If you’re ever accused of having “lost your mojo,” could you get it back with a trimaran? Probably not. Then again, maybe a Mojo trimaran could make a difference. :-)
Seriously now. The Mojo is a brand new trimaran that is being offered via both traditional building plans AND all-inclusive building kit.
A lot of guys have searched for a trimaran building kit in recent years. But Wayne Barrett in Australia decided to take up the challenge of creating one. He shares the short story behind the development of this sailboat, which can be found at www.trimarankit.com
Thanks to Wayne for sharing the below (and thank you Tom, at BuildBoats.com, for putting Wayne in touch with me! :-)
…………..
The MOJO Trimaran
by Wayne Barrett
I guess there was always a sailboat on some sort around me, an influence of my father although he never sailed, when I was very young he would quite often buy me a toy yacht to play with, as I grew a little older about 8 – 9 yrs., I started building model yachts and sailing them on a local pond or swimming pool.
Then came the inevitable design and build my own models, a couple of more years went by dad obtained a membership for me into the local yacht club where the sailing was done on a very shallow and weedy lake.
Started sailing as crew in a Sharpie class moving from there as crew with a friend in a small dinghy in which we were very successful.
Around this time in my life an American guy came out to Australia to promote his Trimarans, his name was Arthur Piver – from this day on I was hooked.
Later Lock Crowther and I developed a good friendship resulting in my building several of his designs for other people.
In 1975 I built myself an 18 ft. trimaran by Lock called a “Kraken 18” this was basically a day boat in which two of us sailed along some fairly formidable coastline, a great trip one way, very eventful on the way home.
As you read my web page there is some detail of a few of the multis I have built over the years including several large cats which I did not include in the trimaran pages.
No doubt there are many small trimaran designs available, for me after having sanded, faired and painted millions of square feet of hulls, decks with complicated compound shapes I have no intention of going through this time and energy consuming pain at my time of life, so ………………
Putting my years of experience to paper … along comes MOJO.
Mojo Trimaran Drawings, Part One
Being very keen to build another tri for my own use the following features were paramount. Functions of this tri would include:
— basic accommodation for two for a couple of weeks cruising … up to six for a day sail,
— very easy and safe to handle
— above all be simple and economical to build
The accommodation also must include a comfortable cockpit with all sail controls within easy reach and not have to leave the cockpit, seats capable of sleeping on, plus the option of a boom cover or tent would make a nice extra cabin while at anchor.
Mojo Trimaran Drawings, Part Two
The tri must also be trailable, for simplicity of building demountable not folding, although in the trailing position it will look the same as the folding system, I have attached a drawing of the beam socket system, beams and trampoline stay intact, could be done single handed with a trailer modification.
It was initial thought to make the tri available as a kit only however due to the number of requests for plans I done this with the inclusion of DXF files for those who wish to take that path.
Mojo Trimaran Drawings, Part Three
As for performance I have no preconceived idea how fast it will be, I am not interested in getting into the “speed” thing, I am confident it will sail very well and be any amount fast enough, it has a good lwl/beam ratio, and all the hydrostatics stack up very well, it is a fast cruiser not a flat out racer.
My ideal customer is the person who wants to go sailing, the person who does enjoy building and gaining the satisfaction of sailing the end product, the person who does not want to be tied to the garage for a couple of years to achieve the result.
The first MOJO is to be built in New Zealand, I have offered my services to assist with the build for the initial couple of weeks, should be able to take plenty of pics to add to the site etc.
— Wayne Barrett
Mojo Trimaran Drawings Socket System
To read more about the MOJO Trimaran, visit www.trimarankit.com
Basically I think the same level of accommodation could be packed into a 6.5 metres.. one meter less for better handling when trailering.You really do not need to have an enclosed head and galley on such a small boat, or could have it under the tent providing the third central “cabin” as is a design objective
Same thing with mast: handling a 9.5 metres mast is already a challenge, 11 is way too much. If you need performance in light air, it is much easier to add a rolling screecher and or asymmetrical spinnaker on a smaller mast. If wind is there, sail surface is not an issue: it will go fast enough. A smaller mast and sails also reduce by far efforts and relevant stresses.
Hardwood epoxied parts as partners for akas leave me in great doubt: if epoxy cracks, a large piece of hardwood can produce a hell of a lot of strength and movement, and not necessarily they way you need it. Better perhaps to have fibreglassed ply.
I have to agree with Stefano’s assessment of the rig- especially in light of the stated desire for cruising suitability and ease of trailering over speed and racing considerations, such a high aspect ratio sail plan and tall mast seem out of place.
It bears repeating that when choosing rigs for multihulls one needs to keep in mind that the differences in stability, weight, inertia and wave interaction will all be quite different than in a ballasted vessel of a similar size, and that tall rigs can accentuate a multi’s natural tendency to hobbyhorse, even at rest with no sail up.
Going with higher tech spar and rigging materials that offer lighter weights aloft and smaller cross sections can certainly help offset these types of problems, but again that seems like the opposite direction from something quick and relatively cheap to build and maintain that will also be relatively tame and predictable under sail, the way cruising boats are supposed to be.
Obviously one solution is for those who don’t like it to substitute another rig they feel is more suitable, but it would be interesting to hear why the designer chose what seems to be a very performance oriented rig for something that is specifically not aimed at people looking for high performance.
Hi Stefano and Ian,
Thank you both for your comments.
Firstly to Stefan, one meter less will be a totally different vessel than my intention, sailing is the game and it takes priority of trailing, I agree totally you do not need an enclosed head or galley, in MOJO’s case it can be taken out of the fwd cabin as there is more than enough room for storage in the cockpit for these items, the drawings show the accommodation merely as an indication of the possibilities.
Personally I would have the stove as a small camping style that comes with the gas contained within the unit this way it can be taken out and used in the cockpit or used in the cabin if the weather is unpleasant.
The cockpit has been designed with good sized seats with comfortable back support, it is just on 2 meters long I have shown a bimini or dodger at the fwd end this can quite easily be extended to make up a tent and provide the crew with a very cosy extra cabin for overnighting or longer stays, the boom tent has always been a part of the design.
I have been personally involved in trailable trimarans and catamarans since 1986 and have towed many of them from one end of Australia to the other and never had a problem, in the early nineties my own 7 meter trimaran was not a folding type but completely demountable, one mainhull, two floats and two one piece beams plus the trampolines.
without exception I could pull up at the launch site and within one hour the tri would be fully rigged sails hanked on and ready to go, it had a mast height of 11.5 meters, once you set your system in place mast raising is not an issue, the same principal has been used on the other six multis we have racing, the highest rig is 16 meters, again absolutely no problems with the mast situation.
I have purposely kept the rig on Mojo to be easily handled, for instance the prodder is only 1 meter long could very well cope with 1.5 or 1.8, the foot of the main is quite short all this coupled with a small self tacking jib all sail handling is done from the cockpit making for all round fun and safe tri to handle.
Many years ago I built a couple of Buccanner 24’s my system of the beams is very much the same and I have had no issue with this type of build I guess it’s the detail to attention that counts, I understand your concerns here and I can see some areas where a problem may occur but not in this case.
Hi Ian,
most of your comments would have been answered above, certainly in my own Mojo there will be a composite light weight rig with synthetic shrouds etc. the thinking behind this is to make the mast raising even easier, I am at the top end of sixty years and I will mostly be single handed so I need every bit of assistance I can muster up.
At the end of the day I have no problem in supplying drawings for a smaller rig but I do not see any point, look at all of the other popular trailable trimarans that do just the same, as I keep saying set yourself up do it right the first time and you won’t have a problem, there are any amount of videos on tri sites that show how easy it is.
With my Mojo if I can’t set it up ready to sail in one hour I will give away a set of plans.
Not all in life is going to suit everybody, we all know boating is about compromise so we work out our own pleasures within the boundaries of compromise.
Thank you both for taking the time to send your comments and I welcome all.
Best Regards,
Wayne Barrett,
Gold Coast Australia.
Hi Wayne…visited your site and found out that the mast is 11 metres or 31 ft… now this is all clear ! The fearful will go with 31 ft (9.4 metres) and the brave with 11 metres :-)
I’m still convinced that 11 metres is way too much of a hassle to move around or to turn tight curves when the boat is trailered but that’s life folks, different ideas are welcome.
I think this is a nice design and if it had been around a couple of years ago when I was choosing a design to build I would have given it some consideration. Rig size/desired performance level is very much a personal choice and its hardly surprising given the designers previous experience that the rig leans towards the hi-po. Anyway plenty of taller rigs are stepped on the larger Farrier tris all the time.
One observation, this boat is likely to appeal to first time builders who may not have a lot of multi sailing experience and be possibly put off by the tall square top rig. I’d suggest drawing up a shorter maybe non-rotating pinhead rig as an option for the gunkholers out there and showing it as an option on the website. Good luck with it:-)
PS. Where in NZ is the first example being built?
Hi Greg,
North Island exact site TBA, will keep all informed.
regards,
Wayne.
Hi I’m looking for a good small trimaran, looks like this might be interesting, could you acomodate shipping to uk?
Raising and lowering a tall mast is easy as anything. All you need is a good system.
Years ago when I had my 7.80m trailer sailer in NZ I used an A frame system the two ends of the alloy A frame had solid ss pins at 90 degrees to the alloy tubes these pins went into fairleads SS lined fairlead that you normally lead sheets through on either side of the boat and aft of the mast step. The top part of the A frame was welded and a bow roller fitted at the top of the A and through bolted this is where the mast rested while it was being raised. The block and tackle was bolted at one end to the bow fitting and the other to the top section of the A frame.
The sheet was taken back to either port or starboard jib winch and away you went the sheet went through a rope clutch so when the mast was up you locked the clutch with some foreward tension on the mast so it was easy to fit the forestay. Side stays were always attached. This easily done by myself and if a friend was with you it really was a breeze and taking it down was the reverse.