Elam observed: “I would not pretend that Sopranino is the optimum size. At sea she is near perfect, but could with advantage be a few inches longer to give a slightly bigger cockpit and a separate stowage for wet oilskins below. In harbour, she is too small (for comfort) and too delicate and vulnerable.”

Also in the 1950s, John Guzzwell consulted Jack Giles about the smallest boat practical to sail around the world and Giles drew the 20ft 6in (6.2m) Trekka , which Guzzwell built and circumnavigated in twice. Smaller still was Shane Acton’s 18ft 4in (5.5m) Shrimpy , a Robert Tucker design which he sailed round the world in 1972 despite having very little sailing experience when he left.

Tom McNally planned to retake his small-boat Atlantic crossing record in Big C. Photo: Ajax News

In 1987, Serge Testa beat that by sailing round the world in his self-designed 11ft 10in (3.6m) aluminium sloop, Acrohc Australis . He broke the record for the smallest yacht to be sailed round the world, one that is still standing 35 years later.

This feat, together with Acton’s well-publicised voyages in the 1970s, ignited a lasting interest in small boat or microyacht voyages. Money is usually a factor in the choice of such small craft but overlaid by a streak of determined romanticism, the almost spiritual challenge of sailing a nutshell craft across a vast ocean.

Yann Quenet is not alone in creating self-build plans for aspiring micro-voyagers. New Zealander John Welsford also specialises in small boats such as the 18ft (5.5m) junk-rigged Swaggie – ‘a mighty, miniature long range cruiser’ – and a sturdy oceangoing 21ft (6.5m) gaff cutter, Sundowner (see jwboatdesigns.co.nz ).

As with Quenet’s little boats, Welsford’s designs are for plywood construction. The plans, he says, are detailed for “real beginners with very basic woodworking skills and a good attitude… the other skills will come as the project progresses.”

In his thinking, people can experience a deep sense of escape even through the process of building such a boat. “I anticipate a lot of builders will be people who find themselves trapped in a soulless desk job which condemns them to commuting for hours in heavy traffic, living in a thin-walled and crowded apartment and dreaming with longing of the freedom of the seas, golden sands and warm breezes.”

John Guzzwell’s Trekka. Photo: Historic Images/Alamy

Perhaps unsurprisingly the small boat community attracts a mixture of adventurers, inventors, idealists and eccentrics. One of the less successful was the self-styled ‘Admiral Dinghy’, a former Hollywood B-movie star and retired dance teacher from the US whose longtime aim was to sail round the world in a 9ft 11in (3m) boat. He had scant ocean sailing experience and no money. He’d been building and tinkering with his tiny junk-rigged boat since 1975 and began preparing for a circumnavigation in earnest in 2009. But he had problems with his boat, never went offshore and has since vanished from the radar.

A small boat living legend

A mixture of naïve courage and inexperience appears characteristic of many of the smallest boat sailors. It’s easy to imagine a dichotomy at the heart of it: many of the ideas could be perilous in hands of someone inexperienced, yet how many seasoned sailors would contemplate voyaging in a tiny craft?

Someone who has, numerous times, is Sven Yrvind. A Swedish sailor and boatbuilder, now aged 83, he has been designing and sailing tiny yachts for more than 60 years. He built his first tiny open boat in 1962, and decades of experimentation and voyaging followed.

In 1969, he built a 15ft 7in (4.2m) boat and sailed to Ireland. In 1971, he built his first Bris (or Breeze) in his mother’s basement, its size dictated by the dimensions of the cellar and the door it would have to be taken out through. He sailed this 19ft 8in (6m) cold moulded epoxy double-ender across the Atlantic seven times in four years and went as far as Argentina and Tristan da Cunha. (I highly recommend reading his fascinating and entertaining account at yrvind.com/my-life-texts ).

Yann Quenet completed a three-year world tour on his 4m Baluchon. Photo: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty

In his next boat, the 15ft 9in (5.9m) Bris II , he went much further, sailing south to the Falkland Islands in 1980, before rounding Cape Horn and going north to Chile.

Over the decades, Yrvind (his birth surname was Lundin but he changed it to the Swedish term for a turbulent wind) has continually experimented with tiny yachts. In 1986, he built a 15ft 8in (5.76m) double-ender and sailed it to Newfoundland. In his most recent boat, Exlex (Outlaw), he sailed to the Azores in 2018, and in 2020 from Norway to the Azores and Madeira, returning to Ireland, a voyage of 150 days.

Right now, he is working on Exlex Minor , a glassfibre sailing canoe design of 20ft 4in (6.2m) which he intends to sail round Cape Horn to Valdivia in Chile. This new boat has twin keels and 12m2 of canvas split between three square sails on freestanding masts.

His food, water and all his possessions for up to 150 days at sea amount to around 1 tonne. He stores 111 litres of water on board as he “doesn’t trust desalinators. They can break down.” At sea, his diet is a simple mix of oatmeal and almond flour – “like muesli” – and sardines. “I eat the same every day,” he says, “and at lunchtime, not any other time.”

“I am a health nut. I believe in running and eating once a day for a long life.”

small-boat sailing legend Sven Yrvind. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty

Yrvind’s way of life divides opinion. Many casual followers think his choice of yacht slightly mad, but the tiny boat community reveres him as a living legend. To him, it just makes plain sense. “My boats are very functional. If you go back to old magazines from the 1950s and 1960s, boats were not much bigger. Back then, a 30ft boat was quite a decent size. The Hiscocks sailed twice round the world in such a boat. Now 40ft is too small; it must be 50ft.

“And what is big enough? With a small boat, you don’t have a lot of problems with money. You go back to first principles. You also have a boat you can tow behind a car. I have been doing that down to France and Ireland. Or you can put it in a container. So small boats are really handy.”

Yrvind in his 15ft 8in Exlex. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty

No room to stretch out

Smaller even than Sven Yrvind’s vessels are the record breakers’ boats, no bigger than a bathtub.

For many years, the record for the smallest yacht to cross the Atlantic was held by Hugo Vihlen, a former Korean War fighter pilot and Delta Airlines captain from Florida. In 1968, he crossed from west to east in the 5ft 11in April Fool . In 1993, his record was broken by Tom McNally, a fine arts lecturer from Liverpool, in his 5ft 4 1/2in (1.6m) Vera Hugh .

That prompted Vihlen, then aged 61, to go back out a few months later to recapture his record in Father’s Day , which was half an inch shorter than Vera Hugh . Vihlen crossed from Newfoundland to Falmouth in 105 days.

Andrew Bedwell intends to take former record holder Tom McNally’s modified 1.1m Big C to a new Atlantic record. Photo: Paul Larkin Photography

Not to be outdone, McNally designed and built an even smaller boat for the record, the 3ft 10in (1.1m) Big C . His plans were shattered when he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and he was unable to sail it before he died in 2017.

Next year, British sailor Andrew Bedwell hopes to break Vihlen’s 30-year record. As a sailmaker and experienced sailor, he knows exactly what he is getting into. Bedwell has previously sailed a Mini 6.50 to the Arctic and been round Britain in a Class 40 .

In 2018 he started reading up about small boats. “I had always had an interest in unusual challenges and things that were raw. I saw these boats and was amazed by them, and I started designing a vessel.”

He contacted Tom McNally’s daughter and was amazed to learn that Big C was still lying in her garden. “It had never been in the water, or fitted out. Sails had been made for it, but they had never been used.”

Lorraine McNally agreed to sell, and Bedwell worked out how he could modify it for him to sail across the Atlantic. He calculates that it will take him around 60-80 days to cover the 1,900 miles from Newfoundland to the Lizard, sailing at an average of 2.5 knots. It has twin headsails set on one furler, and external floats, or pods, that make it behave a little like a trimaran when heeled. Freeboard is only 35cm and “she really does bob like a cork”, Bedwell says.

The boat is so tiny he cannot stretch out in it. “When in there I have to sit. It is dead flat in the bottom and in calm conditions I can just about get into a foetal position – and I mean just. I’ve modified the hull so my hip can just fit into a recess.”

Big C is a tight squeeze for British sailor Andrew Bedwell, and he could spend up to 80 days in it crossing the Atlantic from Newfoundland to the Lizard.

With the hatch fully shut the boat is watertight and airtight, but has only 40 minutes’ worth of air, so Bedwell is making two rotating air scoops at the bow.

When conditions allow, he might be able to stand up, or even go for a swim, but mainly “there is very little you can do with the lower body at all.”

Muscle wastage will be a major issue. To offset this at least partially, Bedwell will use a manual desalinator to make water. “We looked at putting in a generator to pedal but there isn’t space.”

His rationed food will amount to only 1,000 calories a day, “so I will lose weight and muscle mass, but I want a slow, slow decline.”

The food will all be the same. “It is a protein food similar to Shackleton’s pemmican, a clever nutritional bar made of fat and protein, salt and honey, with a little bit of paracetamol to thin the blood and ascorbic acid to preserve it and prevent scurvy,” he explains. “I will eat that for at least a month before I go, to get used to it.”

All 12 of the boat’s watertight compartments will be filled with it. “It will be moulded in bags and pushed into the hull. I will take food from the external pods to start with and work inwards, so increasing stability as we go.”

Italian skipper Alessandro Di Benedetto returns to Les Sables d’Olonne in 2010 after a non-stop circumnavigation with his 21ft Mini Transat 6.50. Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty

Bedwell’s planning sounds scrupulous. But… isn’t it the definition of suffering?

“Yes, very close to it,” he replies cheerfully. “If you said you were going to do this to prisoners, you wouldn’t be allowed to, it’d be against human rights.

“There’s not going to be any comfort in it whatsoever. Food and navigation equipment are the absolute keys. There’ll be no changes of clothes, for example, as there’s no room. It’s so tight. I can use some water to wash but it will be a flannel wash. l’ll do what I can to prevent saltwater sores but there’s not going to be any soap.”

When close to the finish of one of his voyages, Tom McNally was hit by a ferry. The hull of his boat split and he had to be fished out of the water almost by the seat of his pants. Bedwell says: “If I’m hit by a tanker I’m not going to survive that, but tech has changed. Tom didn’t have AIS but we have a standalone Class B transponder as well as a VHF with AIS receiver . I have a masthead light – the boat is so short it doesn’t need to be a tricolour.”

Bedwell says: “Planning this keeps your mind completely occupied as every single little detail has to be completely thought through.” He rejects any suggestion that he is ‘making a bid’ for the record or similar phraseology. “I am not attempting it. I’m doing it. My theory is if I’m just trying, I’m not really pushing myself.”

Matt Kent’s 2017 solo Atlantic crossing attempt in the 42in Undaunted ended in failure.

Smallest boats, smallest problems

The micro-voyagers seem to share a different way of looking at the world, a can-do attitude galvanised by their repudiations.

“Human beings are very adaptable,” says Sven Yrvind. “Lawrence of Arabia lived simply in the desert and said wine takes away the taste of water. It is the same with comfort. It depends on your mindset and how you think, how you look at life. Some people go on holiday on bicycles and put up a tent. Some want a car and a caravan. I think when they get back the man with the bicycle is happier and has more to think about.”

“You can get spoilt,” he argues. “If you get something without fighting for it, you’re not so happy when you get it.”

Returning after 31,000 miles and 360 days under sail in his little yacht, Yann Quenet insists that a small boat is the best. “Small boat equals small problems. When there is no engine, there is nothing to go wrong, just a simple boat that is simple to sail.”

Andrew Bedwell explains how he gradually dismissed fripperies. “I’d had plusher boats, but hated it – all the cushions and wiring hidden behind panels. It’s just not me. I kept coming back to the simple things.” Like Sven Yrvind and Yann Quenet, he made the realisation that his sense of achievement might be in inverse proportion to boat size.

When people ask now about what he is doing with Big C , he tells them, without a hint of irony: “Everyone is different. I need something really big.”

If you enjoyed this….

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Micro-Cruising: Small boat comforts

September 24th, 2020
Cruise Report

Another big step towards my own new boat has been made: As part of a sea trial-week in the Southern part of Germany I spent 10 days on board and with the Beneteau First 24 (which is essentially a Seascape 24). Hosting guests and potential clients aboard with frequent sea trial-action was boosting our sales but also opening up the chance for me to gain more intimate insight into small boat-issues which I´d like to address in a few upcoming articles. This first article will deal with small boat comfort. And I can tell you: There´s plenty of it!

Mooring at the pontoon in between the client-appointments there was quite some time for me to roam the boat and spend time enjoying the treats offered by it. Small boats like the First 24 or my upcoming First 27 may not be as glamorous and stunning as a beautiful Solaris or Oyster and of course the variety of amenities offered are much, much smaller and way more limited, but as life is in one´s head and happiness is a state of mind, let´s draw the most out of it and get started.

First thing I noticed which is a lot contributing to the comfort-factor of a small boat like this one was the fact that it was so small in the first place. Sounds ridiculous? Well, not so much: A small boat is way much easier to handle, to maintain, to rigg, to clean, to deal with. All the hazzle and bristling of big yachts is not to be found on a small boat. Rowing to the buoy at which my MADCAP was tied to it took me exactly 8 minutes to clean the boat from morning moisture and leftovers of the sleeping ducks from past night – and I was ready to go. Very satisfying.

A key element: Energy management

For most boat owners I know one big point for comfort is closely connected to energy. Big battery bunks on the yachts for powering all these multiple gadgets. On a small boat like the First 24 we of course have a very limited range of energy consuming appliances: LED lights in the cabin and navigational instruments. That´s all. The small battery though will be re-charged by a 50 Watts solar panel:

Which is very, very convenient. This small panel manages to sustain a constant charging of the board-battery even via indirect lights. Solar power in my view will become a much more important part in boating in the coming years with very, very interesting solutions like custom made flexible panels , solar cells on sails and various other solutions in the pipeline. For now on MADCAP I was astonished how efficient a even a small panel like this one in the end can be.

Of course, for some gadgets we need more power: Recharging the Torqeedo E-drive batteries unfortunately cannot be done via solar-powered 12 Volts plugs (smartphones on the other hand are recharged) so you need the occasional visit to a marina with shore power. MADCAP as well as many other small boats offer at least as an option the shore power plug and charger, which is a box I definitely would tick when considering buying a boat.

Getting up and down of the swing keel on MADCAP is a pain in the ass (not because it’s a heavy thing to do but tiring) so that one might use the electric winch. After approximately five times getting up and down of the keel, the winch´s battery was nearly empty and needed a recharge: This can be done via 12 V charger or – much faster – when utilizing 230 Volts. Name it: shore power! Same goes for portable ceramic heaters and other appliances. So I would reckon that solar and shore power options are a premise for enjoying small boat comforts.

Enjoying simple luxury

Once you have made up your mind and the decision for going for a small boat is made, you will see that the level of comfort even on a boat as short as 24 feet is amazing. On MADCAP two adults (a young couple heavily in love maybe) will find that there is no shortage of seating and lounging space on deck and down below either. Let´s take a look at the boat´s interior:

Of course one should be arranging the legs to fit into the spaces not occupied by the keel-housing and the spars, but once you´ve found your position you can spend a full evening down there, for example on a rainy day at anchor. There is enough headroom when seated and the benches are long enough for stretching out. I became a huge fan of the clever table offered as an option by seascape.

It´s a simple but very effective solution: A big plastic screw holds the table in place when folded away – but if unfolded it can house a proper dinner for two! Also, if the seating benches are taken out, two more persons can have a comfy seat at the entryway and join in for breakfast. The table is made from plywood with a simple folding mechanism – if damaged it can be repaired very easily.

An extension can be screwed to the cockpit flooring and this very same table is used outside and can also host a cockpit-dinner. Of course: One shortcoming of small boats now immediately is in the spotlight – the absence of a proper galley . For MADCAP the solution would be to have mobile BBQ or stoves (of which I will test the Jetboil cooking system soon) – same goes for my new upcoming First 27 which at least offers a gimbal mount to fit a Jetboil to it. Other small boats will come with a galley – in this a potential buyer can scale up or down the amount of amenities and gadgets needed.

A good night´s sleep in a small boat

Obviously a WC and a sink for personal hygiene is much appreciated on a boat. MADCAP is too small to offer either of them – and as a thoroughbred racing boat it is simply not the concept of that boat too. For taking a whizz there is an option to fit a portable camping toilet, washing yourself must be done by using fresh water from canisters and a simple bowl, which fits to the “camping on the water”-concept of the boat. Another aspect of comfort of course is the question if a good night´s sleep can be provided.

I must say, it works absolutely fine! I did have my sleeping bag and a comfy blanket with me to spend a night aboard and test how it feels. After I finished my dinner in the cockpit, reclining fantastically cozy in the stylish bean bags in the cockpit, I killed a couple of beers and when sun was finally down after brushing my teeth went down below. The First 24 comes with adequate LED lighting for the salon. There is more than enough options for finding a berth for the night.

In the bow of course two adults would be sleeping comfortably although the bowsprit might be in the way if you want to start some love action. As I would put it: There is only room for one pipe in the bow … Aft two more adults can find a berth, additionally widened by the extractable seating-extensions offered as an option. So 4 persons in a 24 footer? No problem! I absolutely look forward to my First 27 where the same concept is applied but a forward bulkhead with magnetic swing doors will make the forepeak separable from the aft section for more privacy (and a proper toilet is mounted as well).

How much comfort do you need?

Being 10 days on MADCAP, enjoying an uncluttered and easy boat which is so much fun to sail (that´s another article) was very helpful in defining my own way to become a “micro-cruiser”. The question of how much boat one needs has been answered more than impressive: From an energy-standpoint to maintenance and time spend for cleaning and setting up the boat, I cannot find any shortcomings. Of course, one needs to find a solution for hygiene, cooking and heating. This is a question of cleverly choosing the right products offered on the market in the first place.

I loved being aboard MADCAP: A perfect test for my own boat. Spending more time sailing and enjoying the boat while cutting time needed for setting up the boat and having it ready. The maximization of sailing fun and pleasure at anchor. As much as I love being aboard the big cruisers and indulging the gadgets provided as well as the massive volume created – it´s the easiness and therefore independence experienced aboard MADCAP that fascinated me the most and makes me much more looking forward to receiving my 27 feet sailboat.

You may also be interested in these articles:

Go small – go now!

My decision for a small(er) boat

Pogo 36 at Boot Duesseldorf Boat Show 2019

Boat Profile

Tremolino Trimaran

What’s old is new again

From Issue Small Boats Annual 2009

A h…the Kansas prairie. A land of wide-open spaces that evokes images of cattle drives, farmers on tractors, wheat fields, and the world-renowned Dorothy and Toto. This isn’t the type of place I would have thought to look for an example of designer Dick Newick’s Tremolino, a fast and futuristic-looking trimaran. Yet, on a quiet reservoir known as Cheney Lake just south of Wichita, BLUE MOON quietly awaits—poised for speed. Who’d ’a’ thunk it?

The Wichita area is a hotbed for aerospace technology. That may explain the high-tech-looking trimarans and catamarans that abound on Cheney Lake. Now we know how rocket scientists have their fun. It took BLUE MOON’s builder and owner, Lew Enns, and his good friend, Tom Welk (neither of whom is a rocket scientist), several years of part-time work to complete her. Their hard work paid off, though; she’s head-and-shoulders above the rest on Cheney Lake.

Please don’t send letters. This truly is a handmade wooden boat. While she may look like something out of science fiction, there’s much less new technology at work here than one might guess. In fact, its core technology has been around for millennia.

The Dick Newick–designed Tremolino blends ancient technologies with high-tech design and construction methods. The strip-built trimaran gives even the less-experienced builder a chance to own this fast and fun-to-sail craft.

Dick Newick says, “ Thousands of years ago when early Europeans had trouble crossing small bodies of water, the people of Southeast Asia developed craft with more than one hull which they used to explore and settle the widely separated islands of the Pacific. If they had ever been motivated to leave this paradise for a cold climate, they might have astonished the natives of Europe long before Magellan ‘discovered’ the Pacific and their light multihulls that easily sailed three times as fast as his heavy vessels. The rest of us are slowly relearning what those ‘ignorant savages’ knew a long time ago. CHEERS! to those salty seamen.”

First-time trimaran builders Lew Enns and Tom Welk, while perhaps not as salty as our Southeast Asian predecessors, have done an outstanding job in constructing BLUE MOON. Lew studied other designers’ trimarans before settling on Newick’s Tremolino, but most of them used parts from beach catamarans, giving them a patched-together, discordant look to his eye. Tremolino is a unified original. Lew says, “I really like the looks of Newick designs. They seem like works of art.” Another important consideration for Lew and Tom was determining where the boat could be built. They wanted a design that could fit inside a 24′-long, two-car garage. The 23′ 6″ Tremolino “just fit” when set at a diagonal.

Building BLUE MOON was a community effort. Tom Welk (left) joined family members and others to help owner Lew Enns (right) with construction. Lew’s son, Greg, designed a logo for added panache.

Lew and Tom ripped out miles of 3⁄ 8″ 3⁄ 4″ Western red-cedar strips in preparation for building the hulls. The stock was only 8′ or 10′ long, so they scarfed the pieces to get the necessary length prior to ripping. During the earliest stage of BLUE MOON’s construction, a new home was being built near Lew’s place, and the owner graciously saved the offcuts and scraps for his neighbors’ use. Lew and Tom recycled these materials, turning throwaways into their strongback, some of the molds, cross supports for the hulls, and a variety of jigs.

The Tremolino is a trimaran with a large, main hull, called a vaka, bounded by two smaller hulls known as amas. The cross beams that connect the three members are known as akas. Since the amas are the smallest hulls, and since they were to be built in halves on female molds (which can produce an outer hull that is truer and easier to fair), they seemed less daunting to Lew and Tom. So that’s where the builders began.

Two outer hulls, called amas, give balance to the central hull, known as the vaka. Fore-and-aft crossbeams (akas) tie the boat together. Unlike a monohull, the vaka is not designed to be stable without the support of the amas.

No lofting is required to take the Tremolino plans to full scale; molds need only be traced and cut from the full-sized patterns. Lew and Tom were faithful to Newick’s plans, which specify stations spaced 12″ apart. After sheathing the molds with waxed paper, Lew and Tom laid in epoxied strips and temporarily fastened them with 1⁄4″ staples (with waxed ends) that could be set about 1⁄8″ proud for easy removal. The builders averaged six to ten strips per evening. After building the first set of ama halves, they reversed the molds to build the opposing, complementary ones.

In contrast to the amas, the vaca was built on a male mold setup. While the strips went on more easily than they did on the female molds of the amas, fairing was much harder. Tom passed this friendship test with flying colors, working many evenings alongside Lew. There were more tests to come, especially when lining up holes in ama halves to ensure a perfect fit in final assembly. Here, Lew deemed Tom a saint, as his stalwart friend endured hours of the measuring, fitting, and cussing that went into this critical step.

The akas were laid out on a strongback, which established bends in each one according to dimensions shown on the plans. This bending took the Douglas-fir almost to the breaking point—but designer Newick’s procedure worked well, and the completed akas came out fine. The cabin sides, foredeck, cockpit floor, and bulkheads are of okoume plywood. BLUE MOON’s cabintops are strip- built, and all three hulls are sheathed in 10-oz ’glass and epoxy.

Placing the akas at the correct attitude through the inboard ama halves was one of the most critical opera- tions of BLUE MOON’s construction. Lew and Tom used a profile of each outboard ama half to ensure that both the angle and the depth of the akas were dead-on.

Dick Newick is one of the true pioneers of trimaran design in the western world (see WB No. 202, “Multihull Pioneers”). His designs take to the water like a feather drifting on a summer breeze. They look like they are moving fast even when moored. Years ago, when I was a design student at The Landing School in southern Maine, Dick Newick came to introduce us to the basics of trimaran design. His philosophy of simplicity and lightness, lightness, lightness impressed me greatly then, as it still does. His designs are not only fast (winning ocean races far and wide), but all of them are extraordinarily beautiful. In a way, BLUE MOON is high-functioning sculpture. If you are lucky enough to build a Tremolino, I hope you will follow Lew and Tom’s good example in adhering closely to Newick’s design.

If, like me, you are accustomed to sailing a monohull, this boat’s speed will knock your socks off. Kept light, she will attain velocities that one can only dream about with an average 24′ daysailer, and she will do it with just a few degrees of heel. Attaining these speeds with a monohull would require a perfect close reach heeled down on her ear. For me, less heeling means expending less energy. For some, it may also mean fewer bouts with seasickness.

The amas, though usually waterborne, provide the vaca with superb balance and agility, like a figure skater with arms in graceful extension. Because she’s a trimaran, BLUE MOON doesn’t turn on a dime, but she tacks without the awkward bumpiness associated with a catamaran.

The amas were constructed in halves in a female mold. After gluing up strips for both parts of one ama, molds were reversed on the strongback to build a complementary pair.

Most owners understand that every boat is a collection of strengths and compromises. Boats that are easy and fun to use are seldom as easy to build. BLUE MOON fits that description. Another downside is that the Tremolino is not easily trailerable, although Lew and Tom are working on a customized trailer to make transport a bit easier. For now, though, she clips across Cheney Lake at a full run, or basks in her shady slip. She’s the queen of the Kansas prairie and an icon of the Newick fleet.

Tremolino is a sophisticated modern sailing machine whose construction is within reach of the dedicated amateur. The plans include full-sized patterns, so no lofting is necessary.

This Boat Profile was published in Small Boats 2009 and appears here as archival material. If you have more information about this boat, plan or design – please let us know in the comment section.

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Comments (5)

I have two of these fantastic boats and both are for sale.

I was looking for one of these. Are yours for sale?

I always wanted a Newick Trimaran and corresponded with Newick several times. I was at the Gougeon Brothers shop several times while they were building Rogue Wave and saw her, finished, sitting quietly on the banks of the Saginaw River awaiting delivery. I have a copy of Nautical Quarterly 2 which has a long feature article on Newick and his career and later a long section on Rogue Wave. God knows what it would cost to get one today.

I also own Nautical Quarterly No.21 with a feature article on Phil Bolger and his boats, several letters with Bolger and Harold Payson, and several Bolger books. There are no Newick books, alas. I built two Bolger boats, a Teal and a June Bug. The June Bug building involved a tech at the Gougeon Brothers and humorous exchange. The short version is it wound up being built of 1/4 inch luan and has no fasteners left in the hull. Two Bolgers and no Newicks is an indication of my construction prowess.

The only thing about this boat that bothers me is the lack of usable space; the akas are at such a steep angle, the trampolines are almost useless, and the front/rear cabins cannot be used either (unless you want to slide off into the ocean). I would feel claustrophobic (trapped?) in this boat.

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16 Best Trimarans For Sailing Around The World (And a Few For Daysailing)

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Trimarans are growing in popularity worldwide, due to their light construction and high stability these multihulls are even faster than catamarans. Trimarans are still one of the lesser-known boat types so in this article ill be checking out some of the most popular models.

The best trimarans include:

The Neel 43
The Neel 47
Dragonfly 28
The Pulse 600
Corsair 37

These tris are built with your safety in mind while also packing powerful speed and a wide array of comfort features to optimize your sailing experience , some are even foldable making them possible to load on a trailer and transport to the sailing destination of your choosing.

In this article, I have created a list of the 16 best trimarans in the market and their unique features. You’ll also learn the best options for different purposes such as circumnavigation, weekend sailing, racing, and more.

Table of Contents

What Is a Trimaran?

A trimaran is a multi hulled sailboat with three individual hulls; the main hull ( vaka ) and a pair of outrigger hulls ( amas ). These smaller outrigger hulls are attached to the main hull using beams.

While trimarans have a rich history dating back nearly four millennia, these types of sailboats have only gained popularity in the late 1900s and early 2000s.

Trimarans are primarily used as personal boats for sailing enthusiasts or racing. These sailboats draw their versatility from their lightweight design, making them faster and easier to handle at sea when compared to single-hulled boats (monohulls). Additionally, the three hulls also contribute to better stability, making it very hard to capsize (although more likely than a cat according to this study)

Trimarans come in various sizes, and some can be as small as 19 feet (5.8 meters) in length, while others go up to 60 feet (18meters). They’re also used for different purposes. Most trimarans are used for racing and recreational purposes, although some units are still used as ferries.

As with all things, to find out which is the best we need to understand what it will be used for. There is a big difference in requirements between a boat used for day sailing compared to offshore around the world sailing.

The list below highlights the best trimarans for different purposes.

Best Trimarans For Cruising, Liveaboard and Sailing Around The World

The Neel 43 is a French trimaran best suited for cruising. Its key features include:

Easy maneuverability on the open sea by only a small number of crew members

This unit is also built for comfort, ideal for more extended travels. This 43-feet (13-meter) trimaran is also made with recyclable and bio-sourced materials, highlighting the manufacturer’s commitment to environmental consciousness.

This trimaran has a base price of €329,000 excluding VAT. This translates to approximately $370,138.

2.Neel 47 Possibly The Best

Named the best full-size multihull for 2020, the Neel 47 is a strong contender for one of the best trimarans in the market. This 47-foot (14.3-meter) long trimaran features optimized exterior and interior ergonomics for a unique design and look.

Still on design, the Neel 47 is ideal for couples looking to take a weekend off or spend some time as liveaboard. It has a spacious owner’s cabin and two bedrooms. It also features a spacious living room and kitchen and is optimized to ensure comfort for a couple.

The Neel 47 also has two basic guest cabins so your friends or children can tag along on your sailing adventure. Accordingly, this unit is ideal for those looking to explore the sea for the sheer joy of sailing.

The Neel 47 comes at a 571,139 euro ( $643,600 ) price tag, excluding VAT.

3. Rapido 60 The Fast and Comfortable Circumnavigator

The Rapido 60 offers a blend of performance, safety, and luxury, making it one of the best options for bluewater sailing. Measuring 59.3 feet (18 meters) in length, the Rapido 60 is an imposing unit. It’s made from lightweight sandwiches and carbon materials that provide speed and strength, allowing it to stand up to strong ocean currents.

The Rapido 60 also has spacious living spaces and is built for comfort at all points of the sail. Its design also optimizes safety. While it’s an ideal option for circumnavigating, it’s also an excellent choice for racing due to its speed.

This is also the same boat that The Youtube channel La Vagabond just purchased.

The Rapido 60 retails at $1,400,000 .

4. Rapido 40

The Rapido 40 measures 39.4 feet (12 meters) in length and is ideal for cruising around the world. The Rapido 40 features twin “C” foils, which provide added lift, enhancing its speed and performance whether you are sailing downwind or upwind.

Because it has C foils, this trimaran doesn’t have a central daggerboard, increasing interior space. Accordingly, it’s an excellent option for couples looking to cruise and enjoy great performances .

The Rapido 40 is made from high-tech all-carbon materials for a lightweight yet sturdy design. This material is also used for the countertops and furniture, and the cork flooring adds a touch of style.

This trimaran retails for $595,000 , making it a cheaper option than the Rapido 60.

5. Dragonfly 40

The Dragonfly 40 measures 40 feet (12 meters) in length. It features high-comfort standards, making it one of the best trimarans in the market for taking your family for a cruise. Because of its larger size, it has a better capacity, being capable of accommodating six to eight people, so you can bring your family and friends along.

It’s easy to navigate and extremely safe. With a maximum speed of 24 knots (44.5 km/h), this trimaran also provides fast speeds to make your cruise even more exhilarating.

The Dragonfly 40 retails from €509,000 exclusive of VAT, which rounds up to $572,000 .

6. Dragonfly 32

The Dragonfly 32 is a high-performance cruiser. Like the Dragonfly 28, this unit features a contemporary design for racing. This trimaran can accommodate five to seven crew members.

Although slightly longer than the Dragonfly 28 with its 32-foot (9.8-meter) length, the Dragonfly 32 has a max speed of 23+ knots (42.6+ km/h), making it one of the fastest trimarans for racing. This unit also has comfortable accommodation, which makes it an ideal option for a weekend cruise with family and friends.

The Dragonfly 32 has a base price of $350,000 .

7. Corsair 37

Thanks to a variable draft with a retractable rudder, the Corsair 37 is an ideal choice for shallow water exploration. This 37-foot (11.3-meter) long trimaran features advanced foam-cored construction designed for safety, making it virtually unsinkable.

The carbon hulls minimize weight, this makes for a lightweight ocean exploration sailboat with blistering speeds. One of its selling points is that this trimaran has previously been used for Arctic expeditions, possibly marking it as one of the better options for circumnavigation and offshore sailing in the northern waters.

This trimaran has a base price of $189,000 but can go up to $204,125 .

Best Trimarans For Day/Weekend Sailing

8. dragonfly 28.

The Dragonfly 28 is a 28-feet (8.75-meter) long sailboat that can accommodate up to five people. It comes in two versions:

Touring version: This version is ideal for families.
Performance version: This is built to provide optimal performance for the sports enthusiast within you.

It clocks a maximum speed of 22+ knots (22+ km/h) and is beam-folded. It’s an excellent option if you want a high-performance, comfortable yet smaller unit for your day or weekend cruise.

The Dragonfly 28 starts at €188,280 inclusive of VAT, which comes to around $211,600.

9. Dragonfly 25

Like other trimarans under the Dragonfly brand, this 25-foot (7.62-meter) trimaran is great for both racing and short term cruising. However, this high-performance boat delivers easy handling, making it perfect for couples looking to take a ride out over the weekend and seasoned sailors looking for an exhilarating racing adventure.

The Touring version features a lightweight build and offers comfort and accommodation to keep you, and the few guests you can fit, comfortable during the ride. This trimaran also has a Sport version, which is optimized for racing.

The Dragonfly 25 retails from EUR 86,800 .

10. Pulse 600

The Pulse 600 trimaran is a compact sailboat. It’s made from lightweight, carbon-reinforced construction and vacuum-formed materials for optimal speed. This trimaran is an ideal option if you are looking for speed.

It also features ample deck space, greater stability, and volume than most trimarans of similar size and build.

This trimaran measures 19.8 feet (6 meters) in length and can be sailed single-handedly by one person with minimal effort. The Pulse 600 has a base price of $38,800 , which places it in the lower price range.

The F-22 is one of the smaller trimarans in the market. Developed in New Zealand, the F-22 is a folding trimaran built for speed. The hulls are made from narrow fiberglass tied together using fiberglass beams and aluminum, minimizing bulk while optimizing speed.

The F-22 is roomy and is not as pricey as other models in the market. This trimaran has two main versions:

12. 2019 Weta Trimaran

The 2019 Weta trimaran is a 14.5-foot (4.4-meter) trimaran featuring a carbon frame, centerboard, rudder foil, and rudder shock. The hull is made from fiberglass and foam. The Weta is built for strength and speed based on these lightweight materials.

The 2019 Weta trimaran is easy to sail and is worth considering whether you want to take a quiet sail, race with your friends, or take kids to a sailing lesson. It has a simple design and is easy to set up independently. Thanks to its collapsible design, this trimaran is easily stored away with minimal space demands.

13. WindRider 17

The 17.4-foot (5.3-meter) WindRider 17 is one of the more versatile trimarans in the market. It packs high performance for a low cost. This trimaran has a light rotating mast to boost performance, and a full-battened mainsail optimizes visibility.

This sailboat is made from rotomolded polyethylene, which is more durable than fiberglass and demands less maintenance.

The WindRider 17 has a comfortable interior and can fit six adults. This is an ideal choice for social sailing for a couple or a family and friends. It’s easy to ride, and a shallow draft allows easy maneuverability.

14. Astus 22.5

If you’re looking for something small but still comfortable, this 22.5-foot trimaran is for you. Built for speed and maneuverability, the Astus 22.5 has optional foils to optimize speed. The modern design, coupled with the spacious interior, can fit up to four beds. Accordingly, this trimaran is suited for family outings.

This trimaran also has a foldable design, collapsing to only 16 feet (4.9 meters) for easy storage.

15. Multi 23 Trimaran

The Multi 23 trimaran has a contemporary design, featuring a vinyl ester and PVC foam core construction. The section below the waterline is made of solid glass for a sturdy base.

The beams are made of lightweight carbon, and the trimaran features a 33-foot (10-meter) aluminum rotating wing mast for optimal harnessing of the wind. While ideal for weekend excursions with family, once rigged with the asymmetrical spinnaker will get your heart pumping.

This trimaran packs high performance at a lower cost than most other options in the market. It’s a good choice if you are looking for a high-performing unit without spending an arm and a leg.

16. Challenger Class Trimaran

The Challenger Trimaran 15 is the best choice for persons with disabilities. It’s designed to provide disabled sailors an opportunity to explore their passion for sailing without worrying about aspects like safety or operation.

A man named Geoff Hold circumnavigated the British Isles in 2007, becoming the first disabled person to achieve this feat. He had quadriplegia.

Living up to its name, the Challenger can withstand harsh weather conditions while blending performance with speed.

Final Thoughts

Admittedly, no trimaran is best for everyone. But whether you are looking to race with your friends, take your loved ones or friends for a cruise over the weekend, or circumnavigate the ocean, you can rest assured that these lightweight trimarans will deliver speed, safety, and comfort to make it worth your while.

These brands are innovatively designed and feature intricate safety mechanisms that make them virtually unsinkable. Give them a shot and begin your ocean adventure.

Basco Boating: A Comprehensive Guide & Introduction to Trimaran Yachts
TheBoatAPP: New Trumarans: Which are the Best Ones
Corsair Marine: Corsair 37
Dragonfly: Dragonfly 28
Rapido Trimarans: Rapido 60
Neel Trimarans: Neel 43
Yachting World: World’s Collect Yachts: Maxi Trimaran MACIF
Yachting Monthly: Dragonfly 28 Performance
Rapido Trimarans: Rapido 40
Dragonfly: Dragon 32
Dragonfly: Dragonfly 40
Yachting World: Dragonfly 40 yacht tour: This cruising trimaran can do 24 knots
Dragonfly: Dragonfly 25
NauticExpo: Dragonfly 25
Yachtworld: Corsair 37 boats for sale
Cruising World: Neel 47 Trimaran: Best Full-Size Multihull0
Neel Trimaran: Neel 47
Multihull Solutions: NEEL 47 Boat Review | Cruising World
Yacht World: 2022 Neel 47 for sale
Farrier International: F-22
Weta Marine: The Boat
WindRider: WindRider 17 Trimaran Sailboat
Astus Boats: Astus 22.5
Boat-specs: Multi 23
National Maritime Museum Cornwall: Challenger Trimaran #1 – BC26

Owner of CatamaranFreedom.com. A minimalist that has lived in a caravan in Sweden, 35ft Monohull in the Bahamas, and right now in his self-built Van. He just started the next adventure, to circumnavigate the world on a Catamaran!

[email protected]

Schionning Designs International Pty Ltd Leaders in Multihull Design and Kit Development.

Tracer 1500TRi

Introducing the new 1500tri, the first member of the new tracer series of performance cruising trimarans from schionning designs. designed to blend the performance of a trimaran with liveable interior accommodation and create a stable, aesthetically-pleasing cruising platform that can take you anywhere in the world..

The 1500TRi exterior is a little different to many of the standard trimaran designs we've become accustomed to. Large spacious cockpit areas are located on either side of the cabin, with the helm stations positioned wide on the aft beam giving excellent visibility forward, as well as clear sight of sails and telltales. Lines run aft to the helms with winches and sail controls mounted close by for ease of operation. The large cockpit areas will be fantastic for swimming, sunbathing, storing dinghies & equipment plus just a great spot while underway.

A 19 metre mast can be rotating carbon or a standard alloy option, but with the performance aspect of this design carbon is recommended. she has fixed rudders on the floats, however this will not be an issue and she will still be able to beach easily. kick-up rudders are an option if desired and depending on your intended use for the boat. a single 30-40hp diesel is the recommended motor option., contact us for more info, exterior cad.

Interior cad

Tracer 1500TRi Trimaran - SDI - Schionning Designs International

For more information please download our Study Plans on this design using the link below.

Tracer 1500tri - study plans & drawings.

Dalliance – A Self-Designed Micro-Cruising Trimaran

by Small Tri Guy | Feb 7, 2013 | Self-built Small Trimarans , Small Tri Info - All | 22 comments

Today we hear from sailor Ron Falkey and the story of his self-designed and self-built micro cruiser trimaran named Dalliance . Ron really gives us a great read here because he spares few details.

Let’s get right to it. (And thanks Ron for sharing this great info with us, along with the photos and sketches of your boat.) — Joe

………………

Dalliance: A Micro-Cruising Small Trimaran by Ron Falkey

Getting Into Sailing

My dad was a civil engineer and eventually worked that into positions where he could make his living related to his love of boating. He designed marinas including the ones at Miami Beach on Government Cut, the Ocean Reef Yacht Club on Key Largo, and the one at Bahia Honda State Park, to mention a few. Then he became the general manager for Merrill Stevens Boatyard and Marina in Coconut Grove.

It was in this job at Merrill Stevens that he had the thrill of hauling and repairing Jim Brown’s personal trimaran, Scrimshaw, and the honor of having Jim and Barbara over to the house for dinner. Of course they spoke about trimarans, Scrimshaw and Yankee, and dad’s dreams for his next boat. He wanted to build one of Jim’s new SIB Constant Camber designs. Unfortunately he passed before he got the chance to build that next boat.

When entering Jr High School, I received a 17′ canoe as a shared Christmas present with my older brother. We paddled everywhere; including an overnight trip in Everglades National Park with my uncle from Flamingo to Cape Sable and back. However, it wasn’t too long before I discovered that letting the wind help move the boat could be far more enjoyable. My brother and I built a sailing rig of bamboo and plastic sheeting, and used the paddle as our makeshift rudder.

Later, Dad had a 60 sq ft lanteen sail made by a Coconut Grove sail loft, and fabricated aluminum pipe and tubing into the mast and spars. I crafted the leeboards and rudders (the fists rudder was a shallow draft barn-door design that was soon replaced by a balance high aspect blade). My younger brother and I would paddle it down the canal behind our home, out to the intrusion dam at the bay. There we would portage over the dam, and go sailing to Chicken Key on Biscayne Bay.

However, in growing up and older, graduating from the US Coast Guard Academy, pursuing my career(s), and raising a family, my involvement in boating slowed drastically. It would be several years between excursions on other people’s boats.

Serendipity brought me back to the love of boating that had long been in my blood. The “development” of this boat started soon after my wife and I moved to Tallahassee from the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC.

Because of the Corsair, I bought the magazine. And in that issue of Small Craft Advisor (issue #28 Jul/Aug 2004) was the article of “Two Grandpas Win the Everglades Challenge” by Doug Cameron (aka RidgeRunner of the Watertribe). They talked about the Everglades Challenge, and how they took top honors in this endurance event in their outrigger equipped Sea Wind Kruger Canoe. The fact that, with its jib, twin masts and twin inflatable amas, it looked to me to be a mini trimaran; and that was enough to get me hooked again.

That article and subsequent issues of SCA helped give me a new perspective on what a sailing craft could and should be. The simpler (and that often means the smaller) a boat is, the more likely that it will be used regularly. That was my first copy of Small Craft Advisor, and I have not missed an issue since then.

I then started following the Watertribe Blog. Chief (Steve Isaac) had an article on his small tri rigged kayak “Wango Tango”, and Chris Ostlind had an article on one of his early designs, the “Wedgesail A18; A Dual Purpose Coastal Cruiser” – http://www.watertribe.com/Magazine/Y2004/M08/ChrisOstlind.aspx

Kellan’s article “A Curious Boat For Questionable Adventures” sealed the deal; the boat bug not only had bitten, but there was a realistic “treatment” available. – http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/02/articles/curious/index.htm

I didn’t have to have a boat big enough to live aboard and that would be costly in terms of time and money. I could have a small boat now – and enjoy the waters of the Florida Panhandle. Then I came across the Cedar Key Small Boat Rendezvous and the great folks of the West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron (WCTSS), and my boat designing, building and sailing adventures were on their way.

On Multihulls in General … and Trimarans in Particular

Again – the answer is dear old dad. I often wish he was still around to share ideas, new designs, thoughts, and all the excitement associated with boating and the resurgence of small multihulls.

A short while after getting the canoe rigged and sailing, my father expanded my horizons again. He gave me wonderful life lessons in using tools, building self-reliance and of course taught me the virtues of multihulls.

In the late 1960’s, to get a boat with the room needed for a family of six, you would need to get a very large monohull; something like a Morgan Out-Islander that was a sailboat mostly in name, and only off the wind; or build your own multihull.

My father, brother and I built two trimarans — Tryst and Yankee .

• Tryst was an Australian design from Headly Nichol; his 29’ Islander. It was an excellent and forgiving design for the novice builder and sailor. She had solid wing decks; 19 foot of beam; a cabin with an enclosed head, galley, two permanent wing berths, and a settee that sleep another two, as well as a hammock in either float (providing wonderful out-of-the-way private bunks with as much fresh air as you wish rolling in through the deck hatches above the hammock); a 10 inch deep, nearly full-length, low aspect keel; and a balanced rudder that hung no lower than that protecting keel. We had her out on Biscayne Bay at least twice a month, and were able to work in trips to the Bahamas and the Florida Keys.

• Yankee was a Jim Brown Searunner 25 (Sail # 259). She was cutter rigged and she would scoot! I did not get to sail on Yankee as much as I would have liked. Six-months before she was launched, I entered the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and started career in the USCG than spanned 21 years of active duty. My father and younger brother are the ones who really enjoyed Yankee. Nevertheless, every time for the next several years that I was on leave and able to come back to Miami, we would find ourselves on Yankee on the bay, or on trips to Bimini.

The lighter weight, shoal draft, greater stability and speed of multihulls have been the deciding/appealing factors for me in their favor over “Unimarans” (at least that is the term my dad coined for those more traditional single-hulled sailing vessels). Within the realm of multihulls, trimarans for me have always been more appealing. I like the nod toward tradition that a tris’ central hull allows for cockpit and cabin layout. And I have never liked the catamarans’ strange helmsman seating needed to see ahead over a large/tall deckhouse.

Additionally, many trimaran designs focus on performance, while catamarans of the day (plus some misguided lines of tris, like Ed Horseman’s) seemed more concerned with accommodations. For the family sized catamarans, sailing performance was a secondary consideration and they suffered for it. This view of catamarans as a lumbering class of floating “time-shares” gave birth to the pejorative term “Roomarans”. Thankfully the pendulum seems to have swung back a bit and charter cats are starting to see improved handling under sail.

My early favorite multihull designs leaned toward the sleek and fast (and often less practical) trimarans.

My list of favorites included: • Norm Cross’ 26 and 27 footers • Headly Nichol’s Privateer, and • Lock Crowthers’ — Buccaneer 24 — Kraken 33 — Kraken 40

My current list of favorites is very different. My tastes now lean toward a boat around 6 meters, capable of day saiiling two to three, camp-cruising one to two, and not nearly as shrill as the Krakens or Buccaneers.

It has to give its crew a way to avoid excessive exposure to the sun; be folding or collapsible and small enough to be “moored” on a trailer in your yard/driveway; easy enough to rig quickly single handed; and ultimately be quick and nimble enough to be fun to sail. In my humble opinion, Ian Ferrier and Ray Kendrick currently have some of the best designs in this category.

On the Design & Building of Dalliance

She more or less evolved over time, and is the culmination of a progression of incarnations designed to address changing situations and requirements. If I was to start from scratch, and could reinvasion her, Dalliance would likely be longer (say about 19’), hopefully a bit lighter, and powered by a more aggressive sail plan. But for now, with last month’s introduction of telescoping akas, I believe she is “complete”. Except for unavoidable ongoing tweaks to incrementally refine and improve, I do not foresee any major (perhaps you should read “costly”) modifications.

So Dalliance, while I love sailing her, is not a perfect boat. But then of course, there is no such thing as a perfect boat. All boat designs grow from the process of determining the highest valued (or at least the least offensive) compromises between conflicting design constraints or requirements. And all requirements change with perspective, and are unique to each of us. Some of my primary requirements for designing Dalliance included:

• Minimalist coastal camper-cruiser — Hard (vs. tent) cabin to get out of the sun and weather — Ability to accommodate two, but must have space for one to sleep enclosed below deck — Cabin sole wide enough to fit my shoulders, laying on my back — Sitting head room below deck • Sail Plan — Be quick cruiser, but not a racer — No spreaders or diamond stays — Manageable without winches or multi-part sheet blocks — Roller furled head sails • Easily Trailered — with assembly, launch and recovery to be done by one person • Value/Frugal Oriented — repurpose and reuse where ever practical • A boat one can be proud of

There are a number of designs and designers that influenced in the requirements and design process.

How Long to Build Her

That is simple question, but the answer is not really that simply. Nevertheless, here is the short answer. In Dalliance’s current configuration, it took about 13 months of construction time. In retrospect I wish I had added the extra effort/time to maintain a construction log; but here is brief summary.

• Time to build (current) Main Hull – 9 months — Started lofting the bulkheads and hull panels – MAR 2010 — Float Testing on local pond – DEC 2010 — Maiden Voyage/Sea Trials on Gulf of Mexico – JAN 2012

Duckworks Splash Announcement:

• Time to build current Amas – 4 months — Lofting bulkheads and panels — AUG 2011 — Assembled and ready to sail — DEC 2011

However, there is a longer answer. Because Dalliance has been a progression of major changes and design enhancements, not the execution of a specific design, she came into being in phases between 2005 and 2013. Below is a high level overview.

• Repurposed from Oceanid: — Mast & Boom — Jib — which became a staysail

• Torqeedo – $1,435 • Sails – $860 • Mast & Rigging – $350 • Trailers – $420 • Main Hull Construction & out fitting – $2,950 • Ama Construction – $960 • Telescoping Akas – $875

The Greatest Challenges to Her Construction

Although there were times when I found the builder in me cursing the designer for not having thought through all the complexities and specify the sequence of steps needed to bring the design to fruition, the construction of the boat was still rather straight forward, and other than finding the time, it was not that much of a challenge.

• Main Hull — I designed the main hull using Greg Carlson’s Hulls freeware application. It was an easy to use, intuitive tool that helped me quickly create and change design parameters. It is a bit limiting in only allowing you to set up four bulkheads (including the transom, about which it splines the selected number of chine panels — My design followed the basic lines from John Harris’ CLC Pacific Proa. I purchased a set of John’s Mbuli plans; then asked if he had any objections to my using the lines from those plans—but with significant modification. Including: …. shortening it to 87% it original length by rescaling it from 20′ to 17.5′ …. stretching the beam at the cabin sole to 150%, increasing the initial 16″ up to 24″ to provide a wider sleeping area …. Shortening the cabin height by a couple inches to help retain some of Mbuli’s original look and keep her from looking too squat, despite the shorter and wider hull. John was very gracious and agreeable; he gave me his blessings, as long as it was clear this was not his design and he was not responsible for any changes I chose to make.

— Here are some basic comparison stats between the original Mbuli and Dalliance:

— I used the stitch and glue technique for the five panels of 6 & 5 mm Okoume plywood that made up the main hull.

Because of its strength, structural stability, and my familiarity with the technique from building Tryst, cold-molding won out in the end. I took the hull forms generated via Carlson’s Hulls, and then faired and smoothed the bulkheads by splining the points of the hard chimes when lofting them. I then added stringers and began the skinning with two layers of 3mm Okoume plywood, topped with epoxy over 5 oz. fiberglass.

The real draw back to cold-molded construction is there is a need for a great deal of attention to detail, as well as filling all the holes in the outer skin and lots of sanding, if you want to end up with a fail hull form. That is why I jokingly say that Dalliance is a good 25 footer; that is, she tends to look best from at least 25 feet.

The real challenges for me were in some of the engineering and design issues that took me time to research, cogitate on, and finally work out.

Calculating design weight estimates and corresponding waterlines was not simple. That is one of the reasons that I ended up selecting John’s Mbuli as the form for the main hull. Besides the classic lines, with a double ended proa, I did not have to worry so much about the height of the transom and the resultant drag it would create if it was submerged further than I expected.

For the replacement Amas, I did not want to fly one or the other when sitting at anchor or a dock, like the reused ones from Oceanid did. This makes for a disconcerting time below decks as the wind, waves, or crew weight shifts.

I worked hard on the design to get the Amas to the point where they just kiss the water when the boat was at rest; and also have them support about 550 lbs displacement without burying the transoms, at their designed underway waterline.

Performance Under Sail

I am generally pleased with the performance I have achieved with what I’ve used. Admittedly, at 19′, her mast is very conservative (or short) for a boat with her stance and stability. A taller mast and increased sail plan would improve her speed. However, it’s possible that a taller rig might not actually improve her intended “performance”.

Dalliance is a micro-cruiser, not a racer. And she excels at providing a dry comfortable ride, with ready-to-use (i.e., no assembly required) camping like conveniences once you stop for the day. However, I do find myself wishing she would foot a bit better to windward.

Because of the deck/topsides layout and resulting sheeting angles for the head sails, when going to weather she points highest under main and staysail. She will point 45 degrees to the wind, and with leeway factored in, will make an honest 98 degrees between tacks under main and staysail. She tacks smartly with the board down. However, in really shallow waters, with the board way up, you have to plan your tacks, and backing the jib is helpful in getting her bows all the way through the wind.

She is very comfortable to sail from the protection of the cockpit/cabin. And although she is not a multi hulled screaming sailing machine, other than other multihulls, there are few boats I’ve sailed with that outpace her.

• Speeds (so far) — The best sustained speed I held for 30 minutes or more at a time is 8 knots — The highest speed I’ve seen on my Garmin GPS is 12.3 knots — During the Florida 120, it seems that I did a lot of 5 to 6 knot passages — but that typically kept me up with or ahead of the fleet (including the 21′ Sea Pearls and Sea Pearl Tris).

As reported in SCA Issue #71 by Al Sweany in his article, My First Cruise, a report from the Florida 120, on page 38, “Two of the faster boats (a cutter rigged trimaran and a CL-16) flew by. They always seemed to start last and finish first.”

Sailing anywhere between a close reach and a broad reach she is a joy and puts a smile on my face. However, I have found, like in 2012 FL 120, in a rough chop or when footing quickly through waves, and she exposes the bottom of her hull to the waves, there can be pounding that both slows and annoys me.

What to Love About This Micro-Cruiser Trimaran

What I love best:

• Dalliance is a micro-cruiser…. And she excels at providing a dry comfortable ride, with ready to use camping like convinces once you stop for the day. • Despite technical shortcomings of the designer, she does perform well and has very pleasing lines. What I would like to change: • I wish she would foot better and track a bit higher when going to weather.

A Great Day of Sailing Aboard Dalliance

While sailing the local waters around St Marks, Shell Point and even St Georges Island, I’ve discovered that I do not get as much solace from solitary outings as I had thought. I really enjoy sailing in the company of others; having the friendly competition that seems inevitable when two sailing craft are heading in the same general direction; and being able to enjoy good fellowship at the end of the day over a meal and (preferably) a campfire.

Here is a link to the WCTSS FL 120 photo gallery that along with capturing the feel of the event, it includes a number of pictures of Dalliance: http://members.ij.net/wctss/wctss/photos89.html

Additionally, Ron Hoddinott’s WCTSS is a great group that always seems to have a good time wherever they go. I’m not aware of a group of sailors that use and enjoy their boats more than the WCTSS.

I also am very fond of the times I’ve spent at the annual Small Boat Rendezvous at Cedar Key, FL. It is good venue for meeting good hearted, like-minded folks; swapping ideas and stories; and getting in as much (or as little) sailing on beautiful Gulf waters with sandy beaches as you like.

On boats other than Dalliance

• Sailing on the US Coast Guard’s Barque Eagle and racing against other tall ships, not around a course, but for the most miles made good in a 24 hour period, was a bit of a thrill; • The many trips with my dad and brother to the Bahamas aboard Tryst and Yankee are also way up the list; and • The summer of 1976 where I got to skipper the 48′ Bill Trip designed Touché in the Marble Head to Halifax ocean race and then throughout the Gulf of Maine Races Series was very special.

___________________________________________________________

22 Comments

Great job and story! I’ve loved your boat since day 1 when photos sneaked on the web. Do you have any detail shots of the seating, the hatch, and interior?

Dan, thanks! I have tried to take interior photos, but have not had any success just yet. Without a wide angle camera, and a small cabin, I am simple not able to get a photo that shows the layout. I am heading out on another WCTSS Cruise next weekend and if possible, I will see if I can talk someone into taking some GoPro/Fish-eye lens photos. But the interior is nothing lavish, the sauna and walk-in fridge had to be cut from the final plans ;)

Would you be the same Dan as dstgean as I’ve seen posting on Proafiles and who created the trimaran version of Gary Dierking’s Ulua?

I too would like to see any cockpit details and/or hear how the centralized layout works in real life use…I assume that the narrow stern area is kept mostly empty?

I know from having attempted it that drawing up a design like this with enough room to lay down inside is tough enough with a traditional rear cockpit, let alone a center cockpit…so that alone is a pretty neat trick.

But to do it and still keep the entire cockpit area within the confines of a canoe type hull’s beam would seem impossible without it being a strictly one person affair…I totally get why cruising boats have small tucked in cockpits and there’s nothing wrong with a singlehanded cruiser- I’d just be interested to know if the designer thinks that some deck overhang that would allow more cockpit room would seriously detract from the boat’s comfort/safety margins, or if he’s had any experiences where he felt that a larger or more open cockpit or that type of overhang or counter stern might have been an immediate problem.

Anyway, it’s a very nice looking package that appears capable of far more extreme sea handling than one would expect in typical weekend/coastal conditions…but then again, the reality is that coastal cruising often presents far more immediate dangers than being offshore does.

I’ll be down in Sanibel over Spring break at my father and mother in laws. It would be fun to see your boat and talek microcruising multihulls. We are member ofa small fraternity here!

Ian (et. al),

Thanks for your interest and kind eords.

About the stern section, you are nearly correct; the stern section does remain mostly empty while sailing. That is where I keep my “pool float” foam matertress, sleeping bag and such stached out of the way during the day. After it is time to turn in for the night, that is where I lay down – feet aft whith my head under the open (or closed plexiglass hatch) with a great view of the mast, stars and whatever else is in the night sky.

Of course the helmsman seat, comprised of a folding bench topped with a West Marine folding go-anywhere seat, collapse and get stowed out of the way.

Dalliance is set up sysmetrically fore and aft, as well as port and starboard. There are five bulkheads, but for terms of cabin layout, there are only three, since the fore and aft most bulkheads corrden off two 24″ long floatation voids at either extreme. The central bulkhead is not a full frame, with a max web depth of 6″ and a 24″ passage width where it rises from the cabin sole/lower panel bottom chime. The forward and aft cabin bulkheads are about 35″ in front and behind the center bulkhead, but there are cut outs at the cabin sole to allow me crawl forward and aft — and stretch out both forward and aft (if I can resist toting along to much “just-in-case” stuff). Theoretically, I can sleep two below decks, but it would be very tight; and because my wife is not a sailor, and has already had surgery associated with too much sun exposure, she is pleased to let me have my own time on the boat while she minds the home front.

Inside the cabin there are two drop-down table tops. One is located on the aft side of the forward bulkhead, and typically get used in cold and inclement weather. I use the folding helmsman seat to set on the cabin sole to sit at the table, or simply lounge and read out of the weather or misquito infested nights. The other table drops down at the hemlsman’s seat. It is used both while moored and underway, when it becomes my snack holder and Nav station.

I had thought about a flared or overhanging cabin or cockpit, but not for this boat. I was trying to keep the BOA for the 1st iteration of Dallance to 6 foot or less to slip between two trees as rolling it up the side yard to it back yard morning. Ray Kendrick’s Scarab 16 is an interesting design you might be interested in if you (like me) are content with a tight fitting smaller boat ( http://www.teamscarab.com.au/scarab16/design.html and all his plans are currently on sale for $150 each). Being the kind of guy I am, I have been noodling around with sketches that stretch the 16 out to 17 or 18 feet, and add an aft cabin with a conservative two to three person center cockpit. Our you can just jump up in size (as well as cost and complexity) to the Scrab 18 that is a very sweet and seemingly refined design. You might want to visit Ray’s website.

Regards, Ron

Dan, it is good to connect with you. You and your boats have been one of many points of light the lite the way to small boating for me. I first encountered your name in Gary’s book, “Building Outrigger Sailing Canoes” and your stretched Ulua on page 14. I see that you put it up for sale – that doesn’t mean you’re without a boat does it?

I would love to meet you for real; and perhaps this spring that might work out. Besides Cedar Key in May, I am also trying to get away from work for the WCTSS spring get-away March 15, 16, 17 to Cayo Costa State Park in the vicinity of Sanibel.

Maybe we can get together around that.

Thanks for the detailed response…am I correct in assuming that first partial frame forward of the the aft watertight bulkhead aligns with the back end of the cockpit area proper, and that the center bulkhead forms the front and is located somewhere just behind the main cabin windows where it would be on similar center cockpit layouts? making the opening roughly 35″ long x the beam at that point?

That would make sense but what is hard to see is how the area below the cabin line is treated and how the various sections of the boat seal off when you say-

“The central bulkhead is not a full frame, with a max web depth of 6? and a 24? passage width where it rises from the cabin sole/lower panel bottom chime”

-I am not sure if this means that the open vertical passage area runs all the way to a cabin sole/cockpit floor that runs full length between the two outermost bulkheads- a very well protected but essentially open design, or if there is some raised section of that bulkhead above the cabin sole at that point (or a traditional deck/foot well) that creates a dam to compartmentalize any shipped water and forms a separate cockpit and allows the cabin area to be sealed off?

I’m just having a hard time visualizing it, as it sounds as if you are laying down in back on or near the cabin sole but are inside a sealable envelope and not just sleeping in the open cockpit- but the available pics don’t give a lot of clues and there’s obviously not a lot of room to put a deck or foot well *and* be able to squeeze underneath.

I like the Scarab designs and the overhanging deck/cabin treatments are pretty straightforward and seem sensible…interior volume that adds reserve buoyancy is hard to not like, but besides your specific space needs your boat seems more oriented towards an elevated degree of endurance in less than perfect offshore conditions, and very flat areas like overhanging cockpit seats or cabins can not just slap hard in a seaway and help jar things apart, any sudden shift in the boats buoyancy centers as they engage with rising and falling waves can introduce some pretty significant forces when the waves are big enough to do that, forces that might move in ways that no one could really anticipate.

The Scarab seems like they had that in mind and even with the open transom it would likely do fairly well if things got snotty on a short passage, but I’d pick your layout if I was going to be exposed to real open ocean stuff or was making coastal passages where the weather regularly got ugly.

Or put another way- the Scarab would be perfect for sailing down the west coast of Baja, but I’d want your boat for clawing back up it.

yeah, I’m dstgean as in Dan St. Gean–work email psuedomym. I did in fact sell my Ulua to Pete from Philly. I’m not boatless though. Messing about with Gary dierking’s Tamanu presently. Not sure If I’m going to stick with my present push to go double Tamanu cat–I’m set up to do that right now, or go trimaran & build a purpose built overgrown beachcat. With 3 kids now, I’ve been out fo the cruising game for 2+ years, but would like to get out soon. As far as the Wctts event, I’ll be down in Sanibel over Spring Break the last week in March. I’ll just miss you. However, I will be driving, so I might just be able so swing over to your direction if it is at all convenient. I had a chance to do the same with Frank Smoot last year in June.

Hi Ron, The new amas look great! She must be a different boat now. I wish I could get down there for the small boat get togthers, but it’s too long a drive.

Mark Gypsy Wind

Sorry for the slow response. Thank you for the very nice thoughts and words about my boat. From your participation on Small Trimarans its obviously you know a lot about various

You said “I’m just having a hard time visualizing it”; I guess that is because Dalliance does not have a traditional cockpit. It is more like the arrangement on Matt Layden’s Paradox where the cabin also doubles as the cockpit, or like the cabin/cockpit of the Evergreen 6 catamaran, a design I admire despite the fact that for this site, it has one too few hulls ( http://www.proafile.com/archive/article/evergreen_a_fast_expedition_sailboat ). With Dri-Deck panels lining the cabinsole I can take a reasonable (but not bountiful) amount of rain/splash without putting a damper on on life below deck. I’ll try to get a photo or drawing or two posted to DropBox to help with the visualization. When I do I’ll post a link here.

Thanks! The new amas, and now the improved akas, really do make her a different boat. I am pleased with the way she now assembles for launch, handles, and with their 150% displacement I no longer have to scamper from one wing net to the other to keep those old undersized amas from pretending to be torpedoes. When they would start to ,zip along below the surface it certainly retched up the pucker factor.

I followed your build of Gypsy Wind and think you did a fantastic job both in the design and the execution! I have been looking around some more information on how well she performs at the usual boating sites. Is there somewhere we might go to find any post launce data, or maybe you can be talked into providing Joe with some photos and data. I do not know where you live, but it would be most welcome to meet you and get to see Gypsy Wind. Too bad Cedar Key or the Florida 120 are out of range.

If you can get over to the Tallahassee area after your Spring break trip to Sanibel a visit would be most welcome!

Thanks for the response; I’d love to see any interior or cockpit detail pics you might post, but I think I’ve got the basic idea now and it’s a sort of partially decked/partially open cockpit affair…

it’s an interesting solution for a cruising setup and very practical- having the reserve safety of a more or less watertight capsule to get inside in bad weather is good for morale but in real life cruising, having a way to secure your stuff when you are nowhere near the boat is a more common reality and that kind of big barn door-like hatch that closes everything off is a nice way to do it.

I’ve played around with similar sized design ideas and another option is a two piece hatch where one portion slides aft…it’s one way to get a longer opening on a tiny boat with minimal space, where a large one piece hatch would hit the mast.

Especially with a very narrow canoe sterned main hull, that aft of the cockpit deck area will be mostly unused as working space so it’s a good place to slide a hatch section, and that section could even become a deck area in its own right when the cockpit “doors” are fully open if you extended the rails straight back in some sort of rigid framework (like a boomkin)…you could have a sort of a sliding deck overhang without the extra weight of a deck *and* a hatch.

A hinged forward section is another “convertible” idea I’ve seen, where the forward hatch section forms an angled coaming or windscreen shape as it tilts forward, or stows in an accordion fashion for a bigger open area.

The ability to batten things down completely underway is certainly a great benefit and the peace of mind thing is nothing to sneeze at, but in tiny cruisers like this I think the greater benefit is saving the weight of all that cockpit framing and decking and hatches, etc. so you can more quickly get out of conditions that might swamp you or would otherwise drive you down below to await your fate.

The big problem of course is that hatches and seating just don’t scale down with the rest of the boat, so it really takes some doing to fit things in on something in this size range, and even when you *do* use the overhanging decks and hull bump outs a lot of the extra interior volume isn’t very useable as living space.

Ron, I might just be able to do that. Tallahassee is out of the way, but it would be fun. Drop me a note at dstgean at yahoo dot com

Hello. Great job and thanks for sharing all the details and insight. Would you share with other perspective self builders the design of alas and retractable akas ? Thank you in advance Stefano

Thanks for your interest and nice words. i am glad to shar (some might say over-share) information on the technical aspect of the design. I have posted some photos and design drawing from my project to convert to telescoping aka at the following URL: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/srdjar9zcs1gcak/xUzcCTE6lt

I am not sure how to post a non-photo file, so I will email the Carlson Hulls file, and the take-off tables I used to loft the bulkhead for the amas, to Joe to see if he might forward them on to you directly.

Even though I built a trimaran instead of the proa, I followed the original design specs from John Harris for the akas for Mbuli. That way, as long as kept the sail plan a bit more conservative than the Mbuli’s 192 sq ft. I knew there would be no worry about structural issues. In the Mbuli the 12′ of beam is cantilevered out one span from the main hull/vaka to the one ama, and in my tri each ama is 6′ from the centerline to the outboard gunwale. The stresses are significantly reduced, and I confidently avoided the need for waterstays. In fact, it is quite likely the original demountable akas were well over engineered.

The plans called for 12′ long 4″ O.D aluminum tubes with 1/8″ walls, and that is just what I started with — even for the minimal sized 198 pound displacement amas repurposed from my kayak trimaran, Oceanid. Then the akas continued to prove their capability with the new much larger and improved amas.

Then, for the telescoping akas I consulted my metal fabricator about the available sizes and material strengths. I ended up using one of the original 4″ O.D. aka tubes as the central member for both the forward and rear aka assemblies. The outer portions were made from 3.5″ aluminum pipe with 1/8″ walls. Tubes are measured/sold by their Outside Diameters, whereas Pipes are measured/sold by their Inside Diameters. After having the tubes cut to length and the mounting brackets cut from 1/4″ aluminum plate by a CNC waterjet,

I had the parts powder coated with a black industrial grade enameled finish. This left me with outer aka sections that slide into the central sections with just under a 1/4″ clearance. I would have liked to have gotten down to an 1/8″ or less clearance, but I just could not come up with standard sized, commercially available tubes or pipes to make that happen. To keep the outer sections from working/slapping inside the central sections, I created four series of thin wedges that are each strung together and tied around the outer section. They are made from black “Star Board” plastic, and span about 33% of the circumference of the outer sections . After the amas are pulled out to the full width sail positions, i drop in four large (1/2″) stainless steel bolts into aligned holes in the port and starboard sides of the forward and rear aka assemblies; then I use a rubber mallet to drive the circularly strung wedges into the approx. 7/32″ gaps. Then these are held solidly by four 4″ SS worm drive hose clamps — which all is concealed under the tramps. Each tramps is a simple one piece trampoline fabric (purchased from Sail Rite) that is looped over around the forward and aft aka like a tank/bull dozer track, and laced together in the middle on the bottom side of the port and starboard tramps.

I hope these descriptions along with the photos make sense. But I know it is not easy to follow unless you are looking at it too. I won’t take it personally if you don’t get what I am trying to say.

A couple of other things I meant to include in my previous post:

The new telescoping akas added 22 pounds total (11 pounds each) over the prior demountable aka configuration. That includes adding the eight new mounting brackets.

When fully extended, the outer sections still have just over 8” overlap inside the central sections.

Here is a link to some images of the ama construction, and some comparative photos between the old and the new amas.

https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/34739351/1/Dalliance_Amas_II?h=86f1e5

Stefano — I should add that the 8″ overlap was supposed to be 10″, but there was a mistake in making them. The metal fabricator ensured me that at 8″ the joints have more than sufficient strength; and I have yet to disprove his informal professional assessment, hope I never do.

Thanks so much for “over sharing” :-) that is what I needed. IT makes me willing to build again. I particularly appreciated the info on pipes and tubes… I miss the “OD aluminum” definition, which I might gues is “outside dimension” ??

We seem here to be better off with outer-inner tubes for better compatibility ( less gap). I would definitely appreciate if you could share the files of the amas. My mail is [email protected] .

As for my five cents, I think that I will try to keep the rig rigid by anchoring the shrouds to the non extensible part of the akas and having waterstays at the same point. At 220 cm it would be the same span from which my catamaran mast was rescued from. Extra side strength would be added by diamond spreaders.

I would have gone at solving the gap between the sliding and fixed part of the akas with a simple series of 2 inch e glass tape set in epoxy. Sounds simpler to me.

In the magnum 21, the kas aare connected with the non extendible part for less than 8″, and while the rig is substantially larger than yours, the akas are 70 or 80 mm if I recall correctly, so yours should be more than safe.

I would at last provide my shared part of experience pointing out that in some pics while at anchor your mast shows a tad of forward bending, probably due to excessive tension of the forward stay. If you tension more the staysail and get a standard backward curve, you may be able to correct the sail “fat” distribution (pulls it towards the mast where it belongs) and get as a bonus those few degrees of better windward pointing ability you were actually indicating as part of the wishlist for corrections.

Yours friendly, Stefano

in previous comment please read “simple series of e glass rings”

I will move further discussion, as well as copies of the Hulls file and take-offs, to email. But I do want to share with others (if anyone else is following this exchange) that I too was going to use the “simple series of e glass rings”. However, because Dalliance was a progression, and not a fully thought out design concept from the start, there were issues in retro-fitting telescoping akas. Althought I tried to execute a precise build, it turned out that the built in channels for the demountable akas were about a quarter inch out from being parrellel (which equated to almost 1.5″ difference in spacinging between the two akas at their mounting points on the port & starboard amas. With the drop in, single piece cross beam akas that was not a problem. the akas were lashed in place and then the amas mounted and lashed to them. I simply had some minor assemetry in the horizontal alignment, but the vertical alignment was good (or at least compensated for again when placing the individual mounting brackets on the outboard gunwales on the amas).

When I went to convert the demountable drop-in akas with telescoping ones, that slight offset in alignment caught up with me. I decided to not deconstruct and rebuild the aka channels in the main hull, and The extra slack/clearence between the inner and outer sections actually facilitates being able to telescope the akas. If the fit was snug, I would have had a significant rebuild project to get them to work.

I guess, to paraphrase the late Steven Covey, it is best to begin with the end in mind (if you can). Good luck on you project!

This is being sent from my iPad; I send an email after I get back to my computer.

Please send dropbox link for interior of this awesome micro cruising trimaran Dalliance. How much does she weigh?

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Trimaran project is intended to showcase multihull news with a focus on racing, build projects, launchings, interesting ideas past and present and also updates on my own trimaran projects. Lots of content and updates to come so keep checking back.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Article on micro cruising trimaran 'dalliance' designed and built by ron falkey on smalltrimarans.com.

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Famous boats, little cruiser, matt's boats.

Mindy and David have a passion for small sailboats called micro-cruisers, and they have been cruising in their tiny boats for 30 years. Their favorite destinations have been the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Florida Keys and the beautiful islands of the Bahamas.

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10 Small Catamarans for Cruisers

Published on January 23, 2021 ; last updated on November 7, 2023 by Carolyn Shearlock/Rick Marcarelli

Is a cruising catamaran your dream? Check out these 10 small but sturdy boats you might want to consider.

I hear from many readers interested in small catamarans. Recently, the folks at www.CatamaranSite.com reached out to interview me about our experience cruising on our Gemini 105, Barefoot Gal and we began chatting about the various small catamarans on the market. One thing led to another and I’m pleased that Rick Marcarelli was willing to contribute a guest post sharing information comparing ten of the most popular small catamarans on the market.

When most buyers think of catamarans these days, they think of designs by Lagoon, Leopard, and Fountaine Pajot.

These are all fine vessels. But they were built to cater to the charter markets. And so they may not be the best boats for long-term, liveaboard cruisers.

Charter vs Liveaboard Cruising

The typical charter catamaran accommodates three or four couples sailing for one to two weeks in the Caribbean or Mediterranean. Usually they will provision once, sail a few daylight hours, eat out more than a typical cruiser, and anchor or moor for the night.

Compare that itinerary to the typical liveaboard cruiser.

Most cruisers spend over 90% of their time at anchor or a dock. They provision repeatedly and usually for many months at a time. Many cruisers rarely eat out at restaurants. And most importantly, cruisers sometimes sail non-stop through the night for multiple days or weeks when making a passage between cruising destinations.

The differences between charterers and cruisers cause them to desire different cabin layouts and amenities.

For charter boats, the focus is on several small cabins, each having its own accompanying head. They also have minimal storage space and enormous salons and cockpits.

Long-term liveaboards generally desire a large master cabin, fewer heads, and significant storage space. They are usually willing to compromise space for superior sailing performance to reduce passage making days and increase safety by avoiding severe weather.

Affordable Catamaran Market

Unfortunately for liveaboard cruisers interested in catamarans, the market is dominated by enormous, often very expensive, four cabin-four head charter models. In fact, our analysis of sales data suggests that about 38% of the market consists of Lagoon catamarans and over 50% are Lagoon or Fountaine Pajots. In addition, 90% of the market consists of catamarans over 38 feet in length. Please see the infographic.

While a majority of catamarans for sale are large, expensive, charter catamarans, our site’s traffic suggests that 40% of buyers are looking for smaller, simpler, affordable catamarans under 38 feet in length.

These are buyers like Carolyn was when she purchased S/V Barefoot Gal . And they are buyers who may be like you and are looking for something affordable that is suited to your liveaboard needs.

Modest Cats for Cruisers

Consider widening your net. Here are some additional models to consider in your search:

Prout 37 Snowgoose

Cruising Grounds: Bluewater
Underbody: Fixed Keels
Draft (max): 2.08′
Mast Height: 40’ (Standard) / 50’ (Elite)
Bridgedeck Clearance: Average
Layouts: 3 cabins, 1 head; galley down; open version has larger salon while private stateroom has larger master cabin
Speed: Slow
Engines: Usually single outdrive; rare versions have twin inboards
Availability: Relatively common all over the world
Ballpark Price: Around $100,000 USD

Cruising Grounds: Built for North Sea
Draft (max): 2.5′
Mast Height: tabernacle mast
Bridgedeck Clearance: Above Average
Layouts: 3 cabins, 1 head; galley down
Engines: Single gas outboard or twin inboard diesels
Availability: Somewhat rare; usually a couple on the market or 8M sister ship; more in Europe
Ballpark Price: Under $50,000 USD

Lagoon 37 TPI

Draft (max): 4′
Mast Height: 55’
Layouts: 3 or 4 cabin; 2 heads; galley down
Speed: Fast
Engines: Twin inboard diesels
Availability: Very rare; cult classic
Ballpark Price: Over $100,000 USD

PDQ 36 Capella

Draft (max): 2.82′
Mast Height: 47’ (Standard) or 55’ (LRC)
Layouts: 2 or 3 cabin; 1 or 2 heads; galley down
Engines: Single gas outboard, twin gas outboard, or twin diesel inboard
Availability: Usually a few on the market and more likely in USA
Ballpark Price: Over $100,000 USD

Seawind 1000

Draft (max): 3.2′
Mast Height: 47’
Layouts: 4 cabins; 1 head; galley down
Speed: Fast
Engines: Twin gas outboard
Availability: Usually a few for sale; newer models still being built; originally built in Australia
Ballpark Price: Over $150,000 USD

Cruising Grounds: Coastal
Draft (max): 3.35′
Layouts: 4 cabins or 2 cabin Maestro; 2 head; galley up
Engines: Twin inboard diesels with saildrives
Availability: Usually a couple on the market often in Caribbean
Ballpark Price: Around $150,000 USD

Endeavour 36

Draft (max): 2′ 9″
Layouts: 3 cabin; galley down
Engines: Twin inboard diesels
Availability: Rare and likely in the USA

Draft (max): 3.62′
Mast Height: 55′
Layouts: 3 cabin / 1 head; 2 cabin / 2 head; galley up
Availability: More common especially in Caribbean
Ballpark Price: Newer version up to $300,000 USD
Underbody: Centerboards
Draft (max): 5′
Mast Height: 47’ (M) or 48’ (MC)
Bridgedeck Clearance: Below Average
Layouts: 3 cabin; 1 head; galley down but open
Engines: Single inboard diesel with retractable outdrive
Availability: Common especially in the USA

Draft (max): 3′
Mast Height: 46′
Layouts: 4 cabin / 1 head; 3 cabin / 2 head; galley down; bathtubs on some
Engines: Single or twin inboard diesels
Availability: Rare model
Ballpark Price: Around $50,000 USD

Rick Marcarelli is the webmaster of CatamaranSite.com featuring cruising catamarans for sale by owner as well as educational articles. Rick is the owner of S/V Catalpa , a Catalac 8M based out of Merritt Island, Florida. The site also functions as the owner’s website for Catalac catamarans. If you are planning on buying a catamaran, CatamaranSite.com might save you a considerable amount of money and lead to years of happy sailing.

And check out our other courses and products

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Reader Interactions

January 31, 2021 at 5:58 pm

I would think draft on the fixed keel boats would be important to many who are considering cats.

Carolyn Shearlock says

February 1, 2021 at 12:49 pm

I’ll see if we can perhaps add that.

Richard says

February 9, 2021 at 11:03 am

Good addition. I have provided drafts to Carolyn, so please watch this article for that to be updated. Any questions or additional information you would like added please comment again.

Drew Frye says

February 20, 2021 at 11:46 am

The best way to look at speed ratings is the PHRF rating or other handicaps. I used to own a PDQ 32 and never found a Gemini I couldn’t pass rather easily on autopilot, so I don’t think it rates slow if well handled. Granted, mine was turboed a bit and carried a 120 rating.

Florida ratings, according to US Sailing

PDQ 32 135 Seawind 1000 137 PDQ 36 156 Gemini 105 MC 168 Snowgoose 250 The others rate around 130-145

And of course, this is only fast or slow within the class. Fast multihulls cruising (?) multihulls rate 0-60.

February 21, 2021 at 7:59 am

Thanks! Good info.

September 10, 2023 at 5:55 am

I have an Edel 35′. For their price, they are a good option, for this size of catamaran. They are not slow, by any means. Disadvantage: clearance under nacelle.

Erin Michaud says

February 23, 2021 at 10:22 am

Great info, we met an owner of a Catalac 9M in Key West Garrison Bight Marina a couple of weeks ago. His name is Eric & he moved his boat to the Boca Chica Navy Marina. I will send the contact info for Rick to him specifically for the Catalac boats! Thanks!

February 24, 2021 at 5:54 am

Catalacs are great boats. We saw a couple for sale around the time we bought Barefoot Gal but they were sold the same day they were listed so we didn’t get to even look at them.

January 6, 2022 at 11:32 am

Hello. I was wondering if you can identify this open catamaran which boasts a GRP cockpit with seating?

https://imgur.com/gallery/2wzUJmR

Bruce Bayne says

February 20, 2022 at 9:57 am

I noticed that the Privilege 37 and 39 were not mentioned in your 10 list of catamarans. Is there a reason? How do they stack up to the others with regard to speed and bridgedeck clearance?

June 6, 2022 at 10:44 am

Rayma Church says

July 31, 2024 at 7:27 pm

Last November we purchased a Fontaine Pajot power cat (MY4s) that is 37′ long and has a beam of 16.8″, with a draft of 2.6″ and a height of 15′ but is tall inside for my 6’5″ partner without having to hunch over. This means we can go under the lowest bridges on the Great Lakes leg of the Loop, although we do not have a fly bridge. This is a new model (made its debut in 2023) and we plan to start the Great Lakes leg in June 2025 – the boat is being handed over to us in Annapolis in October. One of the reasons we selected this boat is because of the need for interior height but exterior “shortness” to get under the bridges. Also, this model has access on both sides of the boat that are about 18″ wide – another safety feature as my 6’5″ man has size 14 feet! We have been receiving your emails for the last 9 months or so in preparation for so many things boat related. We are both so happy to crib off of your experience rather than learn through adversity! Thanks, rayma

August 1, 2024 at 12:26 pm

Great choice of boat for the Loop!

2024 Boat of the Year: Best Performance Trimaran

By Herb McCormick
December 20, 2023

Dragonfly 40 during Boat of the Year testing

For the first time ever in the 29-year history of Boat of the Year , we’re introducing a new class to the proceedings: Performance Trimarans. To make things spicier, the two nominees not only shared the same length overall of 40 feet, but they also came in at the near-identical price point of around $800,000 for the base boat.

Beyond those two parameters, however, the different approaches from these disparate brands were interesting and exciting. Cruising trimarans, though rare, are nothing new; the well-established Neel line of French-built trimarans has enjoyed plenty of success in previous BOTY contests. With that said, the judging panel was champing at the bit to put these fresh three-hull whizzes through their paces. And once under sail, we were definitely not disappointed.

Winner: Dragonfly 40

Let’s cut right to the chase: The Dragonfly 40 had judge Tim Murphy swooning straight from hello: “This is an exquisite yacht in every detail. When you step aboard, the new-boat smell was not of styrene but of a wood shop. Built in Denmark by the Quorning family (designer and builder Jens Quorning took us on the test sail), it’s just a beautiful boat to look at from across the water. The wheel steering—no tiller here—was butter-smooth. Thanks to the boat’s extremely fine hulls, on our test sail we hardly felt any jerks or deceleration as we passed through several Severn River boat wakes. There were AGM batteries on this boat, but a lithium-battery system is an option. The kick-up centerboard and rudder are ingenious: Quorning as much as invited us to ground the boat on a shoal. From barber haulers to boom preventers, it’s full of great sailing details.”

Judge Mark Pillsbury was equally impressed: “As we finished up our all-too-brief sea trial aboard the Dragonfly 40, I scribbled ‘Top shelf!!!’ in my notebook. We had the benefit of sailing the boat with its thoroughly detail-oriented builder, who pointed to the seemingly endless features he’d employed to make this maybe the most memorable sailing boat of the year. At one point, I looked down at the GPS speed-over-ground number, which read 6 knots, then glanced at the true wind gauge: 5.2! Faster than the wind! The interior of the Dragonfly was elegant, with the furniture rendered in elm—not a wood we often see. But most impressive was the walk-in aft cabin instead of the crawl-in bunk often found in the narrow confines of a tri’s slender center hull.”

Judge Herb McCormick was as astonished as his colleagues: “There isn’t a thing on the Dragonfly that Quorning hasn’t thought long and hard about, and then executed to a stellar degree. Take that centerboard arrangement, which is built into the central dining table and is integrated so well into the interior that it’s a functional piece of furniture as well as a foolproof cruising solution. What else can we say? It’s a magnificent freaking boat.”

Runner-up: Rapido Trimarans 40

The design brief for the Rapido 40 is straightforward: fast cruising and racing for a couple or crew; ocean-ready but able to sail and moor in shallow water. Nobody was more psyched to sail the boat than judge Herb McCormick, who was not disappointed.

“I was first exposed to the brand at a multihull regatta in the Caribbean, where a larger Rapido 50 was in attendance,” he said. “I was on another boat, and we spent a lot of time looking at the Rapido’s transom. Then I stepped aboard the Rapido 40 for our trials and was handed the tiller extension; under the code zero, in about 15 seconds, we were making 14 knots. Whoa!”

Judge Mark Pillsbury said: “From stem to stern, the Rapido 40 came packed with features, including a double-taper carbon rotating mast, a Park Avenue-style boom for easy sail handling, daggerboards for upwind performance, and a very comfy cockpit. There’s an optional all-carbon version of the boat, including the drawers in the galley. The layout, with a comfortable V-berth and raised table in the salon—offering outstanding views of the great outdoors—is cruising-couple friendly.”

Judge Tim Murphy added: “The Rapido 40 is built in Vietnam by Paul Koch, the previous owner of Corsair Marine who started Rapido Trimarans in 2014. Rapido builds three models, all designed by the renowned team of Morrelli & Melvin. Our test boat had the standard infused construction, which is mostly E-glass with vinylester resin and a PVC core. There’s also carbon fiber near the bulkheads where the crossbeams meet. Carbon-fiber C-foils in the amas are intriguing and provide lift in two directions: up (to reduce sailing displacement but not fly) and to windward. Sailing the boat on the raised web seat with the tiller extension is gorgeous. It feels very sporty. Rapido’s latest claim to fame: The YouTube channel Sailing La Vagabonde has taken delivery of a Rapido 60, which will definitely raise the profile of the brand.”

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