Small trimaran sailor and enthusiast Fred F. sent me the following photos a few days ago. He is asking for the help of anyone in our little small tri community here to identify this particular model. At the moment, it’s a little mystery.

This baby is a true “dinghy.” Take a look at the photos Fred sent to us and see if you’ve ever seen it. I’ll post an “update” if someone identifies it … okay guys :-) (more…)

This 12-foot folding trimaran is a self-designed, home-built sailing package created by sailor Mark Gumprecht. (It’s the very first one he designed).

If you recall, I interviewed Mark about his newest trimaran last year. And he is taking that boat with him from Massachusetts to California, where he is moving. (more…)

A new small trimaran may be in the works from the guys at Chesapeake Light Craft. It’s an idea that John Harris, President of CLC, has had for awhile. (I know this because I first spoke to him last year about it).

Actual development, however, sounded far off. So I was really appreciative when one of our readers here at smalltrimarans emailed me a link to the following webpage that he’d recently discovered on CLC’s website. (more…)

Small trimaran enthusiasts Tom Raidna & David Kagan both sent me the following information about a new self-designed & built trimaran featured at Duckwords.

It was launched this year by Jason Nabors “just in time for the 2012 Texas 200.” (more…)

Jim Brown interviewed small trimaran sailor and self-boatbuilder Frank Smoot on the topic of small trimarans last week. In this audio clip featured on YouTube (below), Frank shares how he got into building and sailing his own homemade trimarans. Frank even started his own website so he could post free information about them at www.DIY-tris.com.

In the full audio interview (in MP3) from which this clip is taken, Frank talks about some of the techniques that he uses to create boats that are both lightweight and strong … yet inexpensive (as compared to typical boatbuilding costs). (more…)

Here is a very small folding trimaran (collapsible amas), designed and built by a small tri lover in Italy. Perhaps I can get some more info about this small trimaran. But for the moment, I want to thank Peter Evans, who publishes http://tacking-outrigger.com/ for sharing the below link with me. (more…)

The DIY trimaran enthusiast — Frank S. — shares his new “sliding aka system” with us in this post. The photos below are just a sample of what you’ll find on his website at DIY-Tris.com (If you recall, the last modification on this trimaran was the addition of new amas.)

Frank generously offers the details behind the new sliding crossbeams, which makes both trailering and set-up to go sailing, a faster, more convenient process. (more…)

The following story of a homemade, budget conscious trimaran named “Trimara” comes to us from Thailand. Joe Mengel started to build one kind of boat … (more…)

In my previous Seaclipper 16 Trimaran post, we discovered sailor Gerry Lavoie’s new sailboat. Gerry has published his own Seaclipper 16 blog, which covers this project, and also discusses its launch this past Spring. I hope he continues to update it because the writing is very good and also includes a nice, personal touch. (more…)

Sailor Lance McIntosh is building this excellent-looking trimaran / skiff. He refers to it as the “Dragonfly 14 Trimaran.” He designed this sailboat himself. And as you can see, it’s apparent that he has paid a good amount of attention to detail and appearance. (more…)

Multihull designer Richard Woods is at it again. Although known primarily for his catamaran designs, Richard designed a new small trimaran model called the Strike 18 and started offering plans for it just last year. Now he is in the process of designing 2 other small tris that will bear the “Strike” moniker. (more…)

Sailor and boatbuilder Gary Baigent, from Auckland, New Zealand, send me the following info about his one-of-a-kind small trimaran, which he named “Flash Harry.” He shares in these great photos of his trimaran with us too. (more…)

Small Trimaran enthusiast Jim Gallant let me know about a new small trimaran that he designed (and is currently building). This isn’t the kind of thing anyone who doesn’t have a lot of sailing experience or building skills should undertake. But Jim is a true “do-it-yourselfer” sailor who possesses the background to undertake such a project.

And we get to benefit … thanks to his willingness to share it with us :-) (more…)

Sailor Doug Green shares these classic “Supernova Trimaran” brochure images, inserts and pictures (from the 1980s) with us in this post. He also asked a knowledgable friend about this model, who shared some more info. These images (and info) are a great follow up to the first blog post regarding the Supernova trimaran.

The designer of the Supernova trimaran was Ib Pors Nielsen. Among the Supernova trimaran’s advertised features/benfits are: (more…)

Here is another great homebuilt trimaran from Spain. More specifically, it’s a trimaran sailing canoe. This speedy canoe with outriggers once again shows what can be done with a little bit of money, ingenuity and sweat equity. (more…)

Multihull designer Jim Brown is releasing a new design very soon. He and his partner John Marples have officially named it the Seaclipper 20 trimaran. The name “Seaclipper,” of course, is associated with a famous line of trimarans Jim has produced over the years. Jim’s original name for this rugged new small tri, however, was the “Janganda.” Why? (more…)

Designer Mike Waters is currently working on a new design he is referring to as the “W17 beach trimaran.” ( Mike is the fellow who offers lots of great information at www.smalltrimarandesign.com ). He said this beach tri began as a project for his own personal use. (more…)

One reader sent me a Austrian website featuring a unique, home-built sailboat designated the “Soling Trimaran.” This small tri is a great example of what somebody can do with a dream, lots of drive and a little ingenuity. It proves, once again, that a guy (or gal) who really wants a trimaran is a guy (or gal) who is probably gonna somehow get a tri. (more…)

Back in 2004-5 the Discover Channel featured a homebuilt small trimaran on a reality TV show called, “No Opportunity Wasted.” Apparently, the premise of the show was that anybody featured would be given $3000 (and 72 hours) to achieve a particular dream/goal. (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…)

The following small trimaran tale comes to us from Stefano, who lives in Italy. Stefano found our site and offered to share about the challenges (and fun) of taking his homemade proa and converting it into a trimaran. He provides some excellent details too. (I get the impression he is a sailor who enjoys having a bit of experience under his belt). (more…)

Here is the second homemade trimaran sailboat Eric sent me info about. Now this one is cool! I mean, it not only looks cool, but as soon as I saw it I thought to myself, “I bet that baby can HAUL!” (more…)

Small trimaran lover Eric Marechal, who lives in France, has shared info about several small tris he’s come across. And now he’s done it again. Here is the first sailboat (below). (more…)

Now here is a homemade trimaran project that is bound to make a few of small tri lovers smile :-) And why shouldn’t it? It displays all of the creative ingenuity and fortitude that would be required to build just about any boat. (more…)

Astus trimarans, made by the French company Chantier Astusboats, are a commercially successful brand of small trimarans. The following article (which I link to below) contains a very good summary of these sailboats. But it also contains some great pics of these boats, along with the following video. (more…)

Mike Leneman (who owns Multi Marine in California) is the U.S. importer/seller of a light, fast and fun racing 23-foot trimaran called Multi 23. This sailboat is a specially designed French model that weighs just 700 pounds.

One of the best French design teams in the world created this racer/daysailer. (It was fashioned after the BMW Oracle 90 trimaran). Its light weight comes from hulls constructed out of high tech vacuum-bagged resin infusion. It also features carbon crossbeams (akas) that demount for trailering. (more…)

Gary Lepak is a multihull boat guy. As it turns out, he’s also very generous when it comes to sharing a bit of his time, expertise and writing skills when it comes to multihulls. (Gary has also written some articles for Duckworks Magazine).

Gary is the “list-owner,” or moderator of the multihullboatbuilder Yahoo group. He helps like-minded individuals get connected online … whether receiving support for building their own boats or just satisfying an individual’s interest in design. (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…)

What are “small” trimarans? I’ll take a risk here and hope my opinion doesn’t stoke any fires of debate. There are several ways trimaran enthusiasts might answer this question. And each of them, given certain assumptions, are probably worthy of merit.

But for the sake of meaningful discussion (and relevance of this website) I’m giving my own definition: (more…)

Multihull Listings ( including Small Trimarans ) …

Below are a few reference links. They include multihulls other than small trimarans. (more…)

Imagine a fast, small trimaran that enables you to not only move out to windward on a trampoline when it starts to fly, but also offers something many small trimarans do not … a “very comfortable” seating situation for up to 4 adults.

As a matter of fact, the small trimaran I’m referring to allowed its designer to take his 75-year-old mother in law out for a comfortable ride in this day cruiser. And would you be surprised if I said a renowned trimaran (and catamaran) yacht maker created this sailboat?

Probably not.
(more…)