Solo Sail, Family Fun or Race with Mates

The Corsair 760 offers a incredibly versatile platform that can be  folded away and transported by trailer to your favourite destination, but unfolds to provide space, speed and stability when sailing. Optimised for short handed sailing, it’s ideal for a solo adventure to a remote location, or a great way to teach the kids how to sail while having fun…but when racing season starts, you will be always at the front of the fleet with incredibly efficient apparent wind performance only a trimaran can offer.

Folding System Check-Up

At the heart of the Corsair Trimaran sailing experience is the folding system.  Our trimarans are uniquely versatile through their trailerability.  Being able to drive to new locations is of critical importance to many Corsair buyers – and it’s something you can read more about here.

So when it came to designing the new Corsair 880, no compromises were made when designing the folding system.  And we can now confirm that the first Corsair 880 folds beautifully, as illustrated in the pictures shown here.  Next week, we’ll launch this boat, and then do the all important test of pushing the floats through the water when folding.  But for now, we can say that the folding system works:  The floats feel lighter than the larger Corsair 970 despite being of even higher volume.  The fore-aft balance of the floats is exactly as expected.  And the floats happily sit folded on the trailer, and unfolded off it.  So a key characteristic of all Corsairs remains true with this new model – the beam bolts aren’t of critical importance when sailing, rather the boat wants to stay unfolded and pressure is not a constant on those bolts.

At the shipyard, our excitement grows every hour as we approach launch of the new model.  Keep checking back for updates as the weather forecast for next week looks perfect for testing – 20-knots + of wind and plenty of sunshine to light up every angle of this new boat.

#Corsair880 #foldingtrimaran

With the structure now complete, our team begin completing the deck hardware and finer details of the 880 design. This week we move the 880 out of the factory and raised the rig for the first time. We put the focus on simplifying the mast raising process, one of the driving factors resulting in the choice for carbon fiber masts on both the standard and sport version. Being a sport version, hull #1 has the 13.5m rig which naturally is heavier than the standard 12m mast, therefore by making the process as easy as possible here we will naturally achieve a very simple process on the lighter 12m mast. We begin by raising the mast using the halyard winch by feeding the spinnaker tack line up to the spinnaker halyard. After raising the mast we tighten the cap shrouds  and then begin raising and checking the sails.

One of the new concepts incorporated in this design is the combination of a bolt rope and headboard car on the mainsail. This system involves an aluminum extrusion which features both a boltrope groove and battencar track. We are therefore able to secure the high load of the head to the mast with a battencar but use a bolt rope along the remainder of the sail. By using this combination we have been able to manage the sail loads, minimize the load on the halyard for raising and also allowing us to use the highly effective and renowned roller furling boom that you find on the former Corsair 28 and todays 760 models.

We now have our rig complete, sails have been checked and an 880 all but complete. We now just need to setup an engine installation, electrical system, wingnets and then we begin testing.

The 880 is beamed up and ready to fold!

With beam modification and testing now complete our fitout department have received 4 complete beams from the lamination team. Confident in the structural integrity (thanks to our intensive destructive testing process) we begin levelling up the main hull before mounting 4 sets of folding struts, carefully measuring and jigging up for correct dihedral, alignment and adequate folding geometry. Then once we have everything aligned and in place, we dry fit the entire assembly before firmly securing to the main hull with 32  half inch stainless bolts and a good amount of 3m’s UV 4000.

Next, the floats are aligned and finally beam sockets are glassed into place, firmly securing the beam ends deep into the bulkheads of the floats. We then complete all internal float reinforcement before gluing and glassing on the deck, sealing off the floats interior.

You’ll probably also notice in some of these photos, the full carbon rudder case, the carbon bowsprit and other fine details of the design. As you can see we’re getting very close to the water. Next step, raising the mast and checking sails and systems, we’re getting excited, and cant wait to go sailing!

880 progresses inside and out

With the hull and deck now joined, our team continues with the hardware fitout inside and out. Hull #1, an 880 sport is kept light by favoring painted interior finishes over fiberglass liners and timber work, the standard model will be completed with a higher degree of detail and contrast internally, though the sport will stay true to form as a light and nimble racer/cruiser.

In the stage we are currently in, for the first time we are able to walk inside and say wow! For a trailer sailor, the interior of the new 880 is significant. She will easily sleep 4 and with all the ammeneties of a fully functioning galley, heads and shower she’ll be a fun boat to get away on.

We have our first hull!

While the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to hit shores worldwide, at Corsair Marine we continue to progress our 880 #1 relatively unimpacted by  the pandemic at large. You can read more on the status of the corsair Marine factory here:>>>

In recent weeks , we have made significant progress on 880#1 we have now joined the hull and deck of the main hull, we have all bulkheads fitted, the interior painted, windows and hatches are being installed and we continue to produce all smaller components such as rudders, daggerboard, beams, mast rudder case etc. We have been testing things like the daggerboard trunk, ensuring the board can be easily raised and lowered, we’ve tested the companionway hatch mechanism and we’re now running electrical and plumbing systems.

You will notice the 880 features a recess for escape hatch. Whilst we do not see this as essential nor desirable, this requirement has been enforced by recent CE regulations. We have overcome this requirement by designing a tempered glass smash panel with a safety hammer located inside a safe box. This will enable access through the boat from either side in the event of capsize.

Now that we have the hull and deck joined, we get a good feel for the space inside the 880 and to be candid with you all, we are quite impressed by the space this boat offers. It certainly feels bigger in real life than it looked on paper. As we continue our development we are in constant search of weight saving opportunities and we are optimizing the build through every step. We are after all developing a production line, not just a one off build.

We plan to beam up Hull#1 next week and have already started to laminate the hull and deck of hull number 2 in preparation for full swing production in the coming weeks.

#Corsair880 #880trimaran

Some more pictures of the new model Corsair 880 trimaran: the deck being fitout before assembly.