Trimaran - Especially Searunner - Owners

[farotherside]

I've got to take a day or so and update my blog, it's been many months of hard labour since the last posting... I just thought I'd post a really quick bunch of photos here and show you what I did with my summer vacation...

(short version: a two-week haulout turned into a brutal sixty-five day slog, but she's back in the water now and looking awesome... just gotta finish up refitting all the internal systems! fresh water is done, just the toilet, electrical and engine left...)

Here are the BEFORE/DURING pics...

[farotherside]

...and a couple more, for good measure...

[farotherside]

...and lastly a few AFTER photos.

S/V Tie Fighter is now back in the water, with a hull and deck I feel like I can trust for my upcoming extended cruise with no set destination and no schedule... with everything I've learned this summer, I am confident that there is nothing that can go wrong with this boat that I cannot repair myself, given enough time. What an enormously empowering feeling!

[scuba066]

Thanks for the pictures. Tie Fighter is looking great. I am curious, after your repairs this summer, what tools, apart from the basics, are high on your list for an extended cruise?

[captqrunch]

Jeff, just fyi, Jade Eve, ex-Maxolar, is being flogged by a guy who bought the boat from the Tahiti-bound fellow. The asking price seems so 2006.

[Boatguy30]

Nice to see what can be done by a motivated hard worker!

What year is your boat? I'm considering buying a SR 34 "project" that will need about the same effort it looks like you expended.

Is your boat a Weldwood and nails boat or an "epoxy" boat.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Boatguy30]

Originally Posted by captqrunch

Jeff, just fyi, Jade Eve, ex-Maxolar, is being flogged by a guy who bought the boat from the Tahiti-bound fellow. The asking price seems so 2006.

I suspect that the French guy discovered what I did; she was totally unsuitable for offshore sailing as is and as built.

Cheers,
Jeff

[farotherside]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

I suspect that the French guy discovered what I did; she was totally unsuitable for offshore sailing as is and as built.

Cheers,
Jeff

Please expand on this? I'm absolutely unconnected with the boat in question, but I'm very interested in hearing what made you come to your conclusions...

[farotherside]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

Nice to see what can be done by a motivated hard worker!

What year is your boat? I'm considering buying a SR 34 "project" that will need about the same effort it looks like you expended.

Is your boat a Weldwood and nails boat or an "epoxy" boat.

Cheers,
Jeff

Hey Jeff,

My boat was built in 1985, and as far as I can tell she's epoxy everywhere.

[Boatguy30]

Originally Posted by drew23

Please expand on this? I'm absolutely unconnected with the boat in question, but I'm very interested in hearing what made you come to your conclusions...

Maxolar (launched in '83) supposedly is probably one of the last Weldwood and nails boats. She is polyester taped with light cloth in the seams and covered on the exterior with polyester.

There were many cracked and loose stringers in the main hull, the interior wood surfaces were never sealed in any way and not even painted in the amas. The plywood in the port ama was "fuzzy" from being walked on and worn down when wet. The stem and forward bulkhead were rotten in that ama. The starboard ama was rebuilt with 1/2" BC pine plywood after a hurricane and was therefore much heavier and the port one had outboard, etc to balance the boat at anchor.

The former owner, David from England, was a great guy and he owned her for about 10 years. He did a really nice job rebuilding the galley and aft cabin. He took the "Gentleman's Route" thru the Caribbean which is about the max the boat was able for prior to the rot. He kept here laid up ashore for 6-7 months in the tropics most years which couldn't have helped things.

Also had the single "push-pull" cable steering which I don't think many other 40s, if any have. David had a horrible time trying to control the boat running back from the Gulfstream in short step seas earlier this year.

I hear the boat sold from the French guy for the LOW 5 figures. As he apparently didn't really know how to sail!

Will be in NZ the next year. Let me know if your cruise heads that way.

Jeff

[boatsmith]

There is a fellow near you in Rio, Peter Mirow. He is building a proa now and has a blog about it. Seems like a nice guy.ARPEX

[farotherside]

Hey guys,

Could some of you longtime Searunner folks post pictures/descriptions of your heads?

I am rebuilding mine now - it's completely gutted, but I'm weighing various ideas and coming up a bit baffled. I have a small holding tank, a new-ish Groco Model K manual toilet, a macerator pump, a Y-valve and big bunch of brand new sani-hose.

Idea one: there's no room for the tank in the bilge between the second and third bulkheads (?? the bilge below where the toilet will be installed), so match the former setup, with the tank in the bilge just aft of there, under the sink etc. Plumb the toilet to the Y-valve with one output straight overboard and one to the holding tank. Tee the pumpout hose to the macerator and to the deck fitting, run the macerator out to a tee in the overboard hose.

upsides:
- this is how it used to be set up, and is the 'conventional' way as far as I understand

downsides:
- hose runs are long (to-holding = 5', holding-to-pumpout = 12'!)
- tees mean several places to block up


Idea two: add a new outlet to the holding tank, on the bottom, using a plastic thru-hull fitting and a ball valve. Mount the tank higher up, above the toilet (with the base of the tank just above the top of the toilet) and forward, on a shelf built into the storage area forward of the toilet. Gravity-feed from the toilet down to the through-hull to go straight overboard, or turn the valve off to use the tank as a holding tank. Pumpout and vent work as normal, macerator isn't used, no tees in system.

(this method is described in Calder's "Boat Owners Electrical and Mechanical Handbook" as a more modern, simple method of handling plumbing...)

upsides:
- simple, no tees, waaaaay less hose length.
- no chance of siphoning.


downsides:
- no macerator, if clogging occurs it's a messy job
- I put the through-hull into the side of the hull instead of straight down, so the gravity feed does have to go through a (lazy) 90-degree turn.
- if the tank is full, that's a lot of weight reasonably high up in the bow (ideally I'll never be sailing with a full tank though)
- the tank takes up a bunch of valuable storage space
- pumping the head *up* to a tank requires more water

Thoughts? How are you handling your heads?

[Mark Johnson]

Drew,
The best holding tank option is what we did. First we chose a low flush water, dirt simple head, the "Levac"... Then build the tank out of the hull itself. Ours came out @ 30 gal, (min size for 1 week, for two people) The 37'er would be a bit larger. Its location is only 6" under the head base, so the fact that it requires so much less flush water than a factory tank 6' away, makes its capacity = to a tank of much larger size, but further away. We glassed the walls with 3 layers of 10 oz cloth, filleted the stringers... (2" radius) Used a similar thickness of glass tapes here, then 8 or 10 top coats of epoxy. Then we made a 3/4" floorboard with a raised pedistal for the head, anti slosh baffle, then a suction pipe & inspecion port hole) All this was glassed heavily & glued down to the top of the tank. This has worked perfectly with "0" smell or problems for 15 years now! Be advised that flexable bladder tanks stink like sh..! It was a lot of hassle & took about a month, but frankly, Searunners were not designed for holding tanks. The easier / other solution, is to loose your best / largest sub floor area, (below the fwd companionway ladder), and put in a 45 gal tank to = our 30 gal in capacity. Location is everything! Don't even think of pumping it considerably uphill. The tank will be 99% full of flushwater.
Good luck, Mark

[Roy M]

Lavac toilet with a platform lid to allow working from a "foxhole" in rough weather. Forward is the holding tank with twin 1 1/2" cross ventilation vents for aerobic bacteria digester "K-O" Products. Also, the double-pump saltwater washdown unit. Holding tank is above sea level, allowing non-macerator, gravity-feed discharge in open waters, or deck level pump outs.

[Mark Johnson]

Excelent solution Roy! Love your workmanship. I suppose you can see around the tank well enough, or remove it if necessary, to keep tabs on the condition of things in the bow? This is what we did with our "chain locker" up there, (we can remove it in a few minutes)... Did you make the tank yourself?

On our 34, that area is too small to house a holding tank, so we resorted to what I described. Making the hull into a tank would've also worked if we had used the "vanity section" sub floor, especially if the furniture is not yet in place! In our case it was already occupied with furniture & all kinds of stuff.

We do have a "Y valve" just after the head's diaphram pump, to choose "overboard" or "tank". From the tank evacuation pipe we have another diaphram pump and another "Y valve", to also choose "overboard" or "deck pump out". The system works great. We have replaced one "Y valve" and one pump diaphram kit in 15 years.

Our solution was more time consuming and perhaps complicated than yours. Our far smaller payload & smaller spaces that we have to work with, (VS the 40'er), make this true of many of our systems. Miniaturization takes more time & money, and it is harder to keep it simple.

Roy I'm sure you know this, but for others... The longest life & least stinky hose is actually sch. 40 PVC pipe, (for straight runs), followed by Sealand's "odor Safe" white vynil hose.
Mark