Perhaps millions of words have been written by the adventurers who shaped the modern multihull movement. The vast majority of it is collected on the Archives page. Here we have a sampling of Jim Brown’s curated favorite pieces.

Askari Searunner 40 Trimaran

By Chrissi Serini
This is the story of Askari, what i know about her past, how I acquired her, the wonderful people who helped me bring her back to life, and what i am doing right now with her.

Read Article

The Failed Drowning of Woody Brown

By Jim Brown
This is a thumbnail biography of the man who designed and built the first modern, light weight modern multihull, 1947.

Read Article

The Case for the Cruising Trimaran

By Jim Brown
In the 1970s, however, multihulls were still being called “unsafe on any sea.” Most of these upstart vessels were still being built by amateurs in their own back yards, the Corinthian community still called them “anti-yachts,” and their sailors were sometimes dubbed the “Hells Angels of the Sea.”

Read Article

Playboys of the South Pacific

By John Glennie
John Glennie is the author of The Spirit of Rose-Noelle, 119 days Adrift, his gripping personal account of one of the greatest survival stories of all time. 

Read Article

Counterrevolutionary Craftsman — Catching Up With Meade Gougeon

By Jim Brown
It is easy to say something kind and well reasoned about my particular friend Meade Gougeon, but it is not easy to grasp, even harder to explain, the scope of his influence, and that of his brothers Joel and Jan, on modern wooden boats. Or on any boats. Or on wooden anything.

Read Article

Catamara or Trimaran; a Comparison

By Jim Brown
“If we accept that a sailing boat is the most nearly alive thing a man can create,” I said, “then let’s say that its range can be worldwide but its domain is confined to the boundary between Earth’s two great fluids, water and air.”

Read Article

Takeoff Window: the Sailing of Hydrofoils of Sam Bradfield

By Jim Brown
The levitation is subtle, but the acceleration is overt. To stay with the boat, I crouch on the trampoline, my fingers clutching through the Spectra netting. I croak to no one, “It’s like flying in your dreams.” There is no spray, the water noise is gone, and I am soaring on a paper dart. Or a creature? Her name is OSPREY, but she flies more like an albatross, skimming over but hardly touching the waves, and I am crouching on her wing, gripping feathers.

Read Article

What’s a Multihull? (For those who have little or no idea.)

By Jim Brown
Early Micronesian and Polynesian people explored and colonized all the islands of the Southwestern Pacific in their multiple-hulled vessels. Ancient multihulls also spread across the Indian Ocean as far as East Africa.

Read Article

Tri and Tri Again: The WindRider Story

By Jim Brown
Windrider trimarans have a checkered past. The brand was spawned in the mid-1990s by the aggressive kayak manufacturer Wilderness Systems, which would eventually become part of today’s behemoth Confluence Paddlesports. But Windrider was always an anomaly in a paddle-driven empire, and it suffered from corporate neglect and misunderstanding along the way.

Read Article

A Pioneer’s Passing

By Hanneke Boon
This is the eulogy of James Wharram, written by his long-time wife and design partner Hanneke Boon, both true multihull pioneers. James was the last of my multihull colleagues from the 1950s, and while we were never really close, his embarkation for “the great perhaps” has left me feeling quite alone sometimes

Read Article
See More In Archives