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Perithead,
As others have indicated, when SailingDog signs in he will be a great source of hard data and performance info on this neat boat. I will add just this, more by way of anecdote:
About 5 years ago, I was aboard the Telstar 28 prototype when it was being rigged for the first time and when the folding akas were being put through their paces in Annapolis, at the builder's dock on Back Creek (builder is Perfomance Cruising, who also make the Gemini catamarans). I was impressed by the clever interior layout and spaciousness -- given that it was a multi-hull. By that I mean it does not have near the same volume in the main hull as you would expect from a mono-hull. But this is a multi-hull, and the accepted trade off for better sailing performance is less accomodations in a given length. Also, I was very impressed by the folding akas, although at the time I wondered how sturdy they'd be and whether they could be easily manipulated away from the protected dock if necessary. Tony Smith, the designer and builder, assured me they were engineered to be adequate in every respect. He also demonstrated to me that the mast could be raised by one person -- an important point for trailering.
More recently we passed a Telstar 28 trimaran on Chesapeake Bay. We were heading opposite directions through a tight cut called Knapps Narrows. Before entering the narrows, the Telstar folded its akas and brought the amas in tight against the main hull, then proceeded to transit the narrows with little more beam than a mono-hull. Presumably the skipper folded everything back out after reaching open water again. Very impressive!!
Trimarans are a different breed of sailboat, and do require some additional skills and understanding of their performance and stability limitations. We once rendered assistance to a Corsair 27 that had pitch-poled at night on Chesapeake Bay. So get some advice from experienced mulit-hull sailors before pushing one too hard in heavy conditions.
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