Which Boat?

One of the most frequently asked questions by new members of the Yahoo Groups forum is: which boat should I buy or build?  There are lots of tips in the archive about which Farrier or Corsair to buy.  It's mostly a matter of your budget, since there is very little overlap between a smaller, newer model and a larger, older model.  It also doesn't hurt to start small and trade up if and when you decide you need more boat.  The consensus is that the F-27 can give the most bang for the buck; it's been around for a while but you can still get an excellent performing boat for a reasonable amount of money.  Another consideration is how you're going to use the boat: if it's primarily for racing, the only choices are the F-27, C28R or the C31-1D, since they are the only one-designs and my opinion is that the only racing worth taking seriously is one-design racing. (The F-27 may not actually be a one-design but the boats are similar enough and controlled strictly enough that they can race fairly.)  If you're going to race, see which boat is most popular in your local area, and see how other boats rate against it.  It's not common for departures from what's considered standard to be penalized severely, in the interest of keeping the boats mostly the same.  If you're going to race, don't buy a boat saddled with a bad handicap because of some minor modifications that don't actually make it any faster.

I'm not opposed to PHRF racing, but if you're going to try to compare Volkswagens to Ferraris, you should try to emphasize the "beer" in beer can racing and not take anything too seriously.  For instance, I think protests should be disallowed in PHRF racing unless two boats collide.  If you're so hard core that you need to protest somebody else's honest mistake, go sail in a fleet of one-designs.  (I'll get off my soapbox now).

I also feel that if you're going to race a multihull you'd better be pretty good to begin with.  Multis are so fast (when sailed properly) that the experts will often be on the horizon by the first mark.  This doesn't happen with displacement boats because the difference between the fast guy and the slow guy is probably only a few knots.  So unless you're already a really good racer, be prepared for some disappointing finishes.  On the other hand, one of my favorite characteristics of my boat is that you can sail reasonably fast without really trying too hard and without constant tweaking.  Contrary to what you might first expect, the great speed of the multihull makes it a poor choice for most racers and an excellent choice for most cruisers or casual daysailors.

Also note that there are other small multihulls out there worth building.  I am only addressing Farriers because they're the ones I know most about.  I'm only addressing trimarans because it's extremely difficult to get any kind of accomodation in a trailerable catamaran.  The available space inside my 32-foot trimaran is roughly equivalent to the space inside a smaller racing monohull like a J/92, or a much smaller trailerable cruiser like a Hunter or MacGregor 26.  The very narrow waterline keeps the boat fast and allows the floats to nestle close to the main hull when folded, but it also means that there isn't nearly as much space inside the boat as you might expect.  The cabin sole in my 32-foot boat is about 2 feet wide through most of the cabin.  When you hear about the space advantage of a multihull, you're hearing about the giant charter catamarans (a.k.a "condomarans"), not trailerable boats.

Trailerable catamarans are even worse.  The available space inside a MacGregor 36 or Reynolds 33 is roughly equivalent to the space inside a water main.  Trimarans fill a very small niche: any smaller than 22 feet or so and you can get a trailerable beach cat that will be faster than the same size tri.  Any larger than 32 feet or so and you can only put it on a road at great cost in time and money (for crane time, disassembly and reassembly, wide load permits, etc.) so why not just have a catamaran and leave it in the water all the time?  I think the F-39 is an excellent boat but it's not giving you any more accomodation space than a 39-foot monohull and it isn't going to be that much faster than a 39-foot cat (custom, not condomaran), so what's the point?  The upshot is that a trailerable trimaran fits best in the 22- to 32-foot range.

Let's suppose the idea of spending every moment of your spare time for the next several years building a boat sounds like a lot of fun and not a nightmare, so you'd rather build and sail later than buy and sail now.  You have a few choices.  Ian Farrier is actively working on plans for 2 boats as of this writing: the F-22 and F-32.  The F-82R plans remain viable, but if you want to race trimarans then you probably want to race one-design, and if you want to race one-design then you're better off buying.  He also has a few larger models, but I'm not going to consider those because, having built a 32-footer, I wouldn't consider building anything larger without professional assistance.  Plus my boat is enough of a pain to trailer and I don't see the point of building a trailerable trimaran that's so big you can't even trailer it.  I saw a Corsair 36 on a trailer in Florida and was dumbfounded by its bulk.  My boat is over 9 feet wide on the trailer, which makes toll booths and narrow lanes a hair-raising experience (and technically I need permits in every state I pass through), but the C-36 must be well over 10 feet wide and close to 14 feet high.  I salute anybody who dares to get behind the wheel with that monster attached.  I'm also not willing to spend $50k on a tow vehicle in addition to the cost of the boat, and I don't think you could tow a C-36 with anything less than a 1-ton dually.

The rule of thumb that Gary Helms told me years ago is that if you're going to trailer the boat frequently (say to frequent regattas in different places or your lake of the month), then don't go larger than the 28.  If you're going to trailer the boat once or twice a year (say, to and from summer cruising grounds and to and from winter vacation), then go with the 32.  If you're going to have somebody else deliver your boat (with wide load permits), then the sky is the limit.