Buying a Trimaran Yacht

Powerful, versatile, and exciting!

There are a lot of reasons why buying a trimaran yacht often excites boat lovers the world over.

Some are buoyed by the versatility of these vessels why for some, the secret lies in the performance. Whatever your reason for buying a trimaran sailboat or yacht, it’s no denying that these multihull watercraft come with lots of benefits and advantages.

If you’re in for the excitement that comes with superior performance and optimal space, the trimaran boat is definitely your thing.

These exceptional vessels are simply multihull boats with the main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls which are laterally attached to the main hull. Due to their exceptional design, most trimaran yachts excel as recreational, racing, and even as ferries.

Buying a Trimaran: the many benefits

Before we go into full details of those things you would need to consider before splashing the cash on a trimaran boat for sale, it would make much sense to detail the very many exciting benefits you stand to gain from these powerful boats. Below is a brief but comprehensive summary of some of the key benefits of buying a trimaran;

(NOTE: Have you been looking for a Trimaran Yacht? Check out this 2006 Racing Trimaran Tantrum Too, a fun & fast competitive seaworthy racer & offshore cruiser. Winner of the ‘2018 Bintam Trophy’ and holder of ‘Around Bintam Record’. Learn more here!)

Value and performance

Price and value seem to be a focal point for most people when planning to buy a boat regardless of whether that happens to be a trimaran yacht, or any other catamaran, or monohull boat.

The problem with most people when calculating trimaran cost has to do with a wrong estimation of value. Rather than compare in terms of unit length, true value resides in the cost per knot.

The trimaran cost aside, it will outperform a monohull boat of similar length.

Speed and stability

Buying a trimaran yacht comes with speed and stability advantages.

The superior performances enable higher speed levels which in turn increases your range. Thus, you are able to sail away to places that would otherwise have proven difficult to reach.

The buoyancy of the leeward float, as well as the double outriggers also offer some form of stability to the vessels. The principle hull of trimaran boats can be flared out easily without worries or fears of being toppled over.

Space and comfort

Modern yachts and boats are usually designed to optimize comfort and performance.

A multihull trimaran sailboat, as the ideal all-in-one small boat has the ideal space to offer a balance between comfort and performance without any compromise.

In contrast to a catamaran with only a single trampoline, a trimaran sailboat would usually have a principle hull which is not only spacious but also safe enough for comfortable use.

Also, when accommodated in a marina, a harbor, or even on land, a trimaran yacht would save you significant costs due to the reduced storage costs.

Easy trailing and superior handling

If you want something you can handle easily, then you should consider buying a trimaran sailboat.

Trimaran boats are relatively easy to trail and so sailing or cruising in new areas is as easy as it gets.

Their drafts are usually shallow and so they can easily access places where keelboats may not be able to reach. These boats are quite lightweight making it easier if you’ll need to manhandle them ashore.

Generally, trimarans can be handled better and are easier to tack when compared with catamarans.

 Important Things You Should Know Before Buying a Trimaran Yacht

While we’ve discussed some of the most important benefits of why it would make sense to buy a trimaran sailboat, there are still a few things you’ll need to carefully understand and give proper consideration.

These are outlined briefly in the parts below.

You will be sailing, but with who?

Most people often tend to ignore this question. Still, it is perhaps one of the most important things that will define your experience after the thrill that comes with purchasing a used or new trimaran yacht is all gone.

Who will you be sailing with?

You can’t expect an inexperienced couple to enjoy a vessel that will otherwise have been ideal four five experienced people. In both of these cases, the experience will be very different from each other.

2006 Racing Trimaran “TANTRUM TOO”

Where will you keep the boat?

Are you on the verge of purchasing a trimaran boat for sale?

Perhaps one of the things you should also consider is the place you’d be keeping the boat. Trimaran yachts and other multihull boats would usually have large beams.

These often limit berthing availability while also increasing marina costs by as much as 50 percent. If on the other hand, you’ll be mooring your multihull in shallow waters, this may be of advantage as it will mostly suit your needs.

Structural integrity and safety considerations

As far as weight is concerned, multihulls are usually lighter than similar monohull boats although the loadings do not appear necessarily less.

Ironically, amateur builders and designers are more often attracted to building multihull despite these vessels being less forgiving should the process have a design flaw.

If you’ll be building from scratch, it is therefore important that you go with expert builders and designers with enough experience and a proven track record.

You may as well request a structural survey to be carried out by an experienced professional familiar with the structural design and engineering of multihull yachts.

Safety advantage of trimarans

Whether you’d be buying new builds or used boats, you can always request prepurchase surveys to ascertain the structural condition of the boat of your choice.

Fortunately, a trimaran yacht, like most other multihull boats have significant advantages compared to monohulls when it comes to safety.

They come with twin rudders so you already have emergency steering installed. The presence of two motors implies a 100 percent redundancy in propulsion.

These safety advantages mean that a trimaran sailboat would rarely sink.

Performance considerations

Trimarans would perform excellently well off the wind. Although this excellent performance is no doubt a key marketing point for multihulls, trimaran yacht owners should still be wary of weight and windward work as important factors to consider.

While loading a monohull boat with plenty gear would still slow it down to an extent, loading up a multihull with very much gear would have a much greater effect on multihulls.

These boats will be slowed down a lot more and may even be made unseaworthy. Considering the fact that multihulls often have plenty of storage and deck space, it is important that the urge or tendency to fill up these spaces with equipment is kept in check.

The tendency of the yacht becoming overweight from excess equipment as well as low aspect ratio stub keels can result in a trimaran having a poor windward performance.

This is still considering the subjectivity of the “poor windward performance” itself.

2006 Racing Trimaran “TANTRUM TOO”

Capsizing resistance abilities

Trimaran yachts and multihulls are not the only boats that can resist capsizing.

Many modern monohulls can achieve this feat too. However, some trimarans and other multihulls, because of their high-performance cruising made possible by increasing the beam to carry the sail, and piling on the sail area, are able to resist capsizing more efficiently.

The hull-lifting wind speed has been having been suggested as a measure to determine the tendency of a boat to capsize.

Though there has not been any generally accepted figure, it is assumed that the hull should only lift until no more than 25 knots of speed.

If you’d be buying a trimaran yacht, you can ask the seller what the hull lifting speed of your preferred boat is.

Although it’s possible they may not know, it would still be comforting to know there’s never been such an occurrence after several thousands of miles on the sea.

Still, you can ask them what particular wind speed they expect before they start reefing.

Motoring considerations

Trimaran boats, like other multihulls, often spend the most time on sea motoring to windward. Therefore, the choice of the motor would prove very consequential to your experience aboard.

Boats up to about 10m in length will find it attractive to fit lightweight and easy to maintain outboard motors.

For inboards, there are a lot of options but the choice and options should border on performance.

Comfort at anchor

This is a general advantage of both catamarans and trimarans.

Somehow, most people do not usually appreciate this until they are cruising. This advantage is attributed to two things.

The first has to do with their exceptional resistance to rolling. So, for multihulls, anchorages that would have been barely effective for monohulls would do perfectly fine for multihulls.

Another reason is the shallow draft that makes it possible for most multihull boats to work up creeks and inshore in a less crowded environment where you are more protected from waves and winds.

If you’re planning to buy a trimaran boat, other things such as bridge deck clearance and close quarters maneuvering should also be properly considered.

Although buying a trimaran yacht is a valuable investment decision, you’ll still want to ensure you tick the boxes at the right places to improve your post-purchase experience.

If you’ve worked things out with your crew or planning to buy a boat anytime soon, you can check out our boat collections at Basco Boats, to view the Tantrum Too trimaran sailboat for sale, as well as a host of other yachts we have in excellent conditions.

(NOTE: Have you been looking for a Trimaran Yacht? Check out this 2006 Racing Trimaran Tantrum Too, a fun & fast competitive seaworthy racer & offshore cruiser. Winner of the ‘2018 Bintam Trophy’ and holder of ‘Around Bintam Record’. Learn more here!)