Subject: Re: Your Ad on www.boattraderonline.com 1968 NEXT Lasco Tradewinds

Thomas,
Yes, the $5500 is a 20% down payment to place an order to cut the patterns in the fiberglass matting etc.  The remainder is due to the subcontracted builder when I place the order later this month.  The molds are fiberglass chopper molds and not wood, which could produce another fifteen or so boats after being re-polished using chemicals from RevChem.  Remember this is not the older one-off method of making and building the hulls around them, which is mostly how custom multihulls are made today.   The molds for the Lasco Marine Tradewinds uses the manufacturing practices of Hunter and Macgregor.

The first seven boats came with a inboard motor. I do have some designs available for a outboard engine using a engine well in the main hull; with a small door from the rear seat into the stern and a plug can be used to close the well when the outboard is not in use.  A mounting bracket design for the outside of the main hull or left arma to mount the outboard engine from the outside is available too.

I do have some color photos of number seven. I'm currently on route home from California and you might be able to view the color pics from my webpage.

http://www.geocities.com/sirrko/tripage/sister1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/sirrko/tripage/sister2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/sirrko/tripage/sister3.jpg
or larger black and white pictures at  http://www.geocities.com/sirrko/tripage/index.htm

Sorry I have no pics of the inside... but it looks something like a cross T26? but the seating area is on the port not starboard side of the main hull.  Two singles berths on each side in the main cabin and a small double in the bow. I'm working on a design to make a double berth in the main cabin area opposite the bench seat in AutoCad.  I have added a few little items from Trimaran's that I have viewed on the west coast over the last couple of years; to make a few additions to the current design.

I started looking for a classic Trimaran for myself about four years ago and I couldn't find anything that wasn't plywood or balsa in my price range under 20K.  I went down to look at a Telstar in San Jose this last Janruary and when I talked with the owner; he told me of a local builder who built these Trimarans and I did some more checking and realized that this was a design I almost bought back in 1999; but I miss placed a print of the ad from boat.com. The only other boats I have seen for sale where on Latitude 38 back in early 2000, so the boat is pretty rare and hard to find with only a few production boats from 1968 and maybe a dozen or so custom orders in the mid 70's.

Corsair marine list their tri at about 40k from a Farrier design, which have pretty much taken over the local market in the last ten years; but they're real expensive and I can't find a used 24 under 30k.  I had intended on building my own Buccaneer 24 from my Crowther construction drawings.  The only other production tri in the US is Telstar and the new Telstar is listed at 62k; you might be able to find a used one in England.  You could sail it home for under 20k.  I don't know about you? but I really like the classic Crowther and Cross designs myself, and that pretty limits what is available if your looking for a fiberglass/composite Tri.  Since this is a pretty simple classic folding Tri design; I think many more could be built cheaply using it as a kit by the homebuilder; who doesn't want to take the time to build a one-off f-boat.

Anyway I found a local builder here in Washington; which is closer to home and willing to cast a few kit orders on the side. Currently I'm working on a T28 custom for myself;  but if anyone wants a new one too? I can add them to my order for the coming year.

A little history of the boat.
From what I am told, Lasco Marine was a Trimaran builder in Alviso near San Jose from 1959 thru 1969; when it went out of business. They mostly built Piver Trimarans from plywood or balsa from 25ft to 40ft.  In the late 60's they started their own fiberglass design with the help of a German naval architect  to replace the older Piver plywood designs. The T28 was their first fiberglass boat for the 1968 boat show and they sold seven units.  Lasco started to take orders for another run and in addition they started to build a T40 in Mexico; something like a Corinthian Tri.  The T40 plant took over most of the company's capital for the coming year and when the yard in Mexico started to have cash flow problems with an investor pulling out.   The San Jose yard was forced to cover the debt of the other location and had to rent out most of their yard to homebuilt Tri builders to cover their mounting bills.  In the 70's a few number of kits where sold using a kit car builder.  In addition Lasco Marine  also sold supplies to people that rented space in their yard till the partners parted ways..

I can give you more details if your interested later this week on the webpage I'm building; or give you a call on the weekend?

Sincerely,
Keith

Classic Trimaran at [email protected]