Amateur boatbuilder Tom Raidna sent the following to me this past week regarding a new boat he is building – a model designer Chris Ostlind refers to as the “Solo 16 Trimaran.” Tom’s boat will be the prototype for this model, and I think a lot of would-be builders are going to be interested in his project. (more…)

Chris Ostlind sent out word a few days ago that he has just completed plans for a new beach trimaran. He is calling it, “The Europa 20.”

His inspiration for the Europa 20 comes from one of the fastest sailboats in the world — the 105’ French racer named Sodeb’O. (more…)

When I first corresponded with small trimaran enthusiast Kellan Hatch a couple weeks ago he shared that he was also working on a design referred to as the XCR trimaran. Kellan had written, “My current project is an 18.5 foot expedition canoe trimaran that was designed by Chris Ostlind. I have attached a photo of my wife and I sailing the XCR on a recent camping cruise on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Chris did most of the construction and I’m making some mods and finishing up the details.” (more…)

Chesapeake Light Craft offers boatbuilding kits for many kinds of small boats. One of their models is called the Mill Creek Kayak, which comes in a couple of sizes. But another thing they offer is an additional kit called the “CLC SailRig.” This rig can effectively turn one of their kayaks into a sailing kayak-trimaran. (more…)

Multihull designer Chris Ostlind has been busy. I received an email from Chris a couple of days ago announcing another brand new small trimaran.

This one follows on the heels of a small tri he just released to the world a couple weeks ago — the Montage. The one, however, is a little bigger, but very similar to that one, and Chris calls this design the “Collage.” (more…)

Multihull designer Chris Ostlind fell in love with sailing during the heyday of the beach cat scene in southern California. He used to love shredding around the harbor in Long Beach California on beach cats. So it’s no surprise that he’s designed a new “beach tri.”

Chris’ new “Montage” trimaran design is a homebuildable alternative to production models such as The Weta. (more…)

When I spoke to boat designer Chris Ostlind about the Z65 he told me that he wanted to create a small tri for “a guy who has a beach cat sitting in the garage. The beach cat has been there for the past few years, and he’s no longer using it because now he’s got a small family.”

A sailor used to a high performance beach cat may have a hard time converting to a monohull. But this trimaran may be a great solution. (more…)

Chris Ostlind is a boat designer who offers plans for sale to home builders. He really knows how to design fast sailboats. And that’s good news for small trimaran lovers who want to build their own boat.

Chris has a few tri designs in the making, but I was entranced with the A18T model as soon as I laid eyes on it. By the way, Chris let me know the “T” designator began as a little joke among friends because the original design called for a sailing rig from a Hobie 14 catamaran (with 146 sq. ft. of sail) to be used for the boat. But when Chris upped the ante with the Hobie 16 catamaran rig (with 216 sq. ft. of sail), then it sort of became “Turbo Powered.”

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