Building, Cruising, Racing: All with more hulls

For Dutch Elvstrøm Sails customer Paul Hofman, sailing has been a life-long fascination and passion.

Paul first picked up sailing as a kid. The family had a Flying Junior dinghy and later a traditional wooden boat. And it led him through the hobby in such a way that he did not only enjoy sailing – he has also spent many winters building and refurbishing boats.

And through all of this, a long customer journey through sprung with Elvstrøm Sails. All the way up to this day, where he sails a Canadian-made TEK35 catamaran with a full Elvstrøm Sails wardrobe – and so did Paul’s previous boat, the more racing-oriented Farrier F-33R folding trimaran.

Both really showed what difference the right sails make.

The TEK35 came along for Paul and his wife as time was in for more cruising than racing. Yet, it is a boat which has taken great effort to get to where it is today. One part being a big refurb – and then there was the optimization of the sail plan itself.

Being a design from the 80’s, the hulls have a lot of rocker, which makes it prone to ‘hobby horsing’ (continuously rocking back and forward in certain waves).

To minimize this effect is weight saving at the bows, sterns and rigging and sails – an important aspect of what Paul did to his TEK35.

- At the time I retired the F-33R became a handful to cruise for the two of us. We also had a wish for more space and comfortable living – and the TEK35 being an open bridge deck catamaran, it does just this. It is – however – twice the weight and has the same sail area as the F-33R, so it is a completely different boat, yet quick and lively to sail.

The TEK35 was designed to be a racer-cruiser, so to get the right sails for the job, Paul Hofman went again to Maxim van Pelt from Elvstrøm Sails Benelux. Maxim had already fitted Paul’s previous boat, too:

- I went to Maxim with my ideas and wishes. The TEK35 was originally a category A ocean-going boat, so it came with a modest sail plan with the traditional pinhead mainsail, a self-tacking jib and a kind of genoa on a short bowsprit. My vision was to reduce the weight while improving the performance upwind and especially in light air, Paul says.

Paul Hofman and Maxim van Pelt set to work creating the new sail plan - with easy handling and trim as the main headline.

- Maxim supported our shift from racing to cruising. We took his advice and opted for EPEX to save weight in the top, using the double taffeta with full Technora for strength and durability – and had sails designed with more depth. The whole idea was to increase power for the heavier boat and make it less sensitive to the trimming. To make the handling easier it has a smaller square top and we also use a lazybag. Paul points out and adds:

- We have gained a lot in light air. Our hank on jib was a big improvement as we can point 5-10 degrees higher than before. The genoa was also replaced with a new screecher, and this gave two advantages as we can use it until 55 degrees in light air – and a bonus was that we could save the weight of two oversized Harken furlers. In total, the new sail plan gave us more than 10% more area on the same mast and boom.

This was already nine seasons ago. The set was made, covered a lot of miles through seven years, and in 2024 a replacement was made with small adjustments to match.

- We are now on our second set of the mainsail and jib – with small adjustments. We have increased the mainsail a little for better balance, and since we are getting older, the new set also required us to find a way to run the jib easy without a heavy furler. Maxim advised a structural furler from Ubi Major, which added no weight to the bow and aloft. I am very happy with the sails and all the help we have had to adjust the TEK35 to our physical abilities.

Whilst the TEK35 and a bigger focus on cruising is present day for Paul, it does not mean that his boat CV doesn’t include many years in mulithulls.

It does.

Having had a full career in mechanical engineering, the passion for boats also led Paul to build and restore. And earlier, the smaller trimarans were his boat of choice, thanks in part to the trailerable trimarans.

He underlines that the practical aspect of building a boat was – and still is a great hobby:

- I am a Corinthian sailor at heart. I’m here for the fun of it – which has been my mantra ever since I first started. And I am more a sailor than a boatbuilder – but it came in as a great pastime to build boats, he says and adds:

- Having jobs as a manager and later managing director of a mid-sized international production facility, I felt it was nice to do something with my hands. I didn’t do it all alone, though – I hired extra hands when needed.

It all began with a partially built kit, bought used:

- My first multihull, a Trailer-Tri 720, was bought as a halfway built kit. I finished it and had the urge for more, so my next two trimarans were both bought from new as kits. I decided to go with the Farrier-designed models, so first I had the F-25a, and later, I upgraded to the F-33R that I sailed before my current boat. It was fun – and a lot of work!, Paul points out.

In terms of racing, the F-33R named ‘Trigger’ was the peak for Paul Hofman and his two teammates. It was a racer throughout, yet Paul also kept a light inventory for holiday cruising.

Here, weightsaving was also a key factor. A job, which Elvstrøm Sails Benelux helped Paul to solve – and actually, he was one of the first customers at Elvstrøm Sails Benelux:

The F-33R was a full race setup. It had a construction reinforced with carbon, and it used a rotating carbon mast and boom plus a huge sailplan. It was mainly done for racing, but I did cruise it with my wife, too, Paul says and adds:

My F-33R was also a boat, which I learned immensely from. It had a triradial mainsail first, but the top of it couldn’t handle the loads and lost the shape after four seasons. At that time, Maxim had just opened his shop in Bruinisse, and as I knew he had lots of experience with multihulls, it was also the start of using Elvstrøm Sails for me.

The key was to find the right combination of sail shape, strength and lightness in one:

The advice from Maxim was spot on from the get-go. We opted for EPEX on the F-33R back then and had this very flat and fast setup that took lots of attention and trimming, but it was really fast. And as you can place the yarns according to the load on EPEX, it saves a lot in weight. We replaced the sails and it weighed half of what we had before! And in some ways we have made it to a place, where we refined the ideas from back then to what we sail today. I am looking very much forward to the new season!