Review: Sail Or Paddle the Triak Hybrid

October-November 2006

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Alan Wilson

Ron Mumford tries out the spinnaker.

How would I like to try out the latest version of the Triak? That was the question I found in my email. The answer was easy—of course I would... even though it was past deadline and I had work up to my eyebrows! I’d sailed an early version of the Triak but hadn’t seen one in years and I’d heard it had undergone some interesting changes.

So that’s why my old publishing friend Ron Mumford and I caught the ferry off Gabriola Island one Saturday morning in June and drove down to Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island. The plan was to rendezvous there with company President Thayer Ridgway, who was arriving from San Diego with two Triaks, and Charlton Bullock, the inventor of the boat, just back from England.

Ron is a longtime sailor with racing experience, and I’ve sailed a lot of different boats over the years until paddling took over my life. We were both happy to have an excuse to get out from behind our computers. What enticed us off Gabriola was the chance to enjoy this craft’s unique combination of paddling and sailing, and the chance to see Thayer and Charlton together.

Inventor Charlton Bullock explains the rigging.

Taking delivery of the two Triaks was Glenn Lush, owner of Cowichan Bay Kayaks, located in the picturesque seaside village of Cowichan Bay, an hour’s drive south on the Island Highway. Cowichan Bay Kayaks is right beside a restaurant with an open air deck overlooking the marina. That’s where Thayer and Charlton were waiting for us.

Over lunch, we heard the story of how the Triak was developed and refined. It’s now being made by a skilled crew in San Diego, a far cry from the days when Charlton laid it up by hand in Victoria.

I’d met Charlton at least a dozen years ago when he came to the WaveLength Ocean Kayak Festival on Gabriola with what had seemed a strange, hybrid vessel. But it had caught a lot of attention, including my father’s. He and my mom had sailed in the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1970s. The Triak so fascinated him that he bought one and I had the opportunity to sail it numerous times during the years he owned it.

There are now over 100 Triaks around North America, Charlton told us, as we gazed down at the two sleek, gleaming crafts waiting for us on the dock below. The racey, detachable outrigger wing-pontoon-hydrofoil system looked like something out of StarTrek.

I test out the Triak under paddle power.

After lunch, we went down to the boats and I admired the refinements at close range. As Thayer explained the new Light Resin Transfer Molding (LRTM), vacuum infusion process, to minimize weight while maximizing strength, and started to rhapsodize about the powerful new hull adhesive, my eyes strayed to the jib on one of the boats and spinnaker on the other. My father’s version only had a main sail.

We watched as Charlton demonstrated how to raise the sail, and then he set Ron up in the boat with the spinnaker, and Thayer ran me through the drill on the one with the jib.

By the time we’d launched my boat, Ron already had his sails aloft and filled, the trident logo standing out sharply on the brilliant red spinnaker. I was keen to see how the jib would affect my boat’s performance, but first I wanted to try paddling.

At 95 lbs total weight (the main hull alone is just 75 lbs), the fully rigged boat is about the weight of a double kayak, but sleeker and shorter than most doubles (only 17’-9”). I remembered that the Triak was nimble, but as I sat in the elevated seat, the feeling of mechanical advantage in paddling from this position came back to me. As I stroked the boat up to speed, the slim main hull (just 21”) felt it had hardly any drag, and I watched as the water flowed smoothly past the pontoons.

Stroking my way through anchored boats out into the bay, I felt the light breeze on my face and stowed my paddle. Grabbing the lower boom of the sail which lay on the deck of the boat, I pulled back, sliding the triangular sail open like a fan, then tightened the halyard and cleated it off. I let off the main sheet and the sail billowed and grew taut. Ah, the indescribable joy of ‘free’ movement, harnessing the breeze. I hauled up the jib and pulled in on the sheet until the slot between the two sails was shooting me along the rippled surface and I felt a thrill ticking in me.

The mainsail and its support frame raise and lower together.

There’s nothing quite like the sensitive performance of a small sailing vessel, but the Triak takes it to the next level. There’s no tiller or sideways-facing position of dinghy sailing. Here you sit facing forward, your feet on the kayak’s rudder pedals. Steering is more intuitive and you have both hands free for the lines—unless you’re trying to take pictures too!

Ron was obviously right at home with his rig, the small spinnaker bellied and taut. We maneuvered abreast of one another and I shot some photos while holding the jib sheet between my teeth to keep myself on course.

The winds were light that but we found it doesn’t take much to move a Triak along, and the gusts definitely had us impressed. Thayer later reported that he’d recorded 12 knots one time out of San Diego on his GPS. In a good breeze, he says, it makes 5 or more knots to windward.

Although the boat is stable, it can capsize. Of course, once righted, self-rescue is much easier than with a normal sea kayak, because a paddlefloat isn’t required. You can also stand up in a Triak, even change your clothes or attend to calls of nature, something that’s tricky in a regular monohull. And it would be an ideal platform for fishing.

After experimenting with numerous angles to the breeze—close-hauled to windward, running free before the breeze, and everything between—I determined that indeed the boat performed best on a broad reach with a good belly to the sails. As suggested by Thayer, I was generous with the sheets to keep the boat as upright as possible.

Cowichan Bay Kayaks has two Triaks on site.

I did note that the few times I didn’t keep my speed up in the lighter airs, coming about was a slow process, and once I got myself in-irons as the lateral stability of the long slim hull overcame the light air in the jib. But I remembered that a well-placed paddlestroke could bring the nose around, and indeed it did. Thayer had advised back-winding the jib and this also proved to be helpful.

Ron and I criss-crossed the bay, testing the maneuverability of the boat on various tacks while snapping yet more pix, until we realized that if we were to be back on Gabriola by dinner time as we’d promised our wives, we had to get going. So we reluctantly headed back towards the marina. I caught a good gust and scooted back across the bay to set up a last shot of Ron’s boat.

Slewing my boat into the wind and dropping the jib, I bundled the light cloth into the cockpit beneath my seat, then dropped the mainsail and slid it with its two lightweight booms into the central groove which runs down the deck of the main hull. I bungied it securely in place, and grabbed my camera as Ron came shooting by in his boat.

When he was out of range, I picked up my paddle and stroked back to the dock to rejoin Thayer, Charlton and Glenn. After handshakes all around, we jumped in our car for the trip home.

As we headed back to the highway, we both agreed that it had been a lot of fun and well worth the trip.

Ron later sent me an email about the experience in which he summed up his thoughts:

Thayer Ridgway,
President of Triaksports.

“I found that despite its intimidating look at first, the Triak was easy to master in the light breezes we encountered at Cowichan Bay. I was especially impressed with the design of the rig and its incredibly easy method of stowing on the foredeck. The placement of the lines and controls were well thought out which made controlling two sails at once—the main and the spinnaker—quite manageable, while steering with your feet (usually I have trouble with walking and chewing gum at the same time). The Triak proved to be quick and responsive in the light winds we experienced, and I imagine would have been quite exhilarating in a stronger breeze. The Triak would be ideal for launching from any beach and enjoying an afternoon of sailing. If the wind dies, she’s an easy craft to paddle home. A winner in my book.”

NOTES

Glenn will have the two Triaks available for trial, training and rentals at his shop throughout the summer. He is North America’s first Certified Dealer, featuring TRIAK Sailing Certification programs and guided tours and rentals to certified customers. He can be reached at Cowichan Bay Kayak and Paddlesports, (888) 749-2333, (250) 748-2333, www.cowichanbaykayak.com.

For more on the Triak, see www.triaksports.com, or contact info@triaksports.com, 866-85-TRIAK (866-858-7425).

The Triak has a retractable 25” centerboard, a 40 sq.ft. main, 40 sq.ft spinnaker and 25 sq.ft jib. It paddles at a steady 4-5 knot pace and reaches 6 knots in a sprint. Its 17’-9” main hull has a 21” beam. The large rear hatch and small forward hatch have a storage capacity of over 150 lbs.