It has been my good fortune to own numerous small sailing vessels. One of the most endearing was Twinstar, a Wharram Hina catamaran. Technically she was capable of being a trailer sailer, but the sheer effort of de-rigging and disengaging the hulls for road travel is a great incentive not to do so. Since the original concept, James Wharram has designed far better boats for trailer sailing, the latest of which is the exciting Melanesia, a 16 ft proa.
I owned Twinstar in the mid 70s, when her home port was at Hullbridge, on the River Crouch, Essex, UK. With an overall length of 22 ft, and being a catamaran, she had a good turn of speed - perhaps up to 8 knots on occasions. The fastest speed was attained when beam reaching. Unfortunately, her pointing ability did not match that of a monohull. Not having bilge plates or drop boards, she was best sailed free, in which style she would sail longer boards, but more quickly - making up for the fact that she was not close-winded.
I sailed and cruised her locally on the East Coast Rivers and did a single-handed passage to Calais and Boulogne, which was a great adventure. The most exciting part was when west-bound, at Cap Gris Nez. I recollect the hulls of Twinstar being almost totally submerged in breaking seas. It would have been a strange site for one to observe with binoculars from the Cape itself. The observer's view would have revealed a deeply reefed mainsail, preceded by a storm jib and just visible under them, there would have been an outline of a figure - all three shapes moving together, steadily to the west.
On arrival at Boulogne it was impossible to start the Seagull outboard engine because it had been totally immersed for much of the time. This necessitated sailing up the harbour to the pontoon. When secured there, I flushed the engine with fresh water and allowed it to dry in the bright sunshine. Then, to my astonishment, at the first pull, it burst into life! I wonder if this would happen today with some of the more sophisticated engines we are encouraged to buy.
I will mention, that at a later date, when having stripped the catamaran of cruising gear for a race on the River Crouch, my brother and I managed to capsize her. At a London Boat Show, I informed James Wharram about the capsize, but he told me it was virtually impossible to capsize a Hina. I speculated that perhaps one of the reasons for our capsize was because I had rigged her with a stout alloy mast which was held in place with stainless steel shrouds and bottle screws. This meant that there was no give to the rigging, unlike the original wooden box mast, which was held in place with galvanised shrouds attached by lanyards. The fact that she had been stripped for racing was possibly another reason for the unexpected inversion. When the sails were trimmed for sailing to windward, we experienced an unexpected gust from abeam. I did not have time to release the sheet, and almost instantly the boat was upside down.
After the event, I speculated
about what may have happened had I capsized Twinstar in the rough
conditions off Cap Gris Nez. In which case, it is a possibility you
would not be reading this now, for I may have drowned or died of
hypothermia!