Trimaran - Especially Searunner - Owners

[Rann]

Maren, I will dig through all my Searunner photos on the hard drive and locate what few I have. They may or may not be some of the ones you already possess. I will send them to you when I get them, and you can decide what you might like to publish on this forum. I will need your email address if it is not listed in the personal information. You can reach me at rannmillar at gmail dot com.

[md7a]

I'm planning to take my Searunner 25 out for winter maintenance this year in a dry spot away from the water.

I have a trailer with cradle and instructions from the builder on how to demount and transport. The builder says I should allow a week to do it. Construction manual is silent.

Any tips on how to demount & transport an a-frame Searunner?
Mast first then amas? Use boom to lower amas?

[steve ripples]

Thanks for all the very interesting discussions on Searunners. Sitting here in wet cold south east UK it's easy to feel a, well just a little tingle of envy, imagining coaxing a good old girl of a 37 back toward the water under a Florida or Bay sun. Well, hell, one day, mebbe. In the meantime is there any info out there about Searunners in Europe?

I know Delphines is currently for sale in the Netherlands and she looks very well put together, too. The old Searunner site lists Lady Jolliboy, a 40 footer at Yarmouth, Isle of Wight - no idea if she's still around. But there must be more than that?

Steve

[Jmolan]

Merry Christmas to all my Searunner friends! Just thought I would say "thanks" for all the back and forth this year, and look fwd. to much more in the future!
The photos have no meaning except to keep the hopes and dreams going! First two are older shots before the re-fit/paint job. Last two are in front
of our home in Mexico.

[Rann]

Merry Christmas to you, Jack, and all the members of this forum that celebrate the day. Many thanks for all the informative posts, especially your insight into synthetic rigging. I am looking forward to much more sharing of experiences and ideas on this forum regarding our beloved Searunner trimarans.

Presently we are not far from ETAK in the Los Angeles area and enjoying the balmy weather here.

[steve ripples]

New Jim Brown Tri..

Firstly Happy New Year to All - and here's a rather good way to start the new decade with news of a new design in the Searunner / Seaclipper stable. Great to know that the Master is still at his board.

It's a 20' daysailer he describes as also a 'roughing it' sail camper. More details are at Smalltrimaran.com along with an mp3 audio discussion about the boat from Jim himself.
As for me and the new decade, still working on my attempt to become a Searunner owner, still working on my own design. Who knows what will happen this coming year? I sure as hell don't.

Steve

PS Thanks, Jmolan, for the recommendation re 'Moxie' - just finished reading it. Very interesting and informative.

[Maren]

Well Gents,

It looks like I'm getting my 44CC back.

[Jmolan]

Steve, yes happy new year, and keep on plugging on that design.....

Maren....did you just get an end of the year surprise? Care to eloborate? You are a two boat owner now. Two boat with six hulls?

[steve ripples]

New Jim Brown design....

..erk. Sorry previous post should read 'Smalltrimarans.com' plural not singular. Haven't sussed posting a link yet... but the item is here Jim Brown's Coming Seaclipper 20 trimaran (the "Janganda") | Small Trimarans

Highly recommend the mp3 of Jim talking about the boat. I contacted the Searunner design partnership about plans and got an email (extremely quickly) from John Marples saying that it was Jim's project, that he hasn't quite finished the plan package and is at present cruising off South America, not expected back for 3 weeks or so. How old is Jim? He's still cruising? Way to go! Now that's a man that just loves what he's doing.

[sailormanJay]

congratulations Maren. I'm sure it's going to be a really good project/boat. When are you going to pick it up? If you want, let me know and I'll swing by to help send her off if I'm around. Let us know how it progresses, I'm sure others as well as myself would be interested in how it comes out.

[Maren]

Originally Posted by Jmolan

Steve, yes happy new year, and keep on plugging on that design.....

Maren....did you just get an end of the year surprise? Care to eloborate? You are a two boat owner now. Two boat with six hulls?

As a matter of fact I did get an end of the year surprise but it is one of those things I can't elaborate on other than to say if you ever need to move a boat I can recommend a good mover and also I would avoid any that have been banned from a place like Uship or have a website devoted to how bad a shipper they are. That is to say, use google to check out their reputation first.

So, yes I now have two boats with six hulls. After I get the 34' finished off, I may sell it to drop back to just one; the 34' was the alternate plan and I really want to finish off the 44' for both myself and the previous owner (who developed an epoxy sensitivity). But I want to make sure the next owner gets a fairly well ready to cruise boat. Or I may see about doing one of the Seaclipper 20s so I can sail in my off (read: I need a break from this) time.

[farotherside]

Hey folks,

I've been living aboard my Searunner 37 for just over eight months. Now that the winter has really started to set in here in the pacific northwest, I'm really starting to run into the problem that everyone warned me about: condensation.

My boat isn't properly insulated, so I'm running a Sigmar diesel stove in the aft cabin during the day and a little Balmar bulkhead-mount diesel furnace in the forward cabin at night. On really cold nights it can get pretty chilly, but most of the time this combination is acceptable for heat. I live aboard, and my dayjob is also aboard, so I'm on my boat far more than I am off of it.

However, the condensation is starting to get a little nuts - I've got almost everything I own in tupperware bins with little packets of silica gel thrown in for good measure, but I often find my cabin walls dripping with moisture. I've found a few "accidents", like leaving a towel in a cupboard only to find it growing a thick carpet of mold two weeks later.

I know the answer to this is twofold; good insulation, and good ventilation.

Does anyone care to discuss what worked for them, or what sounded like a great idea but didn't work at all? Pitfalls, gotchas, secret tricks?

Specifically I'm interested in the effectiveness of bilge blowers and air movers; where you installed them and how well they worked, and in tips and tricks for insulation...

[farotherside]

a bit more specific a question:

There is a large (12"?) blower installed in the bilge under the forward-port storage area, under the cockpit. This blower has never worked in the time I've had the boat, and judging by the state of the motor, for a long time prior to that.

Should I replace this blower with a similar-sized one, or would I be better off to install multiple smaller blowers in different locations around the boat?

BTW - feel free to split this question off into a new topic if you feel that it should be one. I figured it'd be best answered by other Searunner folks, but I suppose ventilation and insulation are topics everyone needs to think about sooner or later.

[Maren]

Originally Posted by drew23

Does anyone care to discuss what worked for them, or what sounded like a great idea but didn't work at all? Pitfalls, gotchas, secret tricks?

This isn't one of the specific areas you were looking for, but many have found a de-humidifier to work well. The problem with ventilation is you are going to loose heat -- acceptable in that it stops the raining inside the cabin but undesirable in that you burn more fuel to keep the place warm. You might also want a larger catch container

[Jmolan]

Drew, the number one thing (you probably already know this) is warm air absorbs moisture, and cold air cannot. I will tell you a short story about something very similar to your boat. (I know I lived aboard 25 years ago on a 37' in the winter with a wife and 2 year old)
On my boat in Alaska (123' Steel boat) we have two "shelterdecks" They are rooms that are about 40' Long and 8' wide or so. Made of steel. They were added to the boat on the port and Stbd. side to increase ultimate stability. The idea is if the boat heels over to where the Shelter deck is in the water, the added buoyancy will act like a big buoy fender, and hold the boat up.. They are water tight if the door stays closed. They were also air tight until I got involved.
The crew "customized" the rooms to be the hang out place out of the weather. They are in there soaking wet with their rain gear on all the time. The installed a couple heaters also. The floor is bare plywood. With the heater cranked up, the place became warm enough, but was soaking wet all the time, walls wet, floor never got dry etc. I knew what was wrong. All they were doing was warming up the air inside, which would come in contact with the cold floor and wall and ceiling, and the warm wet air would condense as it cooled. Lots of wet.
The crew thought I was nutz. I took a 4" PVC pipe and marine tex'd (epoxy) in place and piped to to the back of the heater. I covered the back of the heater with foil so the only air it could suck was from outside.
I put an exhaust pipe at the other end of the room. I swear within 24 hours this p;ace was bone dry. All the rain gear they hung up was dry, their boot got dry, sweatshirts....on and on. The floor was dry enough after while they could paint it.
All well and good. But as I get new crew (or one stubborn Portuguese guy) or if it gets real cold and dry out. They will remove the pipe and open the heater up. Sure enough I can spot it right off when the floor is wet.
If I was heating a Searunner. I would pipe some air in from outside. Should be easy to do, from an underwing. And move it through the heat source. You do not need an exhaust as that boat has plenty of ventilation I bet. But the concept. The rule is. Cold air is dry. You need to warm op dry air and move through the boat and it will absorb water as it finds its way out.