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Member Focus  - Greg Jacobs

Note from the Web Curator - For most folks one multihull is enough... but not for Greg Jacobs.  Greg has a collection of three (yes, three!) folding trimarans to keep him busy. When I received the photo's to scan for the Members Gallery I recognized that these were unique boats.  I asked Greg for more information on each boat and also to share information about his experience sailing with a physical disability.  Greg's story is below.

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by Greg Jacobs

Some day, I'll design and build the perfect boat for my unusual requirements. I know several open minded designers including; Don Martin, Jim Antrim, Kurt Hughes, John Marples and Ian Farrier and have discussed disability and multihull issues with them. I know a paraplegic who built his own tri and sailed it to Central America (Ron Gill) and another skiing injury quadriplegic who is the Hobie dealer and Trapseat inventor in Redding, California (Mike Strahle). I am an active lurker on the multihulls mail list and always enthusiastic about speed sailing. Many people have asked about my sailing experiences as a disabled person. What follows is my condensed version of the story that left me in a small part of a little segment of a tiny minority as a multihull sailing, Macintosh using, spinal cord injured quadriplegic.

"Don't Call Me Normal!"

A Hobie 16 my dad bought while I was in high school caused my immediate conversion to multihulls without the usual time served in monohulls. Landlocked colleges had limited appeal to me so I chose to pursue an engineering education at the University of Washington in Seattle, in part due to its proximity to good skiing and great sailing. As a starving student, I concocted several deals to acquire a "B-Class" cat (B-Lion) and later a Sol-Cat 18 and sailed many miles on Lake Washington. I twice cruised the coast of British Columbia during Summer Breaks on a 30 foot monohull. In 1979, I was introduced to Windsurfing through the University's ski club and was running a windsurfing school as a certified instructor a couple months later. Teaching skiing in the winter and windsurfing in the summer paid for my drug of choice; adrenaline. This enthusiasm was tempered with an analytical engineering perspective with which I sought to develop better equipment for wind junkies.

Windsurfing technology was evolving quickly at this time and I became a tester, team rider then designer for O'Brien Sailboards. I sailed cats when the wind was below 15 and boards when above. While on a 3 month O'Brien promotion tour in a motor home and trailer containing 18 sailboards, we stopped in the Dalles and Hood River, Oregon in the spring of 1982. We pulled out a couple of shortboards and tore up the Columbia Gorge in 25 knot winds. My cats sat on the beach most of that summer as I worked 4 ten hour days at O'Brien then sailed 3 intense days in the Gorge each week. I pioneered sailing sites all along the Columbia River and spread the word of this nirvana for those craving adrenaline. I soon felt at home in this extreme environment through cautious experience. This endless summer was extended with drysuits until snow was once again falling in the mountains. In November 1982, I went skiing instead of sailing and ended up with a broken neck and a helicopter ride to a 6 month stay in the hospital. Paralyzed from the armpits down, with limited use of my arms and little hand function, the wind cravings remained strong but the means to satisfy them were not apparent.

I was soon sailing my cat while lying on the trampoline and was confronted with a whole new list of design challenges: how to board from a wheelchair, how to reach and pull lines, how to become active ballast without trapeezing, and capsize contingency planning. Sailboards and overcanvassed beach cats were no longer appropriate for the limited physical capabilities I now possessed. A short sail on a friend's Hobie 33 showed that sailing from a cockpit of a severely heeling monohull introduced a whole new set of balance and interface problems. My solution evolved in the form of plans for a 20' by 20' trimaran with a "B" class main hull and sailboard amas. I needed to immerse myself in the expertise of other multihull enthusiasts. I rejoined the Northwest Multihull Association and became editor of newsletter and part of the original 3-meter group. Here was a group that could help me create my dream boat.

In rainy January, I made my usual pilgrimage to the Seattle boat show and saw the Slatts 22, a hydrofoil-stabilized outrigger - a one-way proa. Designed by an airplane/helicopter pilot with over 30 years of sailboat racing experience, the Slatts-22 features true cockpit sailing: no hiking, heeling, weight shifting, scurrying about during tacking... ideal for me?! . I took a test sail with the very accommodating designer; John Slattebo who was willing to make any necessary modifications. I bought boat number seven. The most unique aspect of this unusual boat is the stabilizing foil that is controlled by a stick in the cockpit which is linked via push rod and Morse cable. The hydrofoil is not only controlled from the cockpit, but you raise and lower it from there too, with no more effort than pulling on a kick-up rudder cord. We adapted the rudder to operate with simple levers/cables. The rig is based on that of a Hobie 17 plus a roller furling jib, with an unusual mainsheet within easy reach from either seat. The anti-heeling effect of the hydrofoil takes away the need to hike out, and the Slatts-22 is about as fast as a Hobie16. It is rigged with the outrigger to starboard, so on port tack, the smaller 14' hull is forced down into the water. Pulling back on the stick makes the hydrofoil lift, thereby eliminating the ama's hull drag. On starboard tack, the ama lifts but you keep the foil immersed by pushing on the stick to give it a negative angle of incidence. The foil is very large (45" span) and most effective at 4 to 10 knots of boatspeed. At faster speeds a smaller foil would generate less drag and ample lift. The hydrofoil is capable of about 800 pounds of lift, either up or down. When you couple that with a 12-foot beam (and momentum, you get about 9,600 ft./lb. of restoring torque, more than ample for the boat's 180ft2 of mainsail on a 27-foot mast. Actively tending the foil control lever is an added chore that might be eliminated with the addition of a surface sensor mechanism like Ketterman's Trifoiler or Bradfield's Rave. This boat was stored in front of my condo on a hydraulic boat lift so it was easy to transfer aboard directly into the seat as there is no aka on the port side. So I finally had a boat which supplied the speed, stability, and with a few adaptations, a workable control interface.

Slatts 22       Another shot of the Slatts 22 at the dock.

This nearly ideal situation was disrupted when I got married and moved to Chico, California for my wife's medical practice. Sailing was 45 minutes away at Black Butte Lake where I now sailed the Slatts from a trailer. This required a lot of patient assistance from a Tornado sailor who was intrigued by my unique requirements and unconventional sailcraft. We experimented with a giant spinnaker and broke the foil linkage but had no real problems. Rigging, launching and driving to the lake left sailing sessions severely shortened so new hardware was sought to optimize this new situation.

I discovered a F-9A was being constructed nearby and thought my fighter pilot/engineer father would be interested. He was. He day-sailed it from Channel Islands Harbor in Southern California for a couple years and now cruises Puget Sound since his retirement. I sail on it occasionally but need a quick, smaller craft to call my own.

I have sailed the Freedom 20 mono (SLOOOW!) and have raced the Sunbird (slow but solo), Martin 16 (nice, but still a monohull) and Hobie16 Trapseat (very dependent on crew). I got a quick look at the Challenger tri at Lake Merit in Oakland. I have raced many times in the Mobility Cup in Canada and the Hobie Trapseat Nationals in California. All of these "disability solution boats" fall short of my desires but allow great sailing experience to many with disabilities.

I was intrigued by the Fulmar 19 trimaran with its tandem cockpit and test sailed it in 15 - 20 kts in Puget Sound. I bought this 19' by 11' folding tri and removed the peddle drive unit which I could not use. Soon I had replaced the 80 sq. ft. lungstron rig with a 113 sq. ft. camber induced, monofilm sailboard rig. This produced ample power in the light winds of Northern California but necessitated a new Nacra rudder and centerboard work. Adding a traveler and removing the trampolines finally made the boat a racer that could keep up with slower cats in light air. After two seasons of racing, it was assigned an unexpectedly low handicap rating partly because the unstayed rig allows deeper reaching angles than 3-wire rigs. Higher winds cause the aluminum mast to bend off before the hulls are over-powered at about 14 kts boatspeed and the beach cats start to leave me behind. With the sail sheeted 2/3 and the rudder 1/3 over, the boat will sail continuos circles without touching the controls. I enjoy sailing and racing this boat solo but always with friends around in other boats in case of unforeseen trouble. 

Fulmar 19, "Tri Hard" under sail.  Numerous modifications have been made to this boat.

Bow shot of the Fulmar 19.

Fulmar 19 in its folded position.

In 1997, we moved back to the Puget Sound Region and bought a house on Dyes Inlet. The 16 foot tidal range presents a new challenge which I have addressed with a marine railway. I have wrung most of the speed from the Fulmar and think foam sandwich hulls, a nonfolding 14'+ beam and "A" class rig could be combined to create my next dream boat. Except, I just could not resist the temptation of the new Rave Hydrofoiler. So I bought a yellow one and set about adapting it for me. My friends thought the name Rave N' Lunatic was quite appropriate.

Greg (left) watches as friends assist with the assembly and launch of "Rave N' Lunatic" a Rave foiler trimaran.

The "Rave N' Lunatic" floats just off the end of the marine railway used to launch and retrieve the foiler.