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dcamp · 21-01-2015, 17:35

looking at a fiberglass cross trimaran , is anyone familiar with the construction methods.
I guess my concerns are is there any wood buried in the fiberglass , like cross arms. how strong are they structurally . I like the idea of not dealing with the typical wood rot problems with a boat built in the 70's but have never heard of any tri's built like this
Anyone with any input on a 38' cross built with fiberglass hulls would be appreciated.

Howaya · 21-01-2015, 18:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by paxfish

Iroquois just posted in Maryland:

Iroquois Catamaran 30

Last Fall someone near Baltimore was trying to sell an Iroquois for $1000. It had spent at least 10 years sitting afloat in the same spot and was very neglected, hence the low price and poor buyer response. From the description within the link, above, it very well may be the same boat. It appears as if someone bought it only to discover substantial problems. If I were younger or weren't already burnt out from another 30' catamaran (perpetual) project, I might go and take a look; I'm only 10 minutes away. Much wiser now, I'll likely stay away.

Sand crab · 24-01-2015, 07:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcamp

looking at a fiberglass cross trimaran , is anyone familiar with the construction methods.
I guess my concerns are is there any wood buried in the fiberglass , like cross arms. how strong are they structurally . I like the idea of not dealing with the typical wood rot problems with a boat built in the 70's but have never heard of any tri's built like this
Anyone with any input on a 38' cross built with fiberglass hulls would be appreciated.

Almost all the Cross tris were home built and I believe all were some type of core. I doubt if any were solid FG. I would guess that most were ply core but there are some foam core ones also. However many of the later ones (after about 1980 but maybe earlier) were built with epoxy which can result in a stronger more waterproof boat.
It's a safe bet that the cross beams are wood core.

Cavalier MK2 · 24-01-2015, 11:08

Glass was foam core, ply beams not sure about the frames. If you can get in touch with Jeff Turner at Cross Multihulls he could send some plan sheets to help with a survey,

dcamp · 24-01-2015, 11:49

Thanks for the input. The boat was built by windfast marine in San Diego and yes it is glassed foam core hulls.Being built in 74 I'm not sure if it has the round bottom design, I guess I need to go take a look! The broker kinda turned me off when asking him some questions about the construction he said all boats in this era were built like this.( NOT ) Living on a piver in the late seventies for 3-4 years doesn't make me an expert but I was mostly familiar with the double diagonal planking method or plywood and not this.
How do I get hold of Jeff Turner, would like to talk to him.

Cavalier MK2 · 24-01-2015, 12:02

Google Cross Multihulls to find the site and follow the contact instructions.
The foam Cross tris of that era are usually airex core. They are round hulled like the double diagonal ones you remember. I'd think there is quite a bit of wood in the construction, curious about the wing deck, ply would be easier for hardware installation.

happyendings · 24-01-2015, 15:19

The plans for my Cross 38 dated from 1993 and included separate instructions for building the boat on a male mold as an alternative to double diagonal planking on a frame. I assumed that anyone opting to go this route would be building more than one boat and would likely be using foam core panels to create the hulls although the building material wasn't specified.

UNCIVILIZED · 25-01-2015, 05:58

Anyone looking for an old classic cat to fix up? 1962 Lindenberg CSK 47 Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

snort · 25-01-2015, 09:01

1977 Prout Snowgoose sailboat for sale in Outside United States

French flag included!

niel12 · 27-01-2015, 08:54

Home built Catamarans could be problematic when you expect it least, somehow consistency regulations are as vague as some homemade cats are build to generate money and not reach a dream!

brownoarsman · 03-02-2015, 11:55

Here's a Simpson Wilde Shifter (32') for an asking price of $16,000
sailboat trimaran 32ft 1976 Simpson Wilde Shifter

I talked to the owner, and the boat needs a fair bit of relatively light work: one broken chainplate, rust on the bases of the standing rigging so may need new rigging, autohelm broken, needs new antifoul, running rigging and deck paint at least eight years old, the only electronics it has is a VHF, apparently has no water tanks. It does, however, have a ridiculously large 20 gallon holding tank so I sort of wonder if a PO rerouted the MSD to the water tank! Plus - whatever the owner may not know about.

With all of that, it feels like $16k is a pretty high price! What do you think? Anyone know if Mark Johnson's SC 28 is still for sale? My craigslist emails have gone unanswered and there's no phone number listed on the ad.