INTERNATIONAL 3 METER

What is a 3-Meter?

The International Three Meter is a class boat registered with the U.S. Sailing Association.

The first boat was designed by John Marples to be the smallest trimaran he could design that would carry one person. However as the class is now registered it is not specified to be a trimaran. It could for example be a catamaran, although I know of only one catamaran, the rest being tri's.  There are 15 or 20 three meters in the Seattle area, about five in Portland, a few in eastern Washington and several in other parts of the world. The boats are all home built, mostly from plans although many builders have made their own modifications. The class is a "design class" which means there are weight, size and material limits but no hull shape is specified.  There is a standard specified sail. The parameters for the boat are the hulls can be no longer than 10 feet and total beam can be no more than 8 feet. No exotic materials, e.g. Kevlar, carbon fiber. The total weight of the boat plus the helmsman must be at least 380 pounds. Having a minimum weight insures that the lightest person does not have any weight advantage.  Most of the boats are made out of wood although some hulls have been and are being built out of fiberglass. It takes about 200 hours to build one of these boats. Cost for materials including buying sails from a sail maker is around $1200. This includes wood, glue, fiberglass, paint, spar material and fittings, as well as sails. The boats themselves weigh 160 to 200 pounds.

Top speed is about 6 knots as the boats are fairly short for the amount of weight they have to carry. Nevertheless, they feel lively and not stuck in the water like most small sailing dinghies. They are very stable.  So far I don’t know of any that have turned over. John has said that he thinks the rig would break before the boat would capsize. The boats are easy to sail since all lines are led to the cockpit in easy reach. The helmsman or woman steers with his or her feet. The one additional rule is that the boat must be sailed with the helmsperson sitting in one place.  That is he or she cannot move around to achieve different weight distribution.  This allows less agile people to sail the boat with no "athletic" handicap and helps ensure the safety of children. Since one steers with the feet,  when tacking or jibing the hands are free to handle the sails, so it is much like having a crew on board. The standard sails are a main and a spinnaker.

The racing class is sponsored by the Northwest Multihull Association. Races are held at various locations around the Puget Sound area and sometimes in eastern Washington or near Portland. Racing season runs from September through June about twice a month. There are usually several boats for sale as listed in the NWMA newsletter which also publishes the racing schedule. A whole lotta fun!

For further information about Three Meters call:

Ben Kuhner (360) 479-2354.  

Ben recently wrote - "My offer remains to any club member: if you want to try racing or just sail a 3M for a couple of hours, I would be glad to let you borrow a boat and go sailing with you."

Plans can be obtained from:

John Marples, 
P.O. Box 1437,
St. Augustine, FL. 32085. 
Phone (904) 824-2688

Year 2002 Race Schedule

Location: Until further notice, all races will be held in Poulsbo. We may start alternating the location if interested racers from Seattle say they expect to start racing on a consistent basis. 

Time: We usually assemble about 10:00 a.m. and expect to start races at 11:00 a.m. 

Dates:

March 17th

April 7th and 21st

May 5th and 19th

June 2nd (canceled), 9th and 23rd

July 20th World Championships

Year 2002 - 3 Meter Event Reports

By Ben Kuhner - July 2002

We had five boats at the 2002 World Championships held on July 20th on Dyes Inlet at Silverdale.

Steve Powell won three out of four races. Kevin McCombs and I came in second twice. I won one race. So Steve was first, I was second and Kevin was third.

Also participating were Donna Moore and Diane Olsoe (Johnson).

Year 2000 - 3 Meter Event Reports

Three Meter Worlds - June 16th, 2000

by Ben Kuhner

The Worlds were held in Dyes Inlet, launching from Greg Jacobs beach which turned out to be a fine place to launch from at least with the tide levels we had. They were held in conjunction with the rendezvous. Much thanks to Greg and Donna for being such pleasant hosts and supplying us with great snacks after the races.

We had four races with three boats in each race. Steve Flowell won two and I won two and Bob Major came in third two times. Steve and I had a great competitive battle and Bob had a great time and was very enthusiastic. 

We had a fourth boat at the rendezvous that was sailed by people interested in trying out a Three Meter. This summer a number of boats were bought by people who say they are going to race so I am hopeful that the fleet will begin to build again.