Have been following your channel for some time, and never fail to be impressed. Thanks for all the hard work. I am not one to comment usually, but had to on this episode. I too own a Dragonfly trimaran and cruise the med. My boat is a Dragonfly 35, and a little different to the 1200 featured in your video. We have a galley that goes the full length of the saloon on the starboard side, so have a lot more space for cooking and prep, the stern cabin is also under the cockpit, and the cockpit itself is at the stern of the boat. I would say that makes it easier to moor stern to as in most med locations. The other comments I would make is that the boat goes really well in light winds often found in the med, particularly when you use the code zero sail. The boat points well at 30 degrees to the wind, particularly as the strength of the wind increases. I would agree this is not the boat for everyone, but we sail as a couple with very occasional visitors, and the boat is plenty big enough. I would say that more than four on board makes it less comfortable. My wife loves that it sails flat, and as the wind picks up it just goes faster and faster. It can be a lot of fun, and a real adrenaline rush!! She also likes that you can make fast passages, and particularly likes when we start overtaking the motor boats when we are under sail!! Getting to the anchorage first can be a real advantage. We absolutely love the boat, and in fact this our second Dragonfly trimaran. They are really good quality, and well built, but it is probably true, as mentioned in the video that they are quite expensive relative to their monohull cousins to buy, but they do have a following and hold their price well. As in everything it depends upon what is important to you, and how you view their value for money. Keep up the good work, it would be great if our paths crossed at some point in the future.
This is one of the best videos I’ve seen in a long time! Between both couples was a wealth of information about everything “Cruising” and with a Trimaran too! Thanks!
I had similar insurance issues. For some reason every insurance company was denying me because i had a US flagged boat in the Med. They couldn’t give me a good explanation why it was a problem though, something about having to follow US insurance laws. I finally got insurance through Edward Williams
Thanks for the video. I was looking at similar boat and was wandering how feasible to live on it full time. I got my answer, it is yes but it is a bit small. I sail my friend Corsair F27 and it is addictive and a very different sailing experience then on slow monohull or even a fat catamaran. It is more comfortable then people think. When they say they sail at 8 knots, that is in about 10-12 of winds. The draw back beside the small size is that when sailing, you need to be on top of it all the time. So long passage might be quicker but also more exhausting. I love all your video but this one was really useful for me.
Enjoyed the video. Helpful info regarding insurance for Americans in the Med - thanks. They had to open a company in BVI to "own" the vessel then could insure that way
What a lovely couple and a great boat :-)! Pretty sure the boat would be fine - it's a planing hull so no worries running before (but it would be exciting...)
I just saw that you'll be at the Annapolis boat show. My wife Justina and I will be there for a couple of the days. I'm looking forward to meeting you both! Larry
Some experienced sailors put pop up tents on the tramps to sleep in at night ... So even crew get their own cooler sleeping space at anchor. For a bigger trimaran see the Sailing oceans Neal trimaran Poly. Great to see someone living aboad a smaller trimeran. Theres also the Anglo Dutch couple in portugal with two trimarans Dawn and Twilight..? They are converting their racer to a cruising liveaboard . Living on the Ocean's.
Apples and oranges. It can make for a longer continuous space. The isolation of a separate aft cabin has pros and cons. On the other hand a center cockpit is better protected, etc. So pros and cons of either.
Nice Video!!! Beautiful setting!!! Confused by your statement of pointing to 60 degrees. I also have a Dragonfly 1200 and can easily point upwind to 35 degrees.
Yes I took it that Rob was meaning he tacks through 60 degrees (and was being a bit ambitious!) You can see she will track high though, tight sheeting angle’s
Nice boat. I do struggle to get my head around the lack of lifelines on multihulls. If that was a roof patio atop a 50 story building there would be a rail around it but a building doesn't accelerate like a multihull.
They aren't needed. The Dragonfly 1200 (this boat) has rails at the bow and stern where they do provide secure handholds, but on the nets or center of the center hull the nets provide the needed safety. If you're off balance on a multihull the best thing to do is sit down (fast) or try to fall on the deck. Lifelines are trip lines -- on most boats they are too low to provide any real security. On a monohulll that's heeled a lifeline might stop someone from sliding or rolling off, but would only trip a standing person. In really rough conditions its best to rig secure jacklines and wear a harness and tether, and stay clipped on.
@@1sailfast agree that most lifelines are too low but secure holdholds are only good if you're holding them, and strong. Bottom line is that staying aboard those boats requires awareness and agility and offer no second chance once you've got it wrong.
Yes, the living space in the hull is like a monohull. But multihulls don't use ballast or need deep keels, so they're usually far more efficient and faster than monohulls.
Please explain the insurance problem. Is it because you have to have in order to keep at marina's, etc or is it because you want to insure for loss of your property? In other words if you have no insurance and no worries about losing your boat, would you be ok? -hypotheticaly. thanks.
@@rightright6582 I believe sailing in the EU requires insurance. Most countries worldwide require a boat to be insured in order to be allowed in their territorial waters. The main reason is in case the boat causes damage to others, so liability insurance, not just insurance against damage to the boat itself. So not too different from driving in other countries.
As a boat to have fun around the Med it could be a really good option. It’s not what I would pick for the job we want to do, but even for world cruising there are benefits, speed being the main one. It why La Vagabond are switching to a trimaran
Hell yeah , I want one .. Fast and light and very stable with min heal angle, sure you give up on a large galley but if you want to go somewhere and get there many days before your heavy mono , it's the way to go. Did you get a chance to see the "sail by wind numbers " ? Very interesting .. These tri's don't tip over if your sensible with your sails , as they say reef early and you'll be pretty safe. It's horses for courses really , lucky we all have different ideas about the "best" boat for cruising.
@@svfairisle I actually did know they did, i don’t follow them.. but I would lay a bet (simply Cruising) not racing, comfortable sailing without breaking everything, a race across the Pacific Ocean, between your boat and their’s I seriously doubt they would beat you by a day.. and if there was a nasty storm? I would personally prefer to be on your boat… They may beat you, but they have to go off the wind, possibly for days, to get 10-12 knots of SOG, and you go hard to course and wind drop to 4-6 knots, but are heading in the right direction.. I maybe wrong i just try not to confuse cruising with racing..
@@trevhedges Well yes for live aboard cruising I’m very much in the camp of going slower, safer and in more comfort. Personally I wouldn’t change Fair Isle even for anything that’s in any way ‘sporty’. Obviously the sailing experience of the vast majority of people is of weekend cruising. In that situation when you get out to your boat it’s all about playing at actually sailing, reefing, messing about with sail trim etc. What people forget is that when you’re full time cruising you want a boat that’ll look after herself as well as you. We can get hit by a squall with full sail (because as cruisers you are not spending 100% of your time concentrating on sailing because you have everything else to deal with) and in Fair Isle nothing bad will happen. I’ve been on a lot of boats ( & I’m not talking racers here) where you can get yourself in a whole bunch of trouble very quickly, and the goes double for catamarans.
@@svfairisle i think la vag will go back to a cat in couple years once drag racing discomfort and no washing machine kicks in. probably an aluminium cat as riley will be bored with the coconut run.
Sixty degrees to the wind?!? That doesn't sound right. With my Nautitech catamaran I cruise well at 35 degrees AWA (or around 50 to the true wind). I'd expect much better from a Dragonfly, from what I've seen they should point like a mono...
@@svfairisle With all due respect. That boat would be lucky if it was capable of half that. Which is my point. A fast boat has the capability of getting a person out of trouble, where a slow boat can not.
@@getinit56 Yes I agree that if you want to use speed as a storm avoidance tactic there are better, faster boats. The dragonfly is a quirky fun little boat but it wouldn’t be my choice of cruising yacht for many reasons. Actually though one of those reasons is I don’t think speed is the best storm avoidance tactic, so that’s where I disagree! The storm we showed in the last episode developed right on top of us. It wasn’t predicted on any model. We were 350nm off shore so nowhere to run and the storm was 500nm across so even La Vags Rapido could not have cleared it, not even close! So what you need to ask yourself is what boat would you want to be sitting in in that situation? We have starlink by the way so our forecasts were bang up to date.
Well yes maybe, but the one time I set off to sail around the British Isles looking forward to spending time on the West coast of Scotland we had a force 10 at cape wrath and were beaten back to the Caledonian canal so missed most the the western islands :(
I must admit that I don't really get the appeal. These are very expensive and have less USABLE living space than a mono. Day tripping or weekend use, maybe. Once cruising becomes the deciding factor, the squashed nature of the design makes less sense, especially at the prices that these things go for. They are quick and stable, but a cruising boat is a home and that home has to make more ergonomic sense than this.
I suppose it depends on whether one likes fast, efficient sailing better or comfort when arriving better. But the Dragonfly doesn't look incredibly uncomfortable to me.
My opinion, the design is too ambitious to fulfill too many jobs. I doubt with such structural critical joints, she will be very robust in heavy seas. It is not clear what kind of a horse this is, which course had the designers had in their mind.. But of course, if they are happy and if it lets them enjoy life, nothing to add…