Jim Brown

Jim Brown who is still with us today and is over 90 years of age, was an experienced professional sailor when he encountered Arthur Piver and built a 24 foot Nugget trimaran. He and his wife Jo Anna went to sea in this craft. By 1963 Jim had set out to design his own multihulls and completely self taught he embarked on a long career as a designer and builder. He is the author of a best selling book on trimarans "The Case for the Cruising Trimaran" published in 1979.He designed a range of Searunner trimarans for home builders. Not only did he do that, but he also voyaged extensively too. The trimarans all shared a centre cockpit layout with a unique "sterncastle" layout where the dinette/saloon was aft with a galley. The mast was in the cockpit for safe sail handling. They were very practical designs that deserved the success they achieved. His work in partnership with John Marples, extended to a number of other trimarans and catamarans built using the constant camber cold moulded ply method he invented. His designs earned a fine reputation as cruising yachts and made many ocean voyages. His son Russell is also a very experienced boat builder and multihull sailor. He has extensively cruised a number of proas to his own design one of which has recently set a record sailing New York to Sanfransisco around Cape Horn.