Corsair 880 – Drive Out, Fold Out, Thrill Out, Chill Out

Effortless performance is not a myth; it’s the Corsair 880! The long-awaited new Corsair 880 brings new charisma to the 28ft folding trimaran concept and is coming to Australia this year.

In a time when performance catamarans are hitting their strides and being better understood as a logical choice for long range cruising, for not only experienced sailors but families wanting more efficiency out of their boat, the reality is that these larger cats are more at home offshore exploring Europe, the Caribbean or Pacific islands than sitting idle in a local marina or swing mooring in between journeys.

That’s where the Corsair 880 comes in as the perfect in-between boat, enabling fast transport to your preferred location, thrilling sailing to keep up your skills, yet a stable platform to chill… and when you are all done, compact economical storage.

The feeling is undeniable when you only need a few knots of wind to get the boat moving in flat conditions without whitecaps.

Since launched, boating enthusiast from all over the world are sitting on the bench, eager to get onboard this ultimate trailerable sports cruiser. Well, we have good news for you! The Corsair 880 Sport is coming to the 2022 Sydney International Boat Show this winter and ready to welcome her first visitors. If you live in Sydney or are around the area from 28th July – 1st August 2022, be sure to pay us a visit and see her in the flesh. Our team from Multihull Central will be there to walk you through how this 2021 Boat of the Year has lived up to its name. Registration and ticket entry are now opened. Be sure to book a visit with us or purchase tickets directly at the Sydney Boat Show 2022 Website:

READ MORE:

• Australian Debut of the Corsair 880 at the Sydney International Boat Show
• Corsair 880 Trimaran 2021 Review by SAIL Magazine
• 5 Reasons Why the Corsair 880 Won Cruising World’s Boat Of The Year 2021

CORSAIR 880 SPECIFICATIONS:

We are thrilled to announce that the Corsair 880 Sport, our flagship, is making her Australian Debut at the 2022 Sydney International Boat Show!

Corsair 880 out of Wareham Massachusetts

“This is an exciting time for trimaran sailing,” says Brent Vaughan, Director at Multihull Central. “It’s been almost 40 years of trimaran innovation since Corsair’s F27 was inducted into the sailing Hall of Fame. Even back in 1986 the boat was recognised for being big enough to cruise with some essential comforts, light enough to be fast and generate its own apparent wind, yet small enough to trailer behind a regular 4WD. In 2022 we see these same features reimagined and much more.”

The Corsair 880 has revolutionised traditional trimaran designs and offers a new way for performance sailors to also enjoy longer distance cruising with some of the creature comforts offered by the popular catamarans. If you live in Australia and eager to see her in the flesh. It’s time! The show runs from 28 July to 1 August 2022 at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Sydney and Cockle Bay within the iconic Darling Harbour. The 880 will be staged at Marina Space 53-56.

To skip the queue, book an appointment with us in advance by registering your details below:

​​​​​​The show runs from 10AM – 7PM daily at the world-renowned Darling Harbour. Our team from Multihull Central will further coordinate our private test sails. Check out our event page or get your tickets on Sydney Boat Show Website.​​​​​

We look forwards to seeing you there!

READ MORE:

• Corsair 880 Trimaran 2021 Review by SAIL Magazine
• Corsair 880 To Be 2021 Best Sport Boat Of The Year By Cruising World
• 5 Reasons Why the Corsair 880 Won Cruising World’s Boat Of The Year 2021

Cruising World has named the Corsair 880 Sports Boat Of The Year in the 2021 Boat of the Year competition! What an amazing achievement and positive encouragement to our entire Corsair team. A countless number of hours have gone into the design and development of this project and we are so grateful to receive this affirmative feedback confirming the positive impact of all of our hard work.

The Corsair 880 trimaran is built to be completely safe and comfortable for sailors of all skill levels. With the additional comfort features such as air conditioning, heating, refrigerators and more makes the Corsair 880 a revolution for performance trimarans.

Let’s take a look at the top 5 reasons why the Corsair 880 stands out in the busy market of sports sailing boats:

1. Built For All Adventures

Refreshingly modern yet simple interior design compliments the sporty nature of this speed machine. Careful attention has been paid to every detail of the boat to commit to cruising comfort that cruising sailors wish to experience without compromising on performance. The main hull is built to make sure it can deliver the mission of comfortable sailing adventures with full standing headroom. Moreover, the saloon area gives you enough space such as for reading, dining and relaxing. For instance, the galley offers a considerable space for cooking and meal preparation, a compact fridge and stove which should be more than enough for this sporty cruiser.

2. Extraordinary speed

Corsair Trimarans are well known for their ability to “fly” in the wind by generating their own high-power apparent wind. Without a lead keel to create drag, and with tangible buoyancy in design, construction technique and materials, Corsairs trimarans in general and the 880 especially are powered effortlessly by their high-performance design. Like most Corsairs, the Corsair 880 will easily surpass 20 knots.

3. Comfortable stability

Sailing the 880 at any speed and in almost all sea conditions, you will find the wide unfolded beam and huge buoyancy of these wave piercing floats a blessing. No more so is this noticable than when powered up on a reach as you watch those impressive amas “punch” through oncoming swell. The 880 design and construction applied the same traditional Corsair features that make them sail flat and fast, paired with the latest in hydrodynamics and CFD hull form design. All of this provides a supreme sense of security when sailing this rocket in even the worst of conditions, but add to this, the knowledge that a Corsair trimaran cant sink, allows you to sleep peacefully, even when scooting along at over 15kts.  In fact, even with with the hulls and all buoyancy compartments filled to the brim with water, the positive buoyancy of the materials of construction keep the vessel afloat even with all crew aboard.

4. Trailerability

The 880 is real cruising boat, yet trailerable across continents. Corsair is famous for the excellent trailering characteristics our trimarans offer, and this same ability proves true for the Corsair 880. Especially since she only takes a single handed sailor about 60 minutes to go from trailer to sailor and back again after a couple of practice runs. Corsairs fold up and extend effortlessly, the mast comes down in moments, the boats towed and trailered easily and smoothly which offers significant cost savings when compared to marina and on water maintenance fees.

5. Light Weight

Weight saving is one of considerable elements that Corsair takes very seriously in all of our designs. Exhaustive research has been put into the design of the 880 to eliminate unneeded weight, which itself makes the boat safer on the water as well as safer on the road through reduced braking distance and lower loads. A fully optioned Corsair 880 weights roughly 4410 pounds (2,000 kgs) ready to sail.

At 29 foot, the Corsair 880 continues a long and successful series in this mid sized cruiser, from the legendary Corsair 27, the Corsair 28  and now the revolutionary 880, this model is destined to once again be considered a legend among real Sport boats.

Read more:

The Corsair 880’s Interior Design

Corsair 880 To Be 2021 Best Sport Boat Of The Year By Cruising World

On 8 December 2020, Corsair is honored to learn the Corsair 880 has been awarded as the Best Sport Boat in the 2021 BOTY competition By Cruising World Magazine.

In the midst of a pandemic, a determined group of builders, brokers and sailors presented Cruising World judges with a fleet of a dozen nominees for seatrials in venues ranging from New England to Florida.

Corsair 880: Best Sport Boat

Simple accommodations and sparkling sailing performance earned this trimaran an Honorable Mention for Best Sportboat.

On a cold November afternoon, we rolled up to the dock at the ancient Cape Cod Shipyard, hard along the waters of the Wareham River Basin, for the concluding sail of our 2021 Boat of the Year campaign aboard the Corsair 880, a 28-foot folding trimaran built in, of all places, Vietnam. It wasn’t on purpose, but you could easily say we saved the best for last. The best sail in our 2021 BOTY sea trials, that is.

Corsair 880 out of Wareham Massachusetts

We were joined by Bob Gleason, who’s been peddling fast tris for as long as we can remember, and Dave Reed, the editor of our sister publication, Sailing World: two boys who always can be counted on to press on a bit more sail. In other words, for the task ahead, darn-near perfect companions.

The classic Buzzard’s Bay sea breeze had kicked in, ­appropriately—like, what else is new?—as we powered out of the basin and into the fresh southwesterly. Up went the big, roachy, powerful square-topped mainsail, and out went the self-tending jib. We were sailing.

The Corsair 880 is cool, cool, cool. Comfortable canvas bench seats. A nice little interior with all the basics for pleasant camping-­style cruises. A rotating carbon-fiber spar. A tiller with an extension, and the traveler and mainsheet right at hand. Sails up, daggerboard down. As good as it gets.

We tacked upwind for a while to say we did, got some ­numbers, and then the real fun commenced. First, bye-bye jib; hello Code Zero. Welcome to the realm of double-digit boat speeds, which always feel faster when you’re reaching on a screamer under 30 feet. Greetings, sailing world, indeed.

We swapped the helm back and forth, and took snapshots of one another. Who had the biggest smile? It was a tie. Then the kite went up for the run back to the dock. Heaven on Buzzard’s Bay.

There wasn’t another boat around, and for that matter, there wasn’t another boat in the competition that matched up with the Corsair. But you can be sure as heck we were still going to name it the year’s Best Sportboat. Which we could. So we did.

Source: Herb McCormick, Cruising World

This was written by one of our owners. He has a Corsair 24 Mk-II that he keeps in Newport, RI.

When Rob Wright, the owner of Wright Yacht Sales, asked me to fly up to Seattle to help commission and handover the all new Corsair 880 I jumped at the opportunity.

During the process of assembly every part easily fit together and build quality, especially for the first one out of the box, was solid. Not everything was perfect but I’ve learned from 40 years of commissioning boats to listen to what the boat is telling me and to find elegant ways to maintain the vision of her designers and builders and that was easy. That said we still had this handy little trimaran ready to splash in under 30 person hours with judicious use of the boatyard crane to help with ama attachment.

While commissioning I heard comments like “looks fast just sitting there” and “that’s one cool boat” while other comments ranged from “beautiful” to “sick.” I assume sick is a positive here.

We ramp launched late in the afternoon on a high tide, raised the mast in typically easy Corsair style and ferried her to her berth in Shilshole Marina for her first night in American waters. Bright and early the next morning we gave the 880 a bath to clean off accumulated boatyard dust and with the new owners we began to tidy things up, tightening nets and shrouds, stringing sheets and finally to bend on the Doyle Technora sails.

Typically there isn’t much summertime wind in the Pacific Northwest and doing this work in 70 degree temperatures with clear blue skys was a wonderful and calm way for us to become acquainted with the 880. As both partners came from I-14 dingy backgrounds they really appreciated this time to get acquainted with their first new “big boat.”

While we worked I was hopeful that the forecast was correct and that a Northerly would fill in the afternoon so after a quick lunch we pushed off from the dock to give it a go.

The 800 maneuvered easily in the marina, especially as the engine and tiller are linked and once we cleared the marina breakwater found that forecast breeze had arrived.

So much like our F-27 back home, the 880 retains that Corsair DNA and in minutes had our Main and Jib are hoisted, sailing full and by. Without doing much more than pulling the in the sheets we were doing close to 7 knots in 6 to 8 knots of wind.  We fiddled around with fairlead positions, outhaul, cunningham and sheet tensions, set rotation to an optimal position and right away we began to point well up to weather, light on the helm and well balanced. Like any multihull she liked weight far forward in these conditions and once we got our weight out of the back of the boat she responded with close to a half knot more of speed. It’s hard to know how well we were doing except that there was a 40 monohull going our way and we easily sailed through their lee slowly out pointing them once we cleared them.

Several miles up the sound the wind increased to 9-10kts as we all took turns at the helm, talking about feel and tried different settings and with every little change the 880 felt better and better culminating in fairly steady 7 to 7.1 knots of boat speed. With the water very flat we did encounter occasional powerboat wakes but the boat recovered quickly with barely a pitch and little tendency to hobbyhorse. Yes the waves would slow us a bit but in seconds she’d rebound and come right back up to speed.

Several tacks up the Puget Sound, most the seven miles to Edmonds, we bore away and set our Asymetric Kite and off we went. Alex, one of the boat’s partners at first said, this doesn’t feel all that fast and quite frankly I’d have to agree except that my little handheld GPS told a different story; in not more than 10 knots of wind we were sailing steady a 10.8 to 11.1 knots! Totally a Cadillac ride; smooth, comfortable, no drama. As we neared Shilshole the wind had risen to 12 knots so we executed a Mexican douse onto and lined up on the entrance unfurled the Screecher on what was close to a beam reach, just to give it a try, and rocked the sail right up to the breakwater. All at over 9 knots.

Huge thanks to Perius Design, Richard, Mike, Shane and the entire team in Vietnam for an awesome trimaran. And thanks to Wright Yachts for the opportunity to be the first American sailor to sail this wonderful new Corsair. If ever a boat were a worthy successor to the venerable F-27 the 880 makes a strong case.

Read More: The Inside Scoop on the All-New Corsair 880 >>

Read More: Corsair 880 Design News >>

Join us on Tuesday, June 2nd to learn how the Corsair 880 is built, the differences between Corsair 880 standard and sport version, and the additional options available to you.

Inspired by the Hall-of-fame F-27 back in 1986, the Corsair 880 has been designed, engineered and now tested on the water. Now, we’re thrilled to announce that the Corsair 880, our most innovative and modern performance trimaran, is ready. We want to give you the inside scoop – the fine detail on this amazing trimaran in an informative webinar. You will see how the Corsair 880 is built, and some fascinating insight into the high-performance Sport version. We will also have a Q & A session at the end of the webinar to answer all of your questions.

Shane Grover, Sales & Marketing Manager for Corsair Marine, will present the webinar. And we’re happy to have Francois Perus, the designer behind the Corsair 880 project, along to give more insight into the design process. If you’re interested in trimarans, this is a must-do.

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