Smalltrimarans.com reader Chris L. sent me the link to the new “Mini Trimaran” from B and B Yachts. It’s a double outrigger canoe. (Perhaps designed with camp-cruising adventures in mind?)
The webpage for this boat says, “It combines elements of the successful Expedition Sailing Canoe and the “kayak trimaran” named ‘Spongebob’ into a new vessel.”
We previously posted about B&B’s Expedition Canoe here and the Spongebob kayak trimaran here.
This new mini trimaran is a sleek-looking craft, which includes a roller furling mainsail (and headsail) and retracting amas. Lots to like here.
Again, you can click through to B & B’s site here for a list of all the features, plus building plans / kits info.
In closing, here is the current video on B&B’s webpage for this boat:
Sort of a windrider 17 without some of its flaws; notably not made of plastic and has a daggerboard instead of a keel. I don’t see how it is going to get enough backstay on the mast to enable that spin to work well on a reach. Doesn’t say how the mast is stayed-if it is. If the mainsail rollerfurls around the mast, then sail shape will suffer in bigger winds. Don’t know why you would want a boom to kill your kids in a bad gybe. Basically, I don’t want one. Just about every home built boat on this forum is a better design.
Ouch!
Yah, sorry for being so negative, but the video showing it sailing is in a breath of breeze so you can believe the hulls are easily driven–that’s a positive. But, trimarans are toys and this toy doesn’t look to be much fun the way it is now. Change the rig (taller rotating aluminum or carbon section) and you have potential for a decent boat. Add shrouds and a reef point in the mainsail. Remove the boom, add a self tacking and furling jib…then it’d be fun.
The still photos on their website (that can be opened in a new tab at high resolution) show that while there don’t appear to be any shrouds, there *is* a dedicated central backstay that explains the extremely elongated masthead…something many multihulls with large roached and/or fully battened mains don’t have at all.
Part of that stems from the fact that downwind sailing is the least optimal point of sail for most multihulls, where even moderately fast ones can often “tack” downwind and make as good or better time than in a straight line.
If anything that makes me question the whole idea of a spinnaker- plenty of boats fly them using running backstays, and 80 sq ft is tiny.
The photo of the boat on the trailer also shows that the headsail *is* equipped with roller furling.
As for the rig height and other considerations, IMHO there are valid reasons for a low aspect ratio rig on a multihull , that too many designers and builders ignore in favor of a taller = better approach derived from monohull practice, that can create a host of handling and structural problems.
One of those is the need for early reefing, or any reefing at all in many typical sailing scenarios. Another is an increased need for more elaborate standing rigging.
Looking at the full scale pic of the boat under sail the main appears to have a batten that is oriented and acts like the sprit on a spritsail rig and supports the peak…those can’t be reefed using the same methods as on a typical fore/aft mainsail, but with a sleeved luff as this one appears to have (“Features include a roller furling mainsail”) one could take in some of that area.
Part of that sail shape is the ability to carry sail area lower to begin with, in effect the sail is already on what would be a reefed position on a taller rig. That may not make for as fast and exciting a pure sailing experience, but it seems pretty clear both from the design and the description that this isn’t intended to be that kind of boat.
(FWIW crab claw rigs are similarly dinged for difficulty in reefing, but by all accounts they make reefing a non-issue when operated correctly.)
As for “why you would want a boom to kill your kids in a bad gybe”, besides the obvious answer that not everyone has or sails with kids (or has poor reaction time or gybing skills), the nature of multihull sailing that makes going downwind less than optimal also makes the ability to *really* flatten the main more important than it is on boats that don’t make their own wind and don’t end up trimmed like they are going to weather when they are technically on a reach.
To each his own but calling for a taller rig and better standing rigging to carry a chute longer and a better reefed mainsail shape to improve performance (when reefed) and bemoaning a low fun factor seems at odds with a boom-less main and the level of safety consciousness behind it. Bowsprits can create safety issues as well, both under sail and when in traffic and docking…you learn to be aware of and deal with them in exchange for the benefits.
It’s not necessarily the rig I’d choose either, but I get it, it makes sense for a cruiser/expedition boat and I’d rather have that rig than a lot of the “performance” rigs that just ape what monohull race boats use with little to no consideration for how different the two types of boats are.
Looks to me like a cross between a Windrider and a Hobie Tandem Island. I’ve had had a lot of fun in both of those, and I would be a prospective customer for this kit. My wife can set up and launch her Hobie TI on her own. It was easy for her to learn to sail it. The roller furling assures that she won’t get overpowered, and the pedal/paddle options assure a return home if the wind dies. I expect the B & B boat to have similar positives with better performance than the Hobie.
I’ve also had a lot of fun on a Weta. If there’s not at least 10 knots of wind, a Weta is no fun, and it doesn’t paddle or pedal. Set up time – for me, at least – is at least 30 minutes. While I would generally say that the Weta is a better boat than the Windrider or the TI, the Windrider and TI are better fits for me than the Weta.
If you only own or sail one boat, you need to figure out what boat best meets your needs. The things I consider are cost, maintenance, storage, transportability, safety, performance, number of crew required, ability to carry a load, and suitability for the intended conditions – wind, waves, temperature, etc. I own more than one boat because I haven’t been able to find one boat that would do everything I want.
David is correct, you do need to know what you want out of a boat before you buy it. You forgot a couple things in your selection criteria, though. Cost and setup time to name two. Reasons why I don’t think this boat would be fun for me include 1) without a jib, it will tack about as poorly as your TI where you pretty much have to paddle/pedal through the tack–sure, some folks are OK with that, I’m not. and 2) a roller furling main that furls around the mast will have awful shape when partially furled–the camber will be in the wrong spot so you will not be able to go to weather efficiently–sure, some folks will be OK with that, but I sail routinely in winds that require less sail and often against a big current, imagine not being able to get back to where you launched from and you get the idea of why this boat would be unsuitable for my intended conditions. And I do understand that if you have to, you could paddle/peddle back; not the sort of thing I want to do in a sailboat. I suspect this boat will find a market niche, but not for someone who actually enjoys sailing in all conditions.