Everyone should trade up for!

[ImASonOfaSailor]

A trimaran! Why doesn't everyone have a Tri? If you have not sailed on one yet you need to at least one time! I need to become a sales person for the Corsair Farrier design!

If you are use to 5 to 7 knots of boat speed in normal AIR, then you would be so surprised on how fast a trimaran with no extra effort to do 2 to 3 knots above that in the same AIR! Just think of you travel time to your special islands cut in half! Wow this is good I need to become a sales guy!

[arbarnhart]

We had a very small tri when I was a kid. It was actually a scale model we bought from a designer/sailor. It was quick for a small boat and very stable, but if you did manage to flip, it was even more stable upside down.

[ImASonOfaSailor]

Originally Posted by arbarnhart

We had a very small tri when I was a kid. It was actually a scale model we bought from a designer/sailor. It was quick for a small boat and very stable, but if you did manage to flip, it was even more stable upside down.

If you have a 31 footer or larger you should not be able to flip it unless you push it to the limit... What do you own now?

[CharlieCobra]

I've looked at some tri's but what I want is prohibitively expensive.

[arbarnhart]

Originally Posted by ImASonOfaSailor

If you have a 31 footer or larger you should not be able to flip it unless you push it to the limit... What do you own now?

Sniff, sniff; what I own now is a car top Snark, but I am currently shopping for a 17' - 19' trailer sailor (short length based largely on where I have to park it). A Venture 17 is high on my list of possibles. I am bargain shopping, so it could be winter before I buy, though I am ready to now if one falls in my lap. A big tri is a good choice for serious sailing, though pretty expensive to buy and maintain. The guy my parents bought our little tri from was planning to go around the world in the full sized one. But the "what if" of flipping, as unlikely as it seems, is one thing that scares people about multi-hulls.

So what do you own?

[thedudeistoocool]

I love the idea of trimarans, their speed capabilities really impress me and then there's all that lounging potential between the outriggers (amas?) but it seems to me that tri's actually have less space than a monohull of equivalent length. also I can not seem to find good info on larger tri's Although they don't suit my needs I LOVE the dragonflies

I'm looking for a boat with three decent cabins aside from the salon and a nice galley

Does anyone have the names of any production tri's that have equivalent space to say a 50' monohull ? again, with three staterooms.

[tommyt]

Iamason,

I would agree that the thirst for speed can be had with the tri, or a high performance cat. They are lots of fun, and may meet your needs just fine. I am also not sure of what your career path is.

However, a successful sales person convinces people that what they have to sell, which is similar but different in some cases, fits the needs of the customer. A STARVING salesman trys to convince the family of four that a Lambroghinni is perfect when they are looking for a Mercedes station wagon. Never let money walk, because then you can't afford your passion. You are going to have a tough time coverting the world to tri's, but there is no reason that you can't find a way for them to help pay for it.

[ImASonOfaSailor]

http://www.f-boat.com/f-33.html

here is my favorite tri and i dont know why people say there is no room on them? They have a 30 foot beam once unfolded + you dont spend all of your time inside anyway, with the 33 foot yu will see there is about the same room in it as a monohull. I grew up on monohulls and i am now moving away from them, just like when a chevy is in the family for years and you grow up and get a HEMI!

A 50 footer does not fold up once you get above 36 for the folding trimarans you will need a Mac truck to pull it! Other then the dragonflies I dont know of any others out there? Right now I do not have a boat yet. I am waiting for my finances to get better I am planing on 2 more years and I will be good. I love to talk about sailing right now I cant wait to get back on the water, I get teared eye talking about it! Here is another one I would like to find USED! I think they look so sleak! http://nomadness.com/articles/corsair-36-for-sale.html

[sailingdog]

Umm... have you actually read the specifications... the Beam Over All is 23' 5"... not 30'. I don't know where the hell you're getting a beam of 30'. BTW, most trimarans don't have a beam of more than 66% of their LOA as a general rule...and the bigger the boat, the smaller a percentage of the LOA the beam is generally.

L.O.A................................. 33' (10.06m)
B.O.A................................. 23' 5" (7.14m)
L.W.L................................. 31' 4" (9.55m)
Folded beam.......................... 9' 6" (2.9m)
Approx. bare weight ................ 2800 - 3700lbs (1270 - 1680kg) depending on model
Load Carrying Capacity ......... 2900lbs to 3300lbs (1320 - 1500kg) depending on model
F-33 rotating mast ...................44.7' (13.62m) aluminum or carbon mast
F-33 sail area (main & jib)......... 673sq.ft (62.56sq.m.)
F-33R rotating mast .................47.2' (14.38m) - carbon mast
F-33R sail area......................717sq.ft (66.65sq.m.)
Stability ...............................59,000ft.lbs (F-9A/F-31 is 47,000ft.lbs)
Draft (board up)...................... 1' 5" (0.43m)
Draft (board down).................. 5' 11" (1.8m)
Aft Cabin Cockpit length............5' (1.52m)
Aft Cockpit length....................7' 7" - 9' 10" (2.3 - 3m)
Interior Headroom ...................6' 2 to 6' 6" (1.88 - 2m) depending on interior layout
All bunks can be a minimum of 6' 6" (2m) long or longer if required.
Auxiliary.............................. Outboard or Inboard optional

While the Corsairs/Farriers are the most well known of the folding sport trimarans... the Contours, Dragonfiles, and Telstar 26/28s are also out there.

Modern trimarans generally have less cabin space and stowage than a monohull of similar LOA. This is due to the shallow draft and narrow beam of the main hull, which drastically limits the ability to have storage and cabin space.

Some of the older trimarans had solid wingdecks, and had accommodations that went out to the amas as a result, and had a lot of space. IIRC, the Piver designs, most of which were home-built in plywood, are like this. Dick Newick designed trimarans with partial wingdecks, but mainly to put quarterberth or pilot berth type accommodations in...not really actual cabin space and storage space to speak of.

Catamarans will generally have about 1.6-2 times the cabin space and storage as a monohull of the same LOA—even though they also tend to have narrow hulls and shallow bilges... but the addition of a bridge deck adds a lot of volume to the catamaran.

A trimaran will generally run more like 50-70% of the space. Of course, a lot of this is dependent on the design of the monohull in question... a modern, beamy design will change those numbers quite a bit....

[arbarnhart]

I was reading some of the snippets about racing yachts in 500 Sailboats last night and happened across a few interesting things. In some of the mixed races, monohulls actually did better because of the specific conditions, so while it seems to be true that a higher top speed can be attained under the best conditions in a multihull, you can't make a blanket statement about speed. I also noticed there have been a fair number of mutlihulls that broke up in rough seas and capsizes (in yacht racing) are not as rare as I would have expected. Obviously I am talking about seriously over-canvassed boats being pushed to the brink (and sometimes beyond it). I am not trying to trash multis; I think they merit serious consideration and will be the best choice sometimes. But it isn't always a slam dunk.