L-7
Home-built from plans or kit
- Brand:
- Multi Marine
- Designed by:
- Multi Marine (Michael Leneman)
- Description:
The L-7 is a trailerable, horizontally folding, 7 m (23 ft 5 in) trimaran that is available in plans, kit, or local custom-built from kit. The boat is very light and very fast (the prototype has beaten stock F-31s on a consistent basis). It is designed to be very simple, allows pocket cruising for 2 to 4, and is built from inexpensive materials.
One year after the first introduction, a number of kits had already been ordered.
The price to build, of under US$20000 [status Nov 2005] includes trailer and sails.
- Type:
- Sports cruiser
- Multihull type:
- Trimaran
- Construction:
- Fibreglass/epoxy hull "pans" are joined to epoxy/glass/plywood sides
- Decks are foam/glass/thin plywood sandwich
- X-arms are pre-fabricated fibreglass pultruded I-beams
- Construction images:
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- Sails and rigging:
- Fractional sloop rig with a masthead maxi-reacher in lieu of a spinnaker
- A custom aluminum mast is available, which is rotating and easily raised using the daggerboard as the gin pole.
- Shrouds are synthetic and there are also masthead synthetic running backstays.
- Full race inventory: main, furling jib, and furling maxi-reacher.
- Deck layout and gear:
- Two winches on the cabin
- Twin jib tracks
- "Vee" mainsheet system for the mainsail, which eliminates the need for a traveller.
- Reefing via roller-furling boom. The jib is standard roller-furling.
- Deck layout images:
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- Keels, boards and rudders:
- Long central daggerboard that doubles as a gin pole when it is up.
- Kick-up rudder on the main hull.
- Accommodation:
- Sleeps two in the main cabin and two on the expansive cockpit floor.
- Accommodation images:
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- Performance and handling:
This is a very dry, ocean-capable, very fast, pocket cruiser with large bouyancy floats. Power at 7 kts and sail at close to 20 kts. This boat has a PHRF rating of -12 in So. Calif., USA.
It can be easily sailed single-handed and is raced with only two people.
- LOA (length overall):
- 7.15 m (23 ft 5 in)
- LWL (length at waterline):
- 7 m (23 ft)
- Beam:
- 5.03 m (16 ft 6 in)
- Beam when folded:
- 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
- Hull length-to-beam ratio:
- 1:12
- Draft minimum:
- 0.3 m (1 ft)
- Draft maximum (e.g. boards down):
- 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
- Windward sail area:
- 35.58 m² (383 ft²)
- Mainsail area:
- 24.15 m² (260 ft²)
- Wing mast area:
- 1.67 m² (18 ft²)
- Jib or Solent area:
- 9.66 m² (104 ft²)
- Reacher, screacher, gennaker or code 0 area:
- 33.44 m² (360 ft²)
- Mast height above water:
- 10.97 m (36 ft)
- Daggerboard / centreboard:
- 1
- Displacement, lightship (empty):
- 635 kg (0.62 tons)
- Displacement at design waterline (DWL):
- 998 kg (0.98 tons)
- Displacement, maximum:
- 1270 kg (1.25 tons)
- Payload:
- 635 kg (0.62 tons)
- Bridgedeck clearance:
- 10.97 m (36 ft)
- Number of berths:
- 2 - 4
- Cabin headroom:
- 1.52 m (5 ft)
- Outboard engines:
- 1
- Typical total engine HP:
- 5
- Fuel type:
- Petrol
- Fuel capacity:
- 5 US gallons (19 ltr)
- Trailerable:
- Yes
- Weight with trailer (typical):
- 907 kg (0.89 tons)
- Towing width:
- 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
- First introduced:
- 2004
- In production:
- Plans/kit available
- Number built:
- 2 [status Nov 2005]
- More images:
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- Degree of customisation:
- Several options
- Cost to home-build:
- $19500 US (approx: £9830 Sterling / €13281 / $22171 AUS)*
- Time to home-build from plans:
- 1000 hours
- Time to home-build from kit:
- 600 hours
- Designer's/manufacturer's website:
-
- Other useful links:
