Astus Trimarans
GALLERY | Click images to enlarge
The Golden Mean on three hulls
Chantier Astusboats in France is producing a range of small trimarans that appear to successfully navigate the conflicting and dangerous shoals inherent in small boat design, especially multihulls. The boats are compact, simple, speedy, trailerable, comfortable, cruiseable, and even competitively priced! Thanks to Laurie McGowan for the heads up.
The Astus 20.1 was introduced in 2004 at the Salon de la Rochelle as a suitable vehicle for camp cruising, treks and raids. Since then they’ve expanded the range with a 14, 16, and a new 22 footer, so they seem to be on to something.
Astusboats makes good use of the Goldilocks Principle, neither too big or too small, too slow or too fast. Their tris are not full-on, fly the main hull affairs, but sport relatively low buoyancy amas and narrow over all sailing beam, yet still remain quite fast. The main hull resembles a planing dinghy, with relatively flat and wide sections. Interestingly, the 16.1 features low aspect ratio mini-keels on the amas which keeps the central hull as open as possible and allows the boat to sit upright on the beach. The other models use the more traditional center hull daggerboard. Besides the standard high roach and full battened main and furling jib, sail options include a furling gennaker and asymmetric spinnaker. The boats use a simple sliding tube mechanism to retract the beam to legal width, and thanks to their light weight, are towable by even the smallest Renault.
I have only one complaint: Astusboats are not imported into the States. UK agent: Ex Aqua. More pictures and video after the jump.
