Trimaran - Especially Searunner - Owners

[Rotten Ricky]

Hello Roy and other interested visitors to BC,

Any enlightened sailors (i.e. multi-hullers!) are welcome to join any BC Multihull Society event, and there will be many others of interest to you here in BC, depending on your interest:

BCMS Spring Sail-In - Port Browning May 21-23, 2016
BCMS Newcastle Island Sail-In - probably July 23-24 along with Nanaimo Sea Festival with fireworks and bathtub racing (yes - we are crazy!)
Cowichan Bay Regatta - July 29-31, 2016 - a big international event for both monos and lots of multi-hullers with strong, reliable winds, close viewing and plenty of social interaction off the course.
Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival - August 18-21, 2016
BCMS Fall Sail-In - Port Browning Sept. 3-5, 2016
Pender Harbour Jazz Festival - Sept. 16-18. Pender Harbour is a wonderful harbour with lots of excellent sheltered anchoring.

BCMS sail-ins include a BBQ, informal race and a restaurant dinner.

Your US dollar will give you a big advantage up here.

Let us know if you need help in planning your visit at all.

RR.

[jdazey]

There have been a lot of great multihulls and sailors out of BC over the years. I'd love to attend some of these events (Gulf Islands are wonderful), but it will be a few years before my boat makes it to this side of the continent

[Roy M]

Well, I am now getting contact with Iverson Dodgers, sent them pics, and will soon be talking with them about details. Hopefully they will be complete by May. I'm very excited. I am shooting for the full enchilada: dodger, bimini and full enclosure to be prepared for tropics to Pacific Northwest drenchers.

[md7a]

With Pineapple Express (SR31 #105) out of the water I've been reminded of the difficulty of launching and retrieving a dinghy from the A-frame 31.
Anyone have a suggestion on how to lift and stow a hard dinghy conveniently and single-handed?
I keep my dinghy in the usual place - in the net midships and overlapping the hatch deck on the port ama.
I've been moderately successful lifting my little 60lb Sabot with a spinnaker pole attached at the outer tip to the running backstay and at the inner end to a cleat on the coaming. The challenge is getting the single lift point exactly right, and then getting the dink aboard without smashing stuff.
I've tried lifting with a halyard but found that the deflection outboard tends to jam the halyard at the masthead.
Has anyone tried davits on the ama? Do roller arrangements on the stern work for the smaller Searunners as well as the 37's?

[Randy]

I had a 31 for years and also used a Sabot but from my experience you're over thinking this. I always just pulled it up over the stern beam and up over the aft a-frame. Real easy.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Buzzman]

You might like to try hauling it side-on and flip-over at the same time over the outer ama gunnel.

A single pulley mounted amidships on the vaka, with line lead from the cockpit winch via block to a bridle and two connections on the outer gunnel of the sabot.

Haul it up and over itself.

You might need a flip-outboard 'rest' so that the inner gunnel ofthe sabot doesn't submerge, and you'd need a couple of large cushions or sail bags (or a second pair of hands) to 'catch' the sabot as it flips past the vertical and crashes down.

But it might work.....

[Roy M]

I have a forty-footer, so it's a bit different, but the dynamics are roughly the same. I installed a series of trailer rollers to handle the keel of a 10foot six inch Fiberglass RIB with a heavy 15 horse engine and associated gear. My trick is to lift the bow onto the aftmost roller, then secure the halyard to a lifting bridle attached to the transom eyes. It's a two-step process for such a heavy load, but it works really well. It will work even better when I modify the mast head for twin lifting guys. Once the bow is raised in place and secured, I switch to the afterguy which raises the transom and outboard to a level position, then gravity takes over and the whole dinghy and outboard slide forward on the remaining rollers until they hit the bow stop. Then it's just a matter of installing the tie down straps and cinching things secure. Then I cover the whole shebang with a dinghy cover to keep the inside drier in rough weather. I need to take some current pics to make it clearer, sorry. They will be forthcoming as I am trying to finish the painting of the cabin top and the cockpit details before the fierce winter rains commence.

[Skeezix]

Originally Posted by Mark Johnson

Another thought... John plans on designing a new "trailerable" folding tri just for his local cruising in Maine. I don't know if he will put them in is portfolio? If so, however... This would be a project that most folks could do in < a year, and for beans. It would also be so neat to have your boat sitting in your yard during the off season, perhaps under a shed roof. It would be protected, and have NO marina fees too.

Just a thought,
Mark

Assuming "John" is John Marples. Did anything come of this? I have looked at his site and don't know which of the designs there might be this one, if any.

I don't own a boat yet ... 5 years to retirement and thinking about how to spend it sailing. Yeah, I know ... emphasis on "spend". Looking at small cruising tris for the shallow draft, comfort underway, flexible uses and sailing fun. Thinking I might prefer building one. Yes you usually can buy a boat cheaper ... but that requires you to spend the money all at once. If I won a small lottery, I'd quit and buy that good-looking SR31 up in Toronto right now. But I will more likely work at this in stages.

I am gradually plowing piecemeal through this monster of a thread because the plan I like best is Searunner 31. (Lots of good info to apply to any boat, too.) I like the center cockpit for singlehanding and for separation from the Admiral so she can sleep or use the head while I make my sunrise breakfast. And the walkway necessary to travel the length of the cabin in an aft cockpit boat seems like a waste of precious square footage. But the big glitch is that I must have a trailer folder. I live on a trout stream that feeds a canoe river. About an hour to the Mississippi, two hours to Lake Pepin, four to Milwaukee or Green Bay, five to Duluth, or other shorter time to a variety of inland lakes. I know most folders end up sitting unfolded in the water, but I'm sure I won't commit to one body. And I might snowbird with it.

I have not found a reference to any conversions of Searunners to folding. Lots of other folding types out there, but if you remove all the Farrier-types the list shortens by a lot. I want to be able to fold underway to motor and keep the amas in their design orientation. While most look at that for entering and leaving marinas, which is good, my thought is for gunkholing, especially up backchannels on the Miss. So horizontal folders or sliders. Saw one that said it could slide underway but I vetoed it for some reason now forgotten.

I have found these horizontal folders ...
-Marples DC-3 ... leading candidate so far, but has anybody built one yet? Looks like the "prototype builder" who created a DC- 3 website and Facebook site fizzled. Can't motor while folded as designed, but probably not hard to fix that.
-Argonauta, but the front half of that boat seems really wasted, and I don't like the idea of it being so difficult to get to the rudder. One should be able to walk the perimeter of any cruiser.
-Telstar 28 ... out of production. Neat features ... folding system has some benefits, though complex, and that mast-raising system looks superb. Aft cockpit but I like the fore head. Could add a light bulkhead to separate the galley from the lazybones.
- Outrageously-priced Dragonflies, forgetaboutit.
- Marple/Brown Seaclippers up to 28'. Aft cockpits again.
That's all I have found.

So my questions are ...
- Has anyone built or converted a Searunner, especially a 31, as a folder?
- Can anybody send me to current info on the DC-3 or the rumor above? I will write to John but also like to tap into the crowdsource.
- Any other suggestions to meet my preferences?
- In what ways am I way off base?

[Skeezix]

Originally Posted by Mark Johnson

Another thought... John plans on designing a new "trailerable" folding tri just for his local cruising in Maine. I don't know if he will put them in is portfolio? If so, however... This would be a project that most folks could do in < a year, and for beans. It would also be so neat to have your boat sitting in your yard during the off season, perhaps under a shed roof. It would be protected, and have NO marina fees too.

Just a thought,
Mark

Assuming "John" is John Marples. Did anything come of this? I have looked at his site and don't know which of the designs there might be this one, if any.

I don't own a boat yet ... 5 years to retirement and thinking about how to spend it sailing. Yeah, I know ... emphasis on "spend". Looking at small cruising tris for the shallow draft, comfort, flexible uses and sailing fun. Thinking I might prefer building one. Yes you usually can buy a boat cheaper ... but that requires you to spend the money all at once. If I won a small lottery, I'd quit and buy that good-looking SR31 up in Toronto right now. But I will more likely work at this in stages.

I am gradually plowing piecemeal through this monster of a thread because the plan I like best is Searunner 31. (Lots of good info to apply to any boat, too.)I like the center cockpit for singlehanding and for separation from the Admiral so she can sleep or use the head while I make my sunrise breakfast. And the walkway necessary to travel the length of the cabin in an aft cockpit boat seems like a waste of precious square footage. But the big glitch is that I must have a trailer folder. I live on a trout stream that feeds a canoe river. About an hour to the Mississippi, two hours to Lake Pepin, four to Milwaukee or Green Bay, five to Duluth, or other shorter time to a variety of inland lakes. I know most folders end up sitting unfolded in the water, but I'm sure I won't commit to one body. And I might snowbird with it.

I have not found a reference to any conversions of Searunners to folding. Lots of other folding types out there, but if you remove all the Farrier-types the list shortens by a lot. I want to be able to fold underway to motor and keep the amas in their design orientation. While most look at that for entering and leaving marinas, which is good, my thought is for gunkholing, especially up backchannels on the Miss. So horizontal folders or sliders. Saw one that said it could slide underway but I vetoed it for some reason. Horizontal folders, I have found ...
-Marples DC-3 ... leading candidate so far, but has anybody built one yet? Looks like the "prototype builder" who created a DC- 3 website and Facebook site fizzled. Can't motor while folded as designed, but probably not hard to fix that.
-Argonauta, but the front half of that boat seems really wasted, and I don't like the idea of it being so difficult to get to the rudder. One should be able to walk the perimeter of any cruiser.
-Telstar 28 ... out of production. Neat features ... folding system has some benefits, though complex, and that mast-raising system looks superb. Aft cockpit but I like the fore head. Could add a light bulkhead to separate the galley from the lazybones.
- Outrageously-priced Dragonflies, forgetaboutit.
- Marple/Brown Seaclippers up to 28'. Aft cockpits again.
That's all I have found.

So my questions are ...
- Has anyone built or converted a Searunner, especially a 31, as a folder?
- Can anybody send me to current info on the DC-3 or the rumor above? I will write to John but also line to tap into the crowdsource.
- Any other suggestions to meet my preferences?
- In what ways am I way off base?

[Skeezix]

EDIT to that post ... I just found and read the posts about the "folding" SR31 by member Trisailor, and SR 31 vs DC3, in the #2350 range of this thread. Looks like DC3 is how I should go.

In one of those posts (Mark Johnson #2359, a great post) it is said that the DC3 folding mechanism has been "built and proven" on other boats. Which? The folding Seaclippers?

I also would appreciate links to the 35 mentioned, converted to folding for European canals, though I will go googling too.

[Boatguy30]

Not sure about a 31' tri even folded in a trout stream?

Marples designed a folding system for a CC35 that was partially built in WA. He told me he did not recommend the folder o offshore sailing, but the owner intended to sail it to Europe and cruise the canals folded.

That boat happens to be for sale by a forum member that bought it and is trying to "flip" it. I know he has a similar system for the SC28 now and I would imagine might work for a SR31 but will still be 11' or so folded.

I believe the system is basically the same as used on the SC20.


You might also consider a break apart cat like a Tiki 26 or Gypsy 28.

[Skeezix]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

Not sure about a 31' tri even folded in a trout stream?.

It would make an interesting bridge and vacation cabin ... "over" not "in".

Thanks for your reply, I'll check those references.

[captcham]

We Have a SR37 with the old morse style steering cable that as far as I know is no longer availble. I have seen some people convert their steering to a quadrant and cable system which seems OK but was also wondering about hydralic steering. Anyone converted to hydralic and if so what are your thoughts. Seems like it would be easier to install. The plans I have for the quadrant steering show one cable running down each side of the boat and the helm placed in the middle of the cockpit so it splits the centerboard, this I dont like too much, seems it would be better to ofset the helm and run both cables down one side of the boat. Any help or pictures would be great. The old cable still works but I dont have a great deal of confidence in it for the future so I would like to change the system now. Thanks,

[sea dragon]

I switched to a quadrant and cable system years ago.
It works great.
very low tek strong and simple.
I have an off center helm also.
It doesn't matter where you locate the helm.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by captcham

We Have a SR37 with the old morse style steering cable that as far as I know is no longer availble. I have seen some people convert their steering to a quadrant and cable system which seems OK but was also wondering about hydralic steering. Anyone converted to hydralic and if so what are your thoughts. Seems like it would be easier to install. The plans I have for the quadrant steering show one cable running down each side of the boat and the helm placed in the middle of the cockpit so it splits the centerboard, this I dont like too much, seems it would be better to ofset the helm and run both cables down one side of the boat. Any help or pictures would be great. The old cable still works but I dont have a great deal of confidence in it for the future so I would like to change the system now. Thanks,

If you can fit a hydraulic steering pump at your helm. Meaning the helm station is the pump. I see no reason you could not go with a passive hydraulic system. Ram, steering station and small tank and maybe a relief valve. Cables would probably be cheaper. I have an entire hydraulic system two helms a autopilot station, tank, relief and ram. Hynautic, PM me if interested.