4 Thoughts on Building Small Trimarans with Wood

I like small trimarans of all sorts. This means trimarans available commercially or via home-built projects (assuming, of course, good plans are used). This also includes trimarans made with fiberglass (glass-reinforced plastic, also referred to as GRP) or wood/epoxy.

I'll be covering all types on my blog.

The allure of wood building, however, appeals to many do-it-yourselfers because of the perception that wooden-built boats are always going to be a more inexpensive route to acquiring a tri sailboat in the long run. This isn't necessarily the case though.

Building costs are up nowadays.

Those who build fiberglass boats accurately point out the costs of marine-grade plywood, combined with the generally high cost of epoxy, can put dollar amounts for building with wood on par with fiberglass. Not only that, but when added time and money are factored into the long-term equation for maintenance costs, many home builders lean towards using fiberglass instead of wood.

I understand where they're coming from. All of the facts need to be taken into account. But with this in mind, I'm simply going to offer a few reasons why I still like the idea of building small trimarans with wood. Here are 4 thoughts to weigh in:

-- If we were discussing "big" trimaran sailboats here then you might not be reading this article on wooden boat building. It's not the wood per se, but the task of a "big boat" project is one I probably wouldn't want to tackle by myself (and I have a lot of experience working with wood).

We're not discussing big trimarans though. We're essentially talking about fast, little day boats that provide a lot of fun for single sailors, 2 partners, or a small group. (The only exceptions are those "weekend" trimarans that include a small cabin in their design).

Even though a wooden boat requires more care than a fiberglass one in order to ensure its long-term health, the costs in either time or money aren't going to be huge. A little effort and care can go a long way, especially if you properly store a home-built wooden small trimaran out of the rain and sun.

-- The design options for wood building are good. From the current crop of plans available out there I see very nice design options for smaller trimarans that incorporate wood ... and this refers to some fine older plans in addition to the newer ones. Whether you want to go with a tiny boat, or a trailer-able one in the 20-something foot range, there are affordable plans offered by reputable designers readily available.

-- You can probably build a small wooden trimaran a whole lot easier, and in a lot less time, than a fiberglass one. This one is probably the most appealing factor in favor of wood when comparing the different building approaches.

After considering fiberglass requirements for things such as lofting, molds, spray guns, etc., those wood boat building forums that teach Stitch & Glue construction begin to look very, very appealing -- at least they do for me. (Boat builder Sam Devlin provides an excellent S/G summary on his website in case you're interested).

If you've got a lot of experience building with fiberglass already then this may not be the case for you. But overall, I think this would probably hold true for someone that has never build a boat before.

-- You can build cheaply with wood before building a more expensive, polished version with either expensive marine-grade plywood or fiberglass. You might be thinking, "Why do this?" But it may not be a bad idea. Why not do something like this ... especially for a small sailboat?

You can buy a set of plans for a small trimaran you think you might like, and then build a "cheap" version of the sailboat using low-grade woods in order to decide if you really like it. What I'm talking about is essentially building a full-scale model of a boat you don't need to worry about making perfect.

You could build one that provides some sailing fun in order to test things out ... before shelling out more dollars for the highly-involved project. In addition, you can get some real-world boat building experience under your belt and become very familiar with the boat you've imagined you really want in the process.

One boat builder discussed this idea during a recent interview (currently featured as a download from our site). In my opinion, this expert really put things into perspective when it comes to building boats with wood - including small trimaran sailboats.