Trimaran - Especially Searunner - Owners

[Mark Johnson]

All very impressive Roy!

At first I wondered why you didn't just use the old Searunner PVC pipe on a wire roller, like we did, but now I see that you intend to launch and retrieve your dink with the engine already on it. For this largish sized dink and attached OB motor, the wire/roller is probably not sufficiently strong...

You have come up with a number of brilliant innovations here, that are both strong and very light weight. It should serve you well indeed!

For you other cruisers...
I don't think this applies to those of us with smaller Searunners, but for the 40'er, it makes a lot of sense, especially for very skilled builder/cruisers north of 60!

One thing that I like about cruising cats over tris, is their dinghy in davits. We buddy boated with our friends with such a boat, and launching their fully ready to go dink was a one minute affair. Roy, you have come up with such a quick & low stress solution. It may be a few minutes vs their one minute, but that is a lot better than our 30 minutes to launch the dink, blow it up the rest of the way, and mount the motor and all accessories. This lengthy set up is why we sometime make protected short passages with the dinghy strung up high along side. It is damned easy to retrieve and launch from here, but lacks seaworthiness.

If we are making a protected day hop in 3 to 4' waves, and they get up to 5 or 6' waves, we have a serious problem, and I might regret having it out there so vulnerable. I might even have change tack, although I have been lucky so far. I have never had other than a few wave slaps, but I have cursed myself for getting into this situation.
The safest thing is to stow it on deck for sure.

Our simple solution for deck storage is the old PVC pipe on a very tight wire, with a plastic bearing epoxied in the middle. It then rolls VERY easily. The outside of the pipe got one of those 1/2" thick split foam cylinders for insulating pipes (Lowes), and this in turn was covered with a Sunbrella cover made by Mariam. The turnbuckle on the end and nicro/press on the other end, also got canvass covers... as did the top of the cradle, (over similar split foam cylinders... for padding).
The aft edge of the wing deck got a rounded "L" rubbing strake, that I made of Starboard.

The deflated or half deflated dinghy goes from the roller, over the plastic rubbing strake, and into the padded cradle, without touching the painted surfaces of the boat itself. The canvass covered parts are 18 years old now, and still in good shape!

For you guys with smaller boats and smaller dinks like us, who must suffer through the launch and then mount the OB motor routine, this simple roller on a wire may be your best solution.

For larger boats that want to launch their dink WITH the motor mounted, you can thank Roy for doing the engineering. This is half the work.

The roller on a wire, btw... was not my idea. It goes back to "The Case For the Cruising Trimaran", by Jim Brown. I only came up with the canvass covered insulation tubes, for padding, and these other finer touches.

[Mark Johnson]

DODGERS and DINGHIES REVISITED:

One thing I should point out about my hard dodger, is that while describing it adnauseum on CF, I was only referring to it in concept. I REALLY wanted mine to accentuate the lines of the boat, so opted for a cored top and front that were both french curves with VERY rounded corners and edges. This sexy shape along with the little details tripled the time required to build it!

It took over 1,000 hours to build, so I have never suggested that anyone else build one this way. It was the right thing "for me" then, because it mattered so much and I was a much younger man. It was actually just a filler project for years, which give me a project to shift to while some epoxy on the hull cured. Also... I had no idea it would be so much work, until I was committed.

A similarly light weight and well ventilated version could be built with simple arcs vs french curves, with ribs under thin ply vs foam core, and small radii vs 6" ones. This change alone might be a small fraction of the work. It could also be flat but triple faceted on the front if you like, with the center being a clear drop down hatch for ventilation. OR... The top might extend 4" beyond the sides and top, to avoid those time consuming radii. There are so many easier ways to get the utility of a hard dodger in a more reasonable length of time.

I like Ross's solution a lot. It may apply more to his cooler climate, but seems to serve his purpose very well. "Goodonya mate"...


DINGHY CHOICES:
There is no one "best type"...
IF you like to row and your cruising destinations are going to mostly be in very remote areas where you beach it on rocks and rubble regularly, and/or theft by native kids is an issue and there is often nothing to lock it to, you might want an expendable/easily repairable homemade hard dinghy. I built a Danny Green "Two Bits" once, in just a couple of weeks!
If you build yours, I would suggest that you WEST the inside and glass the outside lightly, EXCEPT the rub rail and bottom. These areas need to be several layers thick. You would also want it light weight and well built, but cosmetically appearing rough as a cob. Paint it REALLY sloppy with a barn brush in garish colors, and name it "Bud Tugly" or the like. You need holes in the oars too, for a long locking cable to run through.

The thing about such a dinghy, is that it super light, motors with a 2hp, and rows well... but is also very TIPPY! This makes it hard to board, and REALLY a poor choice if you spend a lot of time free diving from it as we do.

We started out wanting a hard dinghy, and set out to solve ALL of their issues, except being cheep/expendable, and quick to build.

Some dear boatbuilder friends had access to a Boston Whaler 9'er mold. It was an obsolete size, so we had permission from BW to pop off a couple for ourselves. Don & Tamar made theirs first, and we built ours years later with their occasional suggestions.
It was all foam core so about half the weight of the factory version. We had a full flotation sub floor to make it self bailing, and a bow deck in which we could hide our fuel tank and life jackets, radio, flares, and such. This bow deck along with the boat's stability made it easy to board from the front when swimming or diving, and also from dinghy docks. The tough bottom was coated thick with a copper loaded gellcoat, it rowed well, and with a 9hp it motored like a rocket, easily planeing with two of us and several jugs of water or fuel. It also just fit (upside down), in the space on deck between the cabin side and lifelines,

It was the cat's meow. Thing is, it took about 1,500 hours to build! (another several year filler job) Our first Caribbean and Bahama cruises were with this dink, and we loved it until we came off plane and it got REALLY wet.

Later, Mariam hurt her back, and since we had to store this puppy upside down on deck, we had a deal breaker. She could no longer help me turn it over to launch or stow for sea, so we sold it for $1,000.

The best hard "motoring" dinghy option imo, is probably a relatively stable/dry "Livingston" catamaran dinghy. My friends with the other homemade Whaler also sold theirs, and they opted for a Livingston.

WE switched to a single floor 9'6" AB "light" RIB. It has been 14 years now so it's covered with patches and rough as a cob, but still perfectly serviceable. We hope to get about 5 more, so a 20 year service life is reasonable IF you learn how to repair them. Any part can be easily removed with a heat gun... None of my patches have ever failed, and it doesn't leak at all.

This 1' wider boat is far more forgiving to hull bumps, VASTLY more stable than any hard dinghy... and really easy to board from the mothership, a dock, OR the water. It holds twice the payload too, at a similar speed, while being SUPER dry both on OR off plane. For our type of cruising I would never switch back to hard dinghies!

The caveats are that the initial investment is VERY high and they don't row worth a damn! So RIBs are only for folks with an OB motor in mind. We go as far as 10 miles from Delphys on snorkeling/diving or site seeing expeditions, and even 6' seas are not a problem. We would just come off plane and it would get us home more slowly, but still relatively dry at all times.

The seat and bow step we made of honeycomb core... We have canvass covers for the gas tank, anchor, life jackets, and pouches for flares and such. KEEPING ALL THIS STUFF COVERED AND OUT OF SIGHT is how you protect it and prevent theft. So far so good for us.

For leaving the boat onshore in high theft areas... We have an un-breakable ob motor lock (unless the transom is cut out), and carry a long locking cable. Back at Delphys in these areas, we hoist it along side every night.

Like I said... The decision gets complex, but for OUR type of cruising it is hard to beat a RIB. 99% of the cruisers out there seem to agree. Again, the uglier the better, so you might make some butt ugly dinghy chaps for it and/or keep it muddy.
Also... Never name your dink after the mother ship or you are advertising which boat out there is vacant, and re-paint the ob's cowling to some weird ugly color. It is a slight deterrent to theft of the motor.

[Roy M]

Mark's observations are spot on. Our mutual friends, Jeff and Jose (she pronounces it Jo-ZEH), have both a RIB with outboard and a wonderful rowing and sailing dink designed by Jay Kantola and built by Ken Rosenquist. I'm building mine this winter. Here are some pics:

[Cavalier MK2]

Just back from a month up and back to the Broughton Archipelago and the Queen Charlotte Straight area at the Northern end of Vancouver Island in BC.

While there are plenty of multihulls in the Gulf Islands we only saw one cat past the Straight of Georgia. Most of the boats, especially in the Broughton's don't sail. Probably because of rocks, reefs and deadlines which really made us unusual. Consequently many don't want to give right of way as they think you are motor sailing too. We sail everywhere we can except in calms so this really put us in the minority.

Lots of gales in the Johnstone Straight area as the summer high pulls the air in from the North West. For a week we never had reefs out of the main. Queen Charlotte Straight is pretty moist with lots of gray, mist and showers, a nice break from the heat and a contrast to the dry weather further North as well as South. We sailed everywhere with our old jib having forgotten the heavy furler (very missed) which meant not pushing too hard. We haven't replaced the spinnaker halyard block yet which meant no light sails which were also missed and meant not being able to push too hard. It was good to see the boat could still maintain a decent average without having to work at it, sounds like cruising.

For Roy- this year the Straight of What de Fucca? featured real can't see anything pea soup fog from the South end of Admiralty Inlet to near the San Juan's on the way up with chop, swell and no wind. Returning it featured slop and light to no wind despite the Canadian gale warnings. The American thunderstorm possibilities didn't appear either.

[Roy M]

Thanks for the update on local weather. I hope to be there in early July of next summer. I'll be visiting family near Anacortes, but will probably spend the rest of the summer in the islands nearby, taking out friends and family for week and weekend sails. The following year, should I still be kicking, I'd like to head higher and work my way south to Anacortes. Any advice you have will be greatly appreciated. Perhaps we can meet up somewhere and reduce our cargo space of local craft brewed industrial solvents and help reduce the invertebrate life and overpopulation of salmon.

Right now I'm busy getting the decks stripped of nonskid and resealing all the stanchions, cleats and other penetrating wounds to the deck. I've been watching the earth.nullschool.net app daily to get an idea of how the winds are working for the trip. It would be so cool to be able to access that info while at sea.

[Cavalier MK2]

Sounds good Roy, I'll bring my planning charts and notes and obscure brewed NW craft solvents..... 2 handy resources up here are the BC piloting books, 2 vol.s, and Northwest Boat Travel's guide.

The things that seem to keep sailors from going further are 1 the straights, but they are pretty easy to manage with the right window. We try to get a forecast with wind but many wait for calms and floor it. 2, the passes/rapids. These need to be traversed at slack as some currents run over 16 knots. Very easy to do but not for those with poor time skills.

Different routes suite different weather conditions and wind and current directions, after a while you get the hang of mixing channels, passes and straights to get where you want to go. Current is king up North so it is important to go with the flow, and watch out for wind against tide.

[Roy M]

Did I miss something??????

[Roy M]

Sorry Jeremy, no offense, your post just came out of nowhere. Why don't you list it in the electrical or mechanical forum, along with a website and some pictures? I considered electric motors for a time (Solomon, I believe) but for me the issue was the battery capacity required. For a multihull, which is seriously weight-limited (like an airplane), a large battery bank of the size needed for propulsion for over 24 hours would be unthinkable. Still, if Lithium batteries every make it to the marine market.......

[silviris]

Hey guys!

I've been out here in Texas for almost a year now and finally went sailing on one of the lakes out here. The guy has a Catalina 25 and it was awesome, but it left me wishing I had a trimaran. For whatever reason my heart will always be set on the Searunners. I hope to end up in a 34 or 40 eventually.

Right now, though, I'm hoping someone might know of a Searunner 25 for sale somewhere vaguely near the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I'm preferably looking for a project boat I can snatch up for really cheap and fix up as I have the money. Needs to have a trailer, obviously, to transport to the lake.

I'm not looking for anything immediately, but hopefully something I can pick up with next year's tax return. If anyone knows anything, I'd appreciate a PM.

Thanks guys!

[trisailer]

I have a few Searunner 31 sails for free.

I know there are a couple of jibs and a main sail.
Do not remember what all for sure.
These will need washed and will still have stains, but still usable.
Contact Bob 608 721-4509 Gays Mills ,Wisconsin

[freelance 83]

Hello trihulls,

I have a 50' norman cross. Just started to sail her. It just won't come about when tacking. Is it because of the lack of keel??? it is a very heavy boat. Rudder to small?? Had a 35" pivor, it did have the small fins on the amas. in heavy wind it was difficult. So this boat is a pig getting up wind.
Any suggestions???

james

[Cavalier MK2]

It is supposed to have a non ballasted keel. Plans can be obtained from Jeff Turner at Cross Multihulls. You didn't mention the rig but most that size are ketch rigged. Back the jib if you have to but first lighten ship and clean the bottoms. If you really don't have the keel you'll need one or a daggerboard. The big Cross tris are more stately than speedy but they do sail alright if built to plan. Lightening up is important to performance.

[Roy M]

Ditto, Cavalier MK2. Where is your boat located, freelance 83?

[freelance 83]

yes, it dose have a flat bottom keel. draft about 6'. it is a bit to the hard I guess you could say for the bottom. I'm here in long beach area CA. Not a lot of places around here to haul her out. 26' beam. A heavy Perkins 4.236. And yes full of Fuel. the previous owner filled her up for some reason. If I was crossing the pacific maybe I would do that! So I'm carrying around, I don't 150 gallons I think. The water tank is in the keel if you know this size, would that help to fill that. And some how get the fuel out??

[freelance 83]

I see your down in San Diego Roy M. my boat was built down there South bay multihulls I believe. Gone now.