Corsair Marine 880

The Corsair 880 is what the folding trimaran became after the idea changed continents. Corsair Marine belongs to Seawind now and builds in Vietnam, and the 880 is the yard's answer to the Corsair 28 that answered the F-27: vacuum-infused E-glass over PVC foam with carbon where carbon earns its weight, a rotating carbon wing mast, a daggerboard, and under 3,700 pounds that folds its floats in about a minute to 8 ft 2 in — narrow enough for a legal tow on either side of the Atlantic. Yachting Monthly called it a keel-up redesign of the F-27, appreciably larger, heavier and more powerful, and put its rating at around 1.244, which is grand-prix raceboat territory. It ships two ways: Sport on the taller carbon rig with laminate sails, Standard on the shorter mast with the full head and the option of a generator and air conditioning. That fork changes the boat more than any model year does.

What the lightness costs is the honest part. Yachting Monthly's test boat carried 34 litres of water, a spirit stove and pumped rather than pressurised plumbing, and the review's warning is the one owners repeat: loading up a light and sprightly tri takes the edge off its performance. The camper-cruiser life fits here; the garage-sale life does not. SAIL found standing headroom in the galley and saloon and berth space for as many as five, which at 28 ft 9 in means narrow berths and a narrow galley to go with the headroom. And the boat asks more of its crew than its ancestor did: a former F-27 owner aboard for the Yachting Monthly test called the 880 a more physical boat to sail, which at that rating is what you would expect rather than a complaint. If that reads as more boat than the plan needs, the Corsair 27 is where this all started and is priced like the thirty-year-old boat it is, and the F-24 is the smallest version of the trick that still works. The neighbours live with the trailerable trimarans.