[MHml] TRT1200 delivery trip

[Alan Christoffersen]

Hi David,

Thanks for your very interesting posting. The TRT 1200 is definately a 
performance cat, not a "roomaran"  It sounds as though you have the more 
open and performance oriented version, not the cruiser, is that right?


One of the issues you mention, reefing, can relatively easily be changed. 
Have a look at e.g. the Harken website or catalogue, there are plenty of 
reefing set-up examples.

Regarding the single outboard - Yes, consider 2 x 9.9 to 15 hp instead - 
look at some earlier threads here on the subject.

Multihull magazine did a series of articles by a Norwegian guy who sailed 
from Norway, Newfoundland, Caribbean and on into the Pacific.  I remember 
that he had twin outboards, and that was a thing he would change for long 
term cruising ( go for 2 inboard diesels).

I'm sure that you will get alot of pleasure from this boat, just remember 
to tak one of the aft cabins, for the most comfortable sleep. The worse the 
motion, the more tired one gets, the easier it is to sleep....:)

cheers

Alan

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra:	David Nees [SMTP:dnees at fitnessresource.com]
Sendt:	25. maj 2007 21:46
Til:	multihulls at steamradio.com
Emne:	[MHml] TRT1200 delivery trip

Delivery of TRT1200GT, Fitness Resource
Ft. Myers, FL to Galesville, VA (Chesapeake Bay)

This was a delivery from Ft. Myers, FL to the Chesapeake Bay.  I am an 
experienced beach sailor/racer but have very little big boat experience and 
no big multihull experience.  I had on board one crew member who had done 
this trip two years ago with a McGregor 36; part of the way outside and 
part of the way in the ICW.  I also had an experienced monohull sailor; the 
rest of us were novices at this type of sailing.

We set out for Key West on Friday morning, April 20 in predicted NW winds. 
 Winds were late arriving, so we motored until 1pm before we could raise 
sail.  We were rank novices, but had a comfortable downwind trip of 18 
hours.  In the evening the wind clocked to the north and we had to run 
increasingly west of our south rhumb line.  We found the NW entrance 
channel and managed to sail directly down the channel into Key West harbor. 
 Our run was uneventful, with the boat running down wind on starboard jibe 
at 10 to 11 kts.  The seas were not too large (3') and the motion of the 
boat was pretty easy.

Monday morning we set out from Key West into 15-20 knots from the east.  We 
set sail and tried the boat out upwind.  The boat shocked me how it took 
off up wind.  With one reef in the main, pinching, brought us 8 kts and 
footing resulted in a galloping 12+ kts with way too much spray coming off 
the bows.  I should point out that we had the boat loaded way down with 
lots of food (I took off about half the food at the end of the two week 
trip) and a crew of six with gear.  The bows received a fair amount of 
loading even though I tried to limited heavy items up front.  After a 
couple of tacks, I called for the sails to be lowered and we motored up 
wind.

After two days of motoring into 15 -20 kts of headwind we set out from 
Snake Creek (below Key Largo).  The wind had clocked to the SE and we were 
able to raise sail.  What a relief to be whooshing along without the motor 
droning.  Speaking of the motor, my hat is off to the Suzuki 40 hp. motor. 
 It drove us well for many days on the trip without being overly intrusive. 
 The alternator also was able to fully charge three large AGM batteries.

>From Snake Creek, we sailed straight through for 70 hours and arrived in 
Charleston, SC on Saturday morning.  We had SE to S winds this whole 
section of the trip, varying from 10kts to 20kts.  We would put 2 reefs in 
by afternoon and leave them in overnight.  In the morning, we would usually 
let them out as the winds were lighter.  One night (before the 
reef-at-night rule was instituted) I awoke to the boat jibing over in 
15-20kts.  When I got on deck, the boat was jammed broadside to the wind 
and waves with both sails sheeted to windward.  We adjusted the travelers 
(self-tacking jib) and got the boat moving on the new tack, bore off and 
jibed back to the proper course, then put in two reefs at night (a first). 
 After that, I made sure we reefed before sunset.  Later I realized that, 
although we were not in a great situation, with the boat stuck, the boat 
was quite stable and showed no hint of tipping.  The seas were running 
three to six feet at this time and through our whole time off shore.

The first reef point was tried early on, but it seems to be a fine tune 
reef point and doesn't do much to de-power the boat.  The third reef is so 
far up the main that we joked when it would be needed, we should have the 
sail already down and wrapped up tight.  Maybe one would use that point to 
heave to.

I ran the boat very conservatively downwind, at about 135 degrees of 
apparent wind.  This course was about 10 degrees before the jib would 
collapse and want to jibe, which was about 10 degrees before the main would 
start going over.  Whenever the helmsman heated the boat up, due to the 
waves kicking the stern around, or miss-steering, the boat would accelerate 
quickly, even with our full cruising load.  We steadily made 10-12 kts on 
the GPS with the help of the current.  The boat would have easily gone 
15+kts, but it would have been wet and (to me) scary.  As it was, we 
achieved a surf speed of 15.7 kts with my son at the helm.  We had been 
having a surfing contest all afternoon and he took the win at the end 
before we jibed over and lost the good angle to the waves.  Sleeping in the 
V-berths made for strange dreams due to the incredible gurgling noises as 
the boat rushed down the waves and bit into the backs of the next one.

After Charleston, we lost half of the crew and so spent the next two days 
motoring inside to Wilmington, NC and Wrightsville Beach.  With son Dave at 
the helm I watched as we went under our first fixed ICW bridge (65 feet 
high).  I should have followed the advice of our ex Seal, "don't look up". 
 I have never had my stomach jump in panic like that as I thought we were 
going to hit.  We estimated that we are about 60 feet off the water 
(safely), so there wasn't much clearance to begin with and from the angle 
you look up, you don't see any of that four or five feet).  I never looked 
up again.

The first night we anchored in the Waccama River.  It looked primeval with 
the dark, tannic stained water and the Cypress trees and swamp on the 
shores.  While only about a mile from a marina, we felt as though we were 
in some very remote area.  The whippoorwills and unidentifiable screech 
calls completed the exotic mood.  The morning brought a slight mist on the 
water and found us turned 180 degrees with the changing tide (just as the 
guide books talk about).  While getting ready to depart, we heard a pack of 
coyotes calling which completed our impression of remoteness.  All in all 
it was a great place to anchor.

>From that point, the second day of motoring brought us ever closer to 
urban areas as we approached Myrtle Beach and (further north) Wilmington. 
 It was interesting to wait for swing bridges of differing types.  I would 
be running the motor in reverse, stern to wind and current (thankfully in 
the same direction most of the time) and having to be constantly attending 
to the boat moving around.  At the same time I would watch the big Hatteras 
sport fishing boats just sitting there, hardly moving and needing only an 
occasional adjustment with their twin screws to keep in place in the 
channel-the difference 20,000 pounds and big props make.

Tuesday evening we made it to Wrightsville Beach, above Cape Fear.  The 
next morning we set out from Masonboro Inlet to sail outside to Beaufort 
Inlet just below Cape Hatteras (about 50 miles).  The morning was very 
light and we set full sail.  Three other keel boats went out with us and 
motor sailed away to the horizon.  Later, as the wind came up we slowly 
reeled them in and by early afternoon had left them behind.  The Navy was 
conducting live fire tests, shelling the Marines at Camp Lejune.  They were 
closing the ICW for a period of time that day, so we were glad to be 
outside.  We were about 20 miles off shore and at least 10 miles from the 
warship.  They were using their five inch guns and we could hear/feel the 
pounding from them even 10 miles or more away.  It made me wonder what the 
impact is of a full battleship salvo with their 16 inch guns; that must be 
overwhelming to be close to that kind of firing.

Winds were from the SE and again, came up enough to put in the second reef. 
 We had a tense moment out in the Beaufort channel with a Coast Guard 
cutter that we couldn't figure out what they were doing and a tug with a 
very large barge tow.  The channel is quite narrow and as we got on the 
north side of it, I realized that we were only a mile and a half from the 
lee shore beach and the water was going to shoal quickly.  The waves were 
getting noticeably steeper.  We put the motor down and headed up and 
dropped sail before the situation deteriorated.  It was a bit of a roller 
coaster ride into the, now, steep swells.  With all sails down safely we 
motored in and bid goodbye to the Atlantic.

The next three days were spent motoring into N to NE winds with cool, 
cloudy and rainy weather.  The boat definitely doesn't like to motor into 
the wind and chop.  The motor would cavitate easily and we were able to 
make only 4.5 to 5 kts sometimes.  Up the Neuse River, the Pamlico River, 
the Pongo River and the Alligator River.  On the third day the wind clocked 
to the NE enough to allow us to sail that morning across Albamarle Sound, 
our last big body of water in that section.  We made it into the 
Norfolk/Hampton area Saturday evening where we had to seek shelter in 
Hampton Harbor because of an arriving NE gale coming through for the next 
three days.  We left the boat the next day and drove home to the 
Washington, DC area.  A week later we came back and successfully sailed 
Fitness Resource to her home port of Galesville, MD.

Some thoughts:
*	I am not sure I am a blue water sailor.  I never relaxed or slept well 
while off shore.  But maybe this is just a familiarity issue.  I had never 
been that far off shore (40 miles) before and am uncertain about the boat's 
capabilities.  Being a beach cat sailor, I am hyper sensitive to tipping 
over.
*	The boat is WIDE (25').  One really has to get used to this, while 
maneuvering in anything but open areas.
*	The cockpit needs some baffles on the drains.  In any active sea state, 
water continually sloshes (even squirts with some pressure) up and keeps 
the cockpit floor thoroughly wet.
*	The boat, as we had it loaded, is very wet when going fast.  I naively 
thought about sailing off shore at 15+ kts, doing 300 mile days.  I now 
think that 10 to 12 kts is a fine speed off shore for a fully loaded boat.
*	The tradewinds are not as benign as I thought.  We sailed in the remains 
of the trade winds going up the FL coast.  The real trade winds run 15 to 
25 kts or more and the seas must build quite large as they run across the 
ocean unimpeded.  I think after my limited experience with the remains of 
these winds that they must be quite intimidating.  Wonderful for large, 
heavy, slow square riggers, but daunting for modern, fast sailboats.
*	The large, open cockpit is nice, but one must be careful crossing it and 
moving around in it in a seaway; always have a hand hold while walking.  I 
called it the "simian safety walk".
*	The reefing station is 2/3 of the way back to the rear of the boom and 
consists of the clew/leech reef line clutch, the outhaul clutch, the 
Cunningham clutch and a winch.  This set up did the job, but it seemed 
unnecessarily dangerous to be standing on the motor cover, tethered onto 
the boom, swinging around with the boom as the boat yaws downwind in the 
following seas while trying to crank the winch in a coordination with the 
halyard being dropped.  Then one has to winch tight the Cunningham which 
was been secured to its new loop on the luff of the main.  It's a job for 3 
to 4 people.  There has to be a safer, simpler way.  The safest place, if 
one is outside of the cockpit, is just in front of it on the main beam, by 
the mast step.  This is mid point on the boat and the motion is much 
smaller and you have more to hold on to.
*	The motor (40 hp Suzuki 3 cylinder with fuel injection), while wonderful 
for this delivery trip (we motored a total of 5 ½ days overall; sometimes 
for 12 hours straight) it is too large and heavy and puts too much strain 
on the designed lift systems.  It was very quiet, unnoticeable at idle, and 
not very noisy in the hulls, probably due as much to the central pod 
location as to the motor.  The steerable motor works pretty well and the 
central motor cover is nice to climb on when we needed to get to the boom 
(see comment above), but twin motors would give more control.  There is no 
way to turn this boat in its length, which you can do with the twin motors. 
 Smaller, dual motors, also wouldn't stress the lift systems as much.  This 
motor has a 20" shaft, but could use a 25" shaft to limit cavitation.
*	There is an impressive amount of room on the boat down below.  The saloon 
held six of us very comfortably.  The galley is well arranged and the bunks 
are comfortable and large.  One just has to get used to the low headroom in 
the main beam queen size bunks.

David Nees
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