1994 Corsair Marine F-24 — Lake Palestine near Tyler, Texas

A 1994 Corsair F-24 Mk 1 on Lake Palestine near Tyler, Texas, asking $21,900 through 180 Marine. The F-24 is Ian Farrier's folding-trimaran idea at its smallest cruising size — junior sibling to the F-27 that made Corsair Marine's name — foam-cored, folding to road width behind an ordinary tow vehicle, quick enough to pass keelboats a size larger. The Mk 1 details suit the address: a kick-up centerboard where the later Mk II took a daggerboard — brush a Texas sandbar and it swings clear — its case buried in a settee, with a longer cockpit in the bargain.

Two honesty notes. We hold no other F-24 to benchmark the ask against. And the broker's own "oldie but goodie" is a thirty-two-year-old boat: folding beams, floats and trampolines are what the survey finds, not what we have seen.

What the shelf does place is the price. At $21,900 this is the cheapest trimaran we hold — the ten boats we would compare span $27,949 to $78,840 — and it is the plainest entry door to the trailerable trimarans.

The nearest money is the 1992 Dragonfly 800 at Keyhaven — Denmark's swing-wing answer to the same folding brief, $6,049 more and an ocean away:

If the budget stretches, the same yard's 2009 Sprint 750 at Rockwall is this idea fifteen years newer without leaving Texas, at $39,500:

And where the crew has outgrown 24 feet, the 2002 Corsair 28 at Long Beach is the size Corsair grew the design into — double the money at $44,000:

But nothing else on this shelf puts you on three hulls for less — this is the one to survey first: