david millar photos unless otherwise specified

Corsair has taken our experience over the last 17-plus years building the world’s number one folding trailerable trimarans to the next level. We have created the perfect answer for those experienced sailors who want the comforts of a cruising monohull, the flat sailing of a big catamaran and the speed, safety and unsinkability of a Corsair Trimaran. Our new Corsair 36 is engineered and designed with the serious blue water cruiser in mind. The Corsair 36 features a shallow draft with retractable daggerboard and rudder for exploring, an aluminum rotating wing mast, carbon fiber bowsprit, and quality deck hardware. It boasts an intelligently designed deck layout that leads all control lines aft to the cockpit for ease of sail handling and control. The interior of this new and larger Corsair brings more of the amenities you’ve

come to expect from our larger boats: a functional yet spacious galley, pressurized hot and cold water, ample cabinet and storage space, comfortable curved settee with seating for six, enclosed head with molded in vanity with sink and shower attachment. Forward a spacious v-berth easily sleeps two adults in unmatched comfort. There is ample storage and lighting provided in the v-berth. Additional sleeping accommodations for two can be found in a cozy under cockpit bunk or in a spacious aft-cabin, depending on model. Standard power for the new 36 is provided by a 15hp 4-stroke with electric start. The standard sail plan includes a fully battened square top main sail, hank on or roller furling jib with an optional asymmetrical spinnaker and screacher easily flown from the retractable carbon fiber bow sprit.

                    
Click on the thumbnail above for enlarged images of the Corsair 36 sail plan, interior layout, and deck plan

Corsair 36 Specifications

LOA 36' 0' — LWL 35' 0' — Beam (overall) 25' 7" — Beam (folded) 9' 10" — Draft (hull only) 1' 8" — Draft (daggerboard down) 6' — Mast Length 47' 6" — Weight approx 5,500 lbs — Berths for six adults (forward and aft cabin) — Enclosed head with shower — Galley with stainless-steel sink and two-burner stove — Settee with seating for six adults — Auxiliary power 20hp 4-stroke outboard (optional diesel) — Sail Area: Mainsail 516 sq ft (47.9 sq m), Jib 285 sq ft (26.5 sq m), Asymmetrical Spinnaker 1,442 sq ft (134 sq m), Screecher 549 sq ft (51 sq m)

 
corsair photo 

paul koch photo 

Trailering the Corsair 36
by Ira Heller

I picked up The Multihull Source's Corsair 36 hull #4 at the factory in Chula Vista, CA and towed it up to Chino, CA (the home of Pacific Trailers, this was their first 36 trailer and it needed some minor modification before the cross-country trip), then to Ft. Walton Beach, FL and finally back to Wareham, MA covering approx. 3700 miles of very varied terrain.

I towed the Corsair 36 with a 1997 Dodge Ram 2500 with the Cummings diesel. It is a 2-wheel drive ¾ ton pick-up truck. It has 340,000 miles on it. Corsair did not have an opportunity to weigh the boat prior to my departure but they did weigh the trailer, which was 2260 lbs. I had the trailer, boat and truck weighed on the scales at an Arizona weigh station, which claims an accuracy of +/- 20 lbs. The entire assembly weighed 15320 lbs. If you deduct the truck (7400 lbs) and the trailer (2260 lbs) you get a boat weight of 5660 lbs. That included interior cushions, mast, boom and engine. No sails, anchors, fluids, fenders, etc., etc. We assume you'll easily add 500 lbs in basic gear and probably more when loaded for cruising. So I was towing 8000 lbs and a fully loaded boat could easily approach 9000 lbs.

The trailer mods needed were pretty minor. The winch post needed to be about 6" shorter and the keel bunk needed to be shimmed up 2-3". At the same time the tongue weight was measured and found to be between 1000 and 1100 lbs. Kind of on the heavy side. So it was decided to move the axles forward. Because of the location of an ama bunk support bracket, the axles move 15" forward. That lowered the tongue weight to 600 lbs. which was much more reasonable. I thought that it might be a touch on the low side but once the boat got loaded the tongue weight would have increased to probably something like 750 lbs.

The boat towed wonderfully behind the Dodge. 65 mph was easy to handle. It did seem to get a bit squirrelly at 70 or above. Hills were a major issue. I was frequently slowed to 50 mph and 35-40 mph on 5-6% grades. The length of the two, while not exactly an issue, is certainly something to be aware of. The axles are farther away from the hitch than on any other Corsair model and this has a very negative effect on your turning radius. It's something to be aware of as you just can't make the same sharp corners and narrow spaces as you could with some of the other models. Otherwise there were no problems.

Well, there was one other problem and that was related to adjusting the tongue weight. When the axles got moved forward, unfortunately, none of us noticed that the front tires were now even with another ama bunk support bracket which extends out enough from the trailer to come in contact with the tires. It wasn't until I was fueling up in El Paso, TX some 600 miles later that I noticed that the inside tire walls of the two front tires were shredded down through the exterior layer and at least 2 interior plies. Yikes! I was lucky I didn't already have two blown tires. And seeing as how I didn't notice it until 5 pm on a Saturday I couldn't buy replacements. I did go to a truck stop tire repair center that was able to jack up the boat (a feat I couldn't accomplish with my measly 2-1/2 ton jack) and with a sledge hammer pound on the offending brackets so that they no longer interfered with the tires. Then the spare went in place and I crossed my fingers on the other one. We had replacements fitted while we were in Ft. Walton Beach.

As noted, the Corsair 36 trailers at a width of 9' 10" that legally requires a wide load permit. I did have permits for each of the states through which I drove (CA, AZ, NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, FL) for the trip to Ft. Walton. We used a routing service to secure the permits even though I'd already done much of the preliminary legwork in finding the correct numbers to call in each state to apply for a permit and getting the forms. Even just that was more than a day's work. The permits were approx. $15 per state plus another $12 per state for the routing company. Then we had to post a non-refundable $100 insurance bond in Texas as well as contacting New Mexico and Mississippi directly ourselves to fax copies of our insurance to them.

Then you have to take into account the various travel prohibitions in each state as well as the duration of the permit. For example, NM, LA, MS, AL and FL only allow travel during daylight hours while CA, AZ and TX allow travel 24 hrs. And LA did not allow travel from noon Saturday or Sunday, plus LA permits were only good for 24 hrs. so you had to know your exact travel schedule in advance or purchase several days worth of permits for LA. The permits for the other states varied in length from 3, 5 or 7 days.

Of course, there are additional requirements such as having a wide load banner on the front of the towing vehicle and the back of the load and red flags flying from each corner of the load plus some states also require red flags on the front of the towing vehicle. Some states limited the speed to 55 mph while most allowed 65 mph. I was also required to stop in any open weigh station. At the weigh station in Arizona, they hit me with an additional charge of $50 for having commercial plates on the tow vehicle. Surprisingly, they were the only state to hit me up for a surcharge.

The other requirement of note is that you must register your exact route with each permit for which you apply and you must not vary from it. So there will be no a la carte side trips on a whim while you're traveling.

The trip back to Massachusetts was equally uneventful and we only had to scrape through 1 toll booth (Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River).

I was assisted on the drive from Florida by Syd, my NPW.

For information on obtaining trailering permits for the Corsair 36, click here.