Quote:
Originally Posted by JayErabu
I have found an inexpensive Jim Brown trimaran about 40ft wondering how that’s would stack up against a cat as far as living space goes |
I would not suggest investing your time and $ in a polyester resin &
plywood Searunner (or other polyester&ply multihull). If built with
epoxy & ply, certainly worth a look. Jim Brown will convince you to love a
Searunner, just read his book "the Case for the Cruising trimaran" ..it is a fun read. The ones that were well built AND maintained over the years are still great cruising or
liveaboard boats, and have plenty of space. Not everyone likes the 2
cabin layout, but most can appreciate the huge
center cockpit.
Some general
advice... as it's easy to get in over your
head on these projects. 40ft of
boat is a lot of $ and time, no matter what. A 40ft
multihull has a huge amount of surface area, and a ton of
hardware (every piece of
hardware, bolt, etc in the
deck is an opportunity for
water intrusion/rot). It will take 2-10 times as much time, and 2-10 times as much
money as your initial estimate. If you find a soft spot or damage, again, the actual area you need to cut out & repair/replace will be 2-10 times as large as your initial impression. This assuming you are relatively experienced to start out.
In order to succeed with one of these "cheap" projects on a minimal
budget, in the 5k
price range you mention, you need to be truly hard working, resourceful at finding 2nd hand materials &
gear, with many good friends willing to
work long hours for free, and have a boat yard/place to
work on/store the boat for free or
cheap. In the end, in most of these cases, even if your time is worth nothing, you would be better off working and saving up
money and
buying a boat for more $ that already has most of what you want.
As for the
hurricane damaged cats, it's my impression the reasonably good ones were snapped up long ago... many for much more than they were worth. It's likely you will see some "failed dreams" come back on the market, from those who bought them, but had no idea about the realities of rebuilding a boat in that part of the world. But the best deals in those situations are found on the ground, by walking around the boat yards and getting lucky, not necessarily posted on the
internet.
As is often repeated, an experienced
marine surveyor (familiar with the construction method of the boat in question AND multihulls)...although it initially seems expensive & silly for a
cheap boat, is almost always worth it.
The tri vs cat thing has been discussed plenty. The greater payload & typically higher resale value of a comparable cat will sway most people in that direction. That doesn't mean tri's are not good boats with enough space to
live aboard, but even though they have lots of volume, you MUST keep the tri light. Think backpacker/minimalist mentality.
Cross or Horstman trimarans could be also worth a look if you want lots of living space, and you're not as concerned with sailing performance.
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