August 11, 2004
Boat dream finally sets sail
Mike Winkler and friends build 31-foot trimaran over the course of 12 years
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Exhausted but content, Mike Winkler welcomed friends and family to a quiet celebration at the Grand Traverse Yacht Club Sunday afternoon for the launch of his 31-foot trimaran.
For the past 12 years, Winkler and a bevy of volunteers have been creating the multi-hulled craft from scratch. They were guided by plans he and friend Tom Comstock purchased from renowned boat designer and builder Ian Farrier. The resulting sailboat with its two 28-foot long floats is made of structural foam, carbon fiber and fiberglass cloth held together with epoxy.
How many hours have gone into this project since 1992? Winkler is not saying. Although he could probably make a stab at it, this number is not important to him.
"I kept a log of the hours but never looked at it," said the St. Francis High School graduate who is a chiropractor. "It didn't seem to matter."
Bottom line to him is that without all the helpers, a varying cast of whom gathered weekly to help, the boat would still be a dream.
"That's been one of the best things, is all the people who've helped, even though they don't have a stake in it," Winkler said. "It's been cool, it's all been worth it."
Winkler and Comstock began building in early 1992 after first sifting through a range of plans and ideas. Sailing buddies since high school and close friends since the sixth grade, they decided to build two boats together - one for each of them - from the ground up. Not a kit boat, all they wanted was the instructions and they would do the rest.
In the early 1990s, Winkler discovered Farrier's designs and both were immediately intrigued by these light, fast, portable and sleek boats. But Comstock had some reservations about the boxy design, which was fixed by the F-31 version Farrier developed in 1991.
They test sailed this model and purchased the plans, beginning an odyssey that Sunday put a finished boat in the water.
"After 13 years, it is still the perfect boat," Winkler said. "You can put it on a trailer and take it anywhere and it is very light, very maneuverable - it turns like a dinghy."
The pair initially estimated that it would take 1,000 hours a boat, based on Farrier's estimates. The company later upped that to 2,000 hours per boat and then released plans for additional features, instead of requiring individual builders to buy these critical components from the manufacturer.
By the late 1990s, Comstock and Winkler decided to focus their efforts on one boat at a time while continuing at their pace of four or five hours a week. Although Comstock bowed out of the process two years ago due to personal commitments, he was pleased at Winkler's feat and all the help they had along the way.
"We had a lot of volunteer help, family and friends," said Comstock, an engineer by training and an area builder. "It turned out to be a lot more hours than originally estimated."
For the past two years, Winkler has made an intense, year-round push on the project.
"I have not done anything this summer, literally, except work at the office and on my boat," he said.
A few years ago, Winkler built a special garage on his property to house the boat-in-progress. Thinking ahead, he put out a question on the Internet to other trimaran builders asking how big the door should be to get the completed boat out of the structure. He decided to play it safe and turned the 10-foot by 16-foot answer into a 10-foot by 18-foot opening. Even then it was a close shave.
"We had three inches to spare, on at the top, one on each side," Winkler noted. "We had to let air out of the tires to get it out and we were all eyeing the chain saw, we could always make a new door."
Winkler still plans to complete the second boat, which is partially built. Before diving into another monumental quest, however, he has some odds and ends to finish on the first trimaran and wants to sail it this season.
"A lot of the second boat exists and I may work on it after a winter's rest," he said.