Formula 40 Trimaran-Spirit

[trimaranspirit]

Hi I'm new to the Forum but have been an avid reader for a long time. In September 2010 I bought the old Spirit of England now just called Spirit from Stonington, Connecticut in the US. So far we've made it to Tahiti where she's been on the hard during the Cyclone season. In April I'll head back to continue the journey.

We've done a blog along the way trying to give info to where we have been, how we've done things and other information we thought maybe interesting. Trying to keep it simple and relevant to sailing, the water and living ones dreams on the cheap and easy.

Please follow the link below if you'd like to see more. Also if you have any interesting blogs or information on Spirit in her day please post it here as I love learning more about others sailing around on Multihulls and Spirit's past.

Happy Sailing.

Spirit

The trimaran and multihull sailing blog

[tamicatana]

I have the DVD about her AZAB race. Your boat and her history are both very kewl. Thanks!

[multihullsailor6]

I had Spirit in my radar for a long time while looking for a boat, great to see she went to a good home. Proof that a racing tri can be used for cruising.

[FIERYCROSS]

Hi - I am very interested to hear that spirit is still sailing. I have acquired Fiery Cross, which is Merfyn Owens first trimaran prototype built in 1988 for Round Britain and Ireland. It has been sitting for 7 years, but is original and it was so well built that it needs little more than a jet wash. I will be replacing all the ropes, sails and electrics over the next few months and then sailing her in the direction of sun and blue water. Hope to join Spirit and any other ex racing trimarans which are now cruising. Kind regards stephan.

[Skip JayR]

Originally Posted by FIERYCROSS

Hi - I am very interested to hear that spirit is still sailing. I have acquired Fiery Cross, which is Merfyn Owens first trimaran prototype built in 1988 for Round Britain and Ireland. It has been sitting for 7 years, but is original and it was so well built that it needs little more than a jet wash. I will be replacing all the ropes, sails and electrics over the next few months and then sailing her in the direction of sun and blue water. Hope to join Spirit and any other ex racing trimarans which are now cruising. Kind regards stephan.

Welcome in the CF... great you made it to aquire an own TRI (Rec.: I am still looking for mine.)

I suppose you are talking about 35 ft. Tri Fiery Cross designed in 1987 by Owen Clark Design, right ? - FC was sailed by London based IT-consultant Donald McHardy for the Europe 1 New Man STAR race in 2000.
In 2002 it got some structural problems in the bow section during the Two handed "Round Britain" during heavy weather.

You have some photos to get an idea how it looks now ????

Trimaran Spirit was refitted in 2014-2015 completly... after it was sailed from USA to "down under"... https://www.facebook.com/trimaranspirit

The fully refit you find documented here.
The Adventures Of

So I suppose you have to sail to Australia to compete against Spirit :-)

We have another thread here in the forum about Formula 40 Trimarans... feel free to come over. :-) Same topic discussed in the "boat builder forum" (same free access and registration there).

[FIERYCROSS]

Hi SkipJR - yes i have been waiting to buy FC for 7 years and in the meantime I owned a C Class wingsail prototype and and Open 30 - but all the time I really wanted a Tri. But it had to be the right Tri and I was after Goudgeon Brothers but have not found one yet.

Fiery Cross is exactly as you say and the bow damage has been completely rebuilt with kevlar reinforcement. There is also an additional sealed bulkhead so that the front 3 ft are separate airtight compartment to the rest of the hull.

FC will be launched next April and I am already well underway in her refit with the rigging happening tomorrow and a new main sail is ordered. She will be repainted in the next few weeks. I plan to completely refit the inside over the winter to make her a bit more of a cruiser than her current minimal racing interior.

FC will sail to Australia and hope to race with her younger sister, but probably not until 2017 or 18 - it is the plan anyway and I want to do it once I feel confident that she is back up to it and I have a few miles breaking her in. She will stay light and without an inboard because I hate those things. At the moment I am completely sold on keeping her to the original, but once I speak with Mr Owen that might change depending on his recommendations.

I will join the Multihull Forum and post pictures. Next week I will publish a website to log the progress and post the link.

Stephan

[trimaranspirit]

Hi all,

Great news Fierycross!!!! Fantastic to see old tris getting some new love and a new lease of life.
Can't wait for you to post some more info. We started our FB page as it seemed the easiest way for us to do quick and easy updates and it's a good way to look back and see the history your making.
There's a heap of info on ours if you have the time to delve into it.
We also ditched the inboard for an outboard, we also took onboard lithium batteries and saved around 160kgs!!! we worked really hard to keep the boat light and try and maintain her original shape while improving her cruiseability.
What a great adventure your on!!
There's a lot of people out there building tris with the same dream so when you have time please pass on some photos and keep us updated to your progress.
Take your time across the Pacific it's a magical place and some of the worlds best cruising grounds of you haven't already been. We think we will head back out there again sometime soon??
At the moment we have just completed in the Darwin to Ambon yacht race with Spirit taking out the double and will base ourselves around Asia for the next year or so???
Look forward to seeing you on the water.
We have all the old videos that the original owner Peter Cluterbuck produced and Fierycross is mentioned in a most of them, it seems like the two boats were well connected in the old racing days 😊
A big congratulations from Spirit and crew!!!!!

[FIERYCROSS]

Hi Spirit - great to hear from you and very reassuring that Fierys younger sister is living the dream in blue waters.
I spent the day today on the mast, mainly hetwashing it and meeting potential riggers. Considering I have owned FC for two weeks, it is satisfying how quickly she is coming back to life. I only have weekends as I work a very demanding job and FC is 2 hours drive away before I even start.
The mast was unstepped this week so it lay there on trestles next to FC. without the mast OMG the radio aeriel on the stern is huge - I am not sure if I need a 20ft high antenna on the back!
Lasts weeks work left the interior completely stripped and the outside perfectly clean. After 7 years of sitting in the yard FC came up sparkling - although the paint needs touching up in places and she will benefit from a complete paint job and new copper coat.
The hurry is to get the rigging sorted while the mast is down because in 4 weeks the yard will start to fill with boats and the crane will not be able to put the mast back until April. So I am getting riggers to look over the mast and make their recommendations - however the 57' Proctor looks straight and almost like new, amazing considering what she has been through. Jet washing cleaned up the mast till it really did look new. We worked out the rigging at the top of the mast quickly and calculated the new halyard lengths. The issues are the ProFurl was stuck in place, but it is gradually loosening up with playing with it so I think it is going to be OK. The vertical steel rigging diamond wires and all thats in-between the three spreaders looks OK to me, but I am being recommended to replace it all the same - thats expensive and seems unnecessary and i can't decide.
I have been very excited about hearing from Merfyn Owen yesterday and can't wait for the call on wednesday - I wonder how interested he will be in his child prodigy?! whether he cares or not, whether he considered her a success or just an early attempt before he got it right. I will tell him about Spirit anyhow well she is doing.
The hulls are now completely empty and everything is in the container I knocked up last week - it was the only solution to the problem I could think of. It worked out well and is big enough for all the sails and bits and pieces. I keep finding out what various bits are for and which ropes and blocks fit where, and so far nothing is missing except the main sail and baton system. I received two batteries today, I have not invested in Lion yet, but it is the intention once things are underway. First I am going to connect the batteries and test all existing wiring next week. Then we shall see what is required to replace. The windex, direction and VHF antenna on top of the mast are all broken but they will be easy to replace and I will have it done by next week. The pictures speak for themselves, particularly the difference before and after jet washing! and the pictures of the mast show what I am up against in trying to figure everything out.
Met John today who owns a 35 ft shuttle worth and is quite a few years ahead of me in terms of trimaran ownership. It was really good to meet another tri owner because there are so many things I need a second opinion about - one of them is the outboard and its mounting. In the pictures you will see the strange sink looking thing that is the outboard clamp attachment - bizarre. I have been trying to redesign a better solution, although I understand why it was designed that way - I still don't like it. So John suggested a transom mounted thing that fits at the very rear of the swim platform - I can lay with the height and hopefully get away with a short shaft outboard which can also be used on the dinghy. I am not keen on engines on sailing boats although they are necessity when coming into a marina, but the rest of the time there is no excuse to use them IMHO. I really want all those things like fusions, solar panels, sink, LCD screen, nag gadgets etc, but I realise the basic boat is what matters for now, so I will wait until I know Fiery Cross and have had time to build a mental picture of how best to use the space, which was described in an interview with Merfyn Owen as a space for a Hamster on a Diet (and thats nothing like me btw).
I would be very interested to know if other similar trio's use their outriggers as water tanks? and if so are they sectioned into separate compartments? and if so how are they connected? are they connected internally through the beams? for some reason my outriggers have four water compartments each and they are isolated with only 4 sealed caps on each outrigger. How I am going to clean these out is a big question, there is no bad smell and they are dry, but I don't fancy truing to drink water out of them. FC is also missing her tiller extension which for me is a necessity as I am an F18 Nacra sailer and wouldn't be without one. So I am going to have to get one or make one. I have seen extending telescopic carbon poles for fishing or for mic booms - has any one any ideas about what to do about a practical tiller extension that can be used on the beams or on the net? here is the link to my photo bucket, it is three weekends all in one bucket, but it speaks for itself. Next step is to start a FaceBook page for FieryCross.
AAAAAAFIERYCROSS Slideshow by sjjborg | Photobucket
they are not in order - just the last three weekends - 5 days work in all.
The sail quote came in and we are choosing a Fabric called DP Flex Ultra ,
this Laminate is Dyneema based with a light taffeta both sides , this produces the performance for Racing and the durability for Cruising , the fabric is also UV and anti Mildew Coated - the verdict is still out but this is the favourite option so far.

[Skip JayR]

Originally Posted by FIERYCROSS

Considering I have owned FC for two weeks, it is satisfying how quickly she is coming back to life. I only have weekends as I work a very demanding job and FC is 2 hours drive away before I even start....

here is the link to my photo bucket, it is three weekends all in one bucket, but it speaks for itself. Next step is to start a FaceBook page for FieryCross.
AAAAAAFIERYCROSS Slideshow by sjjborg | Photobucket

Holy Cow ! .... that looks for lots of different jobs to bring her back to the beautyness she had been. She has very filigreely lines. A sweet boat promising lots of fun and speed.

You must really have fallen in love with that boat to wait 7 years to get her. The cockpit (beside the shiny chrome winches) and many other parts looks terrible and needs a complete repainting.

I like the self bearing Mast... great concept, complicated and challenging for any mast/rig builder. :-) with great opportunities for detailled trimming.

Only working on weekend it will take some years I suppose if you target at a fully refit, isnt ? - You just want sail like hell front coast or do a fully refitting for long distance sailing as we have seen it with Spirit ?

Originally Posted by FIERYCROSS

I would be very interested to know if other similar trio's use their outriggers as water tanks?

Pls adress this question in the specific thread I started as I had such thinking, too (and a little bit more provocatively to extend the center hull's weight into the amas)...

What to do that Amas (Outriggers) aren't "dead space" for a Tri ?

And best I may suggest, you open an own thread.... not to spoil Trimaran Spirit's own one... otherwise we get lost in a total mix of different topics. :-)

[spirit-ne]

Spirit has landed on the US east coast! I am delighted to become the new steward of this amazing sailboat. We came very close to sailing Spirit from Indonesia, but in the end it wasn’t meant to be and we loaded her to a cargo ship in Singapore. 45 days later—yesterday—she is splashed just south of Charleston.

Mast is down, and we have not too much work to do to get ready for the journey up to Spirit’s new home in Boston. I say not too much work because Spirit is in absolutely immaculate condition, sans a lot of dirt from the cargo experience.

Much thanks to user trimaranspirit, now a dear friend. I learn something new about Spirit, and about sailing, every time we speak. After ten years they left this beautiful boat better than they found it in every conceivable way.

Hope to see many of you out on the water!

AJ

[Franziska]

Congratulations! Gorgeous boat I saw her 1994 in Southampton and was dreaming of something like her.
All be it, stayed a dream. Glad you can fulfill yours!
Enjoy and smooth & safe sailing!

[Skip JayR]

Great news ! She deserves to explore the seas again. Congrats to the new owners. Would be wonderful, if you can keep going the reportages about your sailing as Jason and Claudia did in photo and video documentations.

Boston, hm... so you are close by to Greene Marine in Yarmouth (New England), where legendary Multihull specialist Walter Greene has his ship yard. If you need specialists for any issues, its the right address.

Have you overtaken also the different web platforms, e.g. website ( https://trimaranspirit.weebly.com/ ), Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/trimaranspirit/ ) and Youtube. Would be great, the interesting content of historical value about this unique boat won´t be lost.

I (and some of the multihull enthusiasts around the globe) would appreciate it if you can get from Jason the videos about Spirit (easily to migrate to an online archive like Google Photoshop/Google Drive) and from there build up a new YT channel (the old one has lots of nice clips part of the history of this unique F40 Tri ... https://www.youtube.com/user/jasongard/videos ).

If you need any support in online medias, feel free to give me a ping.

Regards from Europe/HNY 2020 & Fair Winds !
Cpt. JayR

+++

[andreas.mehlin]

Originally Posted by spirit-ne

Spirit has landed on the US east coast! I am delighted to become the new steward of this amazing sailboat. We came very close to sailing Spirit from Indonesia, but in the end it wasn’t meant to be and we loaded her to a cargo ship in Singapore. 45 days later—yesterday—she is splashed just south of Charleston.

Mast is down, and we have not too much work to do to get ready for the journey up to Spirit’s new home in Boston. I say not too much work because Spirit is in absolutely immaculate condition, sans a lot of dirt from the cargo experience.

Much thanks to user trimaranspirit, now a dear friend. I learn something new about Spirit, and about sailing, every time we speak. After ten years they left this beautiful boat better than they found it in every conceivable way.

Hope to see many of you out on the water!

AJ

Congratulations!
A really awesome boat!

I have had many helpful contacts with the previous owners about their rebuild along we are restoring our trimaran.

good luck with spirit and I hope we can see some post later on

[CaptainPete222]

Originally Posted by spirit-ne

Spirit has landed on the US east coast! I am delighted to become the new steward of this amazing sailboat. We came very close to sailing Spirit from Indonesia, but in the end it wasn’t meant to be and we loaded her to a cargo ship in Singapore. 45 days later—yesterday—she is splashed just south of Charleston.

Mast is down, and we have not too much work to do to get ready for the journey up to Spirit’s new home in Boston. I say not too much work because Spirit is in absolutely immaculate condition, sans a lot of dirt from the cargo experience.

Much thanks to user trimaranspirit, now a dear friend. I learn something new about Spirit, and about sailing, every time we speak. After ten years they left this beautiful boat better than they found it in every conceivable way.

Hope to see many of you out on the water!

AJ

Are you still based out of Boston? I’m in the process of purchasing Kachina, a Chris White designed 40’ tri that looks very similar to Spirit. I very much like the curved beams that enable the sizable trampolines on both sides of the cockpit and am interested in adding on something similar. We live in Yarmouth, Maine and if you’re in the area, please let me know so I can get a closer look at the beams and, of course, say hello.

[spirit-ne]

Yep. I’m traveling through early July but would be happy to meet up then. Most likely Spirit will be on a mooring in Salem harbor, but sometimes around Portland or the cape islands. In prior summers we’ve been out sailing around Salem/Marblehead most weekends but we haven’t launched yet this year because I still need to finish a growing list of winter maintenance and work is in the way.

Good luck on Kachina. I have been super happy with this adventure and have a lot of fun.