40 Foot Performance Shorthanded Trimaran for Owen

Use program:
Shorthanded sailing for both racing and cruising.
Demountable and able to fit into a tallboy container.
This design is the latest update to a design that I did several years ago for Phil Steggall.


It also has several features that I developed while sailing my own F40 Geko. First of these is the addition of an actual cabin from main hull flare. Any time a few people come aboard for a sail, their gear has to go somewhere, The 7 foot wide cabin also allows a canopy to hide under in bad weather. On the much narrower Geko, that space was taken up by winches.
The outboard is mounted beside the cockpit instead of back on the transom. When shorthanding having the motor right there without leaving the cockpit is important. On the Geko an 8 hp outboard would push it to 7 knots in chop and once did 11 knots on flat water.
It has a single board in the main hull. Vertical and aft of the mast a bit. In Marchaj we find that a vertical board has the most even stall characteristics and also less deflection for the span. Fully down, the board is a couple of feet below the cabin top. Downwind the boom can be lifted a couple of feet to reduce board draft. I don’t understand the trimarans that suffer the inefficiency of swept boards.
Board down, the draft is something like 10 feet.
As usual it has 200% buoyancy amas.
Presently the design has ama rudders.

Foils were not chosen as they work best with larger crews.

Construction is strip foam and unidirectional e-glass for the main hull. The amas could be the same or even a combination of developed plywood and carbon fiber.
Beams are core with carbon fiber.
Geometry is virtually square with the width almost a much as the length overall.  Doesn’t that make it wider than a Rapido 60?

5 thoughts on “40 Foot Performance Shorthanded Trimaran for Owen”

  1. Do you have an example interior layout that could be posted here? I remember looking at Geko when she was for sale in Seattle and thinking that some widening of the hull would be nice for cruising, how did that translate into a concept interior I wonder? …. after selling our KH26/28, we bought a Farrier F36/39 and are waiting out Covid in New Zealand. I’l always curious about new 40 footer designs. Hope you are well! John

  2. Nice to see that F40 based story continues 🙂 F40 has been the most beautiful trimarans ever. Do you plan to publish plans on your web side?

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