Voyages: Overnight on a Sprint 750

The Sprint 750 is a lively day-sailer from Corsair Marine, based on their popular Corsair 24 folding trimaran.

Gregg Boone in Texas owns one of these machines, and he described a recent enjoyable outing on a trimaran community website. He gave me permission to re-print his story here, enjoy the read:

"Overnight in a Sprint. I know what you’re thinking – does a Sprint even have a cabin? Depends on your definition of cabin. After the 2nd summer of daysailing on Sundays most weekends, we finally discovered a new element of what we all can enjoy as Corsair and F-boat owners, our first 2 day cruise.
It was Saturday morning in mid September. We had experienced the most brutal week in a vicious year. Stress needed to be released before a mental breakdown occurred. 12:15pm my wife comes up with a brilliant plan, let’s spend the night on the boat . I definitely married the right woman. We had been planning to overnight all summer – and summer she is gone. Started packing food and gear. We love to go tent camping, and go frequently. However we live in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex along with 6.1 million other humans (mostly human, a few I’m not so sure). This means you must have reservations a month in advance to go camping anywhere within a 3 hour drive. But we own a boat that does not require advance notice.
Took about 30 minutes extra to load the extra food and gear aboard. 5:15pm and we are just pulling out of the marina., this is a new experience. My general policy is to go back to the marina when my wife makes me, typically around 6-7pm. She is the First Mate when sailing, however she is the Admiral when deciding when the fleet should return.

We have our Sprint on a lift at the one marina on Lake Ray Roberts north of Dallas. The lake is a Corps of Engineers lake. This means there is very little development allowed. There is one small 30 room hotel, one marina, and not much else built on-shore. The lake shoreline is mainly covered by trees.
There is only 5 knots of wind, got the screecher up going upwind, cool beverage in my hand, just my wife and I, and the stress is starting to be released. We’re not going fast, but we are moving at warp speed into another dimension away from the big city with it’s traffic and stress, and into a relaxing nature experience. Flocks of birds are flying overhead back toward their evening roosts. The trees look greener with the sun getting lower.
Our first anchorage has 4 boats there already, this won’t do. We keep going. 2nd anchorage is right by the dam and I can hear traffic going over it. We keep going. About 10 miles from the marina we come to a horseshoe shaped cove with no one there. The wind has died so I motor in and prepare to drop the “cruising” anchor that I have never used.
North Texas summers can have unpredicted thunderstorms that hit you by surprise. I wanted an anchor that would hold in the killer winds of thunderstorm. I got a 24lb. Delta with 16 lbs of chain. The anchor locker on a Sprint is 4.0” deep. Obviously the Delta is not going to fit in there. When I removed the daysailing anchor and put the cruising anchor onboard I moved them in 2 pieces and shackled them together. The only place the anchor will fit is underneath the cockpit. This is accessible from inside the cabin. You have to sit on the cabin floor bend over, grab heavy anchor and lift up onto the cockpit floor. This is not easy with 16lbs of chain dragging but I manage without smashing fingers or gelcoat. I think maybe this much anchor and chain is overkill!
Anchor sets no problem and I attach the bridle that another group member described to the amas. I put the Coleman stove on the cockpit seat and fire up the burgers. As we eat our dinner we watch the sun set. It’s a brilliant orange-red beauty. Here we sit surrounded by nature, frogs croaking on shore, storks flying over and croaking at us because we are in the middle of their normally deserted cove (I did not know that a bird could croak). He gave up in a few minutes and decided he could share the water with us. It’s 80 degrees and the water is warm.
The sun sets and I see something you cannot see in a city of millions, stars. The moon has not risen yet and we can see thousands of stars. We can even see different colors, some bluish, some reddish. In the city only 10-12 stars are visible. Amazing that most people are scared of the dark and have to have their nightlights on all night.
We have good tunes playing, drinking cold beer watching the brilliant stars. Suddenly I hear loud music. We are offshore of a state park and there are no campsites in this area. It could only be a jerk ski boat with a massive stereo. After a minute I wonder if a ski boat could even carry a system this large. It sounds like a sizable system. I realize it’s a Stevie Ray Vaughn song playing, I love Stevie Ray!!!. Several minutes later I realize it’s not Stevie Ray playing, it’s a live band playing (or maybe a recording of a live band) Stevie’s songs and they are great. Now there is nothing but wilderness around me, no lights of any kind on shore (except or distant radio tower lights). Where could this band be? The only thing possible is the one hotel on the lake, but it’s 1.5 miles away with a hill between us. The wind has dropped to dead calm and the music is carrying across the hill. We can still hear the frogs
singing along with the blues band.
The band quits at 10pm. I don’t know if I’ll ever hear another live band that I love while anchored on my boat without seeing another human again. I feel like Scotty has beamed me to another sparsely inhabited planet. I’m amazed to be only 50 miles from downtown Dallas and to be alone with nature (well with a blues band in hearing range). And the stress of my regular world has vanished. The stars have never looked prettier. The moon rises and seems to be 3 times the size it normally is, or is it magnified by the Dos Equis? We’ll never know. Now I know another element of the magic of our boats, the other dimension of a world completely separate from the stress of the everyday, the world at anchor. There is no traffic, no deadlines, no decisions to strain about except do I want the next Dos Equis with or without lime.
We sleep out on the nets in a sleeping bag underneath the stars. It’s quite comfortable there and you can’t find a better view.
Next morning I cook breakfast and brew coffee. This is my first coffee onboard. I go to haul the anchor up. Oh my god this thing is heavy!! Perhaps 40lbs of anchor and chain is overkill. At least it’s a good upper body workout. Of course if we had been hit by a storm the big anchor would not have felt like overkill. I think I’ll at least get lighter chain.
I feel like a new man, most of the stress has evaporated and I am happy once again.
I can’t wait until it warms up. We will definitely be overnighting a lot more this year."

Gregg Boone
Sprint 750 #50 Obsession
Lake Ray Roberts
Fort Worth, Texas

Corsair US Nationals see a new French design

Randy Smythe (Olympic silver medalist for the US) is sailing his French-designed Chinese-built Multi23 trimaran at the US Corsair Nationals at the moment. The nationals are hosted this year by Pensacola Yacht Club. Mike Leneman (US importer for the Multi23) makes some comments about the new boat in this article from the Pensacola News Journal.

Photos from this year's event are not online yet, but you can check out the gallery by Peter Macgowan from last year's event for great shots of trimarans racing

Trimaran Deed of Gift race getting closer?

Judging from the previous antics of the protagonists for the 33rd America's Cup contest, this could all go pear-shaped, but today the Alinghi team of Société Nautique de Genève announced that they accept the challenge from Golden Gate Yacht Club, and are prepared to meet GGYC on the water for a Deed of Gift race in 90-foot trimarans. You can see their announcement here. If it ever happens, this will be mega-trimaran cool!

New designs: Has Ian Farrier done it again with the F-22?

Yes he has.

(Image courtesy of Farrier Marine)

Over the last 20 years Ian Farrier has been leading a quiet revolution in the sailing world, converting thousands of sailors into worshippers of “trimaran cool” with his innovative folding system and trailable trimaran designs. Following hits like the original Trailer-Tri 680 (hundreds of which have been built by amateurs), the “beach tri” Tramp, and the USA Sailboat Hall of Fame winning F-27, he has now launched the entry-level F-22. I’m willing to make the armchair prediction that the F-22 will open up a whole new generation of trimaran owners with its economical package and solid pedigree.

(I also have to admit that I liked it so much, I now have a set of plans and I’m s l o w l y building one myself)

The F-22 cruiser and its all-carbon F-22R racer sibling are highly-developed designs, benefiting from Ian’s many years of folding trimaran experience and incorporating the latest design and construction features from some of his larger boats. His strategy for offering construction plans for home-builders before his own production is established will get the design off and running faster, and allowing only factory-built beams and beam mounts (although more expensive than home-built beams) will ensure that buyers of home-built boats can trust the integrity of these critical structural components.

With a length of 6.96 metres (22 feet 10 inches) and a beam of 5.51 metres (18 feet 1 inch) or 2.5 metres (8 feet 2 inches) folded, the F-22 may be built in numerous configurations – the standard cruising cabin with or without an aft cabin, a cuddy-cabin day-sailer with or without the aft cabin (resulting in a very roomy cockpit for the size of the boat), and the option of a sliding daggerboard or pivoting centreboard (offset slightly to free up leg-room inside). The standard cabin actually offers more interior room than the earlier F-24, with the 3rd generation beams taking up very little internal volume. Another interesting option on the F-22 is a boomless main, which reduces weight and enables an un-cluttered cockpit with the traveler mounted a long way aft. The sail may still be slab-reefed using cam-cleats at the foot of the leech.

The F-22 is constructed in temporary female frames from foam sandwich, using Farrier’s “vertical strip planking” process. To qualify for the F-22R designation, the sandwich should be laminated with carbon fiber, and a carbon-fibre wing-mast fitted. Target weights for the F-22 and F-22R are between 590 - 680kg (1,300 - 1,500 lbs). The F-22R also has a taller mast and more sail area - 35.9m² (386 ft²) compared with 30.2m² (325 ft²) for higher performance.

What will an F-22 cost you? Farrier’s latest estimate is around US$45,000 for a sail-away home-built boat, depending on which design options you select and how economically you can source your materials. Of course the F-22R would cost more on top of this due to the more expensive materials. With so many options to select and careful purchasing of materials you may get away with a little less, but this estimate appears realistic (based on what I’ve spent already and what I have yet to spend!).

There is a great deal more information on Ian’s F-22 web page.

With 80 boats already under construction and 4 already on the water, this looks like a new boat with a great future that may open up a new market for entry-level trailable trimarans. That’s trailable trimaran cool!

(Image courtesy of Farrier Marine)

First Arabian 100 trimaran heading for Oman (by freighter)

Now that Musandam (former B&Q / Castorama) has crossed the finish line in Oman, the Sail Oman team are concentrating on the delivery of their first Arabian 100 class racing trimaran. Constructed by Boatspeed in Australia, the first boat is now complete (although not yet assembled) and is now on the deck of a freighter en-route to Muscat. You can see the final stages of construction at the Boatspeed webcam. If this first boat is joined by others in the class, it will be a spectacular sight to watch them racing!

She gets to race! BOR 90 trimaran will race in Deed of Gift match.

(image by Lymeydal)

For around 6 months, the team from BMW Oracle Racing have been conducting sea trials and tuning their new 27 metre (90 foot) “BOR 90” trimaran near San Diego. And following a ruling by the New York State Court of Appeals in favour of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club, it looks like the boat will get to race! (the ruling is surprisingly readable, and sheds light on some interesting aspects of AC history – you can view a copy at the BYM News website).
We have yet to see the new trimaran that Alinghi are also building, but this Deed of Gift match-race between two of the largest and most technical trimarans ever constructed will be a huge boost to the “cool-appeal” of trimarans.
As the two teams prepare to go head-to-head in boats which have never contested an Americas’ Cup event - the only previous multihull to contest an AC race was Dennis Connor’s 18 metre (60 foot) Stars & Stripes wing-sailed catamaran in 1988 - we will see many new names not familiar to regular AC fans. The BMW Oracle Racing activities are being coordinated by French trimaran guru Franck Cammas (holder of 4 speed records on Groupama 3), and the boat has been designed by French multihull experts Van Peteghen Lauriot Prévost.
VPLP have followed a conservative design approach (apart from the incredible size of the boat) - she is essentially an enlarged version of the ORMA 60 class trimarans, featuring carbon-fibre construction, canting mast, curved asymmetric lifting foils in the floats, triple rudders and a Bruce ratio of 1 (beam divided by length).

Attempts: World's largest sailing trimaran tries for the Discovery Route record

One of the great things about the world of sailing trimarans is the incredible diversity you can find - this post comes from the top end of the “Trimaran Cool Richter scale”… the world’s largest sailing trimaran is about to start stretching her legs on the first of several warm-up runs in preparation for an attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy (fastest non-stop crewed lap of the planet).

The boat is Banque Populaire V, the latest in a range of vessels campaigned by Frenchman Pascal Bidégorry. She is a 40m long behemoth, designed on the CAD workstations at VPLP and built by JMV Industrie in Cherbourg (main hull) and CDK Technologies in La Forêt Fouesnant (floats and beams). Her first warm-up run is an attempt at the Discovery route record, which is currently held by Frank Cammas on Groupama 3, at 7 days 10 hours 58 minutes and 53 seconds, an average speed of 21.79 knots.

Banque Populaire V after her launch in Nantes, October 2008 (photo by Pymouss44)

The Discovery Route (la Route de la Découverte) - from the port of Cadiz on Spain’s Atlantic coast to the island of San Salvador island in the Bahamas - is named in honour of the first voyage of discovery made by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Columbus’ fleet of 3 boats took around 30 days for the original voyage.

As I write this Banque Populaire V is on stand-by in Cadiz waiting for a favourable weather window. This Discovery Route attempt will be the first serious sailing for the new boat, however she already reached 40 knots during the overnight positioning journey from her regular base in Lorient to the starting point in Cadiz.

The Banque Populaire website has lots of details as well as a route map which will show the boat’s progress once she sets off. There are also some great videos showing her at speed. The site is all in French, but you can get a reasonable translation using Google Translate.

I’m looking forward to seeing Banque Populaire V show her stuff…