Customer send me this connecting beam idea and wondered if it would be good on his KHSD tri.
They are from a Scarab 32 trimaran. That unit looks like a cloned F-boat, including the too-small amas. And apparently they fold, but I could not see how that worked there at the site. What I did notice is these beams look like they take the F-boat beam and strut and combine them in one piece, infilling everything in between.
If I may, that solid wall of beam would have to slam like a mother in waves. Both of them. Especially with the small amas. It looks like stuff done wrong again. Maybe someone can tell me why it isn’t so.
Not enough info to judge on my part. They do look unmatched width to height and thinkness but again not enough info.
I still have my 1989 KHSD literature, and there were square beam boats back then, and from the look of it the boat in the box may still be (I want one). A fairing is an easy fix if the box section was a problem. But it is a horses for courses thing. A lot of people want folding, it is the single most important advantage that every day Trimarans afford. There is no comparison unless the comparative boat can be launched single handed off a trailer, etc… But people also need to be aware that the folding system has huge costs in build time and performance. You pay some price for every feature you adopt, there aren’t any free rides.
Our boat is as wide as the scarab 18 is long and weighs the same or less and is a treat to sail. The sad part is all the folders that are sitting on a mooring somewhere, with performance that limits them, and that never get trailer cruised because it is so much hassle. If you spring for folding, be sure you really need it. But what happens is people get it, use it a few times then put the boat on a mooring. That isn’t how they expect to run them, it is just what happens. If one only knew, one could have built a better Kurtboat in the first place.
The Rayboat in question wasn’t even trailerable, so to me that may not be done wrong, but it sure could end up a high price to pay for a very small additional on trailer performance advantage. Of course Ray is building this boat for himself, and while Oz has very restrictive trailering rules (coming everywhere soon enough). Some of us who live rural part of the year are able to trailer sail an oversize boat. Shhh.