Cheap Multis and Projects

[Boatguy30]

As an aside,

It's generally assumed you will only enter a life raft from a positive buoyancy multihull when the boat is inverted. in this case, you can "moor" the raft between the hulls assuming sea conditions are not too wild.

In the case of an upright boat you would generally attempt to make repairs, etc. I can see a good case for cutting the raft loose if you felt you HAD to get into it as spreaders, stanchions, etc could hole the raft.

Certainly there have been many souls lost in homebuilt tris over the years. I just found a sports illustrated article written when Piver was recenltly missing. there had been 13 deaths in 2 years!

surely quite a few folks died in car wrecks around then also.

[Doggone]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

sorry, where's the next cheap multi projects?

Moon Dog, Jim Brown custom design, 45' for $9,500.......key word Jim brown at Yacht world.

[Azul]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

Guess you don't want to see me angry. Thought ignorance was a polite technical term and not an attack.

anyhow, not sure why anyone would want to attack the boats that are the entire basis of this thread outright?

Why? Because there are a lot of us "ignorant" people on the forum that might be tempted into thinking a "cheap multi or project" might actually be a good value. In the vast majority of cases the present owner has figured out the project isn't worth putting any more money into. I'm sure there are rare exceptions and I am sure there are examples of pristine, beautifully made custom home builts. But they won't come cheap. People that have a respect for such an item don't usually let them fall into disrepair.

What exactly do you mean by "I've been on dozens of well built wooden multihulls and most were in bad shape"?

Since you haven't got a clue what my boat looks like, or how I maintain it (other than the contrary information that I owned one of the world's best maintained airplanes) on what basis are you making the judgement that my boat will probably sink based on its poor maintenance and that I will then want to sue (the now bankrupt) manufacturer?

Wood usually floats. Sometimes when you splinter wood into pieces and strap a diesel engine to it, it sinks. According to the eyewitness report of the owner, and the son's verbal report to me, this Cross sank. Otherwise he probably would have been tempted to stay on it as he had no water and there was probably water on the boat somewhere. Probably parts of it floated. Not only did it sink, but it sank or at least submerged so quickly it caused a sailor with thousands of hours of blue water experience to panic.

From my (biased from personal experience) perspective, I am not going to go offshore in a home built boat. I've just been around a very few of them, and one almost killed my friend's father.

[smj]

Originally Posted by Azul

Why? Because there are a lot of us "ignorant" people on the forum that might be tempted into thinking a "cheap multi or project" might actually be a good value. In the vast majority of cases the present owner has figured out the project isn't worth putting any more money into. I'm sure there are rare exceptions and I am sure there are examples of pristine, beautifully made custom home builts. But they won't come cheap. People that have a respect for such an item don't usually let them fall into disrepair.

What exactly do you mean by "I've been on dozens of well built wooden multihulls and most were in bad shape"?

Since you haven't got a clue what my boat looks like, or how I maintain it (other than the contrary information that I owned one of the world's best maintained airplanes) on what basis are you making the judgement that my boat will probably sink based on its poor maintenance and that I will then want to sue (the now bankrupt) manufacturer?

Wood usually floats. Sometimes when you splinter wood into pieces and strap a diesel engine to it, it sinks. According to the eyewitness report of the owner, and the son's verbal report to me, this Cross sank. Otherwise he probably would have been tempted to stay on it as he had no water and there was probably water on the boat somewhere. Probably parts of it floated. Not only did it sink, but it sank or at least submerged so quickly it caused a sailor with thousands of hours of blue water experience to panic.

From my (biased from personal experience) perspective, I am not going to go offshore in a home built boat. I've just been around a very few of them, and one almost killed my friend's father.

Quote: Exhausted, he climbed into the liferaft and spent the night bailing, throwing up seawater and shivering. The following morning, it was much calmer. Brake read the directions inside the raft, cut the line connecting him to his boat, deployed the sea anchor and waited for rescue.:end quote

Seems like the boat didnt sink, according to the owner.

[searunner31]

I will say thus i was on my Piver home built tri on a mooring in a 60knt blow woke up to a crash and here was a brand new fiberglass 50' trawler on my little old plywood bows. They drug anchor they didn't set i sustained about $400 in damage and my home built tri punched holes in that trawler to the tune of $40-$50k. So i guess wood wins..

[Sand crab]

Originally Posted by Doggone

Moon Dog, Jim Brown custom design, 45' for $9,500.......key word Jim brown at Yacht world.

Says sale pending. Is this your boat?
1974 Brown Trimaran Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

[Sand crab]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

sorry, where's the next cheap multi projects?

Here's one.
Jim Brown Searunner 31 in Sailboats | eBay Motors

[Sand crab]

1978 Cross Trimaran

[Sand crab]

This Piver was posted before but it's still up for sale.
41" piver trimaran

[Sand crab]

Not really a cruiser but very cool.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/boa/3733437424.html

[Sand crab]

A 33' Harris. I like this one.
SAILBOAT HARRIS 33' TRIMARAN

[Sand crab]

An almost new 35' cat for $40,000.
35' sailing catamaran

[Sand crab]

Here's a big one. It looks like it might be one of those clinker built cats. I forget the name of the builder of those.
76' Catamaran Spirit of St. Christopher

[Cavalier MK2]

Spronk was the designer of the carib lapstrake cats, very good boats.

The Cross sinking is interesting because those bows only break if you hit something really hard at the right angle, usually a collision. I wonder if there was a previous repair to this area. The cheap way is to just fasten on another or the same bow, doing it right involves going back a ways into the double diagonal planking and rebuilding the layers after new stringers, keel etc....are scarfed-not butted into place. It also illustrates the need for water tight bulkheads in the amas. A good cruising set up has the ama divided into 3 chambers. I heard of another Cross filling and rolling because like this one the ventilation holes from ama to wing deck to main hull weren't closed for passage making when the ama hatch came loose in a storm. Most of these things are preparation and operation errors such as cutting the line to a floating multihull. Any Coasty will tell you it is easier to spot something large and with added flotation he wouldn't have needed the liferaft when inverted. Planning a capsize chamber in such a boat is part of being prepared. Jim Brown's "Case for the Cruising Trimaran" available from Outrig.org covers these areas well.

[nimblemotors]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

Here's a big one. It looks like it might be one of those clinker built cats. I forget the name of the builder of those.
76' Catamaran Spirit of St. Christopher

Having started and titled the thread, have you now changed it?
Neither cheap nor a project.

Nice boat.