Older Horstman Trimaran

[Jon Hacking]

We loved our Piver AA 40 (the design Piver gave out only to bonafide boat yards when he started getting a bad name from home-builders producing junk). Cruised her 7 years in the Carib in the 80s, then sold her in San Diego in '88. Now 43 years old, Oriental Lady is still sailing in San Francisco Bay, having sailed there the long way from Japan.

Lady was only 5 tons & would sail rings around Ocelot in light airs. She crossed several oceans, sailed up the Red Sea without an engine, & weathered several cyclones. But we were reefing at 15 & sweating at 25. We now prefer the strength & stability of a stronger multihull.

FWIW, Mechanically, I also prefer tris, but they're virtually ALL home-built, & I don't feel I'm a good enough surveyor to spot where a home-builder has cut corners, despite being an Engineer & having cruised multihulls for 16 years now. We looked at a HUGE Hostman in Seattle before we bought Ocelot. Cheap & spacious, but boxy & too many unknowns.

[rberrey]

I,m starting a build on a tristar 31, I do know of a tristar 36 lw bows for sale, email me for his email if interested. rick

[DaveOnCudjoe]

Rick,
I commend you on your choice of designs, the Tristars have long been my favorite. I nearly bought Tortuga Too. That 36 is one of the more recent designs and has the benefit of a long and rich history. My F-31 will sail circles around any Tristar but after 1 or 2 days I'm worn out and a nervous wreck. Enjoy the shallow draft, decent speed, roomy cabin, stable ride and wonderful performance. Dave

[fyodor1564]

Dave - Wow, Tortuga Too, that really is a boat full of sailing history. Definitely would've made a great yarn to share over sundowners. If i may ask, how long ago, where and how much were they asking at the time? I'm yet to hitch a ride on a corsair but have had the pleasure of experiencing one of the farrier tris. I say experience cause everyone should have the opportunity to consistently sail along at 18 knots. I dont think i stopped smiling for about a week!

[DaveOnCudjoe]

Fyodor,
In 1996 Tortuga Too was in a boatyard in Brunswick Ga and advertised for sale in Multihulls Magazine. Her owner had cruised her extensively in the Carib. and age had forced him ashore. She had set on the hook long enough to foul the bottom and was pulled and ashore with little to no care taken. $65,000 was the price and since she was no where near ready to go in the water for a test sail or equiptment check I reluctantly passed. She was eventually donated to a group doing work in Haiti. She was a grand lady and the felling being aboard was one I will not soon forget. She had been repowered with an engine that I think was too large and too heavy.
The Corsairs are in fact a thrill to sail and ride but the loads at those speeds are tremendous and take a toll on your psyci. I try to stay below 16-17 knots since above those speeds she gets pretty wet. The main hull of a Horstman has about a 8.5/1 fineness ratio where my F-31 ia about 11/1. That allows the Tristar to carry a good load but prevents them from planing and achieving the greater speeds. After a while though the speed thrill is over....well, maybe not! Dave

[rberrey]

Dave the 36 was what I wanted but most people want a boat one size bigger than they need,can afford , or have time to build. The 27'9" was just right and maybe a better boat than the 31 when it comes to a weekend sail or island hopping, better numbers. Everyone has a dream to sail across a sea, the 31 has the payload to do it if your brave enough to do it in a 31' boat. I may never sail across a sea, but with the 31 the dream can always come true. rick

[PhantomBoatwork]

I have owned a Searunner 25, 31 and am finishing up a constant Camber 44 center cockpit. I'm also a huge fan of Jim Brown and Marples trimarans. My brother in law bought a half finished Horstman tri and attempted to finish is, but never did. The interior volume was HUGE, but poorly laid out. Another couple was doing a dry dock/refit in the space next to my 31 Searunner on a Horstman, 31 if memory serves, and the accomodations and interior space were FAB-U-LOUS. Down side? They were terrified to take it off shore. It had huge windage, wouldn't sail to weather and sailed like a football. Since they were looking only for short,protected day sails, that suited them.
My opinion, for what it's worth, is the Horstman designs take the deck and accomodation all the way to the floats which makes them difficult to sail at best. Also, the cockpits seem to be kind of tacked on and not all that well laid out. We liked the layout on the Searunner 31 we had that we found the Marples 44 design that had the exact layout. The centerboard trunk in the center makes a great place for engine/tankage and a first rate center cockpit. Having divided cabins also helps keep the ankle biters forward in their own cabin and gives much more privacy aft for the big people. And the Searunner/ Constant Camber designs are know for ease of handling and very good/ great sailing performance. Horstman- not really sure. FWIW

[rberrey]

Searunners are very fine boats , in doing my research I found searunner owners singing their praises, I also found them talking bad about tristars. What I noticed was none of the people downing the ugly tristars had sailed on one,then I came across searunner owners who had sailed on them . I picked a Horstman design based on a large part on what those searunner owners had to say about them. It was a tristar that sailed around the world, established the parachute tech in rough weather. It was a tristar 31 that the famous sailor Steave James sailed all over the world in and road out hurricane Hugo in the Caribbean in ,and said (glad his tri was a Horstman).There are Horstmans sailing around in the north sea .Searunners are fine cruisers, Horstmans cross seas and sail all types of water around the world, there is no question of their sailing performance. rick

[fyodor1564]

Am i wrong in thinking that the smaller Horstman designs come up on the market far less then the other designs? I in no way mean for that to sound like i'm trashing any of the other designs but it does seem that there are always a plethora of searunners up for sale. Perhaps they were built in larger numbers?

[rberrey]

You find very few up for sale, or very few on the net. There is a web site with a 27'9" named Quility Time, a 24' on utube. I saw one go up the Mobile river about 5 mo,s ago with a modified top that looked sharp , it came back down a few weeks ago with a hard top and windsheild, it wont sail well with thoses mods. I will build mine as designed , but with lighter stiffer glass, maybe a 200lb weight saveings overall. rick

[thomwessels]

I agree with FredMG about Horstman trimarans. I spent hours with Norm Cross in his living room before deciding on a Horstman tri.
I have owned three TriStars and will not sail any other design. They are great sailing vessels. I single-handed from HI to the states and would not have been comfortable on any other vessel, tri, cat or monohull. Horstman got it right on all the important points.
Thom
30' TriStar 'Small Tri'
41' TriStar Triumph'
39' TriStar 'Crossroads'

[rberrey]

Thomwessels, was your "small tri" scaled from the 27'9" ,31' or was it as designed at 30'? I have all my material bought for my tristar 31 build and soon will have the time to build it. Fred has given me alot of advice but I have had no contact with anyone who has sailed a 31' tristar.I bought 6 sheets of a heaver foam to beef up some areas, so I will have extra sheets of foam and have been toying with idea of scaling up 3% to 5%. I would be greatfull for any advice you can give me . Thanks, Rick

[thomwessels]

Re: trimarans, I have owned 3 Horstman TriStar designs (30', 41' and my present, a 39'), and would not own or sail any other design (catamaran or trimaran).

If you can get ahold of a SAIL Magazine of January 2010, I ran an article on the differences between tris, cats and monohulls I am biased toward Horstman for good reasons, as follow.

I looked into Norm Cross designs, even sat with Norm in his living room for a couple hours in the early 80's, then decided on Ed Horstman's (EARLY) designs. He really got it right. Unfortunately, Ed 'bowed' to customer pressure, pardon the pun... and raised his bows and finally went to a blunt-nose bow as an option. His early design had a very smooth aerodynamic shape across the forward deck to assist in tacking. Add to that a flat, strong deck (no cabin upticks that add weak, hard spots = not as strong)... close (main hull) rigged shrouds for ease of sail adjusting from close-hauled to broad reaches... lots of visual room inside (visual only, don't load it all up)... walk-in amas with outside access 38' and up... walk-through main bulkhead, no crouching every time you go forward and last but actually the main reason I chose Ed's designs over Norm's = no keel. TriStars use dagger boards that are adjustable and can be easily raised for less drag when off the wind.

I think keels are fine...on keel boats.

BTW: to address those that say these are slow, In my 30', I've surfed for hours between Morrow Bay and Point Conception at up to 22 knots (2 crew as witnesses) This kind of sailing is scary and NOT fun. On my 41' I had Bob Hanel of Double Bullet fame aboard and he got it on a broad reach to a steady 17 knots coming into San Carlos, Mexico. Also a little scary.

I don't sail like this normally... but it was Bob Hanel...

I have never missed a tack that I was focussing upon (though I have screwed up a few). One thing that helps is I have led all jib sheets to one side. These things are 20 some feet wide after all!

One more comment to address those that think because the Horstman is bigger and bulkier looking than, say, Marples or Brown etal, remember that water is about 800 times denser than air...thus any increased windage of the Horstman is less consequential than one first perceives.

That said, TriStars are meant to be cruisers. They are very well designed for this.

There is virtually no 'rocker' in the keel shape and the bows are designed to have a fine entry that flares out quickly when pressed down into the water. This keeps one from 'tripping when pushing hard downwind.

I took my 41' on a 3 year mostly solo cruise and at the conclusion, single-handed from Honolulu to the States. This is a well found design that I've trusted with my life!

Cheers,

Thom

[thomwessels]

RBERREY, my 30' was based on the 27'9, widened slightly and of course stretched a bit to 30' It was very well built too small for long distance cruising IMHO. It is shown in Ed's Trimaran Construction book. It's the one being craned over the house. (Ed thanks Bob Small in the book for his very complete survey form).

The 41' was perfect, though I would take my 39' anywhere as well. Hope that helps.

SMALL TRI, the 30', went to Grand Cayman in 1987 or so and I would very much love to get ahold of the boat's owner!
Thom

[thomwessels]

[QUOTE]: On my 41' I had Bob Hanel of Double Bullet fame aboard and he got it on a broad reach to a steady 17 knots coming into San Carlos, Mexico

OOOPS, meant Cabo San Lucas (in the 'interest of exactitude'...)