Drive Out, Fold Out, Thrill Out, Chill Out ...
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.
Floats that fold in for storage and traiiering.
For 38 years Corsair have been building folding trimarans with thousands of boats produced that are found in many harbour and lakes around the globe. Originally designed by Ian Farrier, the Corsair F27 was in the sweet spot of popularity and was even inducted into the sailing hall of fame, being big enough to cruise with some essential comforts, light enough to be fast an generate its own apparent wind, yet small enough to trailer behind a regular 4WD.
Two double cabins.
The new 28ft Corsair 880 reimagines this earlier concept, but with modern hull designs, looks and pushing the limits on creature comforts including full standing headroom, enclosed toilet and the ability to sleep five people.
YouTube sailing channel ‘Tula’s Endless Summer’ (https://www.youtube.com/Tulasendlesssummer) spent months on the Corsair 880 driving and then cruising around North America, lapping up the light wind performance and nudging up on beaches to allow their dog off for a run.
Folding floats.
This comes back to the four key reasons I find these boats brilliant:
1 – Stability for Living : when sailing with family, friends and non sailors, the Corsair’s are incredible stable with their floats acting as stabilizers when the boat is depowered. This also makes for comfortable accommodation when on anchor.
Onboard accommodation is simple but has all the essentials and is essentially pleasing - not a striped out race boat. Fresh water stink, two burner gas stove, fridge, timber laminate veneer trim, upholstered lounges, led mood lighting and stylish tinted windows for plenty of natural light. There are two double beds, one in the aft and one forward, with the dinette converting to another bunk for guests.
But some comfort is also offered in the cockpit with large seats with backrests and a dodger and Bimini to provide shelter. Space is allowed for 200W of solar panels on deck, plus large cockpit locker for an optional ice box or 12 volt cooler, and dedicated locker space for an LPG bottle.
2 - Low Draft for Anchoring : It’s quite a different experience anchoring your boat with the bow, or stern nudging the beach allowing you to walk on and off in the complete protection of an idyllic bay or creek. With a retractable centreboard and blade rudder, the draft comes down to just 450mm. The boom tent can provide shade over the entire cockpit and trampolines, where you can store toys or just hang. There are also a range of exterior (and interior) fabric choices to add that personal touch.
Full headroom in saloon.
3 - Performance : The feeling is undeniable when you only need a few knots of wind to get the boat moving in flat conditions without whitecaps. But if you want to push the boat in race mode in fresher conditions, you can easily be sailing in excess of 15kts off the breeze, out point monohulls into the wind and yet remain relatively level when doing so.
Designed by young upcoming design firm Yacht Design Collective being Francois Perus & Romain Scolari, responsible also for the Seawind 1370, Slyder 47 and Corsair Pulse 600 amongst others, the Corsair 880 presents a sharp slick style with piercing raked bows that provide lots of reserve buoyancy way out front where you need it, making it much harder to pitchpole than the old boats … seriously, you can drive these boats hard and they will forgive you time and time again. The stern of each hull also has less rocker and a more angled shape to support the boat with buoyancy aft when planning at higher speeds.
The rig comes in two sizes, the standard is optimised for simple, comfortable yet fast cruising with 51.5 sqm of upwind sail area between the square top mainsail a much-welcomed self-tacking jib with a 12m rotating carbon mast, while the Sport upgrade boasts 62.9sqm of up wind sails including a 115% overlapping genoa and 13.5m carbon rig. Further to this a carbon bowsprit fly’s either a furling screecher or spinnaker.
4 - Trailerability : If you are short of time, or prefer not the spend so much time at sea getting to your destination, this really is a convenient feature.
The platform has a displacement of 1,660kgs or about 2.2 tonne on a trailer, making it well within towing reach of most 4WDs. The ingenious folding mechanism enables the rig to remain upright when you fold up the boat, allowing you to drop the rig on the boat ramp, or if you have mast up storage, keep it on the trailer. The trailers are a tandem axle design with optional electric brakes.
The trailer-ability opens up so many possibilities when you think you can cruise on this boat, allowing fast access by road to countless coastal destinations and then cruising the islands without the days or weeks of delivery by sea.
These boats really appeal to those who have an inherent love of sailing … a thrilling boat to sail in light or fresh breeze, with the ability to cruise, race or just relax with family. Sure there are more extreme trimarans for the racing purists, and there are more comfortable catamarans for live aboard cruisers. But it’s rare to find a boat that gives the thrills of fast racing, yet enables you to chill with the wife and kids.
The Corsair 880 arrives on Australian shores in 2022 and is expected at the Sydney International Boat Show.
SPECIFICATIONS
Beam 22’ 3” / 6.8m
Beam Folded 8’ 2” / 2.5m
Upwind Sail Area Sqm 554.3sqft / 51.5m2
Draft D/B Up1’ 5” / 0.45m
Draft D/B Down 5’ 3” / 1.6m
Mast Length 39’ 4” / 12m
Unladen Weight 3,659 lbs / 1,660kg
Max Person 8
Upwind Sail Area 554.3sqft / 51.5 m2
