These two beautifully Trimarans of 30′ foot length (9.1m) are based on the design Val III by multihull specialist Dick Newick (1926-2013) and both have been built in Canada (French part) by two sailing fellows. One was setup completely in wood… another version exists “in white” (with re-painting into red/white) with a high-tech Carbon mast.

(Rec.: The photos are from the blog site http://valiii.over-blog.com were you find a fully documentation of the different boat building phases.)

On first view it’s not very obivously. If we take a closer look the Newick Trimarans follow an own philosophy. To understand the design best is watching a video which shows the “idea and concept” behind Dick Newick was following in his designs.

As a logical result we sailors can see a design vocabulary which has different components completing each other, the main hull (vaka) with the outrigger (ama). They seem to be in conflict with each other… of course on the water in their element they harmonize perfectly.

Dick Newick himself said about the Val III: “…she sleeps one uncomfortably.” (citiation: 29th Aug 2013 – jak3b / Proa File). As many of Newick’s boat the Val III is trimmed for maximum speed.

We clearly can see in this video, that the heavily upwards curved ama (outrigger/float) has it’s maximum of volume = uplift only little bit front the middle section (vertical ) axis.

Nearby the whole central section of the leeward ama is pressed diving under water (as seen in the upper video). As the bow has a very extreme curve upwards (Rec.: Dick Newick called the shape (half) moon amas) it still can keep above the water surface even not piercing the waves. So the boat yet has not reached it’s maximum limit with the risk to do nose diving and stick pushing into a wall of water… mostly follows a dramatically capsizing over the front.

The benefit of this design concept: the boat is not pitching up and down and keep a high speed under heavily wind pressure. The negative consequence: It is very wet sailing. But Trimaran sailors love it to be oversprayed taking a shower during a speedy ride. 🙂

Le Val III… real beauty in wood (even with wooden mast)…

It’s compagnon in white (and later red/white) with high tech carbon mast…

Simple Rigging… Carbon Mast laying independently from land based crane…