micro trimaran

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The new "Mini Trimaran" as it is being called (for now) is an evolution of our work in small multihulls over the years. It combines elements of the successful  Expedition Sailing Canoe  and the " kayak trimaran " named 'Spongebob' into a new vessel. Hull #1 was cut out as a CNC kit in July 2020 and is now in the process of going through sea trials. Click here for Construction  Photos of hull #1   You can get a sneak peak of the builders guide here .

Features of hull #1 included a roller furling mainsail and headsail for easy reefing and a boom for superior sail control. For Hull #2 we went back to a non rotating mast with slab reefing and single line reefing instead. The amas retract into the center crossbeams to reduce the overall beam for trailering without having to demount the amas. A stern cockpit with a large kayak style cockpit coaming can be used with a spray skirt. Steering is accomplished with foot pedal controls or a tiller. The boat can also be sailed from the center cockpit and there is optional space to install a hobie mirage drive in the center cockpit. Ample storage for a full expedition load. The center cockpit is flanked by a pair of "wing decks" which are large enough for sleeping aboard with a bivy or cockpit tent. A leeboard is controlled with lines running to the aft cockpit. The hull incorporates an integral spray chine above the water line to increase cockpit comfort while maintaining a narrow waterline beam of 19 1/2" 

Length: 18’ 6” Sailing Beam: 11’ Trailering Beam: 6’ 8-3/4” Working Sail: 100 sqft Optional Spinnaker: 80 sqft Empty weight: ~290lbs Gear/water capacity: 150lbs Full Load Displacement: 620lbs (solo) PPI: 117lbs (pounds per 1” immersion Ama buoyancy: 275lbs 

Above: Hull #1 freshly painted. April 2021

Latest News: Plans and a CNC kit for this design are coming soon. Hull #1 and 2 are currently in testing and prototyping phases and we look forward to improving the design of the rigging and kit for future builders. 

Video from first Sea Trials in Jan. 2021. We were very pleased with the performance and look forward to further testing the rigging and design in preparation for releasing plans and kits for this design. You can note in the video that the boat is being sailed totally empty so the bow rides a bit high. 

Hull #1 made the trip to the 2021 B&B Messabout and we had a chance to test here out. 

Hull #2 was completed and launched in January 2022. Changes to the design include adding some legroom to the aft cabin, and including space for a hobie mirage drive well in the center cockpit. Hull #2 does not have a roller furling mainsail but instead more traditional slab reefing. A Core Sound 17 mainsail is now the primary working sail and a furling code zero is again used for light air and an off the wind boost. 

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Review of nine small, folding day-trimarans (2010)

by mike waters n.a.

As much as I like the basic concept of Jim's new boat, there are a couple of aspects that I need to mention. To put a light rig from a Hobie 16 on a boat that is FAR heavier and more stable than the boat for which it was originally designed, might prove too much for this mast, especially since the shrouds are more inboard than normal—so raising the mast compression. Normally, a Hobie would just 'go over' and so relieve the load—but not this beamy 800 lb twenty-footer! Also, the too-typical, puny 4-oz sail cloth of a regular Hobie 16 sail, is hardly man enough for this job. It's certainly a low cost start up solution and we've all admired Jim for his support to those with lesser means, but I think any builder should plan on something more substantial to be a better match for this cruiser. Finally, as the ama looks to be quite substantial in volume (guessing about 800 lbs buoyancy?), I have some concern for the strength of the single plank akas (cross beams) that act as swing arms for folding, should the builder decide to choose regular construction lumber. Sooner or later, someone will push this boat hard enough to bury an ama and that's a LOT of leverage on those arms, even if they are cleverly designed to act like huge flexible wooden leaf springs. But without seeing the details, I can only suggest that some good laminated material might be in order for these parts and perhaps Jim's plans already call for that or even some added carbon here as well. But I like the general concept and even though the boat will be no speedster, it's a design that can give a young couple on a small budget, a lot of weekend pleasure provided the conditions are within what the rig and swing arms can take.

• This particular Performance Index is simply a product of the principal things that affect multihull performance (LOA × BOA × Sail Area) all divided by the listed Weight. By taking the square root of this value, you then get a figure that very roughly reflects speed for comparison purposes. Yes, I agree there are a lot of factors NOT taken into account with this crude approximation, but the base figures used are easy to find and at least the general trend is indicated—and quite fairly so I believe.

TRIKALA 19 The Trikala 19 is from the board of imaginative designer Kurt Hughes. This boat was actually in production for a while in Spain but since then, a few have also been built by amateurs. A couple reportedly even cruised the Mediterranean in one! This is a boat design that always frustrated me—perhaps wrongly so.

For me as a designer, the looks of a boat are almost as important as its performance and the Trikala looks quite stunning from the bow, with its long fine entry and streamlined deck lines. But then, as it opens out to encompass a very wide cockpit aft, it always appeared to me that something distracted the designer or he just lost interest, as the view from the stern quarter is not so elegant. It's no doubt practical but it's a shame that its wonderful efficient appearance from the bow could not in some way be maintained at the stern. But with that very personal comment aside, this is an interesting boat with no doubt a good performance. It would be a particularly interesting boat to build for someone wanting to learn about composite construction with a larger boat in mind 'down the road', as the Trikala is lightly built of foam core under fibreglass skins and would therefore provide a good learning experience. The boat does not fold in a conventional way but like some other small designs by Kurt, uses a sliding system with tubular akas, the port ones, sliding into tubes with Teflon runners behind the starboard ones—so the two sides are not exactly symmetrical—a factor that some potential buyers find disturbing, though the difference is purely cosmetic. (The larger 7 m, L7 by Mike Leneman, also uses a similar sliding system – though in this case he uses fiberglass channels—see my REPORT on SMALL TRIMARANS for more on the L7, available through my website.)

W17 This design of mine was created during 2009 and completed in 2010.  It's hard to review your own boat designs without being accused of inevitable bias, so I will simply tell you about it and point out the features I've incorporated and why.  However, time has now shown [2020] it's as good as I had hoped and expected her to be.

This is a primarily a boat 'to just enjoy sailing in'. She's designed to be comfortable, way drier than average, fast and efficient and is just at home on a weekend camping cruise as on the circuit.   With several boats now [2020] having each sailed and cruised over 1000 miles and with open sea passages of up to 60 miles safely accomplished, she is certainly proving very capable in experienced hands, employing intelligent sail reduction when things get rough.   Her seemingly simple hull forms give a very high efficiency and she has proven quiet and dry through a chop and with her wing mast and unique ama shape, shows an unusual ability to climb to windward with minimal leeway.   [Following an independent test and review by Wooden Boat Mag., I was asked to explain why the W17 performed so well with such simple shapes and my reply to this was published in the prestigious Professional Boatbuilding magazine #169 .. and is available to read on this website under 'Published Articles'].    

Sailing this boat is indeed a magical experience and dozens of boats are now (2020 update) being built in over 30 countries.   She's a little more time-consuming to build than others her size, but numerous owners have since dubbed her, 'The Miata of the Seas' .      For them, a few more hours is well worth the effect and this boat will take you to a whole new level above any production boat of this size out there .... and also cost you less.

Comparison Chart  (created in 2010)

Series Small Boats Annual 2009

Tremolino Trimaran

What’s old is new again

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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3 Small, Sporty Trimarans

• By Herb McCormick
• Updated: March 5, 2009

When it comes to cruising multihulls, the trimaran often plays second fiddle. The main reason is the sheer popularity and growth of cruising catamarans, thanks in no small part to the charter trade. But trimaran sailors have come up with a rather amusing handle for their beloved vessels: a cat-and-a-half. There’s some truth to the name.

If part of the reason one goes cruising is for a quality sailing experience, it’s hard to beat a well-executed tri. With shallow draft, they can easily poke into the shallows or up on a beach away from the madding crowd. And many midsize trimarans can be folded up and trailered for a cruise to Maine or the Florida Keys. As one tri sailor put it, “It’s sweet to go to windward at 65 miles per hour.”

I had the opportunity to sail a trio of cruising trimarans over a variety of waters and with an array of avid sailors and builders. Interestingly, the respective boats and venues-the Telstar 28 on Chesapeake Bay, the Corsair 31 on Massachusetts’ Buzzards Bay, and the Dragonfly 35 in the U.S. Virgin Islands-seemed especially well suited for one another. All boats are compromises, and trimarans are no different: Unlike cruising cats, which can handle those hefty payloads and multiple staterooms, tris are limited in space and accommodations by the parameters of their layout. But when all was said and done, I came away with a fresh appreciation for the viability of a relatively compact tri as a terrific, even exhilarating, coastal cruiser. Here’s what I discovered.

Telstar 28: Bred on Chesapeake Bay

The result of an exacting evolutionary process, the Telstar 28 is the proud creation of expatriate British multihull designer Tony Smith, who’s been testing and refining his notion of what makes an appealing triple-hulled pocket cruiser for almost four decades. His Chesapeake Bay-based business, Performance Cruising Inc., is very much a family affair, with his wife, kids, and son-in-law all prominently involved.

Smith launched the first incarnation of the Telstar, a 26-footer, in England in the early 1970s, eventually building 300 of them before relocating to this side of the Atlantic. A 1981 fire put the Telstar on hold while Smith shifted his emphasis to producing the Gemini line of cruising cats. But earlier this decade, he brought the trimaran out of mothballs and began to fine-tune his original vision, going through more than half a dozen prototypes before he was satisfied that he had a boat worthy of the marketplace.

For Smith, a hard-core multihull racer in his youth, the tug toward performance has always been strong. But with the Telstar 28, he wanted a boat that would be fun and fast under both sail and power but that could also serve for weeks at a time as a floating home, possessing features and systems that are foolproof and strongly engineered but dead simple to apply. A foldable, trailerable cruising boat sounds good, but it’s much less so if operating it is a chore for the owner.

And so Smith and his son, Neil, went to work, experimenting with rig size, outrigger shapes, and engine horsepower. They fussed with float deployment, steering systems, construction techniques, and numerous ways to raise and lower the mast. The goal was straightforward: a boat that sailed simply and well and that a couple or small family could enjoy. When he had everything just so, Smith made a couple of trips to Florida, by himself, trailering a Telstar. He launched and retrieved the boat, put the mast up and took it down, and went sailing, all alone. Only then was the reincarnated boat ready for prime time.

The revamped Telstar, now 28 feet long, has been in production for several years, and nearly 70 new boats have been built. On a visit last August to the boatyard on the Chesapeake’s Back Creek, Will Hershfeld, Smith’s son-in-law, gave me the tour.

Smith is especially proud of the arrangements for folding and deploying the outriggers and for stepping and striking the deck-stepped spar, both of which a lone sailor can do almost effortlessly in no time flat. The outriggers can be deployed or retracted on the trailer or in the water utilizing an ingenious rotary-pivot joint that reduces the maxed-out 18-foot beam to a mere 8 feet 6 inches in collapsed mode. The mast can be winched up (or lowered) from the cockpit via a set of four A-frames that work in tandem to support the stick during the evolution. Neither the sails nor the boom need to be removed for the mast’s raising or lowering, which maximizes the efficiency of the task.

Somewhat less heralded but also extremely clever is the tiller/outboard connection. With a single pin in place, the tiller and engine operate in tandem for optimum steering control under power. Under sail, the pin can be removed and the engine raised, thus linking the tiller directly to the rudder. The standard engine, incidentally, is a 20-horsepower Honda that scoots the boat along at a tidy 7 to 8 knots. A 50-horsepower Honda that will reportedly deliver 15 knots of boat speed is an option to form a sail/power version of the boat.

Belowdecks, the immediate and biggest surprise is the spaciousness of the central hull, particularly the 6-foot standing headroom. A large head compartment is forward of the saloon, which includes a pair of 6-foot-long settees flanking a folding dinette. With a series of slats in place down the main thoroughfare, one of the settees can be converted to a generous double berth. On either side of the companionway, a small galley with a two-burner stove and a simple navigation area addresses the essentials for dining and piloting.

Thanks to vacuum-bagged infusion for the outrigger assembly and a foam-core laminate in the main hull, the Telstar 28 weighs in at an almost unbelievable 3,000 pounds. The working sail area, augmented by the mainsail’s generous roach, measures 524 square feet. The power-to-weight ratio seemed promising, and I was eager to see how it translated to speed under sail.

The Chesapeake was in a cooperative mood as we powered out of Back Creek and set the main and 150-percent genoa in 12 to 15 knots of true wind. Sailing closehauled at about 30 degrees apparent, the boat slid along respectably at 6 to 7 knots with a well-balanced, fingertip touch to the tiller. We threw in a few tacks, and a couple of things were quickly apparent. First, the combination of formidable side decks along the main hull and fabric trampolines (not nets) between the outriggers made for an extremely dry ride, something I wasn’t expecting. But the 50-horsepower outboard on our test boat was a slight burden, dragging a bit, even when raised, on starboard tack. Our performance spiked when we flipped over to port and the propeller completely cleared the water.

The Telstar really came alive when we set the 400-square-foot screacher off the sprit. At 50 degrees apparent, we bettered 10 knots, and when we fell off to a beam reach, we topped off at a very lively 13.2 knots. A small chop was building on the bay, however, and it definitely slowed us down slightly, as the light boat just didn’t have the inertia to muscle through the wavelets. It’s a small quibble: I was already impressed. This child of the Chesapeake-an ideal cruising ground for this quick, shallow-draft trimaran-had displayed plenty of gumption on its home waters.

Dragonfly 35: A Trade-Wind Rocket

The marvelous Danish-built Dragonfly 35 stands apart from the other pair of trimarans in this roundup on multiple fronts, the most notable of which are size, cost, and accommodations.

In the protected harbor of Great Cruz Bay, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, I met Dr. James Clayton, the proud owner of hull number 11 in the Dragonfly 35 run. Looking for a bit faster ride, with roomier accommodations and better sun protection, Clayton had moved up to the 35-footer from the 33-foot Dragonfly 1000, a boat that he loved and which is no longer in production. The 35 comes in two versions, Touring and Ultimate, the latter, which Clayton owns, boasting a slightly taller carbon-fiber mast with exotic, high-tech Vectran/Technora sails and strong, lightweight standing and running rigging.

Clayton obviously enjoys a boat that performs well, but he also likes creature comforts, and he’s loaded the boat with a variety of options, including an Andersen 46ST electric winch for mainsail hoisting, a watermaker, a three-bladed folding prop (instead of the standard two-bladed version), a diesel heater, and even a bow thruster, which is employed via a “garage door” that lies flush to the hull when not in use.

It seemed odd to choose the high-tech version of the boat and then load it up (and weigh it down) with such a long list of amenities. But Clayton had good reasons for his choices. The bow thruster proves very handy in controlling the fine, light bow in close quarters on windy days, and the heater was welcome during a cruise through Nova Scotia.

The Dragonfly 35 employs the builder’s Swing Wing system to fold the amas, but with a 12-foot-10-inch beam when the outriggers are retracted (down from a graceful, sweeping 26 feet 11 inches in sailing mode), trailering isn’t an option. Still, the folded boat will fit into a standard marina slip.

The accommodation plan doesn’t enjoy the interior volume of a contemporary 35-foot monohull, but it’s a clean, modern design that makes excellent use of the space. There are generous double berths on either end: a V-berth in a dedicated cabin forward, and another double beneath the cockpit. An enclosed head is situated forward of the main cabin, which has 6-foot-4-inch headroom and features a long settee to port, a cozy but handy navigation station at the foot of the companionway, and a lengthwise galley to starboard, with an abundance of counter space and good storage. The Volvo diesel, with saildrive, is located in a dedicated aft compartment.

The deck layout and corresponding sailhandling systems are also extremely well executed. A retractable carbon sprit in a sealed, dedicated tube is just forward of the recessed Facnor headsail-furling gear. Four flexible 9.5-amp Sunware solar panels do a fine job of topping off the house batteries. The single-line reefing system is led aft to the cockpit, an extremely comfortable space with a large bimini overhead and a rounded helmsman’s backrest aft. The traveler is mounted on a central beam just forward of the helmsman, while the double-ended mainsheet is close at hand.

There’s good visibility for the wind and speed instruments mounted over the companionway, and clear sight lines exist to the Raymarine chart plotter mounted on the rear of the coachroof. A portable beam can be removed to provide walk-through access to the transom and the aft deck shower. Finally, each of the amas is equipped with a rear hatch, through which can be stashed a pair of 17-foot sea kayaks. The Dragonfly 35 can most definitely be classified as a sport utility vehicle.

We sailed the boat on a day of moderate easterlies blowing at 12 to 14 knots. Upwind, at roughly 30 degrees apparent, the boat made anywhere from 7.9 to 8.4 knots, and as we eased sheets and bore off, the speed ratcheted up accordingly, to 8.5 to 9 knots. Frankly, I was somewhat disappointed in the sheer speed (Clayton has made more than 18 knots in breeze ranging in the 20s), but as I mentioned, we were carrying a boatload of extras. It was a choppy day, but the Dragonfly was in no way hampered by the seaway. The V-sectioned central hull cleaved nicely through the waves without hobbyhorsing, providing a smooth, purposeful motion and leaving the smallest of wakes. And steering the boat was a real joy, with the Jefa rack-and-pinion steering system offering true fingertip control. I’d love to sail a 35 in big breeze.

Corsair 31CC: Island Cruiser

The final stop on my Magical Trimaran Mystery Tour was Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, the site of last summer’s annual Corsair Trimaran Nationals. That event was a fun, lively occasion with lots of action on the water and fun off it. No sailors, it seemed, were more excited about their boat than Charles and Hilary Badoian, who were spending the New England summer living aboard and cruising their Corsair 31, Ship o’ Fools.

The Corsair 31, originally designed by Ian Farrier and updated in recent times by Corsair Marine, has been in production now for well over a decade, with nearly 300 of them built. Originally produced in Australia, today they’re built in Vietnam. The 31 has been tweaked considerably from its inception, and it’s now available in four different models: the 31UC (Ultimate Cruiser), the 31AC (Aft Cockpit), the 31CC (Center Cockpit), and the 31-1D (One Design).

The One Design version comes with streamlined accommodations and a carbon-fiber rig with a retractable bowsprit as well as racing sails and modified foils, but it should be noted that every new Corsair 31-all of which now feature rotating masts-can be ordered with carbon rigs and retractable sprits.

The Badoians had been wandering through the Elizabeth Islands, southeastern Massachusetts, and Cape Cod for several months, and while they enjoyed the liveaboard lifestyle, they were also conducting, from their compact underway home, their full-time business as event planners. They’d come to the rendezvous to meet like-minded sailors, compare notes, and enjoy watching the racing from the deck of their own 31CC. Former owners of a Catalina 30, they’d made the switch to multihulls and were certain of one thing: After the easy speed and shoal draft of their trimaran, they weren’t going back.

Their 31-footer was actually an older model, built in 1996, but there are many similarities that have carried on through time. The most important was the basic layout of the center-cockpit version, which still features a V-berth forward, an enclosed head in the central cabin-along with a settee, a small dinette, and a surprisingly workable galley-and a second separate cabin aft, which is ideal for guests or storage.

The deck layout is also conducive to efficient shorthanded sailing, with the traveler and mainsheet well aft, easily within reach of the helmsman yet behind the tiller, making tacking and jibing a hassle-free maneuver. (In the Aft Cockpit version, the traveler is forward of the tiller.) The Badoians also were enamored of the roller-furling boom, another item that’s been passed down the line. Reefing, they said, was a snap.

The couple said they regularly enjoyed boat speeds ranging from 9 to 12 knots on Ship o’ Fools, which isn’t equipped with a bowsprit or a screacher. Unfortunately, on the day I sailed with them, the wind hovered between 5 to 8 knots, with only an occasional puff of around 10 knots. Still, under main and genoa, when it blew 5 knots, we made 5 knots. And when it topped 10 or so, we eased along at an effortless 7.5. In the flat water, steering from well outboard to get a clear view of the telltales, the sensation was almost more akin to flying than to sailing.

Corsair dealer Bob Gleason, whose Massachusetts brokerage firm, The Multihull Source, was hosting the Corsair Nationals, said that newer models far exceed the performance potential of older boats, thanks to a slightly taller rig, the aforementioned standard rotating mast, and the addition of a screacher mounted on a pole that retracts into a tube mounted in the forward cabin.

Gleason said the rotating masts also aid in raising and lowering the spar, as the outboard shrouds aren’t connected to the main hull; a pair of temporary shrouds are used to facilitate the operation. The amas of the Corsair 31 are also easily retracted and deployed via the longstanding Farrier Folding System, which hinges on just four bolts. The boat can be set up or put away by an experienced sailor in about half an hour.

The Badoians at some point may upgrade to a larger trimaran, but for now, they couldn’t be happier with their Corsair 31.

One of my fondest sailing dreams is to someday hop aboard a fast, zippy multihull, skip across the Gulf Stream from Florida to the Bahamas, and spend a long winter poking into every nook and cranny I can find. Without reservation, I’d happily take the Telstar, Dragonfly, or Corsair on such an adventure. That said, my time aboard left me with several observations about each boat.

The Telstar 28 is an extremely well-reasoned boat, but it was also first conceived in the 1970s, and unless you find beauty in utility, the profile is a bit boxy and certainly not as sexy as the other boats in this roundup. But with a price tag well under $100K, especially considering its portability in these days when moorage is at a premium, it’s also a good bargain.

The Dragonfly 35 is the gold standard in this collection, and given its $370K cost, it certainly should be. It’s foldable, yes, but not trailerable, and for some sailors in well-populated locales, finding a place to permanently moor it may be an issue. However, it’s also a solid, superbly crafted vessel that with its systems and potential for extended sailing, will take one anywhere in high style.

The Corsair 31 tilts toward the high-performance end of the spectrum, and for some sailors, it may be a handful. But there are options galore in the four respective versions, and other sailors will relish the competitive opportunities with a vessel that also provides more than reasonable accommodations for coastal forays. It may be the most versatile boat of the three.

In short, when buying any boat, it’s ideal to have choices. And if you’re in the market for a small multihull-no matter what your budget or intended plans-with this segment of midsize trimarans, there’s an excellent selection.

Herb McCormick is a Cruising World editor at large.

LOA 27′ 6″ (8.38 m.) LWL 26′ 3″ (8.00 m.) Beam (amas out/in) 18′ 0″/8′ 6″ (5.49/2.59 m.) Draft (board up/down) 1′ 0″/4′ 3″ (0.30/1.30 m.) Sail Area (100%) 524 sq. ft. (48.7 sq. m.) Displacement 3,000 lb. (1,361 kg.) Water 30 gal. (113.5 l.) Fuel 12 gal. (45.4 l.) Engine Honda 20-hp. outboard (Honda 50-hp. optional) Designer Tony Smith Price $89,500 Performance Cruising (410) 626-2720 www.performancecruising.com

Dragonfly 35 Touring

LOA 35′ 0″ (10.68 m.) LWL 34′ 5″ (10.50 m.) Beam (amas out/in) 26′ 11″/12′ 10″ (8.20/3.90 m.) Draft (board up/down) 1′ 10″/6′ 3″ (0.55/1.90 m.) Sail Area 904 sq. ft. (84 sq. m.) Displacement 8,598 lb. (3,900 kg.) Water 37 gal. (140 l.) Fuel 21.1 gal. (80 l.) Engine Volvo 30-hp. diesel Designers Borge and Jens Quorning Price $370,600/$404,700 Dragonfly Sailboats USA (908) 232-7890 www.trimarans.com

LOA 30′ 10″ (9.40 m.) LWL 30′ 0″ (9.15 m) Beam (amas out/in) 22′ 5″/8′ 2″ (6.84/2.5 m.) Draft (board up/down) 1′ 4″/5′ 6″ (0.41/1.68 m.) Sail Area (100%) 647 sq. ft. (59.9 sq. m.) Displacement 3,850 lb. (1,747 kg.) Water 25 gal. (94 l.) Engine 9.9-hp. outboard Designer Ian Farrier/Corsair Marine Price $151,000

Corsair Marine (619) 585-3005 www.corsairmarine.com

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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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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.

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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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Microship: Pedal/wind/solar-powered micro-trimaran seeks it new owner

Eco Factor: Teched-out micro-trimaran features pedal, sail and electric propulsion.

Steven Roberts, the technomad creator of the Microship , a custom pedal/wind/solar-powered micro-trimaran now wishes to pass on his legacy to someone who is as adventurous, mediagenic and geeky as he is. His teched-out micro-trimaran is up for sale, anxiously waiting for its new crazy owner.

The Microship is a stunning boat that features pedal, sail and electric propulsion, hydraulically-retractable wheels that make amphibious landings possible. It also sports a (tiny) sleep-aboard cabin, an 8-channel peak-power-tracker with thruster control, LED navigation lights, stock marine VHF radio, and a 480-watt solar power system. This cute little boat ideal for self-propelled solo adventuring could be yours for a whopping $73,000.

Via: Gizmag

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In 1983, I left Ohio on a "computerized recumbent bicycle" named Winnebiko to begin a career of technomadic publishing, then after the first 10,000 miles built a new machine that would let me write while riding. After another 6,000 miles, it was time for the mega-cycle... a 580-pound monster named BEHEMOTH . All three bike versions are described here.

After 9 years of pedaling around the US on geeky bicycles, it was time to port the whole adventure to water. The Microship project spanned a decade, with three different labs and multiple design revisions... at last yielding an amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimaran. This massive project was fueled by about 160 corporate sponsors and a team of brilliant geeks...

By the time the Microship was "done" in 2003, I wanted something more practical... large enough to live aboard with crew, piano, and lab. After a year with a rocketship 36-foot trimaran, I bought an Amazon 44 — a steel pilothouse cutter. With the intent of preparing for open-ended global voyaging, I cruised and lived aboard for 6 years while immersed in nautical geekery.

In my sixties, it was time to move to the Dark Side... so I found a new owner for Nomadness and acquired a Vic Franck Delta 50. I now live aboard this floating lab in the San Juan Islands, with communications, virtual reality, underwater vehicle, piano, audio studio, data collection, machine shop, and deployable micro-trimaran for local exploration.

This column showcases new additions with current dates, and may include articles about the boat project, dives with the ROV, photography, new toys, or other real-time content.

Project Delta

When I bought this sexy lab trailer, I was dealing with a red-alert… my business lease in Friday Harbor had become unstable, and it was impossible to find a rental on this rock except for overpriced triple-net absurdities. Erecting a pole building on my dear friend’s land was out of the question (36-week permitting delays,…

Feline Existential Angst

Inspired by being roused from a nap to be hauled off in the carrier to spend a day with me at the lab, Isabelle threw herself wholeheartedly into completing volume 2 of her critically acclaimed treatise on feline existential angst. For continuity with Kant, Hegel, and other voices, she is writing Existenzielle Angst der Katze…

Snapshots of Extreme Audio

As an engineer, one of the most absurd things on the Interwebs is the profusion of tech nonsense… wishful thinking, art projects presented as reality, and the industry of audiophile pseudoscience. I love stereo systems that are on the performance asymptote as much as any other paleogeek who grew up with vinyl, but I bristle…

1974 Vic Franck Delta 50

Floating Technomadic Lab/Office for Sale! Posts in this wide-ranging archive have covered my move to the “Dark Side” – selling my Amazon 44 named Nomadness on the quest for floating lab space. I bought this gorgeous Delta 50 in early 2016, named her Datawake for the “wake of data” streaming astern, then spent four years…

Bikepacking article – first digital nomad

This beautifully written 2023 article by Lucas Winzenburg in Bikepacking captures the flavor of my 17,000-mile adventure from the technological and cultural perspective of 40 years down the road. It has sparked considerable discussion and a few interview requests about digital nomad history, and I am honored to provide this link to the source. The…

Building a Mobile Digitizing Lab

Here in late 2022, as a sort of technomadic swan song, I have embarked on a new adventure in mobile geekery. There will be no pedaling this time, nor is this another floating extravaganza of boat hacking and nautical gizmology. Instead, I’m creating a 48-foot mobile laboratory packed with the tools of my trade… digitizing…

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Recent Archive News

Changes to the library are automatically shown here... whether newly scanned articles, digitized videos and movies, historical documents, or edits to existing material. March 23, 2023 item count: 1,080

Bikelab Report #5 – On-the-road Scenario

This posting in the Bikelab series featured a speculative tale of technomadic adventure that helped crystallize the vision of the bike systems. Even with specific references to long-obsolete products, it holds up decades later as a compelling geek fantasy. (The original post also announced my weekly open-house for Sun engineers, as well as the urgent…

Photos from 1981

The photo above is from my trip to the National Computer Conference, which I covered for Byte Magazine. And speaking of Byte, when I visited them in March, I spent an evening with the prolific Steve Ciarcia at his famed Circuit Cellar: I don’t know the story behind these next two photos – they are…

William Calley Conviction Photo

Here’s a random bit of history from the archives, unrelated to everything else on this site… picture me as a 19-year-old hippie geek in 1971, working for Sylvania as a technician installing Autovon central office telephone equipment at Fort Benning during the Vietnam war. Morbidly fascinated by the My Lai massacre trial, where William Calley…

High-Tech Biker Hits the Road – Good Times

The first year or so of the BEHEMOTH project was in Santa Cruz, and in early 1990 I had lab space at Borland International. The photo above is on that street in Scotts Valley. This is a local free publication, lively and fun, and it was nice to have the new version of the bike…

Have Mac, will travel – by bicycle… MacWeek

The decision to use a Macintosh Portable in the console of BEHEMOTH was significant, and led to a very interesting bicycle-mobile work environment (with handlebar keyboard and ultrasonic head mouse, both mapped to the Apple Desktop Bus) than would have otherwise been the case. Apple donated the machine, and the Mac-related press loved it. MacWeek…

Orbiting Bulletin Boards, Networks in the Sky – InfoWorld

This is the third and final part of my little series about wireless networking in InfoWorld, and like the others (packet radio and cellular data), it fell directly out of a subject dear to my heart. I was an avid amateur radio satellite user, as well as being deeply involved in packet radio. This article…

Panel-Mounting the Home Patrol Scanner

Keeping my ear to the ground… by Steven K. Roberts One of the central themes aboard this geeky ship is expanding the sensorium. I’ve always been fascinated by data collection in all its forms… not just sensors that reveal system health or the state of the environment, but real-time information that shifts my awareness into a much larger…

Building a Feline Outhouse

Take it Outside, Kitty… Building a Boat Cat Litter Boxby Steven K. Roberts, aboard Datawake OK, so I admit it… I love this cat. Isabelle lives aboard with me, and her tubby cuddly awesomeness increases the quality of life in lots of ways. But even a quirky Russian Blue who pushes all the right feline buttons but lives…

The Datawake ADS-B PiAware Receiver

One of my obsessions over the years has been collecting data, probing the radio spectrum, sensing outside my limited visual and hearing range, and deploying probes to expand my awareness of the environment. This leads to recognition of patterns, better understanding of how things work, and the voyeuristic thrill of peeking behind the curtains of technology or human activity. Tracking…

Cat Scratching Posts for Boats

I can’t imagine living aboard without a cat, and Isabelle moved with me to Datawake after three years aboard Nomadness. She’s a constant joy, but there are still feline realities that have to be considered: dining, elimination, and scratching. All are challenging on a boat, given space constraints and the need to handle dynamic conditions. Telling a cat…

Building a Heavy-Duty Piano Drawer

by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs A key requirement for my floating lab/studio was to have a digital piano aboard, but limited space dictates a deployment system that lets it stow away when not in use. I designed the console around this, and built a piano drawer that can handle a quarter-ton. It was important that the drawer…

The Shacktopus Portable Power Cart

These are the voyages of the hand truck, Shacktopus. Her continuing mission… to seek out new loads and strange environments… to boldly blink where no one has blinked before. On a voyaging sailboat, stable power goes with the territory: a huge battery bank charged by isolated shore cable and solar panels, diesel genset with a…

YouTube and Vimeo Channels

I have a large collection of videos including media coverage of bikes/boats, speaking, digitized film treasures from long ago, gizmological delights, and a few rarities that clients have allowed me to post. See my YouTube and Vimeo channels.

Microship Store

I have an online store linked above for technomadic publications and cards, along with a few special items of historical interest. (This is in addition to the Microship eBay store offering an eclectic mix of gizmology, nautical geekery, and antiquities.)

1974 Homebrew 8008 System

In 1974, six months of geek obsession led to one of the first personal computers... a homebrew 8008 that is now on display in the Computer History Museum. The story of that machine is here, including complete schematics. This predated the computer kits that kicked off the personal computer revolution, and it was in daily use for years.

The Polaris Mobile Lab

I have occasionally needed a capable laboratory that is not constrained to a fixed location, so I built one into a 24-foot utility trailer. Featured in MAKE: Magazine, this is a detailed description that includes preparing the space, inventory storage, furniture, fixturing, and power.

I live aboard Datawake with this magical being, and have a massive backlog of photos and stories. In the meantime, this is just a teaser... this 7-year-old Russian Blue has a lot to do with my quality of life. Here's her high-tech litter box, with carbon filter and webcam:

The Shacktopus Power Cart

A universal power system, built into a collapsible hand truck for use in emergencies.

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