Trimaran - Especially Searunner - Owners

[Mark Johnson]

Slowbat...

Nice looking boat Dan, and REALLY LIGHT! Bet she is a blast to sail on a protected water daysail, while "pushing the envelope". The smaller boats have so much more of a sensation of speed!

Enjoy the Regatta, wish I could be there...
M.

[rossad]

Excellent information here. Much appreciated.
What is the method to know what kind of window material you actually have
How can you tell the difference.
Ross

[Sea Otter Jim]

Here is the SKY BLOTTER

[sea dragon]

Originally Posted by Sea Otter Jim

Here is the SKY BLOTTER

That is a beautiful thing!

[Mark Johnson]

Originally Posted by rossad

Excellent information here. Much appreciated.
What is the method to know what kind of window material you actually have
How can you tell the difference.
Ross

Hi Rossad,
Glad to help...
It is easy to sort of guess, then I'll tell you how to know... Tinted Lexan gets quite chalky after 10 years (on the surface only), but "can" be polished back out as shown. Plexiglas on the other hand, is less prone to a chalky surface after 10 years, but develops crazes (very squiggly little cracks) deep into the plastic, that is too deep to polish out. If you look from an angle, you can determine if they are surface crazes or most of the way through...

So, after 10 years, UV damaged 1/4" Plexiglas should be replaced, for strength reasons as well as clarity reasons, (as Roy does), OR, if it is Lexan, after 10 years, doing one BIG polish to refurbish the surface, (as I did), followed by a very light polish at the beginning of each season, (purely for clarity reasons), will maintain "about" 90% clarity, for decades, with no strength risks at all.

The vastly superior strength of Lexan only comes into play on a HUGE dodger windshield, as Plexiglas, (in good shape), is plenty strong enough elsewhere. IF yours looks OK, I wouldn't worry too much. Roy's periodic Plexiglas "change out approach", is every bit as viable as my yearly "quick polish" of the boat's Lexan. Both work great! Mine is stronger than necessary, (for what that's worth)... I think Roy's is way more work, but he can see out of them better for sure, and his installation, (sans nuts n bolts), is much more attractive aesthetically. He knows what he's doing! I'm happy with mine too.

Come spring... I have to finish painting the nonskid decks, then the front cabin's interior, then replace the lifelines and standing rigging, followed by canvas sailcover repairs, etc. And THAT'S just next year! It takes a lot of TLC to keep an old Searunner up to 100%, so I'm glad that replacing ALL of my plastic is not on the list.

All of the damage to my dodger plastic was preventable with opaque canvas covers, (VS just white), but I learned what was going on too late. Since that extra 10% of clarity matters to me "here" on the windshield, I may replace it with 3/16" Lexan in a couple of years. (3/16", to save weight) Then, by keeping it covered 99% of the time, (when not under way), It will stay clear indefinitely, without any maintenance.

As I pointed out in a previous post, Plexiglas was never an option on the dodger, as it just wont make the bend at the edges.

IF you have Plexiglas, and can see on CLOSE inspection that the crazes are surface only, then it is probably still plenty strong enough. IF you want more clarity on your Plexiglas, it does polish out well, (indeed, a bit better than Lexan does). A hazy or yellowed surface will polish right out, but deep crazes will not. With deep crazes (> 1/2 way through), I would replace them with which ever material suits your needs & personality. Either works fine as I have said...

HOW TO TELL FOR SURE WHAT YOU'VE GOT?

Plexiglass is FAR more solvent resistant than Lexan. ONLY isopropyl alcohol can be used on Lexan without risking harm, as the "stronger" solvents will melt it!

Try this with Acetone, or better yet, MEK (Methel Ethel Keytone)... With a very small artist brush, wet a 1/4" square in the "bottom" of a port near the edge, (in the MOST inconspicuous spot). Wet it over and over for 30 seconds, but do NOT let it run all over the lens. If it can then be dried with NO ill effects, then it is an acrylic (= Plexiglas). If, however, it melts an obvious, hazed over little groove in the plastic, it is a polycarbonate (= Lexan).

Hope this helps...
M.

[PJOHara]

So if you were looking to purchase a used spinnaker for next season and were only going to have the option of that one sail, what would your preference be for? Symmetric or asymmetric ? 3/4 oz fabric or heavier? I would like to avoid adding a sprit off the bow, at least for this year. Idea? Thanks!

[Mark Johnson]

For "cruising", (VS daysailing or racing), IF you only had ONE downwind sail...

I would lean toward a medium sized asymmetrical, of heavier nylon, that is tacked from the amas' bows, OR from the vaka bow, in up to a tight reach. With both "down to the bows", and "aft" control lines, on BOTH tack & clew, you have total control to shape it for any point of sail, except hard to windward. THE TRIMARAN ADVANTAGE!

Ours is almost right, but I would call it too small, rather than medium. We hope to move up in size a bit. Smaller spinnakers get used more due to being less intimidating, and are less of a risk when caught by a sudden squall at night, when you could not see it blowing in. (It has happened to us at the end of a 36 hour run, leaving from Puerto Rico)...

The sky blotter is beautiful too, and a screecher is great for harder to windward, but both would get used less often than the medium sized asymmetrical.

For racing... have all three!

M.

[Roy M]

Assym with snuffer!

[sea dragon]

How about a choice for a radar on a searunner 40?
Where would you mount it?
Fog is a factor here in the Pacific Northwest.
I've never used a radar,but around here,it really is a good thing to have.
what type do you have?

[Roy M]

I install a lot of radars. For my own boat I purchased a full Raymarine E-series a couple years ago, but never got around to pulling the stick to mount the digital radar. Since then, a bunch of better products have been developed. When I do pull the stick I will probably install a Simrad system with 4G radar. It uses less than half the power, has higher resolution, and provides images to right alongside the boat, handy when the fog shuts visibility down to the worst. I may also install the Raymarine, since it weighs very little and provides a longer range. Radars should be mounted about the level of the first spreaders, to give you the advantage of longer range. The Simrad 4G uses a completely different means of transmission, so if you want to use a lower radar mast, there won't be any danger from microwave transmission. Adding an AIS is also a smart move since it provides even more info on whether that radar blip is a log, a vessel or a buoy. I also have forward scanning sonar, handy for seeing a deadhead at night in the fog. Hope I get to use it one day if I get to Puget Sound.

[Mark Johnson]

Amen to that Roy...
We started out with a standard sock with a metal ring at the top, and later switched to an ATN snuffer, (with a trumpet shaped, flared opening of FG)... I don't like some of ATN's stuff, but this one they got right.

Even if we got a snag or hourglassed the spinnaker on the way up, we could always get it right back under control. With a swivel at the top of the sail, an hourglassed opening was usually self correcting with the next attempt.
I wouldn't use a spinnaker without one.



SEA DRAGON,
We used a 16" Furuno. Smaller radome's than that loose the ability to see objects up close "separately", (that are within 50' of each other). They see it as just one blob. Larger 24" radomes are better at this, but HEAVIER, = overkill for our needs.

As to location, the best in my view is just under the babystay, like shown below. This makes it where tacking the headsail or staysail will not hang up on the radome, as it is protected from the sails by the wire. The Furuno radome is more rounded than the others too! It chafes less and is more aerodynamic.

Remember, on a monohull, ONE more pound at the top of the mast, takes 100 pounds more lead, to counteract its additional weight = inertia = pounding! It is similar on multihulls. Weight aloft, particularly WAY aloft, is to be avoided at all cost when you can.

With our app 1/3rd the way up location, it might "see" just 10 or 15 miles, rather than 20+ if it was mounted much further up, but for our boats, imo... the price for that extra range is just too high for the benefit.

It is what's close enough to hit that is of the most concern, not what's FAR over the horizon. And with good light gathering binoculars, (on clear nights), you can see the loom of ships that are well lit, and over the horizion. You should always maintain watch anyway... It IS a trade off, but a reasonable one.

Our screen is the little LCD black & white model, and not interfaced with anything else. Only my GPS to computer is interfaced, for computer navigation, and I prefer all other electronics to be stand alone. It has less "fun features", but is more reliable in avoiding a "cluster **..." This was also pretty cheap, as far as radars go, and ours still works fine after 10 years since mounting it, and many thousands of sea miles covered..

For avoiding thunderstorms, RADARs are great! You can track their coarse & future location, and DON'T GO THERE.

I remember a funny story:
Once, in a white out rain, it saved our bacon big time. I was on an almost parallel, but slightly diagonal bearing, and planning on going between two very slow moving, occasionally visible ships, about 1/4 of a mile apart. I noticed for over 2 hours that their heading and speed stayed EXACTLY the same. Hmmm? I finally called the first ship on VHF and advised that I would cross his stern, only to get a: "I WOULDN'T DO THAT CAPT... I'M AN OCEAN GOING TUG TOWING A BARGE"! Yikes!!!

I went an hour out of my way, to go astern of the PAIR of objects that I had been tracking on radar.

I never had RADAR on my previous boats, or for the first 8 years on this one, and it's not at the top of my list, but for your neck of the woods, it is very good sense to have one.

Mark

[rossad]

Thank You Mark, you put in effort and its a big thanks
Ross

[md7a]

Originally Posted by slowbat

Hello,
Is anyone in the Searunner community attending?
Northwest Multihull Regatta
Friday, 17-May ~ Sunday 19-May

Northwest Multihull Association is proud to sponsor a new event this year, a regatta exclusively for multihulls from 14 feet up. Based at Port Hudson Marina in scenic, historic Port Townsend, we'll have 2 days of distance and buoy racing, evening events on shore and an opportunity to enjoy the camaraderie of similarly afflicted souls. There's fun for the whole family, even a rating adjustment for young sailors in the crew!

If so send me a PM and we can meet up for a pint or two.

Planning to bring pineapple express, if I can get haul out done in time.

[md7a]

Looking for the story of Brie...

On a summer cruise near Olympia last summer I spotted this pair of amas anchored near Fish Trap, and I have been wondering ever since what was the story of Brie, the boat to which they seemingly belonged.

Must have been an A-frame Searunner 31, homeport in Olympia, WA. But what happened to her?

[rossad]

Wow what an amazing photo of Brie
Looks like some fascinating history and with a sorry full ending.