Question from a monohuller: 28 ft tri offshore?

[mr-canada]

Im a monohuller and usually linger on that side of the board. I had an old buddy notice that i picked up a sailboat and he showed me pictures of his "new to him" trimaran. He has hopes of fixing it up and sailing down the west coast to south america and out to hawaii in it with his whole family, wife and two kids.

I figure id ask the multihullers if hes insane. First of all the boat looks like a hulk, from the pictures it looks like its been stripped and is possibly homemade. The thing actually looks like a monohull that had its keel removed with pontoons added later, but im sure it was given birth as a tri.

Talking with him was difficult, someone somewhere in person or on the internet has turned him into a trimaran zealot. He figured the problem with keelboats is that they sink - he figures his boat is unsinkable. I understand the speed boost of a multihull, thats a well known fact given the lighter weight and lack of ballast below the waterline.

I was trying to suggest to him that doing daysailing races on a calm bay and travelling out into open water unprotected are entirely different things and thay he might chew a bit more slowly and do some coastal cruising first because he could get into serious trouble. Where i sail, not far from where hes sailed, 25+ kt winds are a daily occurrence, ive been in gusts of 50 and it aint pretty. For the record, im no master sailor either, ive only got a year under my belt.

Theres no talking to him about this so regardless of what you say in reply im not going to bother. What scares me the most is he figures his boat is unsinkable and that hed have no problem reducing sail in a storm. But a 28 footer in a storm offshore as far as i know wouldnt be hard to flip in a big swell if a sharp wave hit it off the beam, theres not much weight there to keep it upright. In effect his family terrified inside the cabin would be the main ballast keeping the boat upright.

I know my 26 footer could in the right hands do blue water, ive read accounts of people whove done it but they were very exoerienced.

As far as i know hes never sailed his own boat, other than moving it so he could leave it on the hook to work on it, probably under motor power. Otherwise hes raced in fair winds on other peoples boats.

I think hes going to get himself and his family killed, and if they survive his wife is probably going to disembark at the first port and leave him and his boat behind taking the kids with her. Most especially with him heading out beleiving that the boat is unsinkable. There was a famous boat that was unsinkable...