From Charlie Pingree, builder and owner of Hammerhead 54' Trimaran 'Flying Fish'
Dear Chris, In this cat crazed sailing world, I wanted to remind you that your H-54 trimaran rules!
I doubt that any cruising boat as comfortable as Flying Fish goes as fast, and as we know "fast is fun".
I was reminded just how much fun last summer when my Hammerhead 54, "Flying Fish" came out from behind one the many islands of East Penobscot Bay to find the newly launched 90' Gunboat working to windward and headed for the Fox Island Thorofare. I had heard enough of the the Gunboat hype with never a Gunboat in any NEMA (New England Multihull Association) race I have participated in to not let such an opportunity slip by.
I gave chase, crossing under her transom and the race was on. The Gunboat was captained by Cam Lewis- captain from The Race with the boat sharing most of the carbon features of the 110 footers including Cuben fiber sails. I had a 75 year old monohull racing veteran at the helm for his first ever multihull sail.
The breeze was perfect, high teens with gust to 20 and flat water. We gained slowly and crossed their bow two tacks later. I made the mistake of tacking too far off-shore into rough water and losing our lead and then some. As we rounded the nav buoy and bore off slightly for the Thorofare we started to eat into their 100 yard lead. Before overtaking them they tacked away in what could only have been seen a face-saving move. As we came in under the land the gusts bumped up to 25kts and Flying Fish tagged 22kts.
The smile on my old monohull friend was almost as big as my own.
You nailed it with this one. This is the ultimate cruising tri, and for some of us only a tri will do.
Would be great to see you and Kate Downeast again soon.
Good Sailing Charlie