Chamberlin Cirro Stratus 33 and Crowther Impala 38

[dennisail]

Would this be a suitable cruising tri for Australian east coast and asia? Would it be cramped with 2 people and the occasional 3 or 4? Tankage is a joke and I am not sure if the 7hp has enough go for safety if you need to punch into a strong wind. Looks very fast.

http://www.multihulls.net.au/index.php?page=ed&de=59235

What about this crowther? It says it has 3.5 foot draft. Seems a lot for a multi. Guess you cant raise the boards. Looks like a lot of boat for the money.

http://www.multihulls.net.au/index.php?page=ed&de=72126

[Factor]

Both will be fine. The cirro's are particularly good sailing boats. The impalas are fine for coastal work.

Just one thing with the Cirro's - the cockpit is a bit weird. But you can get used to it.

[DaveOnCudjoe]

These are good examples of what tris should be. The aux in the Cirro is perfect and the Crowther overpowered but what the hell, a good place to save weight at a future time. Draft is likely to the rudder. Plenty of room, much more usable than the 9A from an earlier thread. Price seems like a lot of boat for the money, how are the sails, standing and running rigging? I am a great admirer of Loch Crowther, amazing how closely the Cirro resembles a Twiggy isn't it? What a great trip you could have with eather of these boats. Dave

[dennisail]

Thanks. The thing I like about the cirro is its very shallow draft of 0.5m. Will this be regularly beach-able? Will it sit on its rudder? What about tankage? It has something like 30L fuel and 40L water. Surely that is woefully inadequate for cruising from Brisbane then around asia? The boat looks fast and I guess it wont use much fuel with an 8hp yanmar, nor will the engine need to be run much when you have boat that sails well. (I hate motoring).

The crowther looks much more spacious and has a much better protected cockpit. Will this still be a good performer? I want to be noticeably faster than finned keel glass monos and have decent performance in light tropical breezes so I don't have to run that smelly noisy engine.

I sailed a piver 31 and it was a slow as hell unless you had 20K winds, and wouldn't sail to windward. I take it these 2 designs will be much better in both regards?

[DaveOnCudjoe]

Dennisail, You must keep the weight out of these tris. If 40L of water is too little(and it is) add a watermaker and run it off the engine because a battery bank of adequate size is too heavy. My F-31 will do 110% of wind speed on a reach up to about 22knts where I chicken out. My Piver 27 would do 10knts but only with less than 5 people aboard, with the 5th person speed dropped to about 6knts. The F boat will point well up to about 45deg off true wind, the Piver was 50. The F-31 will carry about 1400-1500lbs depending on build weight, that's crew, provisions, gear including sails and outboard, water and fuel. That's the ugly truth about trimarans, if you can't live within those restrictions get a cat. You should be able to find max gross weight of each of those boats. A crane or travel lift should be able to give you a ballpark weight and the differance is your max load. It's worth the sacrifice. Dave

[dennisail]

Thanks Dave. I have only just seen the add so far. Just emailed him some questions. How would you expect the cirro to perform compared to your F31? Nice boat BTW. I love farriers.

The thing is I can not afford a cat. Any cat in my price range would have a lot less space than a tri, plus be less seaworthy. I also think trimarans are the best looking boats out there and best value for money in a multi.

I am aware of the concerns of overloading a tri. Performance and safety is compromised with too much weight. However one still needs to carry some fuel and water. I know water makers are the best as you don't need to carry much more than 50L. But the costs are horrendous. What sort of prices would I be looking at? I missed out on one for $2000 that was the smallest electric one you can get. I am all for DIY if this is possible? I am fine with salt water showers and using salt for washing up with a few cups of fresh just to rinse the salt water off me after a shower.

An engine powered water maker would still require more tankage for fuel anyhow. What sort of load carrying capacity would you estimate a tri like the cirro has? Would 100L of fuel and 100L of water be too much when combined with all other cruising gear?

Here is a review on the cirro I found. I'm still unsure on the cockpits. can 2 people even fit in one?

http://www.multihull-maven.com/Boats/Cirrostratus_10

[Factor]

at that price I think I would be simply looking to buy the boat that is in the best condition. Tankage for water is not a huge deal - just get a bladder when you need extra.

One of the guys at the brokerage with those boats is Jim, he has owned a number of tris including at least one crowther - have a chat with him.

[Slowing Down]

A freind of mine has a Crowther Impala 38 that sails pretty good but his has a swing keel. It actually sails to windward well. He has decent space but he widened his wings to accomodate a double in each side and added a transom extension of 2 ft I think. His auxilary is a VW based 50 or 60 HP pathfinder. We're doing the Baha-ha-ha this year in it.
It has alot of reserve bouyancy and feels like a cork. Feels very safe.

[DaveOnCudjoe]

Dennisail,
I wouldn't expect eather of these to perform like the F-31 which is just a coastal boat. As I said earlier it's all about weight and the F's don't have to built for offshore.
Dave

[Skip JayR]

I warm up this thread as I fell shortly over Chamberlin CirroStratus on my own... a miracle of "roomy Tri" for that tiny size...

.... and the Crowther IMPALA. With nearby 12 meters length and a displacement of ~3.5 tons.


Hardly there are no informations about this boat to find on the web. It seems some few had been built in the 70th. - Right ? So probably most infos before the times of the Internet.

Does anybody here has some more details about the original specifications ? E.g. Sail plan, Floor plan... would be great to see some snaps/scans. Corley noticed in 2012, that all plans are in the Crowther archive and not for sales. (Rec.: I dont plan to build an own Trimaran. Not my thing. I am more curiously about the design itself, and the seaworthyness/performance of this boat.)

Did Crowther sell the plans for self builders, too ? - How many had been built in numbers ?

There is a little video about the Crowther Tri Shaponda (it seems this boat was for sales couple of years ago). The clip gives a little idea about the interior design. Very neat cosy boat. There was a discussion in 2010 about this boat in the forum of BoatDesign.net with the same "thread topic name".

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4eqmN59kw

And I understand it right ? There was built a bigger version. In the BoatDesign Forum they had talked about a Crowther 42... this one. What a beauty.... classical elegant lines.






Is this 42 footer from 1987 a single built boat ? Regularly a crowther 42 is a Catamaran as seen on Sailboatdata.

Tks in advance for more details.

P.S.: There is a skipper Dave Mitchell in Australia who owns (or owned) one, doing sail charter. So it seems a very roomy boat.