The Triad was based on the centuries-old lines of Greek sponge boats to come up with a versatile, lightweight, romantic little boat that's good for rowing, sailing, or motoring. The 12' Triad can handle engines to 5hp., although we're kind of partial to electric outboards with solar-recharge setups. The hull can handle a good load (we've rowed with five people aboard), and is a stable platform for fishing and diving. The full-length keel makes for straight rowing, as well as sailing with the board up in shallow water (or beaching with the kick-up rudder).
The Triad has a lot of capacity for excursions and adventures of many kinds. The area ahead of the mast is a storage cuddy for camping or fishing gear, anchors, provisions for an afternoon picnic—all sorts of stuff! We have used our triad for an overnight camping trip with no problem.
When we were working on the prototype of the Triad, we had access to a nice big area of shallow, protected water. One disadvantage of this area (we thought) was that at low tide it was too shallow to sail. We were happy to just use the Triad in its sail-mode when the tide was in, but we got caught once as the tide had gone out a bit and we either had to row a long way back into a fairly strong wind or try sailing without the daggerboard down. We found out pretty quickly that the Triad does very nicely with the board up! It certainly prefers to have the daggerboard in place, but in shallow water one can sail on the full-length keel and chine and do darn well! A very handy discovery and we spent the rest of the summer sailing all the time!
The Triad bears no little resemblance to our old Amphora, a smaller (8') rowboat we designed as a project for young people. The Amphora was a great rowboat and so is the Triad: they track straight easily and retain their momentum well despite the seemingly broad beam (the light weight is a big plus here, as there just isn't much boat in the water when lightly loaded!)
Our plans are incredibly detailed and easy to follow. The digital plans booklet is complete with step-by-step directions, diagrams, photos, and materials list. These plans make it easy for beginner builders to complete a project to be proud of!
And now the Triad Digital Plans include a Second Option for making the sailing rig! We've included all of the details for making our classic Aluminum Lateen Rig in the Triad plans, so you can choose whether you want to build the original wood rig or the lighter aluminum rig!
To get more information about the Triad, go to our webpage: https://www.stevproj.com/TriadPg1.html
Photos of completed Weekender sailboats which other builders Just Like You have made are here: https://www.stevproj.com/TriadBldrPics.html
This Etsy listing is for the PLANS ONLY, not the completed project. The plans contain building text description of how we built ours, and drawings and photos so YOU can build your own copy of this project. Measurements are in the US/Imperial system.