After 16 years of ownership, my wife Elise and I are putting up our Corsair Sprint 750 24' trimaran for sale. The Sprint 750 is the daysailing/racing open cockpit version of Corsair Marine's Sprint/Dash 750 models. While Corsair discontinued building the Sprint a couple of years ago, they still offer the Dash 750 and both boats share hulls and rigs with the differences being deck/cabin layouts. We are moving up to a larger trimaran and we need to find a new home for our Sprint. We really, really want to keep this boat on the lake. Since a new Dragonfly 25 recently arrived on the lake, we are hoping with the addition of our new boat and keeping the Sprint on the lake, we have the foundation to build back a local fleet of trimarans. The year before I bought the Sprint, there were over seven tri's on the lake but they were decimated by Katrina (a couple of boats destroyed, owners relocated after the storm, etc.) and so I am hoping we can bring a fleet back.
Our Sprint 750 has been meticulously maintained. She is dry sailed and covered when on the trailer. The tramp nets were replaced 2 years ago and the trailer bunks and fasteners were replaced and upgraded (stainless steel fasteners for the bunks on the trailer). The boat got a new carbon main and jib in 2021 and those sails have only 5-6 days of sailing on them. There is another carbon main that comes with the boat that is still in good condition. The boat has two spinnakers. One spinnaker has only been raced in two regattas so it is mint and the other spinnaker is still in very good condition (cloth is still crispy). The other sails are a roller furling Code Zero/Screacher (very good condition), a roller furling spinnaker (size wise in between the Code Zero and the free flying spinnaker), and an extra carbon jib (2015) that is still in very good condition. Other than the screacher (Smyth Sails), all of the sails were built by Jay Glaser at his loft in Newport Beach, CA. Jay is a former Olympic medalist and he has built world championship winning sails in the International A-Class Catamaran, International 505, and International 14 classes.
This boat has a strong racing record. Elise and I raced the boat with Donnie Brennan at the St.Pete NOOD twice against 6-7 other Sprints and finished 2nd both times. Starting in 2007, it has finished on the podium at the Corsair Nationals 6 times. My team from 2009 to 2013 was Donnie, myself and we added Andrew. We won the event in 2012 beating out Randy Smyth sailing his Farrier F-25C. On the lake, I have typically raced the boat with Elise and sometimes another crew member. Elise and I have done many northshore Corinthian races, several Two Against the Lake races, a couple of Round the Lake races, and one Great Lake race as a doublehanded couple. This is a testament to how easy the boat is to sail. We won the Great Lake Race one year in 10-14 knots of breeze holding off boats like Decision and catching SYC's fleet of Melges 24's that had nearly a 30 minute head start on us (we added Colin Ross on the boat for that race). A few years ago, we (Elise, Hew Hamilton, and myself) were second boat to finish in GtoP in 5-10 knots of wind. Decision finished only 45 minutes elapsed in front of us and Zydeco stayed tied to our transom for 80 miles and was 10 minutes behind us elapsed. This race was a good demonstration of how well the boat performed in light air especially upwind as the the breeze was southwesterly with the classic upwind leg to Ship Island.
Besides racing, you will be challenged to find a 24' boat that is as easy and fun to sail as a Sprint 750. It never heels more than 10 degrees. The upwind tacking angles in light air, especially with the Code Zero are close to 90 degrees. The boat will sail upwind in under 10 knots at speeds close to windspeed. Once the breeze builds to over 10 knots, press the bow down and you will sail upwind at up 10-12 knots effortlessly. The mainsheet stays sheeted in tight and you just play the traveller in the gusts. At 16 knots, put a reef in the mainsail and you go just as fast with even more control and no drama. And the boat has a roller furling boom so reefing is fast, easy, and clean. At the end of the day, when you lower the mainsail, it rolls up on the boom. This insures the full battened mainsail lasts a very long time. Downwind, the boat can sail up to 18-20 knots. If the first reef is used in the mainsail when the breeze comes up, you can press the boat hard with the chute up. The helm is feather light and upwind has the perfect amount of weather helm. The boat draws just over 5' with the daggerboard down but raise the board and rudder and she draws 1 foot which means when you can sail her right up to a beach.
The folding mechnasim on the boat has never given us any issue. We upgraded the stock daggerboard to a custom daggerboard built by Lars Guck in Bristol, RI. We upgraded the stock rudder to a Farrier carbon rudder cassette and daggerrudder. There is no play or clunk at all in the rudder system so the helm feels like silk. The boat weighs around 1,800 lbs. I routinely launch and rig the boat by myself and I can raise and lower the mast by myself. At Pontchartrain Yacht Club, we use the club hoist for launching but the boat can also be trailer ramp launched. Typical rigging time with two peope from tied down on the trailer to ready to sail is about an hour. If dry sailed, it takes about 30-45 minutes to launch, unfold, and set up the sails. The boat has a small cuddy cabin with a V-berth. You could go cruising/camping with it (to the barrier islands). The boat is as fun to daysail as it is to race. Singlehand? No problem. The boat also includes a Tohatsu 6 HP outboard motor. This boat has never been involved in any kind of collision. Two years ago, she was polished out and detailed by Pontchartrain Yacht Works (Andrew Brennan oversaw the project) and we refreshed the Baltoplate racing finish on the center hull and amas. We like having the Baltoplate bottom because we can leave the boat in the water as long we like.
The boat is currently mast up at PontYC. If you are interested, feel free to call me on my cell at 504-451-4739 or email bobh@tecengr.com. We are going to list the boat in 2-3 weeks and the broker who will do the listing does believe it's still a seller's market so he is confident it will sell quickly. He has sold every Corsair trimaran he has listed in the last 3 years. Again, we really want to keep the boat here so by putting this sales pitch out here, we are hoping someone in this sailing community reads this and wants to consider something new and exciting in their sailing journey. I won't discuss price here other than saying that Corsair's hold their resale value incredibly well. The last year Corsair offered the Sprint version (2020), they were touching at $100k delivered from Vietnam where they are currently built (this boat was built in California). This boat will be listed for less than half that cost, a lot of bang for the buck.
See the link for a long video about the Sprint 750 done by Corsair. The video was shot during the 2006 Corsair Nationals at Fort Walton Yacht Club. The boat I am offering for sale is one of the star's of this video (it's the one sailed by Don Wigston with the blue and purple chute). This video was done in April 2006 and I bought the boat in November of the same year.
Thanks for the long read and look.
Cheers,
Bob Hodges