In Phil’s own words:
In January 2006 I was the happy recipient of a 1979 Tremolino 23. It was in sad shape, damaged and neglected, but it was a gift from a generous gentleman who just couldn’t bear to see it sit in disuse any longer (free for an 800 mile winter road trip with an empty flatbed trailer…) I found her upside down in a storage yard 100 yards from the ocean, and she had been there for some time.

My plan was to slide it onto my bare trailer and “build” bunks underneath it. But no matter what I tried I could not get it apart – corrosion had welded the joints tight. So, out came the hacksaw. I carefully considered where I could cut, and decided the pylons made the most sense, since they could be repaired and in the worst case new Hobie hulls could easily be found.

Cut apart, I pulled it onto the trailer with a come-a-long and secured everything for the long trip home.

I repaired a baseball sized hole and a number of smaller punctures and deep gouges in all three hulls.

I spliced the pylons with heavy walled tubing.

I removed added-on and rotted wood parts, which reduced weight. The aluminum motor mount bracket crumbled to pieces, so I made one from scratch, stronger and lighter.

The ocean quality opening portlights leaked in spite of their substantial weight, so I replaced them with simple plexi, and saved more weight. I eventually took a good 50 pounds off the boat. It came with no seats, and initially I just used scrap pieces of an old RV awning for temporary soft seats. The tramps were ancient Hobie vinyl, and would maybe last one more season (which they did but barely.)

I modified a cheap Harbor Freight trailer with a longer tongue, some plywood and carpet – instant new trailer. I had to buy new shrouds and a few rigging parts and replaced of a lot of rusted steel fasteners with stainless. Add in the fiberglass materials and paint, halyards and sheets, ready to sail I had less than $1000 invested. I had very old but serviceable sails, so off I went to the lake.

Instantly, I was hooked! The boat brought a smile to my face within seconds of clearing the marina and catching the breeze. We began sailing the Trem in our beer can series, and having friendly competition with an F-24 and 2 F-27s.

My then 17 year old daughter and I sailed our local Novice Series in the Multihull class the first summer. We received a First Place Novice 2007 trophy for our efforts. In the right conditions the Trem is simply amazing. In all conditions it’s responsive and a pleasure to sail. It just goes, with no fuss. In super light air I am often the only boat moving!

I then bought a newer used main, which helped performance. Since I was having so much fun, but downwind in light air is so slow, I decided to spend the money to add a spinnaker.

I am well aware that modifications straying too far from the original design can lead to a series of ‘unintended consequences’ so I decided to stick with the Hobie rig as designed, but see what I could do to maximize it. I called up Chip Buck at Whirlwind Sails and had him build me a Hobie 16 Euro spinnaker, and I added a short bow sprit. The spin halyard is about halfway between the forestay and masthead, and it sheets to the forward beams at 5 feet from centerline. We can haul the sheets outboard if we need to run deeper, which actually works so well for us that we do it often, sailing at perhaps 110-120 apparent and making great VMG.

Then after looking closely at photos of us sailing, I decided the sails I had were still poor, too full and not shaped well. I decided to go with a new square top main. Chip made one for me in Challenge 6.18 oz dacron – proudly displaying the Newick insignia. I rigged a 2:1 main halyard. I rerigged the traveler for 3:1 each side, and the mainsheet for 6:1. Seems about perfect.

I have moved the jib tack forward, and installed a furler and a slightly larger jib. The jib is from a Lightning and is the perfect size - it just fills the foretriangle, and really added some lighter wind performance yet the helm balance is still spot on. I will eventually have a new jib made, but meanwhile it’s been a good experiment. I added swiveling cam cleats on the beams just inboard of the jib tracks and replaced the H16 swiveling cleat leads (I hated those confounding things!) with singles-with-beckets on the track cars, retaining the 2:1 jib sheets but making it much easier to cleat/uncleat from anywhere in any wind strength. This worked very well.

I also added tensioners to the aft shroud bridles so I can reduce headstay sag according to wind speed. I simply pull them on until they begin to limit mast rotation, and stop there. Ends up being a perfect wind-dependant adjustment.

I then considered adding rigid struts under the beams to stiffen the boat as a few people have done, Dick Newick has warned against this as the boat wasn’t designed to be so rigid. But the boat is old and I fear for the beams, so I compromised by adding 4 stays underneath and parallel with the beams, lashed with 18” or so of lashing. They provide some stiffness to relieve some of the stress off the beams and corner castings, but are not overly stiff.

I decided not to make hard seats, the canvas seats are just so comfortable and lightweight and I have yet to see a hard seat boat that “looked right.” I designed and sewed the new tramps and seats myself (a saga unto itself!) I added 3/8” closed cell foam padding to the seats (made from camping foam sleeping pads.) The padding wraps over the beams, so it’s comfy when you’re up off the seats. They are exceptionally comfortable and only ounces heavier than simple cloth. I’ve had many people, even F-boat owners, remark that it’s the most comfortable cockpit they’ve ever sailed in.

The old daggerboard and rudder were atrocious, curved and warped and the foil sections weren’t good to start with, and it was time to build new ones. Due to the board case thickness of 1 ¼” I was limited in my foil section choice. By default I ended up using a NACA 0008 section. The board was cracked up the center and had rotten spots, so I laminated up a new plank, built a router jig and carefully shaped the board to template. I made it 8” deeper than the original board as well. I faired it carefully and glassed it.

I simply went after the rudder with my belt sander and reshaped it “by eye”. The re-shaping worked well.

The difference was astounding! I could point at least 5 degrees higher, with no loss of speed. The boat now feels the same tack-to-tack - no lee helm on one tack and weather helm on the other, and the hum that began at around 8 knots is gone. It was a labor intensive project, but cost less than $50! (I always have epoxy and cloth on hand.)
Note: I have to admit I broke that board spectacularly! and am currently (winter 2009) rebuilding it with a carbon spar down the center and plated both sides with carbon uni, the way modern foam core boards are made.

There are a few more small details such as adding a grating on the cockpit floor to keep my feet dry, glassing scuppers into the sole instead of the bailers on the walls. Most of my hardware has been scrounged or found on eBay, and I’ve made many parts myself. All told, I have now invested a whopping $2,700 in the boat! Now that’s hard to beat!

As a result of all of this - 2009 has been a Dream Season for us and the Trem. I race the boat with my daughter, and on occasion a friend comes along. We entered 3 regattas this year, and won all three and we also won the Overall Winner trophy for the Multihull Regatta by virtue of seven 1st place finishes!

I have discovered that reefing fairly conservatively is indeed faster, in spite of what everyone else tries to tell me. With just the 2 of us, we reef at about 15 knots wind speed. With 3, I reef at 18-20. Our upwind speed and angle are unaffected but the boat is more settled, and downwind we have the spinnaker. When someone argues that I reef too conservatively, I just point at the race results… Not bad for a 30 year old boat rescued on a budget!

Phil Collins
Springfield Oregon
1979 Tremolino 23 “Irie”