Uncovering the Dobler Triad Trimaran
Tom Raidna, from BuildBoats.com let me know about this craft a few days ago. It’s a classic, open daysailing small trimaran design from decades ago.
Its plans have been made available once again for home boatbuilders from the Duckworks site. And at first glance, this tri appears to offer some attractive features.
The designer was a fellow named Joe Dobler. Joe was lesser known than many of the other boat designers from that heady “multihull-come-of-age” period of the 60s and 70s … even though he designed several trimarans too. Here is what Chuck Leinweber writes about Joe Dobler at his Duckworks website:
Joe Dobler Designs
“I’m not sure when I first became aware of Joe Dobler and his designs. In spite of the fact that he was an accomplished engineer and a pioneer of plywood stitch and glue small boat design, he never really hit the big time – if small boat designers ever do. What he did do was design several hundred boats from dinghies to 40 foot cruising trimarans.
Last summer, I went to San Diego to attend the ScuzBums Giant Five Day Messabout. There I met lots of nice folks including Tom Setum. Tom is Joe Dobler’s son-in-law. and took possession of all of Joe’s drawings after he passed away. Tom and I talked about Joe and his designs (he brought two to the messabout) and eventually had the idea that we would work together to make these plans available to the general public through this website. There is a lot of work to do and we will be posting the designs as we get them ready.
I should point out that these are modern, plywood stitch and glue boats unlike Wes Farmer’s plans offered elsewhere in these pages, but like those older plans, the designer is no longer with us and so is not available to help the builder. We will do what we can to answer questions but you are really on your own. I should add that the building instructions are general. You will be building mainly from drawings and offsets. These plans are not recommended for first time builders.”
With Chuck’s warning that the designer is “not available” to answer any questions about the building process duly noted, the Triad is probably going to fascinate a number of small tri enthusiasts. There is a great story/testimonial about the performance of one Triad from an owner on the Duckworks sales page.
The Triad was apparently recommended to this sailor by Jim Brown, who was a fan of Joe Dobler’s work. And the experience this owner/sailor enjoyed with the boat fulfilled his expectations for a daysailer.
What is attractive about this boat is its simplicity, combined with the promise of good performance. Among its advertised features are:
– Uncomplicated, fairly straight-forward building process
– Ability to accommodate up to 3 or 4 sailors
– Easy demounting and quick setup (supposedly ;-)
– Good performance, especially in heavy wind
– Self-Bailing Cockpit
The below photo images are taken from this webpage at the Duckworks Website. (Visit the Duckworks website by clicking on the previous link to see the full write up about the homebuildable Triad Trimaran)! And Kudos to the Chuck, at Duckworks, for making the building plans available once again.
Joe Dobler's Triad Trimaran Design from the 1960s
Classic Triad Trimaran Daysailer by Joe Dobler
August 14th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Wow what an intriguing little boat. I had a Crowther Buccaneer for a time, and am looking for something smaller to build as a replacement. Anyone have any contemporary experience or thoughts about the “planing” concept as it relates to tri’s?