I’m delighted I had the bittersweet opportunity of teaching ASA’s very last Trailerable Multihull course. I had last taught this course to instructors in Los Angeles on an F-27, back in 2003 and am one of ASA’s few instructors who teach Trailerable Multihull. I was happy to do it, since trailerable trimarans are such a blast to sail.



My students were Bill Bratt, from Wisconsin who had just bought a Farrier-designed kit-made F-25c (fiber carbon) Corsair, and was looking for instruction. ASA instructor Rich Conti, from New Jersey was the other student. Rich was looking to get 113 on his list of credentials.
 


On the second morning of this two-day course we got out on Lake Superior from Bayfield, Wisconsin just before the sun started to peek over the horizon. We motored out of the harbor and started with MOB pick ups under power, then anchored off the Bayfield city beach.
 



I presented tacking tips that are specifically unique to multihulls and also concentrated on the concepts of how multihulls harness and utilize apparent wind. Fast multihulls encounter what I call the “iceboat effect”. This is when the true wind is at a broad reach position, but the boat accelerates so fast that the apparent wind (and the sail trim) makes it feel like you are on a close reach. I explained the need to remind yourself that you are on an actual broad reach, because if you forget and turn away from the (apparent) wind to slow down, you could actually bring your stern across the wind and jibe. These boats are amazing in that each gust of wind can accelerate the boat roughly 1.5 times the speed of the gust.
 



We also tackled reefing, which is pretty easy on a boomless mainsail, and later practiced both the deep beam reach MOB maneuver and the quick stop MOB. These are a bit different in a boat this wide so the training was well received. We also practiced the use of full boat diagonal jacklines, anchor bridles, and special docking techniques for a boat with foldable hulls. This boat is 20’ wide with hulls extended and 10’ wide with hulls folded.
 



All in all it was a great swan song for a unique course, albeit one with a narrow audience. Sailors that want catamaran training now have the option of ASA 110 Small Boat or ASA 114 Cruising Catamaran.

Captain Joan Gilmore is Principal of Sail Away Sailing School, LLC in Minneapolis, MN. She is an ASA Instructor Evaluator and teaches ASA instructors and students throughout the U.S. and Caribbean. Contact her at Sail Away Sailing School or at CaptainJoan@mac.com