Trimaran - Especially Searunner - Owners

[DreamBig]

Hey looking for Ketch rigged Cross or Sea-runner owners in the Galveston, Kemah, Dickinson Texas area. I own a Cross 38 that is moored in Dickinson. Per my buyers agreement; I get free mooring until November 30, 2020. Provided, I don't pull away from dock. Once I pull away, she has to find a new home. It's designed for us to do a pretty extensive refit, over the next few months, and hide a cozy bayou through hurricane season. So it is, not so much a problem for us, but I nor the rest of my family have sailed a ketch rigged Tri. My wife, and I would like to help crew with someone on their boat for day-sails if anyone would want that kind of help/burden? We would be very interested... Most any weekdays or weekends are available. Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

James

[jdazey]

Never seen a ketch-rigged Searunner and don't quite see how that would happen. Lots of Cross, Piver, and Horstman ketches though. There should be a few in your area.


Cheers,

[MicHughV]

When I was building my boat, I knew two guys that were building tri's. Both were ketches. One was a Cross, the other a Piver. The Cross ended up in Texas somewhere. The Piver ended in the Keys...Marathon I think..
I don't remember their length....I think the Piver was 36 and the Cross was 34, but could not be sure about this.
I've sailed on both. I don't think the ketch rig is anymore difficult than a sloop.

[jdazey]

Agreed. We crewed on a Cross 42 ketch in some races. We seldom used the mizzen.


As far as actually learning to use the mizzen, a monohull ketch should give you the idea.


Cheers,

[DreamBig]

@jdazey your are correct, Sea-runners are cutter rigged for the most part. I will be fine, but I was really looking to get the wife out on a boat so she will get more comfortable. Really and truly we don't mind driving either. So, a range of Corpus- Lake Charles, obviously longer distances will need a little more planning.

[DreamBig]

Norman Cross 38<--- you might need to know that to answer accurately below.

Ok, next week I should start to repair my deck rot... I am going to replace my cockpit sole, and the aft cockpit bulkhead, port ama has a spot forward of propane well about 20"x 24", Have various rot around windows on all sides.... My question is;

should I grind out rot till I find dry wood, replace wood, then glass/ epoxy, Then fill and smooth? (I.e. spot repair.)

Should I remove wood back to original cut, and then replace wood, glass/ epoxy, fill, smooth and paint.

I feel on the windows a piece of wood trim above them glassed into the cabin roof should slow leaks later on down the road. Am I crazy? Wait Don't answer that!!!! <---- would that be a better way to ease the possibility of leaks coming back?


I have about 4.35 gallons of west system epoxy, + slow and extra slow hardeners, and micro balloons, using 1/2 inch marine grade ply, and at least 20yards of 6oz x 60" glass fabric. I might need more of everything, but that should be a good start anyway.

Yet another question:
Boat is "covered" with non skid, previous owner said "concrete paint".. I don't know? Anyway, I feel the rot problems have been due to being nearly 50 yrs old, although, it seems the non skid cracks, and allows water to seep under. I have found about 15 cracks in non skid, and I am sure there are more, as it is hard to detect.... I covered with some 3m 4200 to try to slow any damage during the rains all this week. The non skid does work well, it is yellowish in the picture

My question is: Should I just spot repair nonskid as is with spot fill of epoxy, or rent a floor sander, and sand the sucker back to epoxy, coat with two coats of Interlux 2000e two part epoxy primer, then paint or epoxy based non skid on top of that?

Last two questions,

Is there something to put on the wood that will penetrate in, and give the epoxy a better adhesion without de-lamination?

Should I plan on bagging it and pull vacuum.. if so How much vacuum do you pull?

Spending first full night aboard tomorrow,

Cheers,

James

[MicHughV]

I sure am curious about that boat.

Do you know who built it and where it was built ??

[Buzzman]

Cut back to good wood, and then cut a bit more, in case spores of mould/rot have migrated further than it 'appears' they have.

Douse old and new ply with D.O.T. (disodium octorborate tetrahydrate). This will stop it coming back. Roll epoxy on at optimum ambient temperature. Second coat add glassfibre. Third coat with microballoons to fair.

Belt sand old anti-skid. It's probably a two-pack epoxy designed for coating industrial concrete floors, so not the right product for a boat that gets hot in the sun all day. Take it back to the original epoxy then recoat with rolled epoxy. Then new anti skid and/or paint as required. It's often easier to do the paint first over the whole area, then mask and lightly sand the areas requiring anti-skid, then do them separately.

One old trick was to simply paint a second coat of deck paint (in the masked areas), and sprinkle sugar over the paint (note: NOT sand). Allow paint to dry then hose off the sugar. A very light sand then takes thin coat of paint off sugar grains. Hose again, preferably with warmed water, and exposed sugar dissolves and washes off, leaving little micro-pits in the paint surface, which then forms the 'anti-skid' surface.

Not tried it myself but it was well thought of back in the day.

Sand doesn't work as it doesn't dissolve, and just remains as 'sharp' (i.e. skin tearing) crystals that provide a rough, though grippy, surface.

[DreamBig]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I sure am curious about that boat.

Do you know who built it and where it was built ??

On the title it says it was built 1976, I have not idea anything else, it seems to be an actual cross 38, not a stretched anything. Previous owner bought her and lived aboard for about 10yrs at the dock. The owner before had lived aboard in south America and maybe Africa. Previous owner (( guy I bought it from named her BBB big beautiful boat)) before that she was Carribean Soul. We are renaming her "Ameris". That's all I know. If I had to guess, hull was professionally built, and Interior was finished out by someone a little less skilled, but who knows the iterations over time. That's all I know so far. Trying to make her a yacht again. 😁

[MicHughV]

the reason I ask is that while I was building my boat, I knew a Piver and Cross tri being built. This would be in north Florida. This would also be in the mid to late 70's. The Piver was built with plywood and fiberglassed over and had that hard chine look about it. The Cross was built in the strip plank method with WEST system epoxy and had rounded hulls. It was beautifully crafted. I know that the Cross was moved to Texas, but after that, I lost track of the boat. I seem to recall it was ketch rigged, I know the Piver was, but a little fuzzy about the Cross's rig, I thought it was a ketch, but it might have been a sloop, I simply don't remember.

I was curious to know if they were the same boat as it looks remarkably as I remember it.? I would love to see more pictures. The Cross I knew was 34', I think, but this too, is just my memory, it may have been longer. I also seem to remember that the transom was extended by a few feet in a sugar scoop fashion to keep the stern out of the water...The name Caribbean Soul also strikes some distant memory.

I could dig up some old photo's from my now faded albums, I may have pictures of it.

[DreamBig]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I could dig up some old photo's from my now faded albums, I may have pictures of it.

By all means dig.. I would love to know the history of this yacht. if I could. So could track down and contact the original builders and various owners and so on. I just think that would be awesome. I would love to hear the stories that she carries, and to what reaches of the globe she has gone. Rear entry is standard cross. In fact best I can tell she is built exactly to plan, except stove is moved from bulkhead to other side of galley. Like I stated I was absolutely fortunate to get some 38 plans sent to me. Well.... plans are for a stretched 38, but are merely 38 plans with one line through the dimensions. Hopefully, repairs and refits go easy, and hurricane season is light, and we will get her sailing in the next couple of months.



James

[Tusitala]

Not a fun job, I've done repairs of this type in the past. I find it easiest to cut out affected areas in convenient rectangles rather than trying to keep the cutting to a minimum and ending up with odd shaped pieces. You can premake the replacement panels once you have the dimensions, get them epoxied, glassed and fared so they just need to be fiberglass taped and butt blocked in place. Can even cut out the window openings and have them epoxied on the edges.

For the decks you're likely to find mold in areas up to several feet away from the actual cracks. Plan on removing all the paint, and probably a bunch of glass and epoxy. I tried the floorsander routine, it worked well in some areas, not others. I use a product call Zec discs on a 7 inch variable speed sander that can run at low rpm's.

Trying to vacuum bag would be much more effort that it's worth in this type of application, look up using peel ply. There's threads in theforums on here for everything, so research epoxy resins, paints and non-skids and sources to purchase the right materials at reasonable prices, you'll be surprised at the info available.

Pat

[Tusitala]

Hey James, just a quick thought. go to Jim Brown's website and download a copy of The Searunner Construction Manual if you haven't already. Invaluable resource for this type of work. Some of it is a little dated but extremely useful. OutRig Media | Welcome to Jim Brown's OutRigMedia

Pat

[DreamBig]

Ok lets try this again, some how I posted in a different thread the first time.

[MicHughV]

let me see if I can give this a go...

The Tri in the water is the Piver...

The Tri on the hard is the Cross....still under construction...

These pics are old....70's....but you can probably zoom in...but all I have

There was another Tri in the area...a Searunner...I would run into it from time to time in the B'mas....but could not say what has happened to it, but also a 70's boat.

Seems to me a lot of these Tri's were built in that 70's time period, when home building was all the rage.