Thoughts on Dick Newick designed "Spark" trimaran by Jim Conlin

I thought I'd ask Jim Conlin of Conlin Boatworks who gave the original brief and constructed the first "Spark" design trimaran to Dick Newick's plan what he thought of the boat now that he has had some time to sail on her.  He has noted that a few changes are on the cards for the boat in regards to the rig but in general he is very happy with how the boat has turned out.

On the whole, I regard the design as 90% successful. The brief was, as described in the BDQ article, "a three-hulled Rozinante", meaning a gentleman's day sailer that's as sporty as a geezer can manage (I'll be 70 this spring). It's been quite satisfactory.
I think that the aesthetics turned out well.  The boat was built with Core-Cell sandwich and came out pretty light, and I think that's the key to how it sails.  The accommodation fills the brief- a single berth, a head and a place to sit. The cockpit is deep and well protected.  The rig is the place where the boat is most divergent from common practice. For my purposes, I like it a lot.
 
The one deficiency that I feel is that there is not a good way to reef the roll-up Ljungstrom main in winds over 20 kts. As the sail rolls up, the sheeting point wants to be in impossible places. With the designers' approval and counsel, I'll be converting to a conventional boom with conventional slab reefing. We haven't designed the boom yet, but we're considering the 'Park Avenue' concept for how it can deal with topping lift/lazyjacks, sail cover and cockpit awning.

There are some other tweaks that should be done on the second iteration.

This is not a simple or inexpensive boat to build. The design has hardly a straight line in it, and if you appreciate the aesthetics, you accept the difficulty of the build. It uses some expensive materials and that's the key to keeping the boat light enough to sail well with a moderate rig.

I like the boat a lot,
                               Jin Conlin.