Sailing trimaran plans
I searched around lots of different drop in outrigger plans and kits and
never found exactly what I was looking for. Perhaps one or more of
those available are easily modified, but it is hard to know without
buying them first... So I kept reading and researching and decided to
just do it myself.
I have been trying to teach myself Solidworks as I got a free student
edition access with my EAA membership. I spent a while this winter
playing with different sizes and shapes until I came up with something I
was happy with. (winter is a good time for this as my 'workshop' is an
unheated Shelterlogic tent and I can not do any epoxy work during the
winter) The hulls are 12' long so as to maximize volume from one and a
half sheets of plywood. I had designed them for just over 400lbs of
buoyancy each, but messed up with a beginner mistake in Solidworks and
so it is less than that in reality.
I bought a 420 Mainsail which is 80ft2 and am building the mast and boom
for it as well as able to 'upgrade' to a 470 sail if needed later down
the road. I built a hollow teardrop shaped mast and boom from 1x4 lumber
glassed inside and out with pex pipe for the track. I scarfed the 12ft
1x4s for the mast, so without trimming it is a little over 23ft long,
the boom is 12ft but I will trim it down to length.
So far I have assembled both hulls and glassed the inside seams with 6oz
tape, glassed in the two bulkheads that will go under the beams and
filled all the outside seams with thickened epoxy for shaping. That is
as far as I got before we headed out for a long Mothersday weekend, but I
am hopping to get back to it tonight.
My thought for the beams was simple straight box beams made from the
same 12ft 1x4s as I made the mast from glassed on the outside with 12oz
tape. Simple and strong... my only concern is that they may be too close
to the water, I know a lot of kayak/canoe conversions have pretty
sweeping curved beams which not only pretty also serve to get them
higher above the waves however, I wont want the canoe swamped, so
as long as the waves arent swamping the canoe they shouldn't be
splashing off the beams either?
Sailing trimaran plans
My biggest puzzle still is leeboard placement and size and to a lesser
extent rudder sizing. I had originally planned to build daggerboards and
build cases 2-3 times too long with spacers and a subcase for the
daggerboard to play around with balance, but it seemed overly
complicated so I was talked into doing a leeboard. I think I will mount
it on the forward beam angled back so that balance can easily be
adjusted by how deep it is submerged, further down will be further
forward, and further up will be further back.... Just need to build a
sturdy hinge and actuation system for it.
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