production Strider 24
plywood Romany 34
lightweight 14ft Zeta mainhull
Strike 15 trimaran at speed
28ft Skoota in British Columbia
10ft 2 sheet ply Duo dinghy
24ft Strider sailing fast
36ft Mirage open deck catamaran
Blog and Facebook Posts
These pages are taken from my Facebook posts and are ones that should stand the test of time. Posts start at January 2023 with the latest at the top, so scroll down to get younger. Note that comments and replies to my original Facebook post can only be viewed on Facebook, sorry. So it's worth checking my Facebook pages for those, and also for other posts and photos that I have not included here.
https://www.facebook.com/richard.woods.designs
(This is still a work in progress as I copy pages from Facebook so please check back regularly especially if you are not on Facebook)
News from builders 2024
The last few posts have all been "me, me, me", so now it's time to post some recent photos and comments of my home built catamaran designs sailing all over the world.
First up is this lovely pale blue Eagle 24 built by Hamish in New Zealand. You can see more of his boat in his posts here https://www.facebook.com/.../1678954.../user/100001769718473
Next is a really nice Mirage, now sailing in Estonia, although it was built in Panama about 15 years ago and then sailed singlehanded across the Atlantic to the UK. After buying it Julia did a major restoration and it now looks like new.
Then an even older boat, this time a heavily modified Janus. Normally an open-deck boat, the original owners added a bridgedeck cabin and it was launched in the early 1990's. After various owners Brad has given it a new lease of life and is cruising the east coast Australia, often for weeks at a time. https://www.facebook.com/bradlestix/
Not a home build, but a Strider Club that was built by Palamos Boatbuild in the UK in 1989. Still with the original owners it's still sailing in Tanzania, east Africa. Seen here anchored at Nyule sandbank off Tanga Bay.
Although the Strider Club has ceased production you can still build your own, it's called Shadow
And finally, and again built nearly 20 years ago, this very nice Wizard. A bit closer to home, I photoed it on one of our Chat trips as it's moored in St Germans, near the head of the Lynher river.
There are two places to visit for those who want to contact owners directly. The first is my forum, which you can access here:
and the second is the Richard Woods Catamarans FB page, run, not by me, but by owners. See here:
Sagitta Boat Test in Yachting Monthly magazine
As many of you know, I spent much of the year working on and then - fortunately - sailing my 32 year old 30ft Sagitta catamaran.
We had originally built Sagitta in our garden and launched it in 1991 (luckily we lived by the water!) We sold it in 1995 and it went to the Mediterranean for a few years. I bought in back in September 2022.
Almost exactly a year later David Harding came down to sail and test out the boat. Although he hadn't sailed Sagitta before, he did sail its bigger sister, the 32ft Eclipse, a couple of times, most notably when we won the Multihull division of the 2003 Round the Island race. And of course he took the now infamous photo of Sagitta rounding the Needles in the same race this year.
His eight page report is in the January 2024 issue of Yachting Monthly. If you cannot find a paper copy you can download a digital version here (and elsewhere)
Romany cruising in the Bahamas
Long term readers of my website will remember that about 15 years ago we bought a home built plywood Romany catamaran and cruised it on the east coast USA and to the Bahamas for a few years.
We then sold it to a couple with two young children, who also sailed it to the Bahamas. It had a chequered history after they sold it and it was neglected for some years.
Fortunately this year it was sold once again, this time to another family with young children. And I'm sure you are not surprised to learn that it is once again cruising the Bahamas. At least the seventh time the boat has gone there.
You can see more of the Bearde's trip here https://www.facebook.com/jenna.love.98
As you can see, the family are having fun and are very happy with the boat. Jenna messaged to say "We absolutely LOVE our boat and everyone we have sailed with comments on how well she moves through the water! Just wanted to share!"
Sagitta ashore for the winter
Sagitta is now ashore for the winter (lots more jobs to do!), the photo below shows it stropped, ready to lift out, at the Multihull Centre, Millbrook.
As I motored up to the pontoon I passed Uhuru, a Windsong built in exterior (not marine grade) plywood 40 years ago, by one of our very first customers. It was built on a tiny budget as the builder had lost his previous, sadly uninsured, multihull. Nevertheless it made two Atlantic crossings, one singlehanded.
The new owner says it's in really good condition and is looking forward to better weather so he can get out cruising.
Comments by an Australian Gypsy owner
Probably prompted by my recent post, I just received the following note from an Australian Gypsy owner
"Just thought I'd pass on a photo of our time on our 20 year old 28ft Gypsy.
We sailed as a family of 3 with our boy being 15months old at the start of our journey. We departed sailed her from Brisbane to just north of Townsville, far north Queensland, over a period of 5 months.
The Gypsy turned out to have the perfect layout for a young child, as it provided secure holding the entire way around the boat. The main cabin proved to be the perfect play room on long passages and while at anchor. We had enough space to store our gear and provisions for 3 weeks at a time if needed.
At one point we had a 10 day trip with 4 adults and 2 children. The separated hulls provided the perfect opportunity to have our own living spaces when we felt we needed a "break" from each other."
Another Gypsy was home built in plywood in Panama. Some years ago it sailed to Tahiti and is now in Fiji. Proving once again that the Gypsy truly is a "Budget Ocean Cruiser"
New production Vardo project
Way back in the mid 1980s we designed two very similar 35ft catamarans. The performance cruiser Banshee and the family cruiser Flica. It was then many years before I drew the 34ft Vardo, which is a compromise between those two earlier designs.
The Vardo has the performance rig of the Banshee coupled with the standing headroom throughout and all round vision from the saloon of the Flica. It has a big galley and heads compartment yet is still able to sleep 8 in 4 double cabins.
A number have been built in the last 10 years.
One of the first home builds was launched in St Augustine, Florida and which was then sailed through the Caribbean, Panama Canal, across the Pacific to New Zealand and finally to Australia - all with a young family on board. The owners are delighted with the boat, for example:
"Arrived Georgetown, Bahamas yesterday. A front had come through resulting in 5-6 foot seas straight down the rhumb line, but with wind at about 30 degrees off the seas. Sustained high twenty knots with some gusts to near 35.
With a double reefed main and 80% jib we hit 16.5 knots. More would have been possible with someone trimming the sails when the apparent moved forward and could have at least handled one less reef and the full jib. The kids were happily playing in the saloon looking out the windows."
The build blog is here: https://sailingcatamarans.blogspot.com/ and FB page for details of their trip after leaving the Bahamas is here: https://www.facebook.com/MoJoCatamaran
A Philippines owner wrote "Thanks for designing a great Catamaran. I would recommend your designs to anyone and appreciate your support! She is a great compromise between performance, comfort and design safety."
Another Vardo was built in the UK, very quickly, despite being built entirely in the open. See here https://www.facebook.com/Steves.catamaran/
A Dutch couple recently launched their somewhat modified Vardo, although they are just motoring it around at the moment. See the photo of their boat dried out. Their FB page is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2190959041134633
And then the project that prompted this post. A grp Vardo is being professionally built in Poland, the hull and some deck moulds were made. The builder is currently looking for new customers. Please contact me in the first instance and I will forward your contact details to the builder. See photos and the very impressive 3D sketches.
News of prototype Gypsy 28
As many of you know, I built the prototype Gypsy 28 catamaran on a very tight budget back in 1996. I cruised it for a few years and sold it when I built my Eclipse 32 in 2001.
Since then it has had a checkered history, indeed, it was almost abandoned for a few years. Fortunately it was eventually sold to someone who has been cruising it far and wide. Again not without incident, as it was hit by a fishing boat off Morocco.
So I was delighted to get the attached photo and comments a couple of days ago. In fact I was sent several photos from different people - S. Portugal is obviously a mecca for those who sail multihulls that can easily dry out and who want to escape northern Europe winters.
"Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk briefly with Gypsy's owner on the beach. He confirmed that she was yours. He's very nice and proud to be the owner of this particular cat, and very happy with the performance. After complicated covid years, he's now planning to do some long distance sailing, maybe going to spend the winter in the Canary Islands"
Norwegian Sango news Oct 2023
I just received this email from a Norwegian builder:
"I've completed the construction of my Sango "Rán" on Jeløya, Norway.
It took me three years to finish this project. The construction proved to be quite challenging at times, yet I found immense satisfaction in every aspect of it. I acquired a lot of knowledge and skills throughout the experience.
My building space was a garage with a 15-meter driveway, measuring 2.60 meters in width. While it served its purpose for me, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. I divided the boat's assembly into four parts: the Cockpit/Cuddy, floats, and beams. The Cockpit/Cuddy section was lifted with the trailer structure, and I used a winch to position the floats underneath. I then inserted and epoxied the beams into their designated locations.
A few weeks ago, I successfully launched Rán, and the floats folded out seamlessly. Sango is spacious enough for a family of four and will serve us well for many years.
Thank you for enabling regular people like me to build a catamaran."
Sailing to Salcombe on Sagitta Sept 2023
The south coast of Devon and Cornwall is one of the major English cruising areas. Lots of safe all weather harbours and no outlying dangers - apart from the well marked Eddystone and Wolf rocks.
Just west of Start Point is Salcombe and about 20 miles SE of my home port of Plymouth. So it is surprising that I hadn't sailed there for maybe 40 years. Fortunately last weekend's forecast was for light NW winds switching the next day to a light SE wind. Perfect for a broad-reach there and back. Furthermore the tide was good and, surprisingly, for late September, it was going to be warm and sunny.
We left our mooring on Sagitta about 11am, with more wind than forecast and also with a lumpy sea, left over from the previous days gale. No matter, as we were reaching down the coast.
I have never fully understood why, but the shoreline from Bolt Tail to Salcombe seems to produce steeper waves than normal. I assume because the swells bounce back from the steep shore. They extend some way out, so its always worth staying at least a mile offshore.
As soon as we had cleared Plymouth breakwater the auto pilot was put on and then, as they say, we "sat back, relaxed and enjoy the trip"
We had wanted to go all the way up to Kingsbridge, but the harbour master wasn't sure if there'd be room, so that's for another time - hopefully before 2063!
I'd forgotten how fast the tide runs in the mooring field off Salcombe town. Another reason for going further up the harbour towards Kingsbridge. And that same tide makes crossing the entrance bar very dangerous, in fact impossible, in a strong southerly wind. Even in the light conditions we had overnight the swell was noticeable.
It took 4 hours to get to Salcombe, but sailing home was quicker. We crossed Salcombe bar at 9am, were off Plymouth breakwater by 11 and having lunch on our mooring by 12.15.
Fortunately, after a lot of work in the spring and early summer, Sagitta is much more habitable than it was a year ago, so we are enjoying living on board. One major job still outstanding is to replace the saloon sidelining. Foam backed vinyl has a nominal 15 year life, Sagitta's is over 30!, so no wonder it's falling down in places. Just another winter job to add to the, once again, growing list.
and a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pFTxAxzkm8
Sailing Sagitta up the Tamar river 29th Aug 2023
This is an update to a video I posted last year when sailing my Chat 18 catamaran in the Tamar river north of Devonport dockyard, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPJEQlNInZU
The Tamar river is navigable for many more miles above Weir Quay. My sister came to stay last week and, as both wind and tide served, it seemed like a good opportunity to sail as far north as we sensibly could.
Diana and her family first sailed Sagitta shortly after launching. Now, 32 years later, Diana was alone, but still enjoyed the sail.
As we sailed/motored north the river shallowed and narrowed, while the countryside became ever more rural and inaccessible. So Weir Quay marks the end of the moorings. However a mile or so further on is a waterfront house that's very familiar to fans of the BBC TV series "Beyond Paradise".
Then, a couple of miles north is the dockyard, and workshop area for Cotehele House, not forgetting the Shamrock, a Victorian sailing barge built for trading on the Tamar river. Cotehele is a famous Tudor house, naturally steeped in history, see here https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/.../history-of-cotehele
The first time I sailed to Cotehele was in 1983 on our 25ft Gwahir catamaran, and we did SAIL there - Gwahir had no engine. On a later visit on my 28ft Gypsy catamaran we spent the night tied to the quay wall. As we've found, the National Trust often welcomes visiting yachts as they add "atmosphere".
However Cotehele is not the "Furthest North". A couple of bends further on is the waterside town of Calstock with its imposing Victorian railway viaduct, built to connect north Cornwall to Plymouth. Although its possible to go on a few more miles to the weir at Morwellham we thought the viaduct would be a bit challenging for a 20ft wide boat, so we turned round and headed south again.
A great day out - it didn't even rain (much)! And a real contrast to the Round the Island race a few weeks earlier.
Maiden sail on a part finished Tamar 31 22nd July 2023
It's time for reports from other sailors!
A new homebuilt Tamar 31 was recently launched in Millbrook and after some delays the owner left to sail it singlehanded to Southampton. It is his first multihull. These are extracts from his report. You can see the whole log on my forum pages here https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/woodsdesigns/
I have sailed from Plymouth to Torquay, and from Torquay to Portland. The boat is a Tamar 31, effectively a bare boat with no internal fitout, I was carrying two engines and a lot of tools etc, so she could be lighter - but I’m certain she is well below her designed weight. The rig is brand new, with brand new sails, and there has been no shakedown sail or testing of any kind, I’ve gone straight from the riggers for the big trip home.
Leaving Plymouth it was mostly downwind, and, with headsail only, I followed a monohull most of the way, speed about 7 knots, feeling a bit fed up that the boat wasn’t as fast as I hoped it might be, but grateful for something to help me hold a course since the autopilot wasn’t working and I had no compass or instruments. The speed steadily increased throughout the day until I was peaking at around 10-11 knots by the time I arrived at Torquay, which was a bit more like it. This is under full headsail only. I believe the wind was 20-25 knots on the forecast, which mirrored my experiences on the boat.
The second day I sailed from Torquay, again aiming for as far as I could get, heading almost dead downwind in relatively light winds. Wind speed maybe 10 knots, 15 at a push. I was making 4-5 knots under full headsail only, so I decided to raise the main. Once I changed course about 10-15 degrees towards the wind, onto a broad reach, I was able to get both sails properly set and working, and speed improved to around 8 knots. Around this time some dolphins turned up whilst I was sitting on the foredeck.
I noticed on my GPS watch that the boat speed was increasing, 9 knots, 10knots… 11knots. Still climbing. Looking at the sea state I could see that wind was increasing, white horses everywhere, but not really bad. I guess a F5. Maybe gusting 6, but not sustained at F6. I am not familiar with the boat or catamarans in general, so I decided it was time to be sensible and put in a reef. 1 reef in, no reduction in speed. 2 reefs in, no reduction in speed. Drop the mainsail, minor reduction in speed. 10 knots.
Then the sea started to build. Not crazy big, just 1-2m, relatively close together, steep, and hitting us directly on the beam. The motion was quite abrupt, so I put a reef in the jib. No reduction in speed. We continued like this for a while, and then we started surfing. Then we were seeing 12 knots on a wave, decreasing to about 9 or 10, then back up to 12 on the next wave, etc.
As I arrived at Portland I was 10 miles offshore, the tide was turning against me, with various problems with the sails. So in anticipation of the much fabled tidal race I furled the jib fired up both engines and continued to surf at 10-12 knots past the Shambles and finally into Portland Harbour just as it was getting dark.
The bottom line is that, barring the normal teething problems in the boat setup, there were no disasters. I was really enjoying myself and had felt completely confident in the boat
Overall, the outlook is for a fun and fast boat to sail, only once did anything move (a loose item fell off a shelf when we were hit with a crash on the beam by a somewhat larger wave and took some water over the side) but otherwise the stability was remarkable. I just need to learn how she handles and improve some of the setup so things work better.
In reply another Tamar owner, who has been sailing his boat for a couple of years wrote:
"Once you get the hang of sailing her you will love it. We came in first in our class tonight against a 38 ft cat. Not sure what type but he always wins. And also ahead of the 33ft tri that beat me last week. And we were ahead of a F32 carbon fiber tri that weighs about 10 lbs and goes like stink. We were ahead of him the whole downwind leg with winds as high as 5 knots. Gusting to 6 knots."
And later "Our club races were in winds from 15 to over 30 knots this week. The boat handled the wind and waves quite well with one reef. Bows were completely submerged which creates quite a splash. I did not hear one wave hit the bridge deck. Sailed at 10.5 knots and could have gone faster if I wasn't such a chicken. Barely a creak in the boat. The PDQ 36 beside me was flying a hull. Fun night, great boat. I love it more every day."
See photo, note owner is 6ft4in tall - 1.95m - so he raised the cabin roof
News of my old Strider Club 30th May 2023
News just in... I got this email this morning
"I thought you might like to know that over the weekend Yeta sailed from Portrush on the north coast of Ireland to Bangor on the east coast and on the way regularly hit speeds of over 10 knots - max recorded on a mainsail and spinnaker broad reach/run of 14.7 knots. The new owner is delighted and we had a fantastic two days of sailing"
Yeta is the Strider Club I sailed to the USSR back in 1989. See here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8mwQFaNsM8
It's been a well travelled boat since then, so great to know that after 34 years it's still sailing and that owners are still having fun!
Sagitta sailing 21st May 2023
Our 30ft Sagitta catamaran has now been in the water for a month. I have reported elsewhere about our first races, alas no videos as racing is all a bit too stressful, especially with a largely inexperienced crew. So here is a video showing the first daysails of the year.
Fortunately the first day was a gentle sail, up the Tamar and then into the Lynher river. But at least we were able to check out the - not previously hoisted - masthead screecher. I was pleased to see the boat would still steer itself in light winds, just as it did 32 years ago.
Our next sail was out to sea, a bit more wind, but still too chilly for comfort. So we spent much of the time sitting below with the autopilot on. A great new genoa from Highwater Sails, complete with a fancy foot to match the cabin top, and leech battens, all to maximise area. Our new mainsail should be arriving in the next few weeks, again from Highwater Sails.
Photo shows the ex-monohull spinnaker, we will be trying a J80 asymmetric soon.
You can see many more Sagitta videos from 30+ years ago on my youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/WoodsDesigns
Sagitta re-launch 3rd May 2023
Sagitta is now back in the water! This photo was taken by Darren Newton of Dazcat fame (who had built Sagitta's daggerboards back in 1990) during a Tuesday evening club race. We were the only boat to race with a dinghy in davits and a generator and dinghy outboard cluttering up the cockpit!
Racing is a great way to learn how to sail the boat efficiently, especially on very short courses - we were sailing round buoys we normally use when dinghy racing. But it's not for the faint hearted, as this photo shows - note the hand in the bottom right corner, this was not a telephoto shot. A J24 claimed they never saw us until it was almost too late but fortunately they tacked in time, the photo was taken after we had separated, apparently one J24 crew was ready to fend us off.
This was also the first time using our new racing headsail. Beautifully made by Highwater Sails. Cannot wait for the new mainsail! I'll be racing as much as I can, but I really need a good, multihull experienced, regular crew. Send me your CV if interested!
Spring Sailing 23rd April 2023
Thanks to the wettest March on record, and a few major gales, our sailing season was off to a slow start. But now it's in full swing. We relaunched our Sagitta catamaran last week after a 400+hour refit - more on that later. Sadly bad weather meant we missed the only possible launch date for our Chat 18 catamaran. So that will be staying ashore this year.
Of course it's not just catamarans that I sail! I am still racing my Kiwi 12 dinghy, and slowly learning how to sail it faster. And I am now helping teach adults to sail at my local club - that's me smiling at the camera on a very cold evening last week.
And then I recently raced on a Diam 24 trimaran (I'm in yellow). It's first sail for 6 months or so. Some years ago I sailed a Multi 23 trimaran, similar in concept but not a good design. Having said that the Diam really needs wind over 10 knots before it comes alive, and it bounces around in a sloppy sea. Great fun and very fast in the occasional 12-15 knot gusts that we had. Easy to sail with 3 crew and only a screecher offwind. But, as always, the self tacking jib meant it was easy to get in irons when tacking.
Roll on summer - I'll be dinghy racing Mondays and Thursdays, racing my Sagitta Tuesdays, teaching sailing Fridays - which leaves the weekends for some cruising!
Crayfish dinghy 12th April 2023
Not surprisingly, my most popular design is my 8ft yacht tender Crayfish, designed over 40 years ago and built from 3 sheets 4mm (3/16in) plywood. A very easy build, indeed we once built one on the marina pontoon next to our boat.
I just received an email from a Crayfish enthusiast. I say that as he has built 9 of them! He is also a very experienced multihull sailor having sailed his trimaran over 50,000 miles round the Pacific over the last 35 years. In his email he wrote "....The reason I’m writing to you now is that I just posted a little video
of the construction of two sailing Crayfish, that I built for the Royal Belau Yacht Club in Koror, Palau. Knowing that they would be used to teach sailing to kids, I built them solid, all 1/4” ply, and with two water tight compartments. The video shows it all. Thank you Richard, such a practical dinghy design. Love all your multihull designs as well...."
Eagle building 20th March 2023
The last video I uploaded showed the singlehanded cruise of a Eagle catamaran from Germany to Norway and back.
It was a home built plywood boat and this video
shows the build - as before I've shortened a longer video. It's mainly still photos, with some German subtitles but no audio as the photos are self explanatory.
Eagle sailing 13th March 2023
After several posts featuring my own sailing here is a video of a customers boat.
It's of the famous black, lengthened and somewhat modified Eagle 24. Originally a long video with German commentary, I have shortened it and there is no audio, as I don't speak German so couldn't translate it.
============================
I report on the maiden journey of my Eagle catamaran "Über-Winden". It was my first trip at sea on a multihull.
In brief. I started in Bremerhaven, Germany and sailed non stop nearly 300 miles to Farsund, near Lista, the southwestern corner of Norway.
For the first 50 miles I sailed upwind in force 2-3. The next 250 miles was downwind in force 3-6. The Eagle sailed very comfortably. Easy on the helm under any conditions. No tendency to pitchpole when I sailed between 13,5 and 14,5 knots in a force 5-6 down steep waves. On a broad reach it would be faster of course. But I didn`t change direction, as the tillerpilot was not working well.
The last seven hours I reduced the sails, as I wished to reach the rocky coast in daylight. So I took 42 hours for the trip. All the way it sailed very easily and the structure seems to be very strong.
The potential top speed I'll try for, when I have more experience and when I have an autopilot that works reliably, rather than sometimes, as on this trip - I'm always sailing solo.
The potential of the Eagle shines, when I surfed downwind in gusts of more than 25 knots. The weather forecast predicted 2,5 to 3 m waves. I overtook waves in gusts for several hours. Under these conditions I heard the noise not only from waves, but sometimes vibrations from the hull and rudder dominated. But no spray on deck!
The speed? I don´t know. Far more than 15 knots. My instrument shows only windspeed and direction. Although the speed was probably more then 20 knots, that says nothing. More important is the control of the boat. I could steer it anytime with my fingers.
The way back was, as I expected, not a joy. The first 11 hours I hand steered and for 30 hours mostly in the direction of Great Britain rather than Bremen. The trip back lasted round about 55 hours. More than 50% at the helm. ( Late in autumn I got a new tillerpilot from Simrad. But I'll not take it in future. I decided to take a outsized system with extra computer, compass etc.)
Ulrich