Cruising Helmsman – June 2017

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Helia 44 Evolution

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Exclusively designed to deliver a simply superb experience at sea and while

moored. Remarkable volumes and light-filled spaces allow you to

comfortably share the experiences and create life-long memories with

family and friends.

Cruise in style with Fountaine Pajot.

Asia-Pacific Premiere

25-28 May 2017

moment standing on the Cardwell jetty, I needed
to buy another boat. This time around, now in
my sixties, I knew I wanted something small
enough to be trailerable, big enough to live
aboard for a few days and shallow-drafted to suit
the reef and island anchorages of the Coral Sea.
It dawned on me that I needed a multi-hull:
something like a folding Farrier trimaran
perhaps?
My knowledge of these vessels was confined
to f leeting highway glances of a crustacean-like
profile as it trailered its way to or from some
unknown cruising ground. Floats tucked under
the main hull, folded arms pointing skyward like
declawed appendages and a trussed up skeletal
mast and rigging holding the beast together.
I had never seen one in the water.
Within days of my Cardwell epiphany,
an internet search told me that there was a
rich heritage of Farrier trailerable trimarans
beginning with the plywood and fibreglass
six metre Tramp in the 1970s, which evolved
into the Trailer-Tri 680 and the slightly longer
TT720, followed by the larger F27, F28 and F31
in the 1980s and 1990s and on to the current

generation of high-tech, high performance F22,

as well as much larger non-trailerable tris.

Three months later I purchased a 1984 Trailer

Tri 680 in Townsville in need of a lick of paint

but otherwise in good condition and equipped

with a full wardrobe of sails, VHF radio, depth

sounder, log, new 9.8 horsepower outboard and

the original trailer. For $10,000, plus the cost of

two new tyres and trailer registration, I had the

basic hardware for my return to the sea.

On the post-purchase road journey

northwards from Townsville I took a break at

Cardwell to once more take in the view that had

inspired my recent acquisition. A view enhanced

this time by the acquisition itself.

Over the next few months I replaced the

fading blue paint with a new white livery, raised

the boom sufficiently to accommodate a bimini

in deference to the tropical sun, improved the

“RENAMED HER PLACEBO TO REFLECT THE DRUG-FREE

HEALTH BENEFITS I IMAGINED WOULD RESULT FROM

OWNING AND SAILING HER.”