Typhoon sailing trimaran 'Monster' Major rebuild and modifications.

This is my 28' trimaran, called 'Monster'. she is based on a Typhoon, a Derek Kelsall design from the early 1980s. The typhoon trimaran was designed to use standard Tornado catamaran huls as floats, and also a standard mast and mainsail from the same catamaran.

I bought this one as an unfinished project, she had been in a barn in Kent for about ten years, and I don't actually know if she was ever finished and launched at any point in her life prior to that. Someone had tried to make as much interior space as possible, by building something very much like a foam sandwich bungalow on the top of a perfectly reasonable hull, hence I had to cut back so far to achieve a boat of sensible proportions.

The project took 22 months and Monster has been sailing this summer, i have just about got 20 knots out of her on a couple of occasions.

The music in this video is 'Daylight fades', written by me back in my school days, and recorded more recently by some friends and I. Decided to use it for this video because I don't really know what else to do with it... enjoy!

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Sailing
• trimaran
• typhoon
• kelsall
• rebuild

[anthem1687]

also, delamination can be a problem with any cored structure, regardless of whether it is wood or foam, but there are things you can do to help prevent it- remove the core and build it up solid where any fittings are bolted through, design reinforcement well to deal with structural loads and minimise unnecessary flex, and most importantly be absolutely meticulous about sealing everything. you can have no leaks whatsoever, as water ingress can be one major cause of a problem starting.

[anthem1687]

yes, that is what i meant- for a boat where it is intended to build several from the same plans, having patterns for everything makes perfect sense. but there would have been no point in me going to all the trouble of making patterns for something i was only going to make once. if you want to build an existing kelsall design, i think the kss method would speed things up a lot, although i have never tried it in practice!

[anthem1687]

the core material was tricast 7, lloyds approved boatbuilding foam from a company called trident foams. certainly much easier to work with than wood (you can cut it with a stanley knife) and less susceptible to moisture travelling through the core in the event of any leaks. kss relies on pre-cut panels from patterns, and there is a lot of time in the pattern making- so ideal for production but very labour intensive for a one-off. i would definitely do it the same way if i had to do it again!

[MrQuynhvt09]

BEAUTIFUL BOAT

[plbuster]

Beautiful boat and excellent workmanship (though the color....idk)

by KSS, I assume you mean Keep it simple, stupid...or am I incorrect in that assumption?

[itxpurtsau]

Great workmanship, you should be very proud of the attention to detail. Hope that you are having fun with your creation.

[rps13sr]

@anthem1687 from what i've read so far it seems i need to read more b4 i go this way.

you said that its labour intensive for a one off.

do you mean that its more labour cause you needed to design it yourself. cause he sells the plans with patterns to cut out already correct. does that mean that its gonna be saving lots of time than with wood?

[rps13sr]

@anthem1687

what about delamination from the glass to foam as i have read that foam and glass delams but i dont know how much truth is behind all this

[rps13sr]

how was the material. what i know is that he has his own method called kss which is a pvc foam sandwich now that he uses.  did this one use the same method? how does it look compared to wood core. do you tihnk its is a better material than wood?