The 2nd Race to Alaska starts this week. And we know of at least one small trimaran that will be in the mix.

Boat designer Bernd Kohler shared the following pictures with me of a boat built and sailed by Matt Johnson. It’s a small trimaran that is now utilizing a rig that Bernd designed for the Tiny Tri model.

More specific information about Matt’s boat can be seen on this page at his site. And this page shares some details and pictures of the boat’s recent launching (in preparation for the R2AK).

Be sure to check out Matt’s site for lots of pics and background info. All the best to him as he readies for the great race. May he and the others, above all, have a safe journey!

(And thank you, Bernd K., for sharing this boat with us :-)

Self-boatbuilder / sailor Eric Light is now sailing and paddling his new boat. We first saw what he was doing in our first post about the project here – http://smalltrimarans.com/blog/a-grande-small-tri-project/.

Eric sent the following update to me (read below) this past weekend. So great to see the results of his efforts.

The 4 pictures I’ve linked to here come from Eric’s building blog and are copyrighted by him (I link to these images directly on his site. Be sure to check it out because he has lots more info and pics there.

Pretty neat. I love the sail on it too.

(Thanks for sharing this with us Eric :-)

……………….

“Rio Grande” Double Outrigger Kayak
by Eric Light

I wanted to do a launch with just John and me, so we could work out any problems that might arise. Fortunately, nothing major. It was an exciting morning for me, marking the end of a four-month-long project (a kind of birthing).

Check it out at the blog: http://golightlythroughthisworld.blogspot.ca/

Tentative official launch is tomorrow (Monday) morning at 10:00 a.m. at the Oak Bay public ramp. Some might see me on this web cam a bit later, hopefully flitting about in a sweet breeze.

My last niggling doubt was dispelled as I drove cautiously into my underground parking (6’ 8” clearance) after the pre-launch for the first time (a day of firsts!), waiting to hear a little “crunch” from above as I inched forward. She fits!! YAY! Turns out, the bow is the highest point, and I could see it. I was thinking that the forward end of the coaming, which I couldn’t see, was what might hit. There were inches to spare.

I’m very happy with my build, and can hardly wait to go sailing again! Looking at the photos John took this morning, I can’t believe I did what I did in building this boat (with John’s help)! Everything just seemed to fall together and to work out right, down to finding the rudder blade that happened to make a perfect leeboard, and the broken paddle that fits perfectly and is ultralight.

Thanks once again to John Booth, Victoria’s Mr. Maker Man and my hero! :-)

John had a lot of input to this build; in materials, know-how, boating savvy, and metal work.

— Eric

P.S. – I’ve already been asked if I’m doing the R2AK! I knew it would happen, hahaha! Not this guy. I might go camp-cruising, once I’ve got more confidence in the boat and familiarity with how it handles, but that will probably be the extent of my boating adventures this summer.

Here is Part 2 of my conversation with Jim Brown about the rescue of SCRIMSHAW, his old Searunner trimaran. Part one of this audio (which you’ll want to listen to first if you haven’t done so already) is here.

We find out how Jim and his friends handle – or rather, get handled by – an “out-of-control” boat.

1st listening option – (click on the audio bar below (if you can see it) …

Or …

2nd listening option – (click on the image below) …

Click here to see all of Jim’s Multihull books and media

Can You Identify This 13 to 15 Foot Trimaran? One of our readers sent these pics a couple days ago. (Photos below). He thinks this boat was once in production somewhere.

I think I’ve seen this model before (and to be honest, it may already be posted somewhere on this blog … I just can’t remember).

I am, therefore, taking the E-Zeee way out of this ID dilemma and asking if one (or two or three) of our other superb readers can offer some feedback about this sailboat. If so then just post in the “Comments” area below.

Update – 6/29/16: One of our readers gave a link that identifies this as a model known as a “Texas Trimaran” (see Comments below).

Lots. And lots. Of small tris. (In the R2AK).

Pretty neat.

I’ve listed them below. Did I miss any? I hope not.

You can read about them (and see a pic or two of each one) on the “Race Participants” webapge here: https://r2ak.com/full-race-participants2016/

You may also want to check out one of the “pre-race” YouTube vids, which I’ve also posted below.

Here is the list of small trimarans participating in this year’s “Race to Alaska”:
Team Later Dudes – Homebuilt Tanamu sailing canoe
Team Un-Cruise Adventures – F-25c trimaran “Unscrewed”
Team Ain’t Brain Surgery – F-31 Trimaran
Team Pure and Wild – Custom 8.5m Trimaran
Team Big Broderna – F31R
Team TBD – CLC Sport Tandem double kayak
Team Mail Order Bride – F85SR (Farrier “Super Racer”
Team Gold Rush – custom 18? trimaran
Team Onism – 22? custom foiling trimaran
Team Fly – F-27 trimaran
Team Vantucky – Windrider 17
Team Take Me To The Volcano – 20? custom trimaran
Team Liteboat – Liteboat (rowing trimaran)
Team Alula – F-27 trimaran
Team Lost Boys – F-24
Team Sistership – F-27
Team Angus Rowboats – (double outrigger rowing boat)
Team Discovery – homebuilt tri

From what I can tell, it appears a couple Farrier-designed boats have fared well in the R2AK Race.

Team “Mail Order Bride”, sailing a F85SR – Farrier “Super Racer” trimaran – have finished.

And it appears Team “Un-Cruise Adventures,” who are sailing a F-25c trimaran, are also approaching Ketchikan harbor.

The 1st place finisher was still a multihull … a large 32-foot beach catamaran sailed by Team “MAD Dog Racing”.

Pretty amazing, especially considering how the crew had to overcome exposure to the elements on that trampoline for over 3 straight days.

Here is the Day 7 video, which features a couple of the F boats:

The Cool Finn trimaran is now sailing. We first got a glimpse of this trimaran under construction back in January.

Sailor Hans Schipper has built another beauty here. (His first one was featured a couple years ago in this post).

This “Cool Finn” combines the hulls of a Cool Cat catamaran with a main hull of a Finnjol dinghy. It goes against the norm by combining a relatively wide, flat-bottomed center hull with the slender beach cat hulls typically associated with multihulls.

Smaller tris similar in concept have been known to work … see here and here for examples.

I really think this is a lovely-looking boat. Hans’ workmanship looks amazing. I need to take some boatbuilding lessons from him … at least from the standpoint of aesthetics :-)

I’ll let Hans take it from here. He shares the following info and pics below. Keep in mind that his first language is Dutch.

Thanks for sharing this with us Hans!

…………….

Cool Finn Trimaran Sailing
by Hans Schipper

It took some more time as I expected but the cool finn is sailing now.

On the trailer I can put the amas straight to the centre hull, which makes the package 2.20 m/ 7 ft 3 inches wide. With the amas out it’s 3.65 meter or 12 feet wide.

The boat is about 16 feet long, with a total weight about 550 pounds.

I used 2 mm aluminium pipes. The inner pipes are lined with 2mm PVC pipe so that it slides easily.

The hull of the Finnjol has sufficiently strong edges on which the plexiglass adapters have good support. One of the original Coolcat rudders is big enough for a good turning ability. I did have to change the angle for mounting the rudder on the Finn.

On my maiden voyage I had no daggerboard and the boat sailed with too much leeway, so I placed a daggerboard in afterwards. This meant taking off the Cool amas so I could put the Finn (main hull) on its side to get the daggerboard in.

I made, just like the Triple A, about 90% of the boat with recycled or second hand materials. The mailsail an jib is from a Topcat.

I think the boat looks good because I used beautiful shaped parts of the Finn and the Coolcat which I could bring together with the two colors paint. The attempt was made to keep things as simple as possible.

Use of the ends of the tubes for the attachment of the stays with a strong piece of rope instead of mounting eyes. Just a lot of looking and thinking. That is why smaltrimarans.com is such a good place for finding the right solutions.

Two things were difficult: I had to give up my plan to make the center hull myself because what I tried, did not give the result I expected. You can see that on my earlier post. My wife told me I was very silent for some days. I was so lucky I found the Finn-hull at that time for €200 … That was about 20% from the price of the epoxy and glass/fiber I needed to make a hull myself.

The other difficult thing was the asymmetric work. How do I find the right place and angles for placing the pipes? I found my solution by making estimates and just doing it, saying to myself that it needs not to be perfect. I think that one inch deviation is not a problem for a boat like this ( my mother in law says “it is not an organ”). However it worked out well with my experience and good luck.

Minor problems?

A higher bottom was achieved with styrodur foam covered with crossed sticking fiber strips, which are used on seams of drywall. I filled this structure with bison fiber reinforced structural adhesive. It is light and seems to be strong enough but unfortunately the bottom is still too low in the front of the boat.

Because the self-bailers do not close so well, water enters the front of the boat still just above the floor when the boat is stationary . I was planning to make a tent over the cockpit to sleep in there. Because I do not like this kind of waterbed that plan has been skipped. It’s also possible the gennaker I bought may be too small.

Overall …

The boat is very stable because of the floating ability of the ama’s. I think I can handle at least 5 beaufort. I sail on lakes that aren’t very wide (Gooimeer Eemmeer lakes in Holland), also without swells that are too big. And with the shape of the hull and daggerboard it has little trouble with waterplants.

Hope to take this boat by car on a trailer to Friesland, Lauwersmeer and Waddenzee but I think that will happen next year when I know the boat better. And I also have to make it easier to put up the mast.

Until now the sailing feels a bit less spectacular than sailing with the triple A. Maybe it is because I still did not have the right circumstances.

The boat is easy to maneuver and goes well tack. It is very nice to lay on the trampoline steering with my toes in light weather.

I’ll be sharing more about how Cool Finn sails after a bit of time on YouTube. I still don’t know what the limits of this boat are. It has become a modern classic little tri. I’m happy with the result.

Here is a skin-on-frame double outrigger sailing canoe currently in sea trials right now. The designer/builder is SOF expert Dave Gentry, who features the following info on his “What’s New” page at his website.

This sailing canoe is an attempt to create an extremely lightweight, yet seaworthy, outrigger in SOF. It’s modeled after a boat called “Perahu Katir,” which is a type of Jukung from Northeast Java.

I hope this design turns out to be a successful concept. Dave says that if it meets his performance expectations then he’ll offer building plans for it in the Fall.

Up to this point Dave has written elsewhere on the web that it does paddle well and is very stable. And you can see from the short video below that it moves nicely in light airs.

The outriggers shown are made with bamboo, which apparently Dave was able to obtain in his local area. They look very cool … a nice traditional look.

Some specs for this canoe:
— 17′ long x 22″ wide
— Sail area is 73 sq. ft.
— Canoe weight (by itself) about 70 lbs.
— All up (fully rigged) weight over 100 lbs.

Not just one but two small tris got in trouble this past week. Yikes, we don’t like hearing about this at all. (Trimarans are meant to offer sailors stability, after all!)

Thankfully, the sailors in trouble were rescued. This should give all of us pause to reflect that careful planning and prudent sailing practices — coupled with respect for both the water and weather conditions — are always necessary.

I’d really like to know a LOT more about what happened with both of these boats. There isn’t much to these news pieces, but if anyone reading this can fill in some details then we welcome your comments below.

The first story involved a homemade 14-foot boat (it got swamped):
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20160710/boaters-pluck-couple-from-hudson-river-after-sailboat-swamps-overturns

And the second one involved a Hobie tri (damaged outrigger):
http://www.ybw.com/news-from-yachting-boating-world/two-rescued-poole-trimaran-capsizes-25878

Be safe out there friends!

Probably one of the first ads ever for a small trimaran. Our friend Ian McGehee found this one while reading an actual copy of the original magazine in which it appeared.

Below is the full image of an ad for the “Pioneer” trimaran model, designed by Victor Tchetchet, from page 129 of POPULAR SCIENCE – April 1947 – which I am linking to below (the digital version) on Amazon.com

So neat! (Thanks for sharing this with us Ian :-)

Click on the image below to see it inside the magazine on Amazon. And be sure to check out Ian’s additional commentary below in the Comments section of this page:

Sailor Tony Basso (from Half Moon Bay, CA) alerted me to the following piece of small tri news. The Discovery 20 trimaran, a Chris White design from the 80’s is undergoing an update.

The design aspect of things is already completed. There were some tweaks Chris thought would make the boat a little better, including lengthening the center hull to 21 feet. The real news is that it’s going to be offered as both a production boat (for anyone that wants one completely made for them) AND a kit (for someone who wants to complete the build themselves).

Whereas the original D-20 was built using the Constant Camber method, the new D-21 is composed of primarily composite materials. Carbon fiber, for example, is used for the main hull and floats in this new sailboat.

The original D-20 plans have been scrapped and no longer available. The options now are to either obtain a fast build “kit” from the boatbuilders at Aquidneck Custom Composites or a fully-completed boat from them.

Chris White sent us a picture — just taken yesterday — of the first Discovery 21 to come out of the new molds. And following that is a link to the new D-21 brochure (in pdf).

(Thanks to Tony for sharing this info with us in the first place :-)

I received the following email inquiry from Mark S. a couple weeks ago. He is trying to identify the following trimaran (picture below).

Perhaps a hint? … Mark lives near Bancroft, Ontario, Canada.

If you think you might know what this model is then please share the info with us in the “Comments” area below. I am sure Mark will appreciate it :-)

…………

Mark wrote:

I found smalltrimarans online and am hoping you can help me in my search for information on the tri in the attached pic.

Its a tiny thing! only 12′.

The sail and mast are a Klepper cat rig with a loose bottom. I can’t find any information online about the boat itself. Do you know the manufacturer? The model?

It’s missing some parts:
1) the rudder stock (I have the rudder, a kick up, i also have the tiller and extension),
2) the stem head fitting for the forestay rigging

And basically I’m hoping to find a contact for information on the boat. Anything you can provide me with would be a bonus so thank you in advance.

The story is, my partner bought a cottage and the boat was sitting on the shore, gathering lichen. I plugged it and scrubbed it down, and it cam out pretty nice. The sail rig is in great shape and was stored in doors in a clean bag. The wire stays are perfect, and the forestay has a wire rope attached to a weird fiddle block to attach to the stem head.

Hoping to get her in the water and wind soon.
Thanks Again.

The Ultralight 20 trimaran, designed and built by Warren Light Craft, is a high-tech, amazing sailing machine. Seriously.

Canadian sailor, Max B., currently has his UL20 up for sale. He has really enjoyed sailing it.

Max shares a few words about the boat here (below). He also provided us with some pics and also gave us permission to share the video he had posted on Facebook featuring his sailboat. If anyone is interested in contacting Max for possible purchase of his boat can reach him at: max_beraud AT hotmail DOT ca
If you’re on Facebook, you can check on Max’s page featuring the boat at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012819245191

…………….

Sailing the Ultralight Trimaran
by Max B.
Lac-Mégantic, Quebec

In the past years we sailed on a Hobie catamaran. Since my wife is not too secure on boats, I looked for a boat that would be more stable sailing flat. In my research on the net, I found your site and read about Warren light craft.

I had four choices: Windrider rave, Hobie wild cat, Weta and the UL20. I chose the UL20 because of the stability, size (the only one 20.4 x 15.2) , the weight and the price.

Also, the boat seamed relatively simple to store and assemble. I also went to visit the plant in Georgestown. I also liked the look of the boat.

We sail on Lac Megantic. It is a lake where the wind fluctuates and blows are present a lot.

We reinforced the pin attachment ama. The first year of sailing, we bent one. So I decided to reinforced all of them.

I feel the mast support is a bit weak. Last year, we broke a mast in two. The mast was replaced under warranty. On the first ride with the new mast, we bent it. The wind was around 14 knots though. The mast was once again replaced under warranty. It is a bigger one, 3” instead of 2.5”.

I received the boat in September 2013, so we took out the boat a couple of times and would assembly it every times.
The summer of 2014 and 2015 we left the boat at mooring. To make the assembly , it takes around 1 hour with 3 persons.

Between 0 and 3 knots wind, the boat performs really well. This boat needs only a small breeze to move. You can go wherever you want and enjoy. You stay dry :)

Between 3 and 8 knots wind, the boat is still very stable and very fast in acceleration on blow or when we change directions. In those conditions the boat performs better when you sail single. You can generate enough wind speed to double the wind speed.

More than 8 knots wind, it is rock and roll, it requires constant precision on sail adjustment and rudder. For me, I prefer to reduce the sail surface over 10 knots.

The boat is very stable and sails smoothly. My wife enjoyed sailing under 5 knots. As for me, I am not comfortable to push that boat at 20 knots.

We had a lot of good days with that boat but all of them were bellow 8 knots wind. I am too old to fight with elements.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012819245191

Here is a video update for the Sardine Run 19 trimaran. It comes to us from Allel Behidj of the Sardine Run boatyard in France.

We first featured this boat prior to the first one being built. And the Sardine 19 concept is now reality.

This sailboat, made with modern composite materials, looks terrific … especially with those inverted bows.

Even at just 19′ LOA, its tramps provide lots of room for sailors. You can find all of the specs for this boat on Sardine’s webpage here.

Allel, in an email to me, wrote the following:

The boat is very balanced and powerful enough. With her inverted bows she smoothly passes through the waves, it is a pleasure to sail with.

The owner of the boat will discover the boat during this summer. This is the prototype so I think some things will change.

The next step is to make the plans available for amateur boatbuilders ( autumn ) and probably build a mold for a composite construction during the next year ( and off course using always the basalt fiber ). If someone wants a Sardine 19 then I am the person to contact.

— Allel

Designer Richard Woods shared the following pieces of news-info with us regarding a few of his designs. I thought we’d collectively them them here in this post.

……………

Duo dinghy / Tryst trimaran News…

Richards wrote:
I received a photo of Peet’s 10ft 2 sheet ply Duo dinghy a couple of weeks ago. It was the first boat he had ever built. Now, like so many people (including me) he has converted it to the Tryst trimaran, although slightly modified from the original drawings.
Peete wrote:
“I used simple ex-army surplus fibre glass tent poles for the crossbeams). It works well for my larger body (105kg) and I have been out with my son (he is 95kg) and we never had a problem with swamping the boat. The wind was strong and the swells high on Lake Ontario. Building the Duo/Tryst has taught me the basic skills I needed, and also very strongly re-enforced the principle of not making the boat stronger (read heavier !!!) than the original design. I would strongly suggest that all novices start with a small design before starting on their second boat!”

More on the Tryst here: http://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/27-trimarans-under-25/428-tryst-trimaran

Strike 15 News…

Richard wrote:
Patrick in France sails both a Strike 15 and a Strike 20. You recently posted a video of his Strike 20 sailing. Now he reports on his Strike 15 sailing.
Patrick wrote:
“On 23 July, I raced the Round Sanguinet Lake, singlehanded. I finished 13 over 33 on the line after 1h 53 min, behind the A class cats but before every other boat, including Dart 18 single and double-handed, and including a Hobie 18 with spi. I was 13th at the windward mark, but the next leg was too close winded to take advantage of the screecher, and, as the Darts are faster on close reaching, owing to their longer waterline, two of them passed me. On the last leg I passed them broad reaching.”

More on the Strike 15 here: http://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/27-trimarans-under-25/223-strike-15-trimaran

Strike 18 News…

Richard wrote:
I just updated my FB page with a couple of Strike 18 new stories. – https://www.facebook.com/richard.woods.designs/

A video here:

… and then an excellent report (again) of a cruise in our old Strike 18, this time on my forum pages: http://woodsdesigns.freeforums.org/strike-18-visit-to-saguenay-fjord-in-quebec-t230.html#p1569

More on the Strike 18 here: http://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/27-trimarans-under-25/168-strike-18

Zeta 14 Trimaran News…

Richard wrote:
… Meantime we are close to finishing the prototype 14ft Zeta trimaran, it should be sailing in a couple of weeks and will be on display at this years Port Townsend Wooden boat festival.

More on the Zeta trimaran here: http://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/27-trimarans-under-25/458-zeta-14ft-singlehanded-trimaran

Sailor Christofer Olsson has done it again. A new self-built sporty small trimaran design.

His Chryz 10 turned out to be pretty neat. But now he has put a new boat on the water he calls the “Chryz Outlaw trimaran.”

Info from Chris and a couple videos below.

………………..

The Chryz Outlaw trimaran
by Christofer Olsson

Here is my new Chryz Outlaw trimaran, which I have built the last 7 month! I tried to make it more right this time, using the lessons learned from Chryz10. All failure from last years boat, I tried to make better this time.
The result is Chryz Outlaw — 18 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 26 feet carbon mast.

Here are the major improvements:
* Slim main hull
* side hull, same length as main hull
* Mast in exactly the center of the boat (more like Spindrift and other fast tris)
* Triple waterstays, to keep boat stiff
* Automated Easy to handle, 2x furler, spinlock PXR clam cleats for less mess
* Longer … longer is faster, nothing beats a longer boat
* Self-tacking jib
* Self-retracting-lines, for less mess
* Divinycell + fiber glass and some carbon, (No wood!!!)

More results at my blog www.chryz10.com

Have test-sailed for two days, not much wind 2nd day. Here are two videos :)
Day 1

Day 2 (with some tweaks)

The first Zeta trimaran, a new design from Richard Woods, is now under sail. We first featured the Zeta here.

Here are some pics and a video of the first sail of the first boat. Looks pretty good, especially with light wind.

One obvious goal of the pictures is to emphasize the boat’s lightness in weight. That is surely a great feature, especially for guys that want to easily trailer (or cartop) a boat to a nearby body of water, go sailing for a couple of hours, and then pack the boat up for the trip back home.

Richard will have this Zeta on display at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival about a month from now … from September 9-11.

Building plans for the Zeta trimaran can be obtained from Richard via his website.

Here are a few of the many YouTube videos featuring Paraw outrigger sailing canoes. They are amazingly fast, in addition to being colorful.

I love the unique trampoline configuration. While the center hull itself is almost completely decked-over, the wide tramps allow for many passengers.

One thing I am not sure about are the steering control lines attached to the rudder. There are no tillers or push-pull sticks, just control lines. Is that comfortable on the hands? One of the videos below seems to show the control line being fed through a block. If anyone can find a video or illustration that offers some more details on the ways this control line is arranged then we’d appreciate links in the “comments” section below.

Cowboy sailing a Paraw…

This first minute of the following video shows the hoisting of the mainsail…

Hang on please…

Cockpit seating…

Where to test-drive a Paraw yourself…

After seeing our previous post featuring Paraws, sailor Bill Lovelock shares the following pictures with us. He took these photos of sailing Paraws in Borocay in 2009.

Many of them are wonderfully detailed when it comes to the rigging of these unique boats. So many thanks to him for sharing them with us here!

Bill also shared the following when sending these pics:

Here are a few photos I took of Visayan sailing paraws in Borocay in 2009. I believe there are some close-ups of the steering setup.

I really loved the little Paraw we took our short sail on at Borocay. EVERYTHING, with the exception of one or two blocks, is homemade by the locals. They use inner tube rubber, cables that we use for clotheslines in the states to support the mast, pieces of flip-flops or whatever is handy and useful.

No electrical tape seen anywhere! It’s too expensive and hard to come by. It is an “Honest” boat built and sailed by locals using whatever they have available to them. They managed to put everything together to take a few paying tourists sailing so they can feed their families. Most admirable in my estimation!

I’m mostly a fair-weather sailor, but in light winds sitting on the very taunt home-made mono-filament fishing line trampolines facing forward with your feet dangling in the water cruising slowly along the coast is the closest thing to heaven for me. We cruised down to the end of the island and had a good look at Manny Paquio’s fantastic beach dwelling on the side of the cliff. Awesome!

I’m married to a Filipina and have maintained a residence there for 25 years. 20 years ago, I had an older local man set up a sailing Paraw for me from an 18 foot banca fishing boat. There are no other sailing Paraws around in the local vicinity and the younger guys had to observe the older fisherman setting it all up.

When he was younger, ALL the bancas used sail, but now days they all use 2-cylincder Briggs and Stratton air cooled motors that most likely cause permanent hearing damage and scare the hell out of all the fish.

A nice neighbor lady made me a beautiful tri-colored sail and I had lots of fun on that little boat for a couple of years. I have photos of it if you would like to see it. The termites eventually got the best of my little Paraw but I still have the tiller and the sail stored away.

It seems these locally built boats only last a couple of years before they succumb to the elements or the local insects. I also had a 25 foot fiberglass over marine plywood fishing skiff built 15 years ago and the termites eventually got to that too.

After my Visayan Paraw adventure at Borocay, I decided I really wanted one of the Paraws at my place which is hundreds of miles north of Borocay and in a different region of the Philippines. I got the names of a couple of local builders who build the Borocay Paraws and discovered (in 2009) I could have one of these boats built for about $3,000 USD. The problem would be getting it back to my place and once again I was concerned about termites. I’m still working and only get a chance to visit the Philippines a few short times each year, so I figured the boat would be eaten up before I’d had a chance to use it much.

Best Regards,
Bill Lovelock

Sailor John Ward is selling his Tridarka Raider. This is a very interesting boat design, originally developed for the “chief” of Watertribe.

The Tridarka Raider was featured in the book More Small Trimarans.

John sent me the following info about this boat (below).

Anyone interested in possibly purchasing it may contact John via email – jcward AT bellsouth DOT net

Tridarka Raider Trimaran for Sale

Primary sailing venue: Lake Murray on Chapin, SC
Why this boat: Easy to rig, fast, safe
How I got it: Bought her from 3rd owner in Atlanta, Ga.
How often sailed: Once a month ( I sail a Windrider 16 too)
What I really like about it: Quality of construction, very strong but light

Additional info/notes:
— Like it a lot but my age is slowing me down! Windrider 16 is better for me to sail.
— Now has sprit with cruising spinnaker, LED running lights, tactical compass, dodger.
— Rigs and launch 30 min.
— Top speed – close haul, 16 knots … broad reach, 18 knots … verified on GPS.
— A real one of kind