Four pulse 600 trimarans have just completed 2 weeks of intense racing action in all extremes.  The four newly launched one design trimarans were thrown straight into the deep end with entries into the back to back regattas, Multihull Solutions Multihull Regatta and Cape Panwa Phuket Race Week.

“A newly delivered set of quadruplets, fresh out of the Corsair factory in Vietnam – the Pulse 600 Corsairs – were being assembled and launched in the Boat Lagoon mid Phuket Island for their maiden voyages south to Chalong Bay. The plucky crew battled the same winds of some 30+kts on the way down and miraculously survived the journey mostly intact “shaken but not deterred”. Talk about a baptism of fire for their first outing. Things could only get better they thought, but in this case the wind, rains and sweeping squalls continued right through Multihull Solutions Regatta without let up.”

– Bob Mott – for the full article see next months edition of Australian Multihull World

Across the two weeks on the water the fleet was truly tested, with Multihull Solution regatta providing winds of up to 35kts. Cape Panwa Hotel Race Week had the opposite, with calmer conditions of 5 to 15kts. Inside the bay and a little less sea-state we were able to comfortably carry full main in 20knts. When the sea-state was worse we would reef a little earlier.

The volume in the floats is surprisingly forgiving and tends to cut thru any chop much easier than other trimarans we have experienced. The balance of boat is extremely light but still very responsive. The boats are very crew weight sensitive, sailing 2 up is the best combo for a race environment  ( in my view )  and the cockpit is uncluttered and easy to maneuver.

The boat weights sail ready with outboard, life jackets etc was 483 kg with a crew weight of 160kg. The OMR rating was .77 which in this part of the world is pretty good when you have to race under OMR and if we were competing  in the Racing Multihull class we would have placed 3^rd over all.

“Four new Corsair Pulse 600’s make up the Corsair class and after a clean start it quickly became a two horse race between SuDu 1 and SuDu 3. Launched just two weeks ago, these small trimarans showed their pedigree with some outperforming some of the Firefly 850’s on the same course and in the same conditions.”

– Duncan Worthington

Sheeting is easy and simplistic and will be great for the day sailor. Jibing thru the slot wasn’t an issue and the furling system made sail handling a breeze.

Up wind the boat trucks, on occasions we were pointing higher then the bigger multihulls and were hitting the top mark before the 30ft firefly class. The Pulse surprisingly pointed higher than any other trimaran we have experienced.

The shy spinnaker is great if you want to sail angles and best sailed around the 70 to 80 AWA , but lacks a little area when you want to carry the breeze at lower angles. We will be reviewing a larger Spinnaker design with North Sails and if the design is changed we will replace spinnakers on all pre launched pulses to ensure the Pulse 600 remains a true One Design class.

Competition between the four boats was tough and in many cases positions were separated by mere seconds, see the results HERE