Anonymous wrote:

Hi Graham, you must be the same person who I had heard about in Durban, as I had been wondering when seeing your name here.

I was also surprised to see Graham Cox here on the JRA but alas it is not the same person you would have heard spoken about in Durban. That Graham was famous for inventing the L26 + L36 racing class and was prolific in the boat building and racing scene in Durban, he sadly passed on a number of years ago.

I wonder how many ex-durbanites we have in the JRA.

Jeremy Walker wrote:

First posting here on this forum - as a new member and hope I am getting it right.

Have been a bit flooded out of my work site and find myself with a little time to write a thought or two.

Minimalistic and micro gets my attention and the possibility of a very small junk rigged pproa might just fit in here.

Shunting gets demanding as size increases and I guess this is justification for twin masts and rudders on a catamaran over 30 ft, but getting down to the Miss Cindy size, I am tempted to put shunting design and sailing experience to use.... not quite yet, because a 30+ ft shunting Oceanic Pahi first needs finishing.

Based on this type of multi, a 16 footer could just have at least as much if not more than a little double hull like Miss Cindy.

Certainly, a single sail with higher aspect would be up my street, because, admittedly, the twin rig idea puzzles.

I have spent a few years trying to speak to Pete Hill about this type of rig, but without success and think it best to give up, especially since micro proportions and single handing probably suits my needs and means better.

Hi Jeremy, Nice to hear from you.  I still have copies of your Jung Jung articles, including the one in Classic Boat, with the wonderful colour photos.  What a charming boat Jung Jung was.  It still walks through my dreaming.  I grew up in Durban (left aged 20 in 1972) and remember a couple of clinker lifeboat hulls that lay around at the Bayhead, near the floating dock, that I regularly visited when I was about 15.  I often wondered if Jung Jung was one of them.  I used to look at them and dream of what I could do with one.  And Jung was one of my favourite philosophers.  I cherish his saying, "Be true to your self and unknown friends will come."  I've tried to live by that philosophy all my life.  The lesson I learned was, you won't find true friends if you spend your life hiding behind a social mask!

I was always looking hopefully for information that you'd built the lovely cold-molded Jung Jung 11 that you designed after losing the original.  Eventually I saw some postings from you in the Wharram Friends NZ website, so assumed you had gone on to other things.  I think that design concept was brilliant and extremely seaworthy.

Your Pahi project sounds interesting.  Lovely design.  A mast in each hull seems to work just fine.  The tricky bit is beam reaching, but the resolution, I am told  (I discussed it with Pete Hill and others with the same set up), is to ease the windward sail out a lot, until it is almost but not quite feathering, which spills wind into the leeward sail.  On all other points of sail both sails work independently.  One advantage is the ability to have shorter masts and a lower CE.

If you set the boat up as a proa then you need the rig to go both ways, of course, and that presents a new set of issues.  I have yet to see a junk rig that can do this and remain practical, apart from little daysailers.  I am not saying it cannot be done, and have spent some time musing on the possibilities.  I'd be fascinated to see if someone could make it work in a 30ft oceangoing boat.  I love Pacific proas, like Russell Brown's, or the 30ft Madness, but I cannot see advantages in embracing the complexity if both hulls are equal. 

In my saner moments I think a 30ft cat or tri would be the perfect boat for my current lifestyle, cruising the Great Barrier Reef waters here in Australia.   I have been doing it for the last 22 years full time (and 20 years on and off before that) in my 24ft, steel, 5 ton Arion, junk rigged since 2011, and will probably continue to do so until my toes curl up, but if I could I'd move across to a multihull now.  The first boat I built, aged 17, in Durban, was a Wharram Tane called Otaha. Unfortunately I made a mess of it and was dissuaded from setting off for NZ!  I built the hulls of another one in Sydney, then sold them to Leith, who finished it off and sailed it to NZ.  The boat is still in the Hauraki Gulf.

Good luck, I'd like to see how your project goes.

Anonymous wrote:

I guess making the overall beam a bit more is not an issue.  Of course in your part of the world you live outside most of the time?  And the large cockpit is ideal.  In my part of the world you need a storm and midge proof cockpit tent!

Plenty of midges and sandflies here!  And the sun will eat you alive.  Skin cancer capital of the world.  You need to be in the shade at least, if you are exposed day in and day out. Screens are often needed too.  In the tropics, a cockpit roof with removable screens makes sense, sort of a Samoan style house, keep the sun and rain off you but let the breeze blow though.  So an open bridgedeck cat would work, as long as you had a roof over it.  Much better, actually than being stuck below in a sweaty cabin.

Hi Mark, I have seen this cat in Townsville, and have the free plans from TCP.  It is a very simple and economical boat, if a bit limited by its narrow overall beam and accommodations.  But it definitely deserves consideration as a minimalistic multihull for those with minimalistic budgets!.

Thanks for that info David.  The Eco 7.5 certainly has a lot more accommodation than the Seaclipper 28.  Also, it will probably sit quieter at anchor in swell-prone bays, which are common in Queensland, despite both amas of the tri being submersed.  They are still veed in section and will depress a little as the swells pass.  Often, when I have been rolling heavily on Arion, with things flying around the cabin if not secured, I have rowed over to a friend's catamaran and was able to sit my cup of tea on the table! 

And I like the look of the Eco, though my traditionalist friends, who think Arion is as cute as a kitten, are appalled.  I like conventional monohulls with sweet sheers, but have always enjoyed thinking outside the box too.  When I first saw a picture of Jester as a teenager, I was thrilled.

If I get serious about the Eco 7 I will talk to Pete Hill, given his wealth of experience with this rig.  I was thinking, if the sloop rig has 24 sq metres in total, I might make each sail 15 sq metres, still a smallish and easily handled sail, and reef early.  Make up for not being able to set a screecher!

But unless I find a buyer for Arion it will remain a dream.