Safety, Luxury, Speed. Without Compromise. These are the opening lines of the owner’s website.
“Having sailed on this stunning 53′ McConaghy trimaran I can only agree to these bold statements. We easily hit 19.5 knots in 15 knots of true wind speed. The helm, whether sailing upwind or downwind was feather-light and one single person could easily tack, jibe or reef. FINN is an amazing creation, envisioned by a very experienced yacht owner”…Gregor Tarjan, owner of Aeroyacht and official dealer for McConaghy Boats in the US.
Owner Statement:
In 2000, I did a two boat build program with Peter Johnstone in Cape Town. We agreed on hull shapes, pilothouse profiles, and forward cockpit for our cats. Pete Melvin did a great job designing the hulls. We each customized our own boats using a common platform. After my 62ft Safari was launched, the iconic look became Gunboat. Although I never had financial or management interest in Gunboat, I was always proud to have made a strong contribution at a pivotal moment in cruising evolution.
Our family sailed tens of thousands of miles on Safari. It was the perfect boat for that moment in our lives. Yet, I felt as if something was still missing. I felt I was missing an intimacy with the experience and sheer thrill of sailing.
Cats are great at accommodations. But all those berths mean mouths to feed, which means more time provisioning, which means more time trying to figure out who is going where in the dinghy and when, which means more time waiting for everyone to be ready to go ashore at once, which means more time fixing things, which inevitably means less time sailing.
So I made a basic decision: my next boat would be for day sailing with 10 if I wanted, but coastal and offshore cruising of 4 adults and two kids max. Two cabins and one fabulous head is enough to maintain. More people meant more laundry meant more time not sailing. Crew or no crew, thats what it means.
The sensation of sailing a cat is a bit like trying to sail a tennis court. There can also be a false sense of security with a cat. You are stable and upright, until you are not.
Let me say upfront, if you want to race a boat, build a race boat. If you want to cruise, build a damn safe and fast cruising boat. Safety is about speed. Speed means you can outrun weather systems, have less exposure to crew fatigue, and less stress on the boat. When you try to build a race and a cruising boat there are all kinds of compromises that sometimes don’t work out so great.
Spars & Rigging
Lorima high modulus carbon fiber spreaderless rotating mast. Navtec canting hydraulics permit 6.5 degrees port/starboard. 800 litre stern ballast tank for blast reaching.
The two shrouds meet and then join to spectra which is connected to a ram on the aft side of the aft crossbeam. When one ram lets out, the other pulls in. To cant, the rig is either dropped before tacking, or pulled hydraulically while sailing with the press of a button on the nav pod. This same setup allows the rig to come off the boat in minutes by pulling the three large terminal pins.
Sailing Electronics
With safety being first and foremost, there is an UpSideUp system installed installed with fast dump buttons in main salon, nav desk, and each outboard winch pod.
Sailing electronics are provided by a full B&G package including:
1x Zeus Touch 12″ display screen at fully protected centerline nav
2x Zeus Touch 9″ Display at each outboard helm
Simrad 4G Broadband Radar
H5000 CPU
3x H5000 Pilot Controllers
Simrad HS70 compas
T2-Pilot-Ram-RAM-T2-24V
H5000 Race Display
WIFI-1 Module
B&G V50 VHF/AIS Radio
Sails
All sails are Incidences Hydronet.
Main:
-105m2
-3 Reefs
-High aspect square top
Gennaker:
-150m2
-Furling on Karver furler
Solent:
-70m2
-Self-tacking
-Furling on Karver furler
ORC:
-25m2
-Self-tacking
-Furling on Karver furler
Storm Jib
Storm Trysail
Deck Hardware
Harken Performa winches
Karver furlers
Extra-long Mainsail and Solent tracks for safety and flexibility of tuning
Cockpit awning system for full enclosure
Boom awning to amas for sun protection at anchor
13 sq meter SeaTek non-skid EVA foam.
Two Anchors. One with 250′ of 3/8″ chain, One with 100′ chain and 150′ rope
Electrical System
LED lighting throughout.
Watt&Sea racing aluminum hydrogenerator on sliding transom track. Comes online at 6 knots of boatspeed.
4x Solbian SB88 panels for daylight battery charging
Mastervolt 180 Amp Hour 24v LiION battery
Dedicated LiION start and bow thruster batteries
Construction
The hulls on FINN are constructed of infused E-Glass/foam, with Carbon-fiber reinforcement where necessary. Her X-Beam Crossbeams are of carbon fiber, as are all appendages and chainplates.
E-Glass was chosen to be both a good balance between performance and cost, as well as for being quieter underway and more resilient in the event of grounding. As a result, the entire platform has a weight of 10.8 MT
Boat Name FINN
SpecsBuilder: McConaghy
Designer: Bañuls Design
Hull Shape: Trimaran
Dimensions
LOA: 53 ft 0 in
Beam: 43 ft 0 in
Minimum Draft: 2 ft 6 in
Maximum Draft: 11 ft 0 in
Bridge Clearance: 83 ft 0 in
Dry Weight: 10800 kgs
Engines Engine 1:
Engine Brand: Yanmar
Year Built: 2014
Engine Type: Inboard
Engine/Fuel Type: Diesel
Location: Port
Propeller: 3 blade propeller
Engine Power: 39 HPTanksFresh Water Tanks: 1 (50 Gallons)
Fuel Tanks: 1 (50 Gallons)AccommodationsNumber of cabins: 2
Number of heads: 1ElectronicsComputer
Radar – Simrad 4G
Repeater(s) – B&G
Log-speedometer – B&G
Wind speed and direction – B&G
GPS
VHF – V50
Navigation center
Compass – Simrad HS70
Plotter – B&G Zeus (3x)
Depthsounder – B&G
Autopilot – T2-Pilot-RamS ails Gennaker/Cruising spinnaker – Incidences
Fully battened mainsail – Incidences
Asymmetric spinnaker – Incidences
Storm jib – Incidences
Furling genoa – Incidences
Trisail – IncidencesRiggingHydraulic winch – Harken
TillerInside EquipmentBow thruster – Lewmar – Retractable
Fresh water maker – Spectra
Deep freezer
Manual bilge pump
Hot water
Refrigerator
Marine head – Carbon Fiber
Electric bilge pump
Heating Electrical Equipment Shore power inlet
Electrical Circuit: 24V Outside Equipment/Extras Cockpit shower
Solar panel – Solbian Covers Lazy bag
Cockpit cover