Sailor Jim Gallant is finalizing a conversion of his self-built hydrofoil to a conventional tri. He took some time to share with us about how he made the large tramps for this project.
Great info with us here. DIYers are especially going to love this. Seeing others do stuff like this is inspiring.
(Many thanks for taking time to both show and explain the basics here Jim! And we’re already looking forward to your next report
Jim writes:
Can’t remember if I sent you pics of my latest build. Am converting my hydrofoil tri to a conventional tri with Nacra 5.2 hulls as amas. A friend let me use his industrial sewing machine and I finally got my tramps made and installed. Used mesh from this company:
Trampoline Fabric Manufacturers and Supplier https://www.trampolineproshop.com/trampoline-fabric.php
The nice lady who answered the phone said plenty of people have bought their fabric for multihull tramps. Way cheaper than sailrite or seattle fabrics. So cheap that I got enough to do double layer.
They attach to the vaka with boltropes, and then to either slug slides in rails or wound around the crossbars at the front, rear and outer sides. I used 1/8″ dyneema for my lacing rope. It’s got a 2,800 pound breaking strength.
Stood on the tramps for the first time today making my new lazy jacks. They’re really tight and feel great. I had the choice of getting calendared or uncalendered cloth. After some reading, I got the uncalendered, mainly for the strongest possible cloth since calendering can weaken the cloth.
The tramps are huge. Will definitely try to keep the boat level so as not to let much air under there. Sewed some pockets for jib sheets and halyards at the front/inside areas of the tramps.
I used the gray plastic, UV-resistant electric conduit that Home Depot sells for the rods in the seamed, folded over edges at the front, rear and outer edges. That conduit is really hard to break, and seems to work fine for tensioning the tramps.
All I have now is to finish modifying my mainsail cover and to make foresail covers (I have 2 jibs). Trying to make it as easy as possible to set up and take down and store sails. Will give a report when I get it back on the water, hopefully in the next week.
Click on the images below to enlarge:
