71: HOW SEARUNNERS CAME TO BE

Nautical Lore – Modern | Oral narratives of modern seafaring watercraft with multihull pioneer Jim Brown

HOW SEARUNNERS CAME TO BE This is Part Two of the audio update to Chapter 5 of Among The Multihulls, which concludes the evolution -- in the 1960s and 70s -- of the Searunner Trimaran design series. It finishes with a highly qualified appraisal of this type of vessel. This story is not intended to convince anyone to build a Searunner today, but instead to explain why a visit to the "Classic Multihulls" thread on Facebook reveals quite a few of these vessels still in use. For example, Bruce Matlack and his son Charlie crossed the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas last Saturday night. They had to push SCRIMSHAW pretty hard to windward, in strong winds and square waves, on the starboard tack. This put the newly repaired portside float hull (badly damaged in a hurricane last fall) "practically underwater" for 13 hours. This attests to the efficacy of repairs made by Jeff Gof to that float. He restored this 46 yea-old plywood trimaran, built before epoxy, tor "Gulp Stream" service. I wish I could have been there.