Ed Horstman

Ed Horstman is an American Naval Architect who was an early entrant to multihull design with his TRI-STAR 40 in 1960. His was the first Trimaran to race in the Multihull Transpack race to Hawaii in 1966; taking second place. TORTUGA TOO, a TRI-STAR 39 the first Trimaran (Sept 1979) to sail from east to west around Cape Horn, experiencing 100 mph winds. Crewed by Husband and Wife who previously build a TRI-STAR 35 and sailed it to Africa and decided to build the first and larger TRI-STAR 39. 

Horstman was born in Kalispell, Montana. He made his way from Montana to California via the U.S. Air Force where he was trained as a helicopter mechanic before serving 4 years in Korea. After the war on the GI Bill Ed attended the Northrop Institute of Technology where he earned a bachelor of science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Horstman worked for aviation giants like Boeing, Douglas Aircraft, and North American Aircraft where he did wind tunnel tests for the XB-70 supersonic bomber. His interest in trimarans started with reading about Arthur Piver. Reputedly he wrote to Piver who did not reply and thus set out to design and engineer the craft himself. Before he did so Horstman studied hydrodynamics at the University of Southern California. His many plans and books remain available on his website. His whalebacked hulls and reverse sheers are not the most attractive of multihulls but have been sucessful cruisers in a similar vein to the work of Piver and Norman Cross.