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Sailor (and self-boatbuilder) Berthold Theelen recently finished building this small trimaran in the Philippines. He named it “Heart of Gold.”
Great name. Great looking tri :-)
This tri’s center hull came from a Tiki 21 catamaran. Berthold has “only” got the boat up to about 14 knots at this point because it’s a bit “heavy.” He explains it all in his story of the boat found below … although I find 14 knots for this converted cat to tri project none-too-shabby. But that’s just me :-)
Berthold shares the following info with us, including some pics from his full building blog which can be found here – https://www.flickr.com/photos/bertholdmarin_mrq/sets/72157667798589315 … this online flickr photo album also allowed me to put all of its “embed code” on this page, so you might be able to check out most of the photos by clicking and scrolling through pictures at the bottom of this post.
Oh yeah, be sure to read how one local sailor deals with the squalls that sometimes pop up in this area of the world. Seriously. Amazing! Sailors like these are a-maze-ing (to me)!
Many thanks to Berthold for sharing this great info with us!
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Heart of Gold Trimaran
by Berthold Theelen
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I live on one of the smaller Philippine islands 50 nm Southeast of Puerto Galera, which is on the Northeast tip of Mindoro. From my location I can reach many islands, surrounded mostly by coral reefs (distances ~ 20nm), some uninhabited and there is no tourism, no restaurants or supermarkets on most of them. Some only have electricity for a few hours every day.
The climate is sub-tropical, water temperature is typically above 25 degr C. In the Philippines, “amihan” refers to the season dominated by the trade winds, which are experienced in the Philippines as a cool northeast wind.
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It is characterized by moderate temperatures, little or no rainfall, and a prevailing wind from the east. As a rule of thumb, the Philippines’ amihan weather pattern begins sometime in September or October and ends sometime in May or June. There may, however, be wide variations from year to year.
Throughout the rest of the year, the Philippines experiences the west or southwest wind; south west monsoon, which in turn is referred to as the “habagat.” The habagat season is characterized by hot and humid weather, frequent heavy rainfall, and a prevailing wind from the west.” (Wikipedia) Tides have an effect on wind direction and near full or new moon currents can become quite strong. Squalls occur occasionally*.
In the lee of our island local thermical winds influence the general wind direction quite a bit. Out in the open, winds are more steady and predictable.
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I’ve had a number of boats since I came here: I started with a Hobie 16. Although fun to sail and easy to beach I found it not suitable for trips to other islands of the archipelago for a number of reasons. Next, my wife said she would like a speed boat, so we built one from local “marine” plywood. We did not like that after a while (noisy, rocking although “deep V shaped) and sold it.
Next we built a Wharram Tiki 21 and put the Hobie 16 rig on it: That went quite well, had a shallow draft and could be beached easily in high tide. The only thing I missed on longer trips was a cockpit. We explored the Philippines and did 600 nm in three weeks. I had ordered a mainsail of heavier Dacron cloth with 3 reefs. They were all needed.
I even installed an autopilot, a battery and a solar panel. If one hull had not been destroyed in our garden by a falling tree in a typhoon I would have hung onto it, because the Tiki 21 was sailing nicely, although on longer trips I missed a cockpit to have something to lean against.
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A 33-foot old steel sloop came next: I bought her from NZ couple who had criss-crossed the Pacific in her for – I think – seven years. She was a long keeler, heavy, quite well equipped and safe, but finding a suitable anchorage was not always easy and she never ever did more than 6 knots (average 4). I sold her three years ago … she needed a lot of difficult maintenance and I spent more time repairing things than actually sailing.
Before I started the trimaran project I looked at what I had: an old Hobie 16 with a nice, new main sail. One hull of the Tiki 21 looked still good and there were plenty of blocks and shackels.
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I decided to go for a trimaran!
Now, the locally available “marine” plywood is of inferior quality and is easily destroyed by rot if not protected very well. A Sodium tetraborate water solution helps preventing that. Multiple layers of Epoxy + mat or roving make the boat heavier, but more reliable.
I found that my Tiki hull had some parts with rot near the stern, where the skeg had hit the ground and the epoxy layer had been penetrated. Eventually I was digging away into rotten plywood, which had turned into a brown powder held in shape by the epoxy/fibreglass layers completely and replaced it with solid mahogany, which I have in abundance.
Later, I regretted that I did not rebuilt the skeg, but at the time I thought it was probably dispensable since I planned to build a deep kick-up rudder. It turned out, that the small skeg did more than just protecting the rudder from impact. One of the things on my to-do list is to add a skeg again.
There is a very good welding shop in our small town, run by an engineer. He made He made slightly oversized – therefore heavy – but undestroyable, rudder fittings, and I used one of the Hobie rudders which is sandwiched between two quite solid plates of epoxy coated plywood with the stainless fittings reaching all the way through it (this was maybe the trickiest part of the construction.)
The crossbeams of the Tiki became amas, the hulls of the Hobie the akas. I cut the Hobie crossbeams in the middle and lashed the fwd ends directly to amas and sandwiched the aft ones between pairs of 2×2 mahogany bars that were lashed to the amas.
These bars also provide a good support for the trampline net (knotless fishing net). Amidships more solid bridges allow to walk to the stays to counterbalance the tri. However, it seems that the akas provide enough buoyancy and in following seas we put as much weight as possible aft.
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Chinasunrisesails built a very nice jib for my self-tacking arrangement at a very fair price. It has a reef line at 50% (maybe 40% would have been better). Since I removed the skeg the jib has to be set at all times if it blows a more that 3 bft to reduce weather helm (due to the missing skeg).
All in all, she is quite a bit too heavy to go real fast, especially since we carry lots of water, petrol and provisions (there is a 2hp yamaha ob). Best speed so far 14 knots with 5 ft, 5-7 knots to windward in a light breeze.
The deep V of the Tiki hull and the Hobie akas allow a decent way windwards (about 47 degr over ground).
The dyneema shrouds are easy to splice (Brummel lock splice) and very cheap in China. In the beginning they go slack and have to be re-tightened … but only 5 or 6 times. Dyneema does not like UV so we painted them white with acrylic paint (2 layers).
The mast is not really strong enough for this comparatively heavy boat so I will add running backstays and a skeg. I purchased the plans for a Tremolino but it is not easy to find the right materials here, especially for amas. It will also be heavy again, because I trust the local plywood only when it is covered with a few layers of epoxy+roving.
*Squalls occur occasionally (I’ve got caught in three since 2001 but not with this trimaran). A Hobie 16 sailor who frequently ventures in the open in theses waters told me that he intentionally capsizes the Hobie for the duration of the squall. Staying in the warm sea for awhile is certainly better than exposing yourself to 50 knots of wind and ice-cold heavy rain.
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![small Trimaran DIY boat sailing Philippines]()
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