There are a number of interesting things about this boat. But as Ian notes below, the sail rig (way over-sized for this kayak) is attached in a very creative manner. Simple. And brilliant. I’ve never seen it before … although I’m sure a few readers here have.

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Ian writes:

Just happened on this oddity that is worth a look if you haven’t already seen it – a CLC kayak design modified to be a sit on top or standup main hull, that also uses fixed struts to make a standard windsurfer rig into a standing one …

IMHO it looks awesome but the hull setup seems pretty impractical as is except for ultra low wind days (which he does say it’s designed for)…the shapes are just too geared towards efficiency with a very low powered means of propulsion like paddling to make the best use of that powerful airfoil that could have a windsurfer doing 20-30+ kts pretty easily.

The owner of this boat writes that, “the ride can be extremely wet and quite scary at times…”

I’ll bet (even with the increased freeboard I imagine) that sailed hard you could keep this thing perfectly level and trimmed and just drive both the ama *and* the main hull completely underwater at times due to the wave making characteristics of the displacement hulls and the power that sail can generate.

Anyway, the rig is a very slick and simple solution to putting a sail on some conglomeration of hulls that may never have been intended to support chainplates, and by comparison to a more traditional stayed rig and associated framing requirements could be far lighter, with less to go wrong.

It also creates a space frame/truss of sorts where the mast and stays all become stressed members in the hull/crossarm assembly and help distribute heeling loads away from just the akas, and those heeling forces also directly counter the compression loads on the leeward strut from the mast trying to go over – something you can’t do when you are pushing noodles via wire rope stays.

More builders could use some similar setup on tris, as far as a solid triangular truss/strut mast design that integrates the crossarms, mast step/mast and standing rigging with the main hull framing, to form a structural “spider” framework you can then hang anything you want off of, like drop tanks on a fighter plane.

That’s where this guy is teflon as far as any complaints about the hull design – it’s all modular by nature so he can swap out any element of the hull assembly combo that he wants to as long as the proper forward crossarm-to-mast-step dimension/geometry is accommodated.

Be sure to click here to visit the webpage at CLC Boats in order to see all of the pictures of this boat.

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Here is the short summary of this boat:

This has been Dick’s personal fun boat for over 10 years. The REV is 16ft long, 11.5ft beam. Sails best with one adult or two kids. OK with one more.
The boat comes with three rigs: 93 Sq. FT. to 137 Sq. FT., two lug rigs and one crab claw. (shown), All with low center of effort for remarkable safety. Easy 10 plus knots in a breeze.
She comes apart for trailering in about an hours time. Galvanized trailer.
Located in California.
$4,000 ($3000 without the largest sail)
Call (707) 217 0581 for more information.

There is no doubt one of our readers is going to want this boat. I mean, seriously, a 16-foot small trimaran personally designed and sailed by Dick Newick! Who wouldn’t want this boat? :-)

Anyhow, be sure to check out the REV trimaran page on Russel’s website for more information. It also includes a link to a great article (in pdf) about Newick and his innovative trimaran designs, written by the famous sailor Steve Callahan.

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Roger’s description of this craft on his website is very concise, although I particularly love the first sentence:

“The PC Trimaran 12 footer was built to be another very good go sailing anytime you have a spare hour boat. There is no setup except for installing the mast which takes around 30 seconds. Because it is 8.5 wide it is road legal as it is. The amas may be removed if you need to with only 4 bolts total. Also because of its width it has a wider beam and is more stable in rough conditions and because you have one ama out of the water and the ama in the water has less wetted area it is somewhat faster. Plans are currently not available and will not be offered until new prototype built and retested with improvements mods.”

Roger is a member of the WaterTribe community (he goes by the name of JollyRoger). Be sure to check out JollyRoger’s Watertribe page because he describes the boat build for this PuddleCat tri.

I hope to feature more about it in an upcoming post. In the meantime, here are a few photos of this mini tri (which I am linking to directly from their published location on Roger’s site), along with the one YouTube video that he has published featuring it sailing under very light conditions.

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Our friend Aurelio, who is the owner/sailor of this lovely little craft, sent me these photos a couple of weeks ago.

He shares the following …

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Uffa 10 Trimaran with New Rig

Both the mast+boom come from C-Tech composites (in Auckland, New Zealand). The sail, however, comes from Italy (Ducksail).

This new rig works very well. The best speed achieved so far, which is a record for our 10 ft trimaran class, was about 10.8 knots (running).

I like the simplicity of maneuvering and speed of tack. The boat is the same as sloop version (there is only the new mast in forward hole deck). Now I do not need to change anything … but in future, I want test a little gennaker with a snuffer on bowsprit.

We are sailing on the northern lakes of Italy and Venice lagoon (see http://www.velalonga.com/ for more on this area). We are a member in the Diecipiedi Class Regattas. – Aurelio

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But this again leads us to think about how such forms might lend themselves to sailing beach trimarans … or others. I have no doubt we’re going to see more of this kind of thing very soon. (Thanks again for the links Ian!)

This first image is taken from a post at the San Diego Reader:

Paddleboard Trimaran

And you can click here is a more complete story on how this type of trimaran is being used. The following short video comes from this page:

Here are some more pics of the boat in action from http://distressedmullet.com/events/everybody-rides-programevent:

Ian also came across a boat that is described as a “Tri-Hulled Stand-Up Paddle Board”. A patent for this craft was filed in 2011:

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Andreas Kaltsas, a sailor who has really schooled himself about small tris, has designed one of his own. He is now building it with the intention of sailing along Greek shores … including many of its coastal islands.

He shares a scale model below, along with a link to his building blog. (The images are from his blog and are pulled in from their published locations.) Andreas promises to share a video and update with us after he gets this one in the water. Thanks for sharing this building project with us Andreas :-)

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A New Trimaran Building Project in Greece

My involvement with sailing is relatively recent. It came randomly as the result of trying to make my kayak go faster and effortlessly … without using any machine.

I made my first floats 3 years ago when I turned my kayak unto a trimaran with mast and sail. Improving that project resulted in a true, fully functional folding system, which is also fun.

The construction of the floats was polystyrene and epoxy resin and carbon fiber, while the hull featured kevlar. Its sail was made of dacron fabric (Bainbridge), with fiberglass battens and a windsurfing carbon mast. I also used a foot steering rudder (kick up) and leeboard too.

Here is a video featuring that boat …

I really love small vessels, especially small trimarans. The main reason I love tris is because they’re faster than other boats and easier for inexperienced sailors to handle (like me). The webpages at smalltrimarans.com inspired and motivated me to build a boat of my own design.

Many amazing boats passed before my eyes, such like the Cross 18, the Windrider 17, the Weta, Mr. Woods’ Strike 18, the Scarab 16 and many others. All these boats were the inspiration for [a design I am calling the] ONYX 16.

I really adore many of the existing designs, but I had to try and make one of my own. (By the way, I’m not naval architect or engineer.)

The ONYX is different from the other vessels mainly in the design of its wave-piercing bow. It incorporates the design of new multihull boats, but also has a little rocker to offer planing on the water.

When the boat is finished (hopefully in a few months), I am planning to sail short distances of 10-15 nautical miles in order to test all the components and its behavior. Later, I aspire to make a trip with my wife and my son to some nearby islands.

Here is a link to my blog, which features more on the design and the construction of my small trimaran – http://onyx16.blogspot.gr/

– Andreas Kaltsas

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In my opinion, the sail itself is definitely the the most interesting part of this craft. Ian corresponded with a sailor who uses a rig similar to this on his catboat, which he shares with us below. Again, many thanks Ian. I’ve pulled the images below in from the server where the owner has published them.

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Inflatable Trimaran with Claw Wing Sail
Ian writes:

I’ve been in touch with a guy about the updated crab claw/delta wing hybrid rig that a handful of people have been messing with, and he turned me on to this boat that you’ll definitely get a kick out of (comments are his) -

Some specs on it:
length – 16’8″
outriggers length – 8’3″
beam – 7′
weight – 50 lbs boat + 11 lbs rig
main hull diameter – 20″
outrigger diameter – 12.5″
main hull volume – 750 litres
outriggers – 140 litres

“No rigid frame, the beams are inflatable frames, with the volume of about 100 litres each. According to builder, it was a mistake to taper these inflatable beams – the tapered outer parts flexing too much
in strong winds.

The max speed is ~7.5 knots, 10+ knots surfing.Last summer this boat sailed 750nm in 45-days beach-cruise on the Lake Baikal. It’s not a sailrocket, but the performance is not bad for a cruising trimaran deployed from a backback!”

To see all of the photos posted about this inflatable trimaran go to http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/adubovskiy/album/136521/

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At the moment, Ian has been focused on the possibility of using surfboards (or surfboard shapes) in place of traditional hull shapes on small trimarans. Ian writes here about someone else with the same idea. (Imagine, for example, the kite used with this prototype boat being replaced by a kite type of sail.)

As always, thanks for sharing this stuff with us Ian!

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Crazy Little Planing Trimaran Kiteboat
Ian writes:

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately trying to hunt down any and all examples of surfboard based tris and cats that I can find, and this one seems to be a fairly recent development that might be of interest on your smalltrimarans.com … it’s definitely along the lines of the planing surfboard tri discussions we’ve been having so I thought of just posting a link on one of those M3 threads, but it’s so out of the box that maybe it’s worth a separate entry…

I haven’t tried translating any of this, but here’s the guy’s site – http://projet-dared.com/2011/05/23/futur-kiteboat/

Kiteboat Trimaran

A lot of video documentation features tests and various versions -

http://www.youtube.com/user/projetdared?feature=watch

The later designs look pretty slick even though from what I can gather they are all based on chopped surf/sailboards and are assembled in the guy’s garage -

Some of the sailing sequences are less than impressive considering how fast it looks, but even with my very limited experience with traction kites I feel pretty safe saying that his kite technique may be somewhat lacking and someone who really knew how to wring some consistent power out of one of these kites could probably get this thing screaming along.

Anyway, it’s a great example of how little boat you actually need to make a trimaran concept workable, although it definitely pushes that minimalist envelope and probably needs more volume and a couple of other minor tweaks to be truly practical in a range of conditions…evidently he’s considering taking it commercial at some point and is seeking interested parties to give feedback and possibly help do some kind of crowdfunding thing -

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=143592

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All of these photos and renderings come from sailor (and soon-to-be small tri boatbuilder) Joe Iosif Gross. Joe not only shares a little about these unique-looking fishing boats, but also his plans to build a brand new 12-foot trimaran for himself.

He has drawn out plans for the 12-footer (see renderings below) and would like some feedback from readers who have some design experience and can offer any helpful info or insights. (Please post comments at the bottom of this page).

The photos of the fishing trimarans are supplemented by a rendering from Joe displaying how they’re rigged. We can assume these boats are built with economy and practical functionality in mind.

The creativity of sailors never ceases to amaze me … especially when considering their unique circumstances and geographical locations!

Thanks for sharing these photos Joe, along with the great info, which includes your plans for an inexpensively built small tri :-)

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Fishing Trimarans in Bali
by Joe Iosif Gross

I live in North Bali … 5 minutes from the sea. Amazingly, all the fishing boats are trimarans. Nobody here, however, sails for fun.

These trimarans all have sails that appear to be a reversed lateen rig. This allows for nice slow, sailing while they’re fishing.

I myself am intending to build a 12’ trimaran — just to sail for fun though :-)

Keeping costs low and proper construction are the main goals right now. I made the design based on many articles read on smalltrimarans.com … and other sources too. Hopefully, it will sale fine.

The reason I chose to go with a trimaran is because I regard them as safer under sail. If the AMA, for example, begins to go too deep into the water, you can just release sails. This means the chance of capsizing is very small. (I am, after all, 65 years old and will be sailing with small children occasionally aboard. So safety is an important issue.)

The AMA’s connection to the VAKA, along with the mast and the booms, will be from bamboo, which is available here and is also very cheap. The AMA’s and VAKA will be made from 6mm plywood and then covered by a layer of fiberglass with polyester.

Length: 3.6 meter
Beam: 3.0 meter
VAKA Displacement at 18 cm water line: 168 Kg. Free board: 41cm
VAKA & AMA’s Displacement at 24 cm water line: 253 Kg. Free board 35 cm
AMA Displacement almost submerged: 128 Kg, at angle of heel 15º

The 4 drawings here are of the boat I am planning to build …

I would like to have opinions regarding this proposed design.

As for the local fishing trimarans, here are a bunch of pictures (following). These were taken in Lovina, a name given to 7 fishing villages along the shore for “tourist” reasons.

The boats are all made from one trunk and shaped with an axe. The rudder is on the left side of the boat. It’s stuck in a slot when at sea.

None of the photos here show a boat under sail because the fishermen only deploy the sails after they’re far out in the sea.

Regarding the rig, you can see it on every boat:

* Short mast in the front
* Sails support in the back, like a small mast also
* On top of the masts the sail folded with two booms inside, sometime is there, sometimes no.
* The sail is like V when the two sides are two thin bamboo woods. The connection down is to the bottom of the mast with a rope and a rope connecting one of the booms to the top of the mast. (I’ve attached a drawing of it, which is shown at the end of these pictures.)

– Joe

Update (05-06-13): Here are a couple of pics from Joe featuring the Bali fishing trimarans under sail, albeit very far off ( be sure to click on these images to enlarge them as much as possible in order to see the sails on these boats) …

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As you’ll read in the below, this new boat is presently in the development stage. We’ll look for a follow up report after it’s built and then goes through its sea trials. The final verdict isn’t in on this design but it sure is inspiring to see the creative energy at work to create a new trimaran design such as this.

All the best to you Steve! We look forward to seeing the final result.

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The Trimaran Files – Part 3
by Steve Curtiss

Standard Disclaimer: Please note that what are described here are my personal boat projects, my experiences with them, and my opinions of their suitability. No warranty of any kind is made for these designs, either for use or for safety. As readers, you are welcome to adapt these designs for use in your own watercraft, provided that you assume full and total responsibility for the results of such adaptation and use. Sailing is inherently dangerous and sufficient skill, experience and caution are always advised.

A New Challenge: “Renegade”

Now that the twinsail kayak rig was up and running, that of course meant in addition to enjoying it regularly, new ideas were beginning to surface in my head. Which in turn meant I began thinking and doodling on possible new experiments. Since I wasn’t getting any younger, I decided to take a last best shot at a small, easily transported, really high performance trimaran and I wanted to use the things that were learned from the last ten years and two previous boats, the M3 and the Twinsail. Here’s a list of the major items to be include in the design:

1. Trimaran hull layout for best stability with least wetted area

2. The main hull should be approx 12 ft long and should be fully planing (flat or slightly concave), hopefully beginning in 6-7 kts and staying steady in 10kt+ of wind. I wouldn’t expect it to plane tight upwind, but that would of course be wonderful.

3. Amas should be light but rugged and provide more flotation than on the M3

4. Total sail area should be a little more than the M3, in the neighborhood of 7 M (74 sq ft)

5. Center of effort for the sail area should be lower than the M3, so the double sail concept should be used, but this time I want to try it with the masts side by side (biplane) forward of the sailor. To my knowledge this has not been done very successfully in a really small trimaran. The Hobie Trifoiler was very fast, but was large, heavy, and wide as well as dependent on hydrofoils. Other successful biplane rigs I’ve seen were large scale ocean racers/cruisers. The smaller biplane experiments, like putting a rig on a Puddle Duck Racer or a small catamaran, didn’t look like they were very exciting performers, and could get into situations where the sails were blocking each other. The trick seems to be to have a design that will sail fast, since the rig performs best upwind, and fast boats are going to windward most of the time if you look at the relative wind vector.

6. The prototype should be made from (relatively) easily available parts where possible so it’s less expensive to build, changeable, and adaptable. Murphy’s Law says that whatever you’re absolutely sure is the greatest design will turn out to need some tweaks, or even major overhauls.

7. The prototype frame portion should be made out of materials that I can easily work with, which for a mostly metalworking guy means more parts in aluminum and stock plastics and fewer in fiberglass/carbon or wood.

8. The sheet control forces should be significantly lower than on the M3. The M3 had forces in the 35-40 lb range in stiff wind, and it would be better to keep sheet forces below 20-25 lb. That probably means I would need to go to a line with some pulley reduction instead of a boom rod, and perhaps use a ratchet or cleat arrangement.

9. The seating should allow the sailor to move from side to side, but not a huge amount. It should be a mostly face-forward cockpit, sailed like a wide kayak rather than like a dinghy, thereby allowing a somewhat lazy grey-haired guy to relax a little and not have to dash across the cockpit, hike out, crawl around on webbing, or trapeze.

10. The steering should be by a wheel rim segment connected to the rudder in such a way that it provides steering wheel directional control (turn right to turn the boat right) rather than tiller control (turn right to go left). I’ve sailed all kinds of tillers and rod controls and it’s just a personal preference. The design could be switched easily.

11. The sails, masts, and booms should be kids’ windsurfer type for low cost and high efficiency, hopefully with transparent sail material, fiberglass masts, and curved luff socks.

12. The boat should be easily transported in sections by a guy trying to minimize chiropractor costs, so no piece should weigh more than about 45 lb, and all should fit easily in/on my small pickup. Various small wheels or dollies might be helpful.

So what does all this mean? I wasn’t completely sure, but the very first thing I did was to build a small crude model of a possible layout in wood, paper, and brass tube. To make the model complete, I had to include my intrepid test pilot, Cardboard Man:

Actually, he came in very handy, not just to tease the cat, but to see where my body appendages would go when moving around to counterbalance the sail forces. Clearance for my head from the booms and any line used for a sheet was important to visualize early, as well as where I might end up in a goofup or capsize, and how I might remount the boat if (when) necessary.

After a week or so playing with the model and scribbling notes, I decided to move on from basic CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) to more sophisticated CAD (Solidworks left over from my engineering days). Checking various windsurfing websites, I found a used Mistral 12 ft longboard in good shape for a low price and worked with the seller to get it shipped out from Arizona. This would be my center hull, with sufficient volume (I think), lots of mounting holes for foot straps I could make use of, a good planing shape on the bottom, a skeg slot to use to help in mounting a rudder, and light weight overall.

For the two outboard hulls, I looked around quite a bit at amas that were available as kits in wood/glass and other kinds of surplus small hulls and finally decided on a couple of Hobie amas from their Adventure Island trimaran. These were 8 ft long, pretty light, made of rugged polyethylene so they could take some of the abuse that comes with sailing something new and unknown, and had convenient handles and mounts for akas (crossbars). I got two of the Hobie rear akas as well, and would be able to shorten them to work on my design.

For the sails, I got some info on small windsurfer rigs and made scale models out of paper to try on the model. With Cardboard Man’s approval, I ended up getting two Chinook 3.5 meter Powerglide kids’ sail kits with fiberglass masts. The cut of these sails gave me enough headroom to sit down in a seat on the main hull and move around under the booms without having to make any sail changes.

Sail design and particularly sail changes had been a sore point on the M3. And unlike Dacron sailboat sails, they were made out of a reinforced clear material that would allow me to see through the entire sail and have a much better idea what kind of craft were in my vicinity. Windsurfers, especially learners, sailing nearby can be unpredictable and crash-prone and it’s good to be aware of them well before they’re a mast-length away.

Now to measure the parts and construct it all in cyberspace. Modeling in 3D is time consuming, but beats the heck out of machining things two or three times. Here’s a couple of pics of the design at a late stage with some pencil additions.

There will be a break in the action here while I build all the parts, put it together, take it out to Shoreline Lake and see how it behaves. (Actually, as of this posting date most of the parts are made, and I’m into the details).

With an experimental boat design, I know that I’ll always learn something new when it gets on the water. It could be a hidden advantage in the design, it could be something weird and interesting, or it could be something counterproductive and frustrating. Once in a long while it’s a killer flaw that can’t be workably solved and may even be dangerous.

Comments and predictions welcomed. Wish me luck!

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