Seaon inside and outside - Trimaran multihull sailing

Moments!

2009-12-23T13:34:00.012+01:00

Time for year-end sentimentalism! 2009 was a not a typical year (but then again – what is a typical year? Will revert about that later), however as always there are those moments you will remember. Those moments that will take you through to next season and past and coming challenges. As always some of our Seaon sailors have been busy sailing their Seaons far from home, e.g. Anders in Norway visiting IMM in Copenhagen (and doing very well in the IMM races), Sebastian in Lausanne both being in Venice and in the Stockholm Archipelago again with his blue Seaon and some Swedish Seaons visiting Finland and Denmark. Below some randomly picked moments where the Seaon just makes you smile even more. One of those moments where when sailing home from the round Aland Race in the middle of the night, a few days after our midsummer. Very little wind, flat water and a magic scenery as just the Archipelago between Stockholm and Turku in Finland can offer. Sunset, “night” photos and the short movie are taken between 11 pm and a few minutes past midnight.

Wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New sailing Year!

Kapten "Flytvast" at the helm

And some "moments" from Peter in Denmark:

Life on the (trimaran) nets

2008-10-03T11:37:00.008+02:00

Sorting out some "raw footage" taken with the new DV cam during the summer. Above sequence is from a relaxing trip with Sebastian and family on SUI 1 during his visit in the Stockholm Archipelago with Henrik (a real pro Formula 18 Archipelago Raid sailor – the Seaon 96crb obviously being a real luxury for him……toilet, galley and food onboard. Henrik is also part of the “Seaon family”) and me as guests onboard. Weather was not as sunny as it could have been for a nice footage......but it was not raining anyhow. Wind between 12-16 knots, speed between 15-18 knots.

All in all a nice day with the captain and his family

/Jan

Aligning Multihull ratings?

2008-09-11T15:38:00.009+02:00

More multihulls racing at Granprix 2008 found on http://www.gransegel.se/GranPrix-08/index11.html
(a rainy day with light winds - and people still smiled)

Having had the opportunity to race two consecutive weekends in a row, one realizes the efforts made by the rating committees to enable fair racing between different multihull models and to some extent also racing against mono hulls (even though the efforts are obviously not fair when results are not as expected……which is what a lot of the post race excuses and good stories are about).

In Sweden the LYS rating system is used for the majority of races which is more a fair assessment of the potential of the boat rather than a full mathematical formula. The rating can (and is) also updated if results are better or worse than expected. I have always pictured the golf handicap as a comparison......if you do better the rating will become more challenging. A single number handicap indicates you are good (at least on a good day..)....a high LYS rating makes you fight for “at least” the potential line honours).

Assessing performance rather than calculating means it is difficult to design a boat for better results in the long run, which obviously has two sides: One is that it decreases the opportunity to develop new models for better rating and results only; the other is that is both a challenge and an opportunity to design for the whole sailing experience, which for us to a large extent comes down to where to be on the performance scale, e.g. the parameter weight per sail area. Again our design philosophy is to reach comfortable high speeds quickly on the wind scale where the family also enjoys a good day “on” sea (which is where “Seaon” comes from….)
Obviously the experienced racing crew can be challenged with a different sail configuration (which will be addressed in a later blog entry).

For the rating it would obviously be good if we could have results and assessments from multiple countries……but it seems we are not there yet. Sweden, Denmark and Norway use different versions of the LYS system. In Finland, France, UK and other countries it seems to be a mix of Multihull 2000, Mocra and potentially other systems. Aligning rating systems in the Multihull community I believe would be a tough but good challenge that would pay off. I guess there is very little proof “protectionism” has paid off.

/Jan

About the races......pictures and results from the last race “Gran Prix”, organized by sailmaker Gransegel to be found at http://www.gransegel.se/GP08.html. A part of the centre of gravity for multihulls in Sweden is found at Gransegel.
And the excuses? A rusty helmsman on Seaon 96crb SWE4. LYS does not seem to accommodate rust….

Things you can do with a Multihull…..

2008-08-20T23:09:00.004+02:00

In case one forgot - here are two reminders:

Your own cove…not having to compete (well, one disappointed kayak owner) with all the rest of the fleet. Can it be better? (including the “bag in box” at a convenient distance….)

The greater feeling of being close to shore….

/"Selected moments" - courtesy of Johan Grim and family on SWE 3

New aluminium mould for carbon “one shot operation” rudder

2008-08-06T13:55:00.011+02:00

New rudder mould still in computer....

Unfortunately our rudder mould broke a few months ago. In order to get a longer lasting solution for preg and temperatures based curing we evaluated a few alternatives for smaller parts and finally choose an aluminium based mould. The advantages of aluminium are:

• Good thermal exchange capabilities (needed for pre-preg)
• excellent for CNC milling
• long expected life time of the mould (.....up to 50 000 parts they say – so now it is a job for the marketing department!)
• (almost) maintenance free surfaces (remains to be seen)
• reasonable price for raw material and routing

Obviously the above also is dependent on which aluminium alloy to choose.

One of the draw backs of aluminium is obviously the difference in weight to the traditional composite mould which forced to rethink the production process in terms of mould handling and equipment (lifting, rotating, sealing etc.). Also being forced to (....or having the opportunity) to make a new mould we included some other features such as routed areas for where to put bushings, screws etc.

New rudder mould "IRL"

Because of the high speed of multihulls the shape of the rudder is very important since almost any small deviation from the designed shape will be felt and/or heard. Early days we built the rudder in two halves resulting in quite a heavy finish job to get the perfect shape when joining the halves – not taking into account the first prototypes were in glass fibre and polyester which did not do the job.
Curing the whole rudder in a one shot operation (no joints to finish …and therefore also faster!) may sound like an easy job, but takes quiet a few tests, some moments of higher adrenalin levels, long nights, an initially “surprised” customer (but still very nice!) and finally a few tricks to do.
Having evaluated and tested for two months, the new mould is now ready for production.

...and finally the product

/Jan

Spontaneous trimaran get together – at minimal space

2008-07-28T17:18:00.005+02:00

Greetings from a spontaneous (well..... it took a few phone calls to find out positions and agendas which left only a “one” day window) get together at Fåglarö in the Stockholm Archipelago.

At the dock (0,3- 1 m of water) FRA 1 (the Pagots on visit in Sweden), SUI 1 (the Reiz’ on visit in Sweden ), SWE 3 (the Grims) and SWE 4 (the “Jan-Erik Palmkvist” (co-owner together with “Mr Seaon Sweden” Mats Leader original owner of first Seaon SWE1) just having crossed the Baltic back from Finland in quite harsh conditions – the Baltic can offer nasty conditions with varying and quite steep and short wave patterns). To “glorify” the “get together” the Mr Designer Stefan Törnblom with his wife May accompanied SWE4 the last miles to the rendezvous.

Obviously the three Seaons heading north the day after engaged themselves in a spontaneous race .....with the usual discussions and explanations about spots of no wind, vacation load, sails etc. (Who won? Rumours say “the Reiz’)

A lovely day and evening in likable company and weather – it did generate energy for more!

/Ulrika (assistant organizer, big fan and supporter) and Jan

More about trimarans in the news

2008-07-15T23:32:00.002+02:00

Just a reminder for the Scandinavien readers - there are two recent articles out in the press. In Swedish magazine “Segling” nr 6 2008 there is an article comparing the Seaon 96, Corsair 31 , Seacart 30 and Dragonfly 920. In Danish Bådnyt June edition there is test of the Seaon 96crb.
As always we will work to be able to publicise the articles on the blog.

Wishing everyone favourable winds and a "decent" weather!

/Jan

Seaon trimarans in the Stockholm Archipelago

2008-06-28T21:05:00.006+02:00

There will be six Seaons sailing in our beautiful Stockholm Archipelago this summer, four “natives” and two visitors. Of course one the visitors is our busy sailor Bernard from Bretagne who is sailing here in June and July in his Eureka with his wife Michelle. The other visitors are Sebastian and Kerstin from Lausanne.

Ready for Stockholm Archipelago

The Stockholm Archipelago offers fantastic sailing conditions (and we hope also nice weather for visitors). A multihull offers major advantages since many mooring places are crowded with monohulls needing draft enough to “dock” the bow to the cliffs – which is how it mostly is done in the Archipelago. With a multihull you can in many cases get your own bay or even an island due to the shallow draft needed. Also multihull custom in the Archipelago is even mooring one float to a flat cliff instead of using an anchor (there is no tidal water and in principle no currents).

Moored for midsummer (not at a cliff but very shallow water...)

If you are a permanent resident here, the speed is highly appreciated since there in many cases are quite long “transport passages” to get out of the inner Archipelago. Also many of the fantastic nature experiences are in the outer archipelago some 25-30 nm to sail. With a multihull you can leave for home after lunch (+ coffee) on a Sunday afternoon.

Michelle and Bernard celebrating traditional Swedish Midsummer

Come and visit us - it absolutetly worth it (article about Stockholm Archipelago in french Magazine Voile et Voiliers mentioned in our blog earlier this spring)
Midsummer regards from Stockholm Archipelago!

/Jan

Seaon “at work” – a guest blog from Norway

2008-06-02T08:37:00.005+02:00

Report from Seaon NOR 396 M and “With course for work”

Seaon NOR 396 M is now sailing. The sailing characteristics of the Seaon 96 are spectacular! We logged 19.5 knots in 8-10 m/s (with self tacking jib and main sail) on our first training session with the race crew. The sails from Gransails are beautiful, and this week we finally got our gennacker. We have already tried it out with big smiles on our faces.

Seaon NOR 396 M has been named Liv after both the Norse goddess and the only woman surviving Ragnarøk and we hope that her name will keep her safe and sound in all weathers.

I, Anders work as a clinical psychologist and my co owner Arve as a social worker and family therapist. Liv will mainly bee used in our project called “Med styring mot arbeid” which directly translates as “With course towards work”.

Anders and Arve

In society today with higher and higher demands from the labour market, some young people have problems finding and keeping employment. The reasons can be multiple. Often they come from non functional homes and have had upbringings marked by lack of loving relations, drug abuse, and violence. Sometimes they have just been plain unlucky or made the wrong decisions during their teenage period.

We believe that sailing is an excellent activity for both vocational- and social training. Vocational: if you don’t do your part on a sail yacht the boat stops and you get a direct feedback of your commitment. Socially: you can exchange rolls and if you have a conflict there is nowhere to run. You are forced to face the conflict and deal with it

We combine this with group therapy were we address personal problems that prevents our clients from keeping relations over time, be happy in everyday life and keeping employment, because this three things are tightly knit together.

Therapy session

We have chosen Seaon 96 because we hope that its explosive performance characteristics shall give our clients the continues kicks that we think is needed for catching and keeping their interest. Or with other words: If we start were they are, then maybe they will follow. Another reason for choosing Seaon 96 is that it is a small and big boat at the same time, small to handle but with big outside spaces, so it won’t feel crowded with 4-6 clients. We also believe that coming out in the nature and at sea have a healing force in it self.

So every Wednesday Arve and I change offices for Liv and go sailing with five young men who have not been able to establish them self on the labour market. We have now had four sail sesions and so far it has been going excellent. “Guttarna” as we call them are catching the sailing very fast and we are really enjoying sailing with them.

Lunch break at Oyenkilen

But the bottom line is as usually economics. Will we be able to continue the project for next year? The economy is tight and we work this year without wages. So if there are any sponsors out there in cyberspace who like our project, it would bee fun with a screacher and we do need a trailer.

Happy sailing from Anders and Arve

Blog editors comment:
To avoid confusion – yes, there are now three yellow Seaon 96crb sailing.

Same procedure as last year… same procedure as every year - but more! 62 multihull entries ranging from Orma 60 foot trimarans to Hobie 16 catamarans.

2008-05-13T13:57:00.009+02:00

Second Saturday of May there is The Round Lidingö Race which is the “famous” Stockholm season opening race. This year’s edition had the typical light winds increasing a little during the day with quite a few restarts due to spots and times of now wind at all.

20 min into race……SWE 3 still ahead (very small on left side of picture…) of two Orma 60 foots…(My apologies for picture qualities. Problem found to late - no other camera on board)

All can agree conditions were tricky……however there are different opinions on the results. Those who made well obviously are proud of their strategic decisions on the course……those who where not satisfied obviously agreed there was a big portion of luck involved in the results.

SWE-4 with new their genacker

SWE-3 on strategic course!

SWE-4 on beat action

The results? A very well sailed Dragonfly 25 (“reborne” and fine tuned by Gransegel Mats a few years ago) on first place, a modified A-Cat on second and Johan Grim, new owner of Seaon SWE3 on 3rd place (with Gransegel Mats (again!) as trimmer on board). Mats Leander’s in Seaon SWE-4? Obviously they were unlucky since they picked the wrong end of track at the start and got stuck ….

/Jan

Trimaran saling - spring signs in Stockholm!

2008-04-27T20:23:00.006+02:00

Time to launch SWE 4

Finally spring arrived in Stockholm – weather and the launching of Mats and Jan-Erik’s new Seaon 96crb included. Actually it is Mats second Seaon, he was also the owner of Seaon nr 1. Thank you Mats for the continued trust in us - Jan-Erik obviously included!

Mats and Jan-Erik unpacking (sorry for the bad angle Jan-Erik!)

First days in water there was still some thin ice to crush in the mornings at the mooring, however now things really picked up and even the "hang arounds" managed to get some air under their wings.....

Mats the sailmaker, Stefan the designer and Noel (previously Gransegel now becoming multihull guru) even managed to have some nice “lunch sailing” in 8-10 knots of wind during a beautiful spring day

We are boosted with trimaran energy! Not only because it is spring and we can get out on the water again for that long missed feeling, but also because one can really feel the change of sentiment in the sailing community. For a substantially larger group it is not anymore about "if" but "when"…..!

/Jan

Trimaran beam (aka) design

2008-04-08T21:02:00.009+02:00

As mentioned in an earlier blog I promised to high light a few issues on our choice of beam system design. Amongst others, from time to time, we get questions on why we do not have water stays.

When defining the Seaon 96 we had to make decisions on the different parts of the boat. First of all we were very clear about using a folding system that would allow us to optimise performance and functionality “in the water” Yes – it was a conscious decision where we were aware of the added time needed for assembly/disassembly for trailering by not using the Farrier principle.

Having made this choice there were quite a few other parameters to consider:

• Folding operation – considering fatigue and maintenance of included parts
• Structural safety aspects and ease of assembly/disassembly operation for trailering, i.e. potential structural risks related to assembly need to be minimized
• Water resistance and spray
• Performance – considering energy consumed by movements in the beam system
• Comfort – beam system should be experienced as rigid possible, preferably as if the boat was non folding
• Calculation, construction and testing aspects
• Ease and cost of production

A large part of our consideration was about the safety and complexity of the folding and boat assembly where we wanted to eliminate as many “unknowns” as possible – basically this implied reducing as many parts as possible.

Obviously Stefan’s experiences from glider productions with modern construction methods for wing constructions also led us to evaluate a stiff construction which we valued would add to comfort and performance. For the boat to be rigid, the beams need to be stiff in both directions. An added benefit of this is that in (worst case!) case of a mast failure this construction adds to security due to beams not being dependent on shrouds to take care of excessive “negative loads”.

Another requirement was to make calculation, construction and testing as straightforward as possible. Again, reducing the number of parts very much supported this objective in many aspects. This requirement also allowed us to verify our calculations and constructions with experts from the marine and aviation industries.

So – in the end all these requirements led to a construction without water stays.

The beam system is constructed to take all loads on the front leeward beam during CE category B conditions. To verify this construction and also production variances, load tests were defined using hydraulics, a load cell and quite a sturdy test jig. (We almost tore a roof down due to lack of calculation of….the supporting pillars to which we initially connected the beam.)

A few production changes, testing and three beams later the construction was set. To monitor any potential material and production variations we also decided to set up a continuous load testing program in production, i.e. each beam is tested individually.

All research, evaluation and testing, as explained above, made us convinced this was the solution we were looking for our Seaon 96crb….and as mentioned before, it is not as “unorthodox” as it may seem at first, considering modern aircraft and Orma 60 designs.

/Jan

Beautiful Stockholm Archipelago by trimaran

2008-03-24T16:53:00.004+01:00

Living in the Stockholm Archipelago we sometimes take it for granted, however every now and then we get a reminder that it is something extra ordinary like this beautiful report by Hervé Hillard when he and his friends explored the Archipelago in a Seaon.

Please enjoy (the marvellous pictures for those of us who do not read French and yes, we are looking for assistance to translate it into English…) the article (link) published in Voile & Voiliers:

Text by Hervé Hillard
Pictures by Jean-Louis Gury
Map by Francois Chevalier
Voiles & Voiliers n445, March 2008

We can only agree to this beautiful report and add - "It should be experienced it IRL - in a trimaran.....!"

/Jan et all waiting for the spring in Stockholm (now having had snow for three days)

Trimaran tests

2008-03-05T16:35:00.015+01:00

In the last issue of “MULTIHULLS WORLD/MULTICOQUES MAGAZINE” there is a test of both the Seaon (this time the article also in English! (English PDF version ) , article in French (French PDF version )) and the Seacart.

Obviously such tests are valuable both for customers and ourselves. Amongst others it also gives us an opportunity to highlight a few issues listed in the article which may not be obvious for everyone.

Philippe Echelle, the author of the article, highlighted amongst other the “lip at the deck/hull joint” (we call it “flange”. There are few ways to handle the joint of deck hull. Weighing the alternatives we finally choose the solution for two reasons:

When docked the flange protects the float from chafing against the dock. Also it is quite a strong point should one attempt a “hard” docking manoeuvre. To repair the paint (if not choosing a rubber protection like one customer has) on the edge of the flange is a simple operation, rather than having to repaint a larger area on the float. On the main hull the flange is used as a strong point for attaching the nets.

Furthermore, at high speeds the flange protects the water flow from each side of the float to join on the top of the float which under certain conditions will create a downward acting force.

Philippe also highlighted “The absence of waterstays(martingales on the arms)…”. This is probably not as unusual as it may seem, comparing the aviation industry moving away from wing stays quite some time ago. It is probably worth a separate comment (and potentially other issues) well which I will address in a future blog entry.

Finally, our company history is probably not the usual “start a company” story (if there ever is a “usual”!). The team behind Seaon has sailed together for over 20 years (and known each other for more than that!) and Stefan having optimized all the keels and rudders of the team’s racing yachts. Even though input, wishes and requirements for the design (Jan being very fond of the curves and lines of ………(anybody figured out?)) came from the whole team, Stefan is the designer in the team.

/Jan

Let the show begin! Trimarans at the Copenhagen Boatshow

2008-02-25T15:20:00.009+01:00

Having fulfilled the usual "pre-exhibition stress" (this time maybe a little more than expected), the stand finally was ready for the "grand opening" hosted by Brian's and Alan's new started operation "Multihull" in Denmark exhibiting a Seaon 96crb and a Corsair 31.

And the show began!

Exhibition opened 10.00, at 10.30 there was a line up. It seems the Multihull interest in Denmark is big.

/Jan

Seaon 96crb on Copenhagen International Boat Show 2008, February 23rd to March 2nd

2008-02-14T21:22:00.008+01:00

A Seaon 96crb will be exhibited on the Copenhagen International Boats Show 2008 ( http://www.baadeibella.dk/English/Visitors/), February 23rd to March 2nd in co-operation with our Danish distributor “Multihull” (http://www.mulithull.info/)

For further info please contact Multihull (for Danish visitors) or Seaon AB (for international visitors).

/Jan

Archipelago of Minquiers (Bretagne) by trimaran

2008-02-08T15:33:00.000+01:00

There is quite a lot of Seaon in the press. Attached (link) you find an article (unfortunately only available in French) in “Voile Magazine” where our very active Seaon 96crb sailors Bernard and Michelle together with Voile Mag's Bernard Rubinstein explored the Archipelago of Minquiers off the coast of Bretagne.

Coming up is also an article where Philippe Echelle from “Multihulls World” test sailed the Seaon 96crb. After that (March) there will be an article in Voiles et Voiliers (French again! They are active sailors indeed!) by Herve Hillard who explored the Stockholm Archipelago in a Seaon....and then there will be an article on Seaon production by Henrik Hansen from “Bådnyt” in Denmark.

So watch the newsstands!

Below a photo on Bernard’s friends coming along when he goes sailing…..

/Jan

Testing, testing and testing – Trimaran dagger board

2008-01-29T21:33:00.000+01:00

Challenging productivity and weight further, we now build our hollow dagger boards in one piece which takes a few tricks …and (hard) experiences. One of the tricks is to decide how to test – what kind of test jig, test procedures, test loads, what to look for etc.
In our test procedures we quite frequently use a load cell, in this case testing a load of two tons. Clearing the design load however is not enough, at the same time we need to check for amongst others leakages that only show under severe load, which is another challenge. And yes – we found some in the first tests which forced us to go back and rethink laminate cuts, vacuum bags placing etc. Step by step potential problems are removed. The conclusion? Testing, though time consuming, is very rewarding not only from the point of view of saving our customers (cannot be a strong enough expression!) as much as it possible from surprises, but in many instances it also reveals critical variations in the production process which then can be stabilized and this in itself is productivity rewarding.

/Jan

Key Seaon (trimaran) parameter: WPSA - and Seaonal Greetings!

2007-12-22T03:12:00.000+01:00

Every now and then our “weight paranoia” is brought up again. Obviously we have some regular internal “Hansei” (reflection) on our eternal weight chasing…..and the result is the same every time: Yes it is worth it!

We are not solely in the trimaran performance business – we are in “the sailing is a fantastic experience” business, easy to handle for all …..sailors for now. However everyone in this business has an obligation to mission sailing as a “Climate Smart Leisure Activity”, something I strongly believe we will hear more about going forward.

So, what ‘s the issue with the weight? Before stating our view again, let me first say there is “no one model fit all” solution. Every company has its belief and target believers for their products, so there is no reason to debate who is wrong and who is right.

Our belief: The balance between performance and a boat easy enough to handle. Obviously you could think maximum performance would be our main belief since the Seaon 96crb is fully built in carbon – but it is not. We could have added another 1-2 meters of mast length, thus increased the power of the boat even further. Designing the Seaon 96crb the target was however the opposite – how can we decrease the sail area to make the boat as easy as possible to handle, but still maintaining sailing characteristics enough to also attract the hard to please sailor (which includes ourselves!) or potentially some one that likes the sea but thinks sailing is a dull experience? The answer: focus on weight.

For us WPSA (Weight per Sail Area) is one of the key parameters to evaluate the “sailing experience”. However as stated before – adding sail area to maintain the ratio is not our preferred way to go, since you could very quickly get into heavy and potentially dangerous sail handling issues.

“WPSA:s lines” for a few trimaran models (weights taken from LYS rating certificates in Sweden and sail area from standard boat configuration sheets) would look like the following:

Making a “Pareto” analysis on the WPSA parameter (i.e. not comparing other parameters such like water line length, wet surfaces etc) one could e.g. compare how much additional sail area a certain model A at the given weight would need to achieve the same WPSA line as model B.

At this time I would also like to take the opportunity to send the very best Seaonal Greetings to all of you from all of us at Seaon.

We all hope Santa Clause will be nice to you (usually written as “From Me to Myself” on the package….) bringing something new “absolutely must have" for the boat ……as long as it is light weight!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Sailing Experience Year!

/Jan et all

“Power reflections” from METS from a multihull perspective

2007-11-25T22:51:00.000+01:00

Being out of the office for almost two weeks due to extensive travelling, we are now catching up with all the todo’s. One of the reasons being on the road was visiting METS in Amsterdam, the biggest marine equipment trade show in Europe. As always there is a lot to see and discuss. During the past years the electronics portion of the fair has increased considerably, now also seeing some gain into switches and the wiring itself. Not to mention LED:s in all shapes and colours. Finally we get some useful warm white LED:s as opposed to the older not so cosy cold white ones. Now you can even get “champagne” white….

Power on a multihull is obviously a major issue, considering the battery weight (and of course cabling) as part of our continuous weight chasing mission. Even though our sailors are battery power conscious, the increased use (need…!) of electronics spells some careful planning of the installation and consumption. Except for the Radio/CD/MP3 player (what would one do without it in speeds over 15 knots!!), VHF and instruments, the GPS plotter, AIS transponder and auto pilot seems to become more standard than exception. Not to mention the need of charging all the crews mobile phones, cameras and even PC.

Our LED navigation lights from Lopolight

Except for the navigation (LED standard) and interior lights (LED option), solar cell installations (cabin top solar cell option, however regulator and socket for a second not fixed cell) we need to work even harder on the power equation, especially since most of us really prefer sailing as opposed to motoring (and charging with the alternator) in almost all conditions.

One of the solutions, however due to price still limited as an option, could obviously be the use of fuel cells where 13 kg (8 kg for aggregate and 5 kg for 5 litres of Methanol) could give as much as 400 Amps. More efficient and lighter solar cells obviously will also improve the power equation. We hope to see more “within reach” at next years METS.

Considering the need for careful power consumption I guess that multihull sailors are climate smart in more than one aspect.

/Jan

More yellow trimarans….

2007-11-02T09:14:00.000+01:00

No, it’s not the same!

It’s Flexodus!

Peter’s "Flexodus" was test launched this week. It looks very similar to Bernard’s "Eureka", but if you look closely it is not exactly the same. However yellow seems to be the very popular trimaran colour. Since we are in the end of the season, we eagerly have to wait until next season for more Flexodus sailing reports from Denmark.

/Jan

Trimaran Big Catch?

2007-10-23T22:26:00.000+02:00

In our pursuit of “Muda” weight (Muda = waste, a key term in the Toyota Way) every small kilo (or actually fraction of kilo) counts. As Stefan says: “You cannot reduce weight by addressing one single area only". Consistent weight chasing and maintenance in all areas of the boat is needed. All major parts are measured and potential deviation is analysed ……and then we have to add filler (of course as little as possible), primer and finally paint, glue and fittings....to be measured on weight again.
On the picture you see Mr Frolow, our team leader for filling, fairing and painting with what looks like a big catch - but it is actually not so big, from a weight point of view at least. It is the horizontal bulkhead in the forward part of the float with a weight of 3,2 kilo. Muda hunting in all areas continues…

/Witek

A different day in the trimaran office

2007-10-09T20:31:00.000+02:00

Having had the opportunity to test new sailing waters again, I have to say there are truly many beautiful places to sail and they are really different. We were invited to sail with Sebastian, Kerstin and their daughter Olivia on their Seaon 96crb SUI-1 in Lausanne on Lake Geneva. What a beautiful place! My experience so far from this region is passing by on the high way in winter time on the road to the Alps (well, they are virtually on the other side of the lake). I have always wondered how it would be to sail on this lake.

As always there are regional winds patterns. Sebastian explained light winds are dominating (estimated 60-70% of the time). There are days of northerly “black” (my direct translation….) stronger winds, there are “white” (my translation again…) winds from the south. Maybe I did not properly understand, but a few days before our visit there was a sandy wind (from Sahara) visible on boats (not so nice…) and cars, but is was “sandy” rather than white. Most “different” to what we are familiar to, are the sudden “gusts” of 30+ knots (remember - Sebastian has the two minutes above 25,6 knots on the GPS). Due to this there is an audio visual warning system ashore.

We had however an excellent weather with +20 degrees sun and light winds sailing 2-9 knots of speed at 2-6 knots of wind the higher speeds achieved with the Screacher which with the furler this is a very convenient sail to handle. I wonder however how I would do in racing here….wind was shifting 20-30 degrees (or more) every now and then and wind speed was varying between almost zero and 6 knots (what a feeling to glide in 4 knots of speed with no visible wind on the water and mountains reaching up to more than 2000 meters aside).

Picture: Sebastian, Kerstin, Olivia and Ulrika enjoying a day on the net

Also very different to our sailing waters is that lunch apparently commonly is eaten ashore at some nice harbour at a convenient distance. You can also choose whether to eat in a French or Suisse restaurant. In proper winds France is only an appetizer away.

Even if Lake Geneva is the home of the Decision 35, a multihull “parked” outside the restaurant is always a spectacular view and invites to many spontaneous new contacts and also offers a few minutes of fame, as in this case a blue metallic trimaran is something very “different” which demands a photo to be taken by stunned families passing by on their walk.

Obviously Sebastian also has caused quite a “head spin” for many performance monohull sailors as he passes them beating upwind in his “relaxed monohull headspin position” on the net.

On Sunday we made quick visit to Jacques and his Seaon 96crb SUI 2 (also at Lake Geneva) to check on some general and local improvements suggested by him. Amongst others Jacques thinks there is even some more sail area to be added to the Max Jib.

Another very nice takeaway from the Lake Geneva experience is that I learnt that Mr Bertrand Cardis manager and owner of Decision, the boat yard building Alinghi, Decision 35 and amongst others has been on board on Sebastian’s Seaon. Obviously we are delighted to hear he very much liked the boat and our construction (….Alinghi, Decision 35 using the same pre-preg technology and supplier).

All in all a delightful weekend, even meeting and sailing together with Seaon co-founder Jan Wallmark (now also living at Lake Geneva). Jan as always, is helping out and servicing in all kinds of situations.

Picture: Sebastian, Jan and Jan trimming furiously....

Thank you Sebastian and Kerstin for your kind hospitality!

/Jan

Updated Seaon website Seaon

2007-10-03T11:09:00.000+02:00

As some may have noticed we have updated our website slightly (as always - excellent work by Jonas and Anders at agency "Svensson" (www.svenssonreklam.se)). Objective being amongst others:

High lighting blog/news, where we communicate new pictures, news, events, thoughts and more. (Thanks for comments and feed back! Please continue– it is highly appreciated, potentially also using blog comment facility.)
We have taken away the forum on the main menu due to little activity and some confusion about when to use the Forum as opposed to Blog. The Forum still exists but will be used for special purposes and on request.
Also we have uploaded a movie – Experience 1 http://www.seaon.com/movie/mov_short.html (old friends of Seaon will recognise some edited footage they may have seen before).

I would also like to take the opportunity to high light that we speak Swedish (or even “Scandinavian”), English, German and to some extent French (mainly written with some assistance). We always enjoy “speaking Multihull” and it is “Multinational”!

We speak English!
Wir sprechen Deutsch!
On parle Francais!
Vi talar ”skandinaviska”!

/Jan

Multihulls in Bretagne – Travel report and lessons learnt

2007-09-25T14:10:00.000+02:00

Picture: Michelle, Bernard and Ulrika enjoying life! (And yes - the boat is moving forward!)

Just back from Bretagne with Ulrika (my lovely becoming wife, still having the record of 19,8 knots in Stegesund, a very narrow sound. Only one trimaran can pass at a time – Stockholm sailors know!), having had the opportunity to spend two fantastic days on board of Eureka together with our busy sailor Bernard (owner of Seaon 96crb Eureka) and his wife Michelle. First hand impressions:

1) What a lovely place on earth!
2) Brittany sailors are a tough breed.
3) Some waves (in their terms probably flat sea…) and 15 knots of speed must absolutely not interfere with a proper lunch (measured by French standards)!

Starting off on Saturday just west of St. Malo we headed towards the Ile of Brehat some 40 nm westwards. Initially we had very light winds, less than 5 knots. Later the wind picked up to between 4-8 knots and we set the “Furling Genacker” (new development in last year) logging between 5 and 9 knots in easterly winds (yes – we had to make a few gybes!)

Picture: The Furling Genacker and Bernard meditating or just plain relaxing

Also calculating a change in current direction due to tidal waters….(occasionally up to 3 knots, nothing we are very used to in Stockholm – to say the least) . The “Furling Genacker" is basically a Code Zero, but in order not to mix it up with the Screacher it was named the Furling Genacker.

Picture: Favorit position on the beam - Very light winds....Ulrika focusing on keeping speed above 6 knots (and the famous extra outborder!)

Arriving at Ile de Brehat we very conveniently used the dinghy with a small out border to come a shore from the mooring (now I fully understand why Bernard vigorously has been arguing for the inflatable dinghy on board.....with an extra out border – it is definitely worth the extra kilos even though we are always fighting to reduce weight even with our dear customers). Again sea and shore does not look as we are used to…..up to 12 meters difference between low and high tide. What would we have done without the dinghy….no Taxi around.

Picture: This time Bernard did not need the dinghy..but one is not always lucky to find mooring and timing like this!!

After an excellent dinner, a good night's sleep discovering Bernard’s new innovative companion way night hatch (his foul weather jacket) we were ready for the trip back. The wind now picked up to approx 8-14 knots now from the south. Initially we set the heavy jib for convenient sailing, expecting the wind to increase further (it looked like it would), but then later changing back to the self tacking jib as the wind decreased a little. A part of the trip that took us almost three hours the day before we now managed in one hour at 12-16 knots.

Picture: Bernard and Jan on the windward beam enjoying more wind on the second day

Lunch, a fantastic salad with a delicious dressing (of course home made on the boat!), wine, cappuccino, cookies and chocolate (very far from the usual sandwich and water lunches I am used to!) was served at 15 knots which caused some small problems to keep the smaller salad pieces in the bowel in the aft part of the cock pit. As we got closer to Cap Frehel and home for Eureka the wind pick up again. Speeds up to 19 knots was the perfect “Grand Final” of the marvellous trip and made everybody smile on board (if I get my Firewire driver to work properly I will put up a short footage from my DV cam from the “Grand Final”)

Epilogue – getting closer to shore Bernard took the helm and speeded through narrow passages, made an elegant tour around moored boats, windsurfers and a close 90 degrees gybe at the beach (people were running out of the water….). I was obviously not trusted with this kind of manoeuvres – as I said: Brittany sailors are a tough breed.

Lessons learnt:

* Not many liveable multihulls around (except for the Orma 60 we sighted in St. Malo harbour however a lot of beach cats – Hobies, Darts and 18 footers around) This must be an opportunity!

* Always listen to the customer! Bernard’s strong requirement for the dinghy and out border for this is absolutely righteous.

* We will recommend Bernard his Eureka as “professeur” for the Seaon Sailing Academy

* A few improvement opportunities discovered - more input into Seaon product development

* Some annoying rust stains (however polish able) on various stainless steel equipment (not only one suppliers equipment to be fair)

Again thank you Michelle and Bernard for a fantastic weekend!

/Jan

New visit at Ericsson Volvo Ocean Race 70 Racing Team boatyard

2007-09-17T01:01:00.001+02:00

Yesterday we visited the Ericson Volvo Ocean Race 70 shipyard again guided by our team rider Mange Olsson – what a progress since our first visit! The whole boat yard, virtually placed next the Ericsson Head office is now fully operational with products coming out of the ovens. There is even a separate visitor area behind glas overlooking the whole shipyard where there is a constant flow of impressed visitors looking at this very high tech boat building project. There are routers, ovens, freezers (for the carbon pre-preg) various rooms for various type of milling, lamination, lathing etc operations. It is a complete real professional shipyard building a 70 fot high tech ocean racer in midst of Stockholm Telecom city Kista! (Want to know more about the secrets about the Ericsson Racing team boat yard ? Check http://www.ericssonracingteam.com/video.html )
Obviously there is an envy from our side on the scale of operation, however there are also as mentioned before some strong similarities with our production: Freezers, ovens, different kind of QA tools such as curing temperature supervision, adhesion testing equipment, loadcells etc paintbox, fairing and filling room etc …..and we use the same supplier and carbon pre-preg system from Advanced Composite Group in the UK (http://www.acg.co.uk/ also supplier to Americas Cup winner Alinghi).

/Jan

A report from a "typical" Lake Geneva trimaran day....

2007-09-11T17:13:00.001+02:00

Sebastian reports from yesterday:

"Just came back from a record breaking family sailing.
Start at 1 pm wind speed 7 knots from SW heading just north of west averaging 9.5 knots on the GPS. Wonderful weather and rapidly catching up with ESSE 8.50 on same course. We tack and head east moving on at around 10 knots under full main and screacher and then go back towards Pully in decreasing wind speed. We observe boats along the Swiss coast move with lots of wind from n-NE, we are still with a southerly less than three miles away. Screacher taken down, self tacker unrolled and within 3 minutes we have a north easterly at 35 knots steady with gusts well above 40 knots. Two reefs taken rapidly but no smaller head/sail than the self tacker. Thanks Matte for keeping the small jib in your loft!! Course 320 degrees, speed mounts to well above 20 knots with peak on the GPS of 25.6 for over 2 minutes. Constant spray over the leeward forward cross-beam but the leeward bow is well above the surface and the boat runs like a TGV across the French countryside. Stable like a rock. For once we take the sails down outside the harbour and motor in. Good reason to run over to the restaurant and fetch a bottle of iced champagne, a cooler and four glasses. Olivia was playing on the windward net all along, Kerstin was scared to death but the two guys on board thought this was terrific."

Kerstin - cool at the helm

Well - what to say?

1) We hope Kerstin got a lot of champagne
2) A fine trimaran day
3) You do not always need to sail at 25+ knots.....there are slower gears (if not left with the sail maker)

/Jan

Multihull sailing - Racing or Cruising?

2007-08-27T15:38:00.000+02:00

Multihull sailing - Racing or Cruising?

Every now and then the issue about “multihull sailing for who” is brought up, meaning what are the characteristics of the typical multihull sailor. As always there is no black and white answer. However what we frequently see is that speed (….even in our story telling…) is emphasized a lot and with speed comes racing. In our case this is actually not true, potentially we have not fully brought forward what it is about – an experience which makes sailing and nature even greater.
Yes we have a lot of action and racing pictures and movies, however the vast majority of the time our Seaon sailors just sail for fun and great pleasure – with their families including children and even grand children from age of a few months to grown up. There is Alex and Henrik who sail with their families and young ones across the Baltic from Sweden to Finland, there is Bernard who enjoys the waters outside Bretagne with his grand children, there is Sebastian in Lausanne who is sailing with his family as much as times permit (almost daily that is…. And actually always docking with sails – Captain Sebastian principally does not allow the use of the engine except if there is absolutely no wind).
This is why we get somewhat astonished when we get the question: “Can you go cruising with a Seaon? Can it be sailed by a “normal” (!? Let’s not define “normal” at this time!) sailor? Do people sail with their children? Obviously the answer is YES! And obviously it means we have to think more about the “evangelism” we are preaching (we are not religious ….but very passionate!)

We have mentioned it before – we designed the Seaon 96crb to satisfy our sailing (and to some extent racing) vanity, but mostly to fulfil a joyful (with families!) sailing experience, where amongst other the production technology we use help us to make the boat easy to handle due to less need of sail area. The high stability and high speed of trimarans demand very hard work by the crew when handling large genoas. Beating upwind in a narrow strait with our self tacker jib is a real pleasure.

/Jan

Stockholm Archipelago – explored from a trimaran

2007-08-17T10:52:00.000+02:00

Stockholm Archipelago is truly a beautiful place. Obviously coming from Stockholm we are “slightly” biased, however Herve Hillard from excellent French magazine Voiles & Voiliers seemed to be very excited about the Archipelago having explored it on a Seaon during a week this summer. We are looking forward to his report in Voiles & Voiliers later this autumn!

/Jan

An unexpected trimaran visitor...and fortunately a camera

2007-07-24T21:18:00.000+02:00

Our busy Seaon sailor Bernard in Bretagne got an unexpected visit a few days ago. Fortunately he had a camera with him...

But so had fortunately also the visitor...

/Jan

Factory on wheels – trimaran moving towards lean production

2007-07-08T17:56:00.000+02:00

Not only that we challenge the traditional yachting market conceptually with function (probably an understatement - being a trimaran ….and folding) and design, but also using new advanced production technologies, we continuously have to challenge ourselves as well. Having the first year and a few boats of experience in our new production facility, we introduced a “Bible” - the “The Toyota Way”. In order to stay competitive, being able to develop new features and models, we need to work even harder with improvements. Part of this is improving our lean production thinking (that’s where the Bible comes in – however read and implemented in our way - “The Seaonata Way”). Not that we have converted to a new religion – but instead of having several religions and bibles (with all the problems and discussions this can cause) we get a common belief (and services!).

Even though the only very first few “Evangelisms” have been preached and discussed, the first results can be seen – on wheels. The staff has literately interpreted “flow” (being one of the key principles) …..We now have toolboxes on wheels, gigs on wheels, a new smaller oven on wheels…. Why? To be able reduce “Waste” which has become an “un-sacred” word …to say the least. We rather spend time on new features, technologies,… etc.

For those of you who are familiar with the term “Andon calls” I can tell we encourage to pull - in our case actually “push”, the Andon button frequently. In fact, without Andon stops it would be strange…no Kaizen = Improvements.

“It is the journey that is the objective”/Witek-san

Carbon trimaran – “carbomania minded” staff

2007-06-19T15:44:00.000+02:00

Producing a high tech carbon trimaran has its sides….
Of course quality and productivity is key, but obviously as a manager half the battle to progress is won if the staff takes pride in their product. Not only to the extent that they take their families to the show the production and product, but also in the participation in the “look and feel” of the product”. Working with carbon cloth and especially with various fabrics that give almost a magic look and feeling creates a state of “carbomania”. In some cases it is almost hard to resist proposals for new developments with a carbon finish – balancing of the staff “R&D” time is needed. Not that a carbon finish may be everyone’s desire, however some constraint less “creative projects” are important to keep an open mind, continuous development and testing of new concepts going, not only hard facts productivity and functionality. The latest developments that have left the “creative studio” on the floor are amongst other the companion way carbon stairway, the carbon boarding step and the carbon saloon windows frames.

But it is not only about the finish, as always for us …it is about the weight - and on the production floor we do understand the importance of weight. More than often Stefan (Design) has explained the importance of getting into the positive weight spiral (less weight requiring less reinforcements, requiring a lower mast and less sail area, requiring less material…..) or as marketing puts it:” the weight of the interior for free”.

/Witek

Trimaran colours

2007-06-11T09:34:00.000+02:00

Last week another metallic painted Seaon96crb was launched in Lake Geneva. Sebastian’s SUI-1 caused quite significant attention. It seems the interest for multihulls is growing immensely, but also the trend away from the traditional colours such as white and marine blue is increasing.

To be noted – painting large surfaces such as boat with metallic paint is not an easy task and is also an extra add on feature. A popular direction right now seems however to be yellow….

/Jan

Multihull / trimaran mindset in Europe?

2007-05-30T00:21:00.000+02:00

Having our office in Stockholm Sweden we are of course influenced by local multihull activities, which as I wrote in a previous blog entry are growing substantially. Of course multihull entries in races are still a fraction of the total however it is being generally recognized that in the last one or two years a lot of races now as standard are open to multihulls. Racing is done according to the Swedish LYS rating rules. This rating also allows to appoint a total winner among all classes (mono and multihulls), an opportunity which many organizers use.
Of course it is quite tough to win overall with a multihull, however it adds to your ego passing through fields of monohulls classes, especially since one the last few years enjoys admiration rather than a puzzled or scared UFO encounter facial expression.

Multihulls also are quite active on Lake Geneva with their big racing event Bol d’Or coming up. Obviously Mr Bertarelli and the Décision 35s catamarans are an attraction (http://www.decision.ch/ANG/default.htm) on the lake, however on the very extreme end of multihulls. Soon having two Seaon 96crb on Lake Geneva we of course would be delighted to grow a fleet for racing and high performance cruising there.

Obviously there are a lot of multihull activities around Europe – it would be nice to share some experiences on the multihull mindset among monohull sailors around Europe. I assume many of us at least initially have encountered arguments such as “multihulls cannot sail upwind”, “multihulls cannot tack”, “not appreciated in harbours” (due to space needed) etc. however I assume we have passed this first level of “scepticism”.
What is your experience? Are multihulls gaining admiration and interest? Once tried most sailors are “hooked on the feeling”? What is the multihull mindset among monohull sailors?

/Jan

Carbon epoxy laminate for multihulls

2007-05-19T15:48:00.000+02:00

Our Seaon 96crb is fully built in pre-preg carbon fibre (for more on information on our building technology please check production” on our web site). Occasionally we get comments that suggest a laminate based on carbon fibre is more fragile than a glass fibre polyester laminate and carbon there fore not being suitable for normal boat handling e.g. when docking.

Let us look at some “theory” behind a laminate.
Most modern boats are built with a sandwich laminate meaning that instead of a solid laminate it is built with a laminate on each side on both sides of a foam core (early days balsa was used – and to some extent still is). Separating the inner and outer laminate skin by a foam core gives a lighter laminate than building a solid laminate.

When dimensioning a laminate, considerations have to be taken to the various forces that will impact on the laminate such as structural loads and practical boat handling e.g. local impact when docking. Furthermore the type of fibre and resin (normally polyester, vinyl ester and epoxy) selected will affect the dimensioning of the laminate. Typically carbon fibre is approx 1,5 times stronger and approx 2,5 times stiffer than glass fibre compared to weight, i.e. a carbon laminate of the same weight is 2, 5 stiffer than the glass fibre laminate meaning it will distribute physical impact over a wider area of the core. Practically this means if the same force is used for impact on a glass fibre and carbon fibre laminate of the same weight, it will create a deeper deformation in the core of the glass fibre based laminate.

The total laminate strength however is also determined by the combination of fibre and resin (the matrix). Polyester has a maximum elongation of approx 1,5-2% before it breaks. The equivalent value for epoxy is approx 4-6%. This means that a polyester based laminate will be limited to a deformation of 1,5- 2% before breaking. If the laminate is based on epoxy it has the potential of making use of the full strength of the fibre.

The rumour of carbon fibre being fragile may be based more on an imagination of a thin eggshell layer of carbon than on real life experience. For practical reasons however, it is not always possible to use the full advantages of the additional strength of carbon fibre and thus saving weight because of the laminate strength needed for practical handling (e.g. docking, walking on deck etc) of the boat exceeds the dimensioning due to structural forces.

In addition to the above it is sometimes claimed it is more difficult to repair an epoxy carbon fibre laminate. Thin laminates in general are more difficult to repair whether based on polyester and glass fibre or epoxy and carbon fibre, however it is not more difficult to repair an epoxy and carbon fibre laminate.

Summing up - An epoxy carbon laminate is ideal for a light weight boat since it is considerably stronger than the equivalent polyester glass fibre laminate. This is also the reason why we have used an epoxy carbon laminate for the Seaon 96crb. Using carbon fibre for a racing monohull may well be worth the efforts since every 1/100 of a knot counts, however the weight gain in percent is considerably smaller for a monohull than for a multihull since the keel weight is a major part of the total weight. On a multihull every saved kilo has direct impact on the performance. As an example, saving 350 kilo on a multihull such as the Seaon reaching a total of 1400 kilo is a weight reduction of close to 25%. Saving 350 kilo on an e.g. 34 foot monohull performance cruiser/racer coming down to a total of 4000 kilo is only a saving short of 10%.

We strongly believe using an epoxy carbon fibre laminate for the Seaon 96crb has been very well worth the effort. Together with polyurethane painted instead of gel coated surfaces, we have decreased the need for power equivalent to approx. 13 square meters of sail area which also allows us to use a shorter mast. A light boat is more fun to sail in light winds and the reduced need for sail area and mast length will make the boat more comfortable to handle at increased wind power.

/Jan

Lidingo Runt – Stockholm’s major opening race of the sailing season. "HiQ" a 60 foot trimaran 2006: 55 minutes. "HiQ" 2007: 5,5 hours!

2007-05-14T16:32:00.000+02:00

On Saturday May 12th the annual Lidingo Runt race was held in very light winds, if any wind at all. Last years race caused a problem for many boats due to very heavy sudden gusts of 30+ knots. This year only 51 boats out of 450 managed to cross the finish line within the maximum time set to 7 pm. A large part of the boats that managed to fulfil the race were multihulls….

Lidingo Runt is gathering more than 60 trimarans and catamarans thanks to many multihull missionaires like Magnus Olsson (60 fot trimaran and Volvo Ocena race sailor) Mats Leander (Chairman of Swedish Catamaran and Trimaran Sailors Association) and Mats Johansson (of Gransegel).

An excellent site for more information on Lidingo Runt and sailing News in “Scandinavian” is http://www.skota.se/.

Trimaran float (ama) buoyancy

2007-05-07T15:36:00.000+02:00

From time to time we get questions like: “Can you sail on one hull only” or “On one of the videos you can see a float almost submerged in the water, does it not indicate to little buoyancy”. (In one of our old videos a sequence was shown where the float was partially submerged. This we thought would show how kind the Seaon behaves, however it seems to have caused more questions than answers.)

Basically these questions boil down to: Why don’t you have more buoyancy in the floats? This is a relevant question. I will try to elaborate on this.

Already at the requirement specification phase the float displacement is to be defined by the intended use of the boat: Racing without interior, racing/performance cruising etc.

For racing purposes only, the float buoyancy would be generous enough to be able to lift the main hull out of the water and the leeward float will carry the whole weight of the boat. So why are not all trimarans designed this way? Sailing on one hull will obviously improve performance due to reduced wetted area, however you will also sail very close to the stability limit of the boat, meaning you will be sailing close to capsizing. A small increase in wind force could turn the boat upside down.
Obviously this needs very active and proper sailing by an experienced racing crew. There is little indication whether being on the right side of stability (and yes….there is occasional capsizing with racing trimarans and in rare cases also with cruising trimarans).

Another important consideration is the volume in the float compared to the length. If you design a light weight racing boat to a certain length and want it to fly on a hull it is possible to achieve this with a slender float design that cuts the waves nice and even in lights winds. On the other hand, if you design a heavy cruiser with the same objectives, the float will be blunt and will have to much reserve buoyancy in light winds, witch will cause the boat to respond to excessively to wave action and slow the boat down in choppy light wind conditions when sailing upwind.

How much displacement and its distribution through out the float is part of the sailing characteristics of the boat. Amongst other it influences performance for upwind sailing, power reaching etc. Furthermore it defines the “predictability” of the boat. It is very important to design a predictive and smooth behaviour of the boat. One does not want a boat that reacts with surprises. To achieve this it is important to have the longitudinal buoyancy distributed in a suitable way. For power reaching you need a lot of volume in the bow, but not too much to affect upwind performance. When pressing the boat hard upwind, it is also very important to have enough reserve buoyancy in the aft part of the float to avoid that the boat trims excessively backwards in longitudinal direction, when the boat is hit by a hard wind gust (due to sail center of effort moving excessively backwards when e.g. trying to luff to depower).

Summing up: There is no one single design that is right or wrong – it is the intended use that decides the design. A boat intended for top speed power reaching will look different than a boat optimized for upwind sailing and as mentioned, total weight of boat (building technology i.e. weight of laminate, interior, cruising amenities etc) also is part of the design strategy.

The Seaon 96crb design objective was to create a high overall performance (…if I remember correctly the marketing spec was: “The damn fastest boat with interior that a family can handle”) and to be as versatile as possible in various winds and courses. Also the objective was to minimize the power needed (mast length and sail area) for easy and safe handling, which is why we put some real efforts into the building technology (carbon, pre-preg etc. – for more information check our web site under “Production”). A light boat is fun to sail in light winds and the reduced need for power will make it easier to handle in tougher conditions.

We spent a lot of time and energy in designing the floats (and the rest of the boat of course!) and are extremely pleased with how well the performance, kind and predictable behaviour of the boat came out.

/Stefan

New web site!

2007-05-02T22:28:00.000+02:00

Here we are live with our new website and very excited about the new the “Blog” and “Forum” functions, which hopefully will allow more dialogue and discussions! We though have to admitt these functions are quite new to us – so I hope there is some patience and understanding while we are getting in to this.

There has been little news from us for a while. Major reason for that is due to establishing our own production caused by unsatisfactory outsourcing acitivities. This is a chapter for itself - some of it is addressed earlier in this blog and is also why the website is somewhat more production oriented now.

To launch the new web has been a challenge and as always it means hard work defining and fulfilling: "What is it that our web visitors and potential customers really want to know and see?" We have to admit that we for sometime have been so overwhelmed by our own almost religious experience in multihulls, that we potentially forgot that it is not so obvious for everyone, especially if you have invested in an upmarket monohull.

The major challenge is to present the advantages of a multihull….and of course our Seaon 96crb.

Characteristics like SPEED, COMFORT, TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN….and on top of that CARBON are not enough to justify the advantage. Obviously this can be applied to a lot of yachts. So how do we tell we are twice as fast (sometimes three times…)? And about our technology – how many yachts are produced in “pre-preg” to achieve top quality light weight laminate….and not only “carbon reinforced”, but 100% carbon? And sailing with very little heeling but still with great power etc.?

Usually when thinking of multihulls many sailors think of top speeds….and yes they are fast! So far I have logged 24, 2 knots (not to steel Mats Leander’s official record 24,8 knots in SWE-1) with the Seaon 96 with 4 persons and (limited!) luggage for a week of racing. That was of course fun, but I much more enjoy sailing in 15-18 knots with Ulrika on a nice day in a sea breeze (approx 10-14 knots of wind in Stockholm on a good day) or even sailing 6-10 knots in very light winds. That to me is the feeling! Before when racing with larger monohulls I did not go cruising. It just wasn’t fun with the kind of yacht the family can handle. Now, when sailing multihulls it is almost the other way around. Everyday sailing is great fun, almost like a dinghy (but not as wet…) and I have the full interior with bunks, galley, marine head and the freedom to go virtually anywhere – remember, with rudder and daggerboards up there is very little draft.

And about design – trimaran is a challenging concept, especially since many of us have a touch of vanity in us. You want a yacht that sticks out at the dock….in positive way that is! Having (over)heard someone describe the Seaon “as hot as a Ferrari” (and that with a full interior) certainly appealed to my vanity.

However, all the above are just the underlying parameters to achieve….we certainly looked for the expression that describes it all and we could not find another way to say it than the “FEELING”. It is really about that.

Have we succeeded in conveying this “Feeling”? How many more out there "feel" the same?

/Jan

Ericsson Volvo Ocean 70 project

2007-04-19T18:17:00.000+02:00

Sharing offices with Atlant Ocean Racing headed by Rickard Brisius and Johan Salén, being the team behind (with Mange Olsson as well of course!) Volvo Ocean Race entries EF Education, Assa Abloy, Ericsson and organizers of Nokia Oops Cup and Archipelago Race obviously opens a wide spectrum of discussions and also the opportunity to meet intresting persons such as e.g. John Kostecki and Juan K (designer of ABN Amro entries in last race and now designer of new Ericsson entry ) who we discovered is a trimaran fan!

Today Stefan and I had the opportunity to meet the team working on the next Ericsson Volvo Ocean Race entry. It was good to share some experiences on light weight laminates, various preg and core issues. The workshop (actually in Ericsson facilities, virtually on shouting distance to Ericsson head office main reception!) is really impressive, amongst other with an oven three times our size! But apart from that - there are a lot of similarities on how we build our boats.

Thank you for the tour Andy and Calle!

Read more about the Ericsson VO70 project on http://www.ericssonracingteam.com/

/Jan

Geneva experience

2007-04-05T16:32:00.000+02:00

Back from Geneva having helped Jacques to launch SUI 2 was an experience, especially seeing the new Max Jib in action. A beautiful sail (Well done Mats! I have been in opposition to this sail for a long time - but then again you always get smarter with age….), easy to control the leech by operating the traveller car on the roof top. A few glitches (amongst other – do not forget to attach the double geared mainsail and screacher halyards…there are more fun things then taking the mast up and down!) and time consuming administration (amongst other inspection by Geneva lake authorities) reduced the sailing hours. Anyhow the boat looked really nice in the water and I was very proud!
The only bad thing about the whole experience was the having to go back without a beer and a picture with myself, the “Old Mug” and Bertarelli! We actually launched from “Societe Nautique de Genève”, but the Americas Cup Trophy was already shipped to Valencia leaving only an empty stand and a disappointed Stefan. I was one week to late!

/Stefan

Grey metallic Seaon 96crb in Geneva!

2007-04-04T20:50:00.000+02:00

So finally (dark metallic paint was more than painful for the production - but it looks very nice!) Jacques's grey metallic Seaon 96crb is launched in Lake Geneva! Stefan was there and assisted during the launch and managed to sail a few hours. More to come on that.

Picture is actually taken by Sebastian (thank you Sebastian!) who is waiting for his blue metallic Seaon 96crb with first stop Lausanne/Lake Geneva.

/Jan

New sail design - the Max Jib

2007-03-22T22:41:00.000+01:00

The main and self tacking jib has certainly been more than enough for new Seaon sailors and still is in most conditions. However it seems the "need for speed" will always grow when becoming more experienced. In very light wind conditions, approx less than 7-8 knots the more experienced sailor (and the racing crew probably up to 10-12 knots) will enjoy the added approx 9 sqm sail area of the new overlapping Max Jib developed by Mats at Gransegel (also a Seaon founder). On the pictures you can see a furling version (the Gransegel "Glider" concept) of the Max Jib. This means the Seaon 96crb will carry 70 sqm sail area upwind on approx 1400 kg.

/Jan

Seaon Stockholm Event

2007-03-06T21:57:00.000+01:00

On March 5th we had a meeting with Stockholm Seaon owners (and close friends) with main objectives to discuss and inform about:

Critical and difficult manoeuver handling issues. Discussion was led by our "Seaon Team Rider Expert Magnus Olsson" - one of the most merited Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Racing sailors and 60 fot trimaran sailors in the world.
Racing program 2007
Seaon status on production, developments etc

/Jan

Bernard says hello from Bretagne!

2006-11-20T21:13:00.000+01:00

In the every day stress and challenges - This is the kind of customer feed back that keeps you going....

On November 19th Bernard wrote:

"This morning, between 11 am and 1 pm i have sailed with jean lou, an happy few. Wind s sw force 5 sometimes 6 flat sea and sun shinning -1st reef and small jib we have seen 23.9 kts on the speedometer with a right boat and without water in the face. For a longer trip we would have the second reef. One more time 12 kts to catch the buoy - what a foot!

Yellow "Eureka" arrived in Bretagne!

2006-10-01T21:30:00.000+02:00

First boat out of our new (own!) production. Bernard's (and our!!) long waited for yellow Eureka has "landed" in Bretagne. On the agenda now it is sailing, sailing, sailing.....

Yellow Eureka was first launched in small harbour nearby our production. I cannot tell you how proud the staff was. With Bernard kindly enough to let all the staff to have a test ride it caused for a two night celebration including Bernard and his wife Michelle

Starting our OWN new production

2006-03-30T09:19:00.000+02:00

Finally, after many considerations and outsourcing trials we now opened our fully own production. Having looked at more than 30 facilities we found our place: Close to a 1000 square meters and approx 250 square meters of office space is perfect for our needs!

Someone might know we partly had our own production for a short while, however not in appropriate facilities.

In theory outsourcing is good, but when you are in the front line of technology your supplier will not put any efforts (or in effect admit any mistakes ) on R&D (however to be honest – I would proably have acted in the same way. Shipyards are not among the most profitable business´). As a customer (Seaon that is) you will have to pay for all developments without having the pleasure of actually owning them and being able to develop them further. Boy, have we spent resources on repairing other peoples jobs…not that we are totally innocent of doing mistakes… however it feels better to be fully responsible and repairing your own mistakes.

Also when outsourcing as a small customer …..well, I do not know how to put it…you are for sure not a high priority especially if it is about some more advanced technology. The chasing, begging for deliveries is a full time jobb for many people! (As an “anekdote” – two years ago we had an orderbook of 10 boats….but could not deliver. That is part of the reason to why there has not been an extensive newsfeed from Seaon)

Anyhow – we are so convinced about our concept! Full steam ahead! Now we need to build the “preg”room, oven, paintbox with environmental filters, gigs etc.