Hello, I have a lot of 10" aluminum pipe and a welding shop. I would like to build a small trimaran for 2. I dont know much about sailboat design. Things like mast height, sail size, floatation weight, etc... are things I know I need to find out before I design a wreck waiting to happen!
I live in kansas and we have high wind speeds so I want a stable boat thats light and easy to handle. I currently have nothing except the pipe, shop and desire. Any thoughts would be welcome and appreciated !!!

Hi Don

hope the first one is for protected waters only .

The one that comes to mind in Alum was Pen Duick 4
a tri raced across the Atlantic in the 60s
http://www.france-ouest.com/tabarly/penduick-5.htm

You may try Dick Newick trimaran designs
and Piver trimaran designs

Check the -great links section here on Catsailor also under trimarans for some other more modern tri designs -

good luck with it ,

You might want to take a look at the "S.D.I." trimaran designed and built by Randy Reynolds. A smaller mainsail and a trapeze should allow it to be sailed into heavier winds as well.

I've come to notice a trend in trailerable multihull's mast-length compared to boat-length. It seems to be a "rule of thumb" for the mast to be 10' longer than the boat.

When building with metal, don't forget to add styrafoam blocks or other means of positive floatation in the amas and some areas of the main hull. Some people have used expanding closed-cell foam. If I were to go that route, I'd install a large, thick plastic bag into the hull and fill that with the expanding foam so it could be more easily removed later if desired, without having to scrape everything off the hull....

Don,
I too am building my own boat, not aluminium hulled but still using a fair amount of Aluminium and I would highly reccomend the book "Aluminium boat building" by Ernest H Sims ISBN 0-7136-3691-2

Good Luck

Gareth

Whatever you do, don't make it look like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...hotoDisplayType=2#ebaylargephotohosting

I think I know what you talking about but, lets be sure.

You are thinking about using straight 10" al tubing with some kind of end caps for the amma's (outriggers) and maybe the main hull. This can be done but it will be harder than you think.

I looked at this as part of a fun contest, build a catamaran out of a 10"x 20' section of PVC pipe. It can be done but it turned out to be almost as much effort as building one right. The main problem is, a straight circular section hull is fast and too stable, it is very hard to tack.

You could probably build a tri out of a 14' al canoe and 2 10' sections of pipe. You will need to taper the tubes so that they are pointy on one end and taller and fatter in the middle than on the ends. It would help if you put the dagger boards in the ammas

Post a reply if you are still interested and I will tell you what else I know.