A Class Catamaran World Championship video of day one

Thanks to Sailing Anarchy front page for the link

Day one highlights video of the A Class Catamaran World Championships

http://vimeo.com/52022437#

Multihull World's .pdf article archive

An interesting range of articles from the excellent Multihull World (Australia) magazine covering general multihull stories, designs and racing.

http://multihull.com.au/site/PDF-Archives.html

Farrier F85sr trimaran nearing completion in the Phillipines

Glynn Thomas's F85sr is nearing completion at Multihulls Direct in the Phillipines.  This will be the first of this new model to hit the water if they continue with their current fast build progress.

http://www.f-boat.com/pages/News4/F-85SRProgressMD.html

Consistency pays off, Mischa Heemskerk leads after day one of A Class Catamaran World Championship

repost of sail-world article by William Clark:

http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/A-Cat-World-Championship---Mischa-Heemskerk-leads-after-day-1/103131

A-Cat World Championship - Mischa Heemskerk leads after day 1



'A-Cat Worlds Day 1'    Sam Moore    

Consistency wins regattas, and after three races at the 2012 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship, Mischa Heemskerk of the Netherlands has been the most consistent sailor, taking a third and two seconds to get two points clear of Australia’s Brad Collett and five points clear of current world champion Steve Brewin.

The A-Cat fleet launched today from Islamorada’s Islander Resort in winds gusting from anywhere between 15 and 20 knots, a difficulty level that spaced the fleet out considerably. A number of sailors stayed on the beach, and a number of masts went by the wayside, but despite tight racing at the top Heemskerk emerged on top after three races.

Brewin seemed to be well in command after two races. The current world champ led practically from start to finish in race one despite hitting the first windward mark and having to do a penalty circle. He was followed closely by Heemskerk with Blair Tuke taking third just ahead of Collett after port tacking the fleet with Ian Storer at the start. In race two things were more wide open, with Collett leading at the first windward mark and Heemskerk taking over the second time around. However it was Brewin who came out with the win, scooting past Collett in a photo finish with Heemskerk a close third.

In race three things got more interesting. Andrew Landenberger was first around the up the initial, and led from there on to take the gun. However Brewin was close on his tail with Collett right behind him and Heemskerk deep having started at the boat – the pin was favored for most of the day. But while Heemskerk climbed Brewin had some trouble at the final windward mark, going around the offset instead of the windward mark and losing a number of boats. He eventually finished tenth, bringing his total up to twelve after three races. Collett sits second at nine with Heemskerk currently in the driver’s seat at seven.

The forecast is for winds to increase throughout the week and regatta organizers were pleased to get three races off, though a significant number of breakdowns did occur. American Lars Guck broke a tiller extension when he got separated from his boat on the first beat of the day and was unable to finish race one. Australian ex-pat Ben Moon’s rig came down during race two, and again right after he finished ninth in race three. Meanwhile Australians Nathan Outteridge and Steve Brayshaw both had to retire after race two, with Outteridge having lost a dagger after taking a fourth and sixth, and Brayshaw busting up his main beam after taking two fives.

The fleet was very spaced out throughout the day thanks to the aggressive conditions, but very few breakages occurred after race one since most of the breakdowns that were bound to happen had already happened by that point. Heemskerk, Collett and Brewin were around the top throughout the day, but racing is still wide open, as evidenced by Landenberg getting in there in race three. Forecasts are for the breeze to keep building, and with an emphasis on boat handling anyone who can keep their boat upright and going in the right direction has a shot.
A Class Catamaran World Championship website

by William Clark

Phil Steggal's 50' carbon racing trimaran project

Phil Steggal is somewhat of a legend in multihull ocean racing circles.  He built his first trimaran to a Walter Greene design in 1979 and came a respectable third in the 1980 OSTAR transatlantic race.  A composites expert he has setup a website detailing the design and construction of his latest carbon fibre trimaran.  A lot of useful and interesting information on his website.

http://www.buildatrimaran.com/buildatrimaran/Home.html

More trimaran building blogs and a sailing blog

F36 Farrier Trimaran build
http://cartersboat.wordpress.com/

F22 Farrier trimaran build
http://f-22sail30.blogspot.com.au/

another F22 Farrier trimaran build
http://hawaii-f22-build.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Farrier F82r trimaran build blog
http://leos-f82.blogspot.com.au/

Ray Kendrick Scarab 22 build blog
http://www.voile.org/trimaran/

Trimaran Sailing blogs

Trimaran Spirit
http://trimaranspirit.blogspot.com.au/

Extract from John Glennie's book "Playboys of the South Pacific" sailing multihulls in the 60's

John Glennie reflects on multihull sailing in the 60's in his new book "Playboys of the South Pacific" chapter 9 is available in .pdf format on outrig.org and is an interesting read.  Strange to think back that multihulls were the simplest of boats and the most sparsely equipped a huge contrast to the promotion of luxurious, spacious catamarans of today.  John Glennie built and designed multihulls and survived with crew the capsize of his trimaran "Rose Noelle" the book reflects on happier times while sailing the South Pacific on the 35' trimaran "highlight".

http://outrig.org/multihull-stories/john-glennie-chapter-9.pdf

Lindahl LR4 A class catamaran construction

An interesting article by John Lindahl showing progress on an A class catamaran build through the stages of hull construction in carbon/foam strip plank composite.

http://lindahlcompositedesign.weebly.com/lr4-build.html

West System/Epoxyworks online magazine

An interesting online source of information on the use of epoxy in boatbuilding projects.  The back issues are extensive and provide a lot of information.  If your looking for tips on how to use epoxy resin to best effect on your project there is lots of useful information to be found in this magazine.

Epoxyworks online magazine

Tim Clissold TC1221 (40') trimaran concept

I contacted New Zealand multihull designer Tim Clissold http://www.tcdesign.co.nz to do a concept for an ocean racing/cruising trimaran that still had useful volume for cruising.  He delivered a concept that I thought would have made a beautiful balanced performance boat.  Sadly my wife indicated she did not want to spend any time cruising so I changed tack to a more basic racing machine as my ocean racing approach.  I present the concept here in the hope that someone might like to pickup the ball and run with it and get plans and a boat built to them.  It's a beautiful boat and would provide a very comfortable high performance cruiser/racer trimaran.

Trimarans dont provide the living space or load carrying ability of a catamaran but if you can live without extra "stuff" they make up for it in other ways in providing a more dynamic and engaging sailing experience to the sailor and generally superior performance.  I'd say this boat would be comfortable and have adequate load carrying characteristics for a couple with kids for cruising and considerably more for daysailing or racing.

The statement of requirements was for a comfortable bluewater capable trimaran with a performance focus that was able to be a competitive ocean racing craft but enough displacement to provide for extended unsupported cruising and reasonable tankage for fuel with generator power coming from a diesel fitted with a sail or retractable shaft drive and a watermaker to keep weight down.

Americas Cup Interviews with Murray Jones (Oracle) and Grant Dalton (ETNZ)

Two interesting audio interviews with Murray Jones of Oracle and Grant Dalton of Emirates Team New Zealand.  Murray Jones talks about the capsize and Grant Dalton about their own program and the effect that the Oracle capsize had on the ETNZ team.  Article thanks to sail-world.

Sail World article

Murray Jones Interview

http://www.radiosport.co.nz/player/ondemand/53439222-murray-jones-describes-ac-72-s-capsizing

Grant Dalton Interview

http://www.radiosport.co.nz/player/ondemand/983729746-oracle-s-ac72-catamaran-capsizes-in-testing

Sailing proa to attempt circumnavigation

The large sailing Proa Gaias Dream is to attempt a circumnavigation.  Certainly an interesting project the craft is a 71' Pacific proa completely constructed out of Australian plantation timber. It has a cargo capacity of about 6 tonnes and a 26 knot theoretical top speed.  I've attached some videos of the boat shunting and sailing.  The website includes a tracker for the boat which will be regularly updated when they start their attempt.

Gaiasdream website

Extreme Sailing Series Act 7 Nice, two videos from the racing

The Extreme Sailing Series does not unfortunately offer all of it's races on youtube to be viewed at a later date you have to watch them live but here are two videos showing some of the action the first shows the final race and the second has Herve Cunningham the trimmer on Edmond de Rothschild Extreme 40 talking us through a race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNVqW_Z4Jbc&feature=g-all-u

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orK6zdjZxGc&feature=g-all-u

NZ Coastal Classic 2012 onboard videos from Vodafone and Taeping.

Flying through the Rangi Channel onboard the ORMA 60 "Vodafone" the catamaran they overtake is a Crowther/Bloomfield 50' design called triple 8.

http://youtu.be/HonvyFERTBw

Coastal Classic 2012 from onboard the catamaran "Taeping"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjwXpbBAV1k&feature=youtu.be

Motive Trimarans 25r, more development in progress

Press release reposted from the Motive Trimarans blog:

Motive Trimarans Blog

Motive Trimarans Website

Following a successful Annapolis show, and Sailing World Magazine's, Boat Of The Year, judging, development is going very well and the boat continues to impress us, as we fine tune control systems, with the usual small adjustments to block placement, etc. The boat is in for a quick, pit-stop at the shop of A-Cat Worlds contender, Lars Guck, in Bristol, RI, for a few tweaks before heading down to Florida for the winter season.

The wave piercing, low profile hulls are working beautifully as designed, slicing through the water, reducing unwanted windage, and enhancing the experience of being close to the water while moving fast, like a beach cat on steroids! With 250% buoyancy in the outer hulls, we are looking forward to hoisting the screecher and flying the center hull soon.

 

We have also figured out how we can easily raise the water stays, both improving their angle ratio, and allowing for more effective tensioning, as well as eliminating any drag we are occasionally getting from them in rough seas.

We have also come up with modifications to reduce launch time, with an improved mast step system and faster trampoline installation.

 

Four boats are on order, so far, for spring delivery. The boats continue to be all US built, with components sourced from CA, WI, NC, MA, AZ , CT, and NY, by some of the world's finest designers and fabricators and we're proud to showcase their craftsmanship.

We'll continue to post updates of development.

 

Thank you all for your support.

 

Pete Ansel

Design Director

MOTIVE TRIMARANS