Trimaran - Especially Searunner - Owners

[Sea Otter Jim]

The photo was taken in La Paz Mexico where I live.This is my asymmetrical chute that I can sheet in and sail up to 50 degrees apparent .

[rossad]

Having trouble to understand 50 degrees apparent. Is that higher than a reach may I ask.

[Roy M]

MUCH higher! Any more and you need a flat sail to avoid it collapsing. That's my favorite sail.

[Mr Big]

Hey all!

This is Chris with the Searunner 37 IMAGINE (soon to be Nayeli after my daughter I'm on my way back to the boat after taking the train to San Francisco to pick up my car.

First off, I really want to thank Roy M for his assistance and hospitality during this unscheduled adventure! We had been nursing a knocking, prop shaft vibration since leaving San Francisco and after two full days of motor sailing things were getting worse.

We made some repairs during our week anchored at Catalina island and thought we had it fixed well enough to get to Ensenada...smiles and high fives all around. Unfortunately, we soon discovered a new problem...we left Catalina at 7:00am and motor sailed for most of the morning waiting for the wind to come up. When checking the repairs we made, we discovered water coming in the boat from under the stern castle table.

We found the bolts holding the shaft strut were leaking from all the vibrations and a steady trickle of water was coming in...nothing too bad, but more than I wanted if I was going to be leaving the boat for weeks at a time down in MX. This area had been repaired before by one of the previous owners by packing a bunch of underwater epoxy around the mount and bolts and we decided to try more of the same and packed more Splash Zone around the area to see if we could plug the leak. We killed the motor and sailed a few hours to let the area settle, but the water kept seeping in from all around the strut mount base.

We decided to head in to San Diego to see if a diver could patch it from below and if not, we would haul the boat to get it squared away. We spent the night slowly sailing towards San Diego and fired up the motor to make the run in. We were under power, going 5 knots at 2,000 RPMs when the speed just dropped in half...I thought we might be dragging kelp or something but we couldn't see anything. I went below and put my foot on the base for the strut and felt a different vibration and could hear kind of an out of round sound and I suspected that half of my folding prop had fallen off...but I was just guessing at this point.

We headed in to Shelter Island hoping to tie to the police/customs dock till we could get a diver over, or wait till a boat yard opened (this was 5am Sunday) but we were told we could not stop at the police dock and we also couldn't anchor unless we had a permit that could only be obtained online. Not looking too good! I committed to motoring around in circles till we could reach a diver by phone and see what options we had for docking.

As luck had it, I was pointing out a big Searunner to my crew and realized it was Roy's boat! I called Roy (at 6am Sunday) and explained the situation and asked if he knew some options for us. Without hesitation, Roy told me to drop anchor near his boat and he would come right down to help, me side tie to his boat till we called the boat yards on Monday. When we raised anchor to motor over to Roy's boat, we got another surprise...we now had no forward or reverse. I believe we lost the other side of the prop, but we might have transmission problems too, won't know till we haul out. I'm sure Roy could tell I was a little beat up and slow from no sleep the night before and he took charge of the situation by jumping in his dingy, side tying to my boat and motoring us into position to tie up to his. Whew!

Roy invited us to breakfast and listed us as guests of his yacht club so we could use the showers and relax for the rest of the day. On Monday, he drove over to Driscolls Boat Yard and made arraignments for us to haul there. I really can't believe everything Roy did to help, out a fellow Searunner owner, he really went above and beyond and I can't thank him enough!

I'll post more after we haul on Friday and get things straightened out.



Happy Sailing!

[Roy M]

Thank you, Chris. Unfortunately, I think you are still in a delusional state caused by acute fatigue and high anxiety. I believe several medicinal doses of El Jimador are just what is called for in this case. And probably, after Friday, several more to prepare you for the eventual outcome of the boatyard visit. I, of course, being such a magnanimous individual, will ensure that the medication is the appropriate quantity and quality for an effective treatment, that I will sacrifice myself to self-test this course of medical care.

[Boatguy30]

Yes, you can no doubt blow a season's cruising budget in a week on the hard in Shelter Island!

[Phaedrus]

Hey everybody, I have a searunner 37 and I'm in Pensacola FL. The name of the vessel is Phaedrus. My wife and I have two daughters, ages 5 and 7. We use the boat mainly to day sail to our favorite local spot and overnight where it is very hot and humid during the summer months. We carry a Honda Eu 3000 with us to run our 16,000 Btu air conditioning after swimming all day long in the sun. We have pretty much limited our use to local sailing since owning the boat coming up on 2 years. Here's the question: I have an opportunity to purchase a used Next Gen 3.5 generator. It requires a 1 1/2 inch exhaust and a 3/4 inch intake. It occupies a relatively small footprint. I think 18 X 27 approximately. My wife and I have discussed this and really love and are not really ready to give up the crawl through we have. Currently my family uses the crawl through while the boat is closed up from above; especially at nighttime when the boat is closed up to access the forward and aft sections. Has anyone installed a diesel generator on your searunner 37? I was thinking of putting it in one of the amas and running the intake cooling hose over to the main hull. I have wing diesel tanks. The exhaust would exit through the ama. The weight of the generator would be approximately 160 1bs. I was thinking of offsetting that by placing heavier items such as anchors and spares in the other ama.
Any thoughts, ideas?
Thank you in advance, Matt

[Roy M]

Why not locate it in the subcockpit locker forward of the engine (assuming you have the engine in the "normal place")? Then, all of your plumbing, engine exhausts, etc. is in the general area, and you are closer to the batteries for cable runs.

[rossad]

Phaedrus
I have a 37 SR. But dont have the crawl through but have seen it and know what your talking about. I dont think i need the crawl through what so ever but hey everyone is different. I have a diesel heater in one arma with an exhaust going out it works well. Also have anchor in each arma and chain. Total of three anchors on board. Only going offshore would i start to thinking about weight placement. So yea i think a little what is it? 2kG gene would work well located in an arma. Fastened. Good thing about Searunners they dont seem to move that much compared to many other light tri's. My diesel heater exhaust goes out down under the wing not out the side of the arma. Another good reason is obviously the sound proofing is much better. I dont really like fuel or water stored out in the arma maybe plastic container couple 10 ltrs for ease of handling nothing more. . How lucky we are to have so many options on the Searunner there is the option of inside the wing too. Anyway thats my take. Post some pics if you are able ... always interest on this thread.

[rossad]

Accolades to you Roy !!
My 2 bladed Gori prop cost me 3000NZ dollars so hopefully they didn't pay anything like that.

[Phaedrus]

Thank you for your suggestions. I have space in front of the diesel on the Port side. My concern was my ability to access the front of the diesel to do tasks such as change belts, filters, water pump impellers, etc. Currently I can open the front end of the engine compartment to do those things. I was also concerned about noise and heat considering that this particular generator does not have the noise dampening housing around it. I believe I could purchase one to put on it. I could move the engine room door on the front end all the way out, flush and have one big engine room on the port side housing both the Yanmar and the generator--Matt

[Roy M]

There you go! And, if you start early with the right training, your daughters can learn how to change impellers, belts and oil filters while they are still small enough (and flexible) to get at everything. And by the time they graduate from high school, you will be able to hire them out for general boat maintenance at premium wages. I need someone that size right now to help install some padeyes which are accessible only from the tightest spot in the aft end of the port float.

[Phaedrus]

Thanks for the encouragement Roy! Your right about getting into those tight places. I've actually used my 8 year old next door neighbor to get to some spots I can't in the bows of my amas. Now if I can just get my own two kids to do something to help!

[Roy M]

Toss the car keys back there for bait, then tell them what you need before you head off for ice cream sundaes. Later on, when they get into their teens, you might have to offer a tank of gas. I used a nine-year old, holding a short length of railroad track as back up while I hammered my foredeck onto the stringers. If I had been thinking more clearly at the time, I would have used screws, then removed them afterwards. Now, I have some plastic inspection plates at the aft, inboard corner of the floats so I can stick an arm in there with a wrench. Helps with air circulation while at the dock, too.

[rossad]

I thought that fellow Searunner folk might like to see possible the best Searunner in New Zealand. It has some fantastic systems like the anchor being placed at the centre of the boat and a self steering system that is very effective. The whole finish and cabin design is perfect.
searunner 37 | Trade Me