I now sail a trimaran but my sailing background lies in traditional sailing craft on the East Coast of the United Kingdom, although I have sailed in a variety of sailing craft from a Mirror dinghy, to a square-rigger.  

I was born and brought up in Essex. The  East Coast,  encompassing the coastlines of three counties - Suffolk, Essex and Kent - is where I learned to sail and have sailed all of my life. I have always read all I could find about the history of the area and the craft that sailed it and the people who sailed them.

The River Backwater was where I first sailed as a child. It forms a wide estuary from the historic port of Maldon which leads out to the Thames estuary  and Maldon was home to a number of old Thames Sailing Barges. Once a vast cargo carrying fleet the survivors I encountered were gradually adapted for passenger charter work or often used as floating homes. These huge craft were historically sailed by a "man and a boy" crew of a skipper and mate and a dog (and  as veteran skipper Jim Lawrence always said -it was an extremely clever dog!!). 

I then started sailing on the barges as a teenager. I was a regular barge mate for 25 years. I was privileged to work with and learn from some of the "old boy" skippers that had sailed barges under sail alone as cargo vessels in the final days of UK sail transport after WW2 and were generous with passing on their skills and knowledge to those of us who wanted to become amateur bargemen, because they were happy that we were keeping their old craft, and skills alive. 

Handling these massive craft in their traditional waters and learning the skills needed as a mate and later skipper, and learning the intricacies of navigating in the River Thames, Medway and Harwich Harbour as commercial vessels was a fascinating experience. For about 35 years I spent a lot of my winter leisure time helping restore and maintain barges working on the hulls and the rigging. In Summer I sailed as often as I could. As a committee member of the Thames Barge Sailing Club (TBSC) I was hands on in both the barge sailing and maintenance and organisation in that period too. 

In 2003 I was one of the founding trustees of the Thames Sailing Barge Trust* - and I set it up as a charity taking over the two barges sailed by the TBSC (which I had joined in 1968 aged 12). I qualified with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) as a Sailing Barge Master 20 years ago. 

In 2003 following a big change in circumstances I bought the steel sailing Barge Wyvenhoe built in 1898 and actually the last former sailing barge to continue to trade as a motor barge until her rerigging as a charter vessel in 1983.

For a brief period I lived on that magnificent ship and operated her as a charter business and  tried to be a professional barge skipper taking passengers all around the coast from a base in London or Maldon. I eventually owned Wyvenhoe for 15 years. Of course, over many years I had sailed on Pudge and Centaur for the TBSC and later the Trust, with weekend guests or charterers as a mate and lately as a  paid skipper. I have gained a good working knowledge of the waters from Great Yarmouth down to Ramsgate (currently the limits of the area in which the MCA permits barges to carry up to 12 passengers).

But being a charter barge skipper was not the fulfilling occupation I had hoped for. Like most Thames barges we ended up using the engine a lot trying to keep to a required schedule and taking passengers from one waterside pub to another. What was an engrossing hobby became a chore and one I tired of in two years. I missed my profession and the pleasure of meeting and advising or representing people from all walks of life in court. 

I realised being a barge skipper was not for me as a full time occupation but I am glad I tried it.

My interest in multihulls started with being inspired by following James Wharram's adventures after I discovered him and his catamarans in the late 60's so because of that I have written an article about James and his designs on this website.

I never had a period where circumstances in my life allowed me to fulfil the  dream to build a Wharram catamaran and go sailing the oceans. But when I and my friend Ray started refurbishing Trilogy III ourselves 10 years ago, my admiration for anyone  builds their own boat sky rocketed. After working on sailing barge restoration and maintenance for over 35 years I should have known how much work it needs. The achievement of self builders that maintain a job and family and manage to build a boat often for years is amazing.

So this website showcases the work done professionally on Trilogy III but also sets out to collect and present information about the history of multihulls . There are many books and publications and some online forums and websites that contain much about the history but for me the objective was to tell the story of Derek Kelsall's contribution because his website disappeared after his death and sadly his design business died with him.  To some he may have been a controversial figure too, arguably as determined in his views as James Wharram was in his opposite views on multihull design and construction methods!

As well as my pieces about Trilogy III, and Derek Kelsall  and James Wharram I have written a brief history of the emergence of multihulls in the years after the Second World War through to the 1980's. I have created separate pages on some other multihull pioneers and intend to widen the scope of this and add to it with designers and builders that emerged after 1980.

This website was last updated on 28th July  2025 but I will expand it in the future adding features on other multihull designers and builders. 

* see www.https://bargetrust.org/

MARTIN PHILLIPS

The gallery below sets out some images as an introduction to my past sailing history and the vessels I have sailed.