I think it was some 20 years ago that I first did my sliding cross tube trimaran design. Several other people offered suggestions, some of which were included in the design, including the UHMW centerline dropboard.
Many commentators told me that it would never work. Several have been built since then but nobody has ever filmed one sliding. If I had any sense I would have built one instead of the Geko.
I did know that some other trimaran designs had started doing sliding tube designs, but I had not seen one. Finally some video of a design at
http://www.astusboats.com/ The tube connections to the amas are sketchy and I see no centerline compression resolution method, but.
Terrence tracked them down. ” He moved both the tooling to his shop at Mclelland air force base near Sacramento. Planning on moving to a yard in Columbia to begin production next year. ” Of course Ollie will forward royalties to both me as designer and Richard who built the molds……What?
He did declare that he invented infusion and a new epoxy that did not need any testing to prove. Pic below of Teralani 3 that used the Sunchaser house molds.
I often see what I think is bad design being foisted onto the inexperienced. And I call them out. Sometimes I see designs that look good to me. The new Dragonfly looks pretty good to me. Finally amas that are big enough. A snakey look. Flowing beams. And of course the required aft swept bows. I assume they also have improved on the single stainless pin swings in favor of a composite bushing?
If I may, all the same features that I put in my 31′ swing arm tri 10 years ago, less the swept bows.
I finally heard back from Karen on the Sarabi. “The conclusion is that the top bearing was attached to the mast with a material that failed, causing the bearing to move, which caused the mast to fail just above the bearing. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Everything above the cabin top went overboard. Cosmetic damage to the boat, but nothing serious. She’s very strong!”
It still seems kind of impossible, even with a failed bearing. I have begged for pictures of the damage.
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 wrongagain. Maybe someone can tell me why it isn’t so.
Mark at Colony proudly declares that. It’s in Bellingham, WA. My 36′ Boat in a Box was disassembled there. Several other multis have been and are there now.
I got this picture of the 36 x 24 daycharter cat put on the trailer and headed to Kona. Top shot is before bridgedeck is added. Lower picture is with bridgedeck added. It had to fit in the 8.5′ x 14′ limits for highway.
