Seven Sisters wreckage found.

The hybrid motor vessel Seven Sisters, a trimaran of unusual and innovative design was found by a Polish freighter whose crew lacked command of the English language but translations and photographs reveal a likely scenario:

Collision at sea with unknown object. The one POB was the owner/designer who appears to have survived the causative incident and rigged a makeshift shelter on the fully capsized hull of the Trimaran. It appears a rain catching tin can was rigged as well as a sun shielding sail and a cushion as a makeshift backrest. Bird droppings suggest to some that the vessel floated inverted for quite some time.

USCG dispatched four search helicopters which scanned vast swaths of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico but no sign of a survivor was spotted and search has been completed as it is well beyond survival time considering the water temperature and the known presence of many sharks in the area.

The vessel was unique in its appearance and design. It was essentially a mono hull with two "outriggers" that were spaced very close aboard and that instead of floating rather high actually pierced the waves. This made the boat a sturdy cruiser able to carry a rather large weight. It had cruised several thousand miles in the Pacific and was able to sail, run an inboard electric motor on solar charged batteries or both.

The inventor gained some early notoriety by landing a hang glider on a San Francisco football field during some televised game.

As always, A shot of rum at Eight Bells, and an appropriate toast to those whose courage and daring result in advancing the state of the art of nautical design.

Quote: Fleastiff

The hybrid motor vessel Seven Sisters, a trimaran of unusual and innovative design was found by a Polish freighter whose crew lacked command of the English language but translations and photographs reveal a likely scenario:

Collision at sea with unknown object. The one POB was the owner/designer who appears to have survived the causative incident and rigged a makeshift shelter on the fully capsized hull of the Trimaran. It appears a rain catching tin can was rigged as well as a sun shielding sail and a cushion as a makeshift backrest. Bird droppings suggest to some that the vessel floated inverted for quite some time.

USCG dispatched four search helicopters which scanned vast swaths of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico but no sign of a survivor was spotted and search has been completed as it is well beyond survival time considering the water temperature and the known presence of many sharks in the area.

The vessel was unique in its appearance and design. It was essentially a mono hull with two "outriggers" that were spaced very close aboard and that instead of floating rather high actually pierced the waves. This made the boat a sturdy cruiser able to carry a rather large weight. It had cruised several thousand miles in the Pacific and was able to sail, run an inboard electric motor on solar charged batteries or both.

The inventor gained some early notoriety by landing a hang glider on a San Francisco football field during some televised game.

Very interesting. I looked into this due to your post and found this forum. Some of the commenters on this forum were very critical of the design.
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f122/boat-seven-sisters-found-capsized-137041.html

Quote: terapined

Very interesting. I looked into this due to your post and found this forum. Some of the commenters on this forum were very critical of the design.

Yes, it is indeed often true that any innovation is looked upon as "wrong" particularly when a "driving force" is involved but not all stakeholders embrace that driving force. The "money" in the design of catamarans and trimarans is in the field of trimarans designed for racing. Therefore much of the "conventional wisdom" is premised on the all important need for speed.

If one steps back from the financially rewarding and innovation-inducing precipice and considers a simple cruising trimaran the "conventional design wisdom" changes. A boat can be rugged, spacious, carry a very large amount of weight and still have impressive speed performance even though it is clearly not ever going to be winning any races.

Most designers would have placed the "out riggers" much further out and would have made them float rather than pierce the waves already slightly submerged. This is where courage and daring come into play. The boat survived for a long time; it was never expected to survive being run down by some passing freighter.

Pity he didn't have an EPIRB to mark the time and exact location.

Quote: Fleastiff

Yes, it is indeed often true that any innovation is looked upon as "wrong" particularly when a "driving force" is involved but not all stakeholders embrace that driving force. The "money" in the design of catamarans and trimarans is in the field of trimarans designed for racing. Therefore much of the "conventional wisdom" is premised on the all important need for speed.

If one steps back from the financially rewarding and innovation-inducing precipice and considers a simple cruising trimaran the "conventional design wisdom" changes. A boat can be rugged, spacious, carry a very large amount of weight and still have impressive speed performance even though it is clearly not ever going to be winning any races.

Most designers would have placed the "out riggers" much further out and would have made them float rather than pierce the waves already slightly submerged. This is where courage and daring come into play. The boat survived for a long time; it was never expected to survive being run down by some passing freighter.

Pity he didn't have an EPIRB to mark the time and exact location.

How do you know it was struck by a freighter?
I thought the consensus was top heavy and probably couldn't handle huge waves.
Rogue wave?

>How do you know it was struck by a freighter?
My "some passing freighter" is supposition from the severe damage to the starboard outrigger (okay....amas).

>I thought the consensus was top heavy and probably couldn't handle huge waves.
That is the consensus of many and if the ship had been launched last week or last month I might be inclined to agree, but after traipsing back and forth across the Pacific from and to Hawaiian waters, just when did it suddenly become top heavy? It was either top heavy for all five thousand miles or for none of them. Nothing in between.

>Rogue wave?
Always a possibility but such waves get encountered from time to time and no other ships reported anything amiss. We don't know when and where the incident initially took place or just how long he survived with a precarious grasping of cold wet hands onto slippery materials with curious sharks sensing blood from his various sores as he desperately fought off falling asleep from sheer exhaustion.

On Edit: His last known position was 90 miles offshore and the "T'pec" is supposed to be sailed with one foot on the beach according to some yachtsmen not too happy to encounter high winds who recommend 300 miles out or within 3 miles of shore.

Why are those who are geniuses and innovative tend to be so impatient when it comes to common sense?

He had a boat designed for extensive cruising and high demand for electronics loads. So why was he not carrying a plethora of advanced marine electronics. An epirb with its battery would have helped. Any auto reporting autologging GPS device would have helped. He had the solar panels for it, He could have obtained demo devices for free from the manufacturers who always are publicity hungry.

The Seven Sisters design is apparently being used in the new Autonomous Naval Vessel just commissioned in the Indonesian Navy and a very much elongated version of the Seven Sisters forms the basis of Klewang Class stealth ships that can home in on cell phone and satellite signals from illegal fishing vessels from well beyond radar or visual range.

Think whatever you want to about Pentagrams, but it seems the Soviets have become enamored of Pentamarans. The advantage of a Pentamaran of course is that entraps its own wake and therefore recaptures that energy and submarine detection techniques involve looking for a wake. Anyway, "the word" is that the Soviets stole the data from a pentamaran USNavy littoral research vessel and used it to design a pentmaran submarine that really is Stealthy.

Quote: Fleastiff

As always, A shot of rum at Eight Bells, and an appropriate toast to those whose courage and daring result in advancing the state of the art of nautical design.

Well, its getting near time for an anniversary shot of Rum.

I was going to make an attempt to catch a lecture at the Miami Yacht Club on Sunday by a German vagabond, but decided to stay put and attend a Maker Fair presentation on 3D printing instead. However, it turned out to be a waste of time and effort, as was the nearby beer festival.