Trimaran - Especially Searunner - Owners

[Rann]

Jack,

Your chainplates look identical to mine. I will look on the plans page John Marples sent me and see if the dimensions you quoted are the same. Because my rig is still standing, I don't have those plates with me here at home in Oregon. But since I will replace them anyway, I might as well increase the overall width to accomodate the deadeyes. That way I will have the choice of using my turnbuckles for now and adding the deadeyes later. Getting the holes drilled in the right place will be necessary as well.

Your peeling paint on the cabin interior overhead looks like old oil-based enamel. That is the problem with oil-based paints. If anyone has any successful experience using a quality acrylic/latex type paint that lasts and gives a fine finish, I would like to hear about it. Water cleanup and no dangerous fumes are both big plusses.

You might try using a paint scraper to remove the loose and cracked paint. I did that on ETAK back in 1990 the first time I did the overhead and I got much of the old stuff off without sanding nearly as much as would have been the case without the scrapers. They will dig in and gouge the wood if you aren't really careful, and they must be kept very sharp to do their job well. Now I am faced with the same job again some 18 years later. Too bad we can't just find a suitable material to glue on up there that would last and look good. Roy said in a prevous post he was paying the price for putting some wallpaper type material on a long time back.

Keep up the good work on CORAZON. Seeing your progress will keep me motivated.

Rann

[Rann]

Randy,

Welcome to the forum! Which Searunner 31 did you own?

I met a builder of a CC 35 recently (who no longer has the boat) who liked his a lot. I saw one being made in Southern California many years ago. I got to go aboard the unfinished vessel one afternoon a year or so before he and his wife launched it. However, I have never sailed aboard one so I can't compare any of them to the Searunners. They certainly look as if they would be fast.

Rann

[Roy M]

Jmolan, no worries about the chainplates. Simply bolt on a custom plate that provides enough space for the fittings. Everything is in shear, and the size of the bolts you will be using is going to give them enormous shear strength.

As for the oil vs. acrylic debate, my own experience has been that Brightside, an oil base, has a harder surface due to the polyurethane solids that float to the top as the vehicle evaporates. This provides a tougher, more abrasion-proof surface than the acrylic does. Boats get dirty and occasionally get scrubbed down to remove the cooking oils, and other contaminants in the air. Acrylics didn't work as well for me, becoming duller quicker, then picking up stains more readily. But then, they dry quicker and are pretty easy to clean up the paint mess. I just hate painting, so I have tended to choose the more durable over the years. Still, this isn't a burning issue, as far as I'm concerned. I must like the paint fumes.

[Randy]

Rann,

Zaida was it's name, sail # 37. It was built in '75 in SantaCruz. There was a big crush of them being built at the time including Jim Brown's own. John Vissat and Gary Seabrook bought it at about the 90% completion stage from a surfboard builder. The lines and fairing are really clean but it was done in polyester and where the glass was thin there was maintenance that was needed.
So John & Gary finished it and sailed down the coast to Baja, Marquesas and Tahiti, then came up to Hawaii around '78. I'd moved out to Maui in '79 - got into sailing and bought plans for the 31, bought lumber, found out that they wanted to sell their's and ended up buying it.
Hawaii is a great place to sail, a lot of variety in conditions. There's a few sailing stories about that. But after bringing it back to West coast and getting married, I sold it in '95 to a guy from Mexico. He had a place in La Paz and was going to moor it there. It paid for my kitchen remodel, but now I'm really missing the ocean now that my youngest is in college.
I never thought it would be so difficult to coordinate marriage, working towards retirement security and getting a good boat back. It seems to me that the constant camber series offers a stronger, lighter hull; similar interior/exterior. Marples has switched to recommending a spreaderless rig which I'm not sold on. Since I haven't seen many around, I've felt the solution was build one (CC35). I liked the Searunner 34 too. What I wanted to see in improvements over the 31 was a little more interior room & more realistic engine space. I had thought that one of the biggest tech advancements was in reliable watermaking and having space & electrical generating capacity for that would improve long distance cruising. Speaking of longdistance cruising, when I was in the Navy in the early '80's I saw Searunners thoughout Asia and even in Kenya.

Randy

[Jmolan]

Considered a classic book and has been out of print for some time. I see one for sale on EBAY. ( I am not bidding on it, I already have a few)


The Cruising Trimaran - Rare Jim Brown book 1979 SEE! - eBay (item 330282922878 end time Nov-07-08 08:32:46 PST)

[Jimske]

Great book! It took me awhile to find it. I also have the original marketing manuals that Jim wrote for the Searunners - plans, too. Of course they will stay with the boat and new owner. See my Searunner for sale on this forum's classified.

Jim

[Maren]

Originally Posted by Roy M

Maren, Steve, et al,

Much as I'd like to send some pictures, now is not a good time. The sheer chaos and magnitude of the piles of tools, boat gear, books and other bulky things strewn about would be too embarrassing (and might call for investigation). All of this caused by too many simultaneous projects, each proceeding at their own pace. Still, I'm a little excited by how they are turning out. So, patience, please. My ego is too powerful to keep some of these things bottled up too long. Especially when things work well. More later (and I'll attempt to finish somethings and clear up some small areas for a photo op.

So, umm ... woulld now be a good time to ask for a few photos?

[Roy M]

Soon. I'm working seven days a week right now, trying to get a cat ready to go cruising. Then, I'm taking a break to work on my own boat.
But, thanks for asking. I won't forget you.

[Rann]

Jack,

Thanks for those pictures and the ruler by the chainplates. I am still here in Oregon working on house projects but longing to be further south laboring on ETAK.

I just read your post of 11-11-08 elsewhere on this forum about synthetic rigging. How is your progress going to date? Do you have the mast vertical again with the Dynex Dux? We all would like some details on your current status.

How about your viewpoint on some of GMacs comments in that discussion of a no-warning failure in 25 knots of wind on a boat he was familiar with? Are there any specifics on that rig failure, synthetic brand, rope size, etc.?

Thanks,

Rann

[Maren]

Originally Posted by Steve Rust

There is a Searunner 34 listed on E-Bay. Has a rotating wing mast. Located in Vero beach FL.

Steve, thanks for the head’s up. Let's see if this is of any interest:

The boat was recently overhauled in preparation for a study on counteracting the effects of global warming using the Twomey effect. If I grasp it correctly, the idea is that automated remote boats could drag turbines which would generate electricity to spin two Flettner rotors and atomize carefully filtered water into the atmosphere. Flettner rotors were selected because they are easier for a computer to control than sails, use much less power than an engine, and have a self reefing effect at high wind speeds. The result would be not more clouds but whiter clouds. The results were published by the Royal Society, the abstract and a link to the PDF of the study can be found here.

John Marples was apparently flown out from CA to oversee the repairs to the existing structure (reglassing, etc) and changes to the propulsion system. This is what the whole thing looked like this. The conversion of the boat, renamed Cloudia, was funded in part by the Discovery Channel shown on part of an episode of Project Earth.

[Jmolan]

Originally Posted by Rann

Jack,

Thanks for those pictures and the ruler by the chainplates. I am still here in Oregon working on house projects but longing to be further south laboring on ETAK.

I just read your post of 11-11-08 elsewhere on this forum about synthetic rigging. How is your progress going to date? Do you have the mast vertical again with the Dynex Dux? We all would like some details on your current status.

How about your viewpoint on some of GMacs comments in that discussion of a no-warning failure in 25 knots of wind on a boat he was familiar with? Are there any specifics on that rig failure, synthetic brand, rope size, etc.?

Thanks,

Rann

Rann: I have thought about updates lately but I have been too exhausted at night...:-)

It took me 11 days to sand and prep and fill and sand and prime and sand and putty and prime and sand and......well you get the idea. This was for the inside of the 8 windows. They came out real nice. Much thanks to Roy for the guidance. I installed all 7 fixed ports and have yet to mount the aft opening window as I want a smaller hinge set up. I used M two sided foam tape. The same stuff they use to hold up windows in buildings. Along with a good sealant. They look nice and are sure an improvement.

I am becoming more and more aware of mu penetrations through the fiberglass membrane and would like to keep them to a minimum. This is why I am waiting to find a set of hinges that will not require too many screws.

I next tackled The bottom paint situation.......yikes. I discovered 6 old layers of paint and figured it was a good time to remove them all and start over with a hard ablative that I could just power wash off next time if I needed to....well it turns out the second to the last layer is a very soft (and sometimes very thick) soft copper paint. If you hit this stuff for more than one pass you gum up your disk in a hurry. 80 grit was not going to do it. So I switch to 36 grit. This can be a delicate operation at best..:-)

To compensate for the often deep grooves left by the 36 grit I found a way to not have to go back and keep sanding on the fiberglass. I did not want to weaken it and well....any how. The original goal was a smooth bottom. I used Epoxy with the 407 west system filler and squeegeed on a very thin layer over this. It filled in all the grooves nicely, and I can go back with a vibrator sanded and 80 grit or so and be done with it. Or so I think, perhaps Roy or some one else has another idea. I am learning that bottom jobs are like anchors. A lot of opinions and many varied. I am very close to scraping off the last of the old six coats and should rap this job up by this week some time. In one photo here you can see the treated ama (with the thin epoxy) and the raw main hull. I have had a few spots where I had to sand out some of the glass and fill and reglass.....

John Franta was here last weekend. He is my friend from Colligo Marine. He looked at the distributors on my chain plates and told me these were originals and that the new models are a bit deeper in the groove. So I will be getting those soon to start the rigging job. I am looking fwd. to rigging and mounting the winches and deck hardware after all this last 3 weeks of sanding...:-)

Oh and the rudder is all but done for the drilling of the hardware. I mounted a small zinc on the new trim tab.

Rann I have no idea what happened to the race boat that the rig failed. I have seen Dux fail. It does not recoil like wire or regular rope. I have a hard time thinking a searunner cutter rig with so many wires would have anything close to this. I would like to see the details on the failure, but like I said I have been pretty tired at night......

Oh yea Rann: Look at the one photo of the stern. Do you see another, lower waterline? I was wondering if you had a drawing of the designed waterline? Is it above below or on the chine in the stern?

Also I found a very interesting read on making compsit carbon tubes.

http://www.epoxyworks.com/ Looks like thre is a lot of intesting stuff in this online magazine.

Well...thats it from here right now. Today is a day off, maybe two more days of sanding then I can join the rest of the world...:-)

[Jmolan]

Originally Posted by Maren

Steve, thanks for the head’s up. Let's see if this is of any interest:

The boat was recently overhauled in preparation for a study on counteracting the effects of global warming using the Twomey effect. If I grasp it correctly, the idea is that automated remote boats could drag turbines which would generate electricity to spin two Flettner rotors and atomize carefully filtered water into the atmosphere. Flettner rotors were selected because they are easier for a computer to control than sails, use much less power than an engine, and have a self reefing effect at high wind speeds. The result would be not more clouds but whiter clouds. The results were published by the Royal Society, the abstract and a link to the PDF of the study can be found here.

John Marples was apparently flown out from CA to oversee the repairs to the existing structure (reglassing, etc) and changes to the propulsion system. This is what the whole thing looked like this. The conversion of the boat, renamed Cloudia, was funded in part by the Discovery Channel shown on part of an episode of Project Earth.

Maren, that is an amazing find you got there. I was unable to make any of the last links work. Do you have any idea what happened to the boat?

[Jmolan]

Rann: John saw a new Farrier F 32-xa or some number :-) I think it is on the F-boat website....it was at the Annapolis boat show. It was built by Lombardi, a guy who is a top drawer builder in Virginia. Aparently the boat is foam and carbon. Just beautiful workmanship as in the inside of the ama's are nicely finished. Anyhow you can have one too for $400k ...They used John's fittings and Dux. I figure they could put gold up if it was any better....any how. That's about all I know so far.....

[Rann]

Jack,

Yikes!! I am sure I will have to go through the very process on ETAK you are doing currently on CORAZON. The three bottoms are in need of the same work, and the interior painting is about where you were a few weeks back. And here I sit in Oregon working on a retaining wall and cedar fence. I would much rather be ripping that Western Red Cedar into strips for a beautiful kayak.

How much will your new chainplates cost and how will the be grooved? Will you have them made in 1/4" thickness for the primaries (as Marples suggested to me)?

I don't have a full set of plans. However, the Cutter Sail Plan page (Plan I) shows the DWL clearly and it appears to be right at the bottom of the transom. If you have your copy of the construction manual with you or Brown's book, you can see the DWL in the side-view drawings on a much reduced scale but still visible clearly at the very bottom of the transom where it meets the bottom plank. Let me know if you need a copy of a drawing from either the book or the construction manual.

Tell me how I attach a picture as you have done, and I can add a few shots of work-in-progress (when I was last down south) on ETAK. I haven't explored enough on this forum to figure how to attach pictures (duh!).

I can't wait to don the protective suit and grind away as you are doing on the bottom! But once it is done, it will be a day of dancing!

The Dux on the F-32 is a good omen. I wonder if Mike Lenemen of Multimarine still stands by his advice of only using synthetic on rotating rigs? He is one of the listed distributors and consultants of John's website. Yours and others use for a non-rotating rig will be good testimony to its efficacy.

Thanks for the reply. I know how tough it can be, daylight to dark, sanding, grinding, filling, sanding again, ad infinitum.

I had hoped to have made a sample carbon stanchion by now, but it will have to wait.

Greetings to Joann, and keep up the fine work,

Rann

[Maren]

Originally Posted by Jmolan

Maren, that is an amazing find you got there. I was unable to make any of the last links work. Do you have any idea what happened to the boat?

Actually, it was Steve Rust’s find, I just followed up. Anyway, I checked the links; I messed up the second to last link. The last link was expired by Discovery. It seems they only keep it up for a few months. The corrected version should read as:

This is what the whole thing looked like this. The conversion of the boat, renamed Cloudia, was funded in part by the Discovery Channel shown on part of an episode of Project Earth.

As for what happened to it, it was bought by a lady. Unfortunately, she herself in the eye while cutting a rope so it was put back on the market.

Fortunately for me though, I had my darling call at the time right about that same time. So, we now own it. I am hoping the second time is the charm as the other Searunner did not turn out so well. I cut it into three parts and shipped it cross country. The main hull was essentially stolen and the shipper now demands an additional 80% over his quoted fee. That’s on top of the additional $500 in crane operator fees I ended up with. Of course, his threats to beat both of us up if we didn’t meet his demands were free.

And who said pirates were only off the Horn of Africa and Straits of Malacca?