F-31 Sport Cruiser


The F-31 Sport Cruiser is a family of American trailerable trimaran sailboats that was designed by New Zealander Ian Farrier and first built in 1991.
The boats were built by Corsair Marine in the United States but are now out of production.
The F-31 is the production development of the Farrier F-9, which were built by custom shops in small numbers and by amateur builders from plans. The first F-9 prototype was launched on 29 September 1991.

Design

The F-31 is a small recreational trimaran, built predominantly of fiberglass. The hull is constructed with a rigid PVC foam core, vacuum bagged to the skins, while the structural beams are reinforced with carbon fiber.
It has a fractional sloop rig, a plumb stem, a reverse transom, an internally-mounted spade-type rudder controlled by a tiller and a retractable daggerboard, mounted at 18°, with the daggerboard trunk stepping the mast. The outrigger floats are folding for storage or ground transportation on a trailer, with a maximum width of under eight feet for highway transport. The outrigger floats fold into cutouts in the lower hull to reduce trailering width. When deployed the outriggers are set at a fixed 8° to the hull, so that they are upright and thus symmetrical, when each is in the water. Due to the employment of a daggerboard, the design can easily be beached.
The boat is normally fitted with a small outboard motor of typically for docking and maneuvering.

Operational history

In 1992 the F-31 was named the Australian Sailboat of the Year. In April 1992 Fred Gan's F-31 Ostac Triumph won the bi-annual Australian Offshore Multihull Championships. In the associated Brisbane to Gladstone Ocean Race, Bobsled, a 67-foot, million dollar, racing monohull boat, sponsored by Société Générale, made headlines in breaking the monohull record by an impressive hour and a half. The trailerable F-31 caught and passed Bobsled, finishing an hour and fifteen minutes ahead.
In a 2000 review, writer Bob Perry of Sailing Magazine wrote of the F-31, "In looking at the accommodations, it would be better not to compare this design to a monohull with a similar LOA but, instead, to compare displacements. There is no question that the 31-foot Farrier tri has less interior volume than a standard 31-foot monohull, but you cannot trail most 31-foot monohulls. The F-31 has comfortable accommodations for two couples, and boat speed that will blow the doors off a 31-foot monohull...Ian designs handsome boats. The F-31 is no exception... Just be aware that this 31-footer is capable of sailing with some big monohulls."

Variants

;F-9A
;F-9AX
;F-9R
;F-31 Sport Cruiser
;Corsair 31