Design and Construction
Condor Limited built the 40 in Annapolis as a solid-fiberglass trimaran with a spade rudder and a daggerboard keel, displacing 6,800 pounds on a 35-foot waterline. The capsize ratio of 5.95 and a displacement-to-length figure of 70.8 place her firmly in the light, performance-oriented camp rather than the heavy cruiser class, while a sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 27.86 explains the turn of speed owners came to expect. The original business plan that spawned her was written in late 1984 into early 1985, and the first dozen hulls carried owner and boat descriptions in the inaugural Condor Limited newsletter. The builder's own brochure boasted that the Condor 40 presents an enviable silhouette to the rest of the fleet — from behind.
Rig and Handling
The fractional sloop rig carries 625 square feet of sail, and the daggerboard gives a draft range from 1 foot 10 inches raised to 7 feet 8 inches lowered — a configuration that lets the boat skim shallow estuaries yet stand up to windward when the board is down. The design brief was the OSTAR, and the hulls delivered: Man-o-War took a crushing hit from a Russian freighter 400 miles off the English coast on May 12, 1988, lost 10 feet of her starboard ama and crumpled her bow, and then sailed the 400 miles to England before being fully repaired within a week. A different hull, Aiki (Condor #6), finished first overall and corrected in the 1990 Galveston to Progreso 500-mile race — a course run 500 miles to windward. These are not gentle harbor trials; they are the boat being asked to do exactly what she was designed for.
Accommodations and Outfitting
From the factory the Condor 40 was sold "full loaded, sailaway condition" — sails, engine, and a long list of installed hardware were all included, and the buyer's only real choice was color. Factory literature carried an extensive catalog of the hardware originally fitted, and if a buyer did not want a particular included item such as radar, it could be deleted from the price. The practical upshot is that a Condor 40 on the used market is rarely a bare shell; the spec sheet was the boat.
Known Issues
Midnight Oil, owned from new by John D. Williams, was torn from her mooring by Hurricane Fran on September 6, 1996, and driven several miles upriver into the trees — a fate that speaks to the violence a trimaran can suffer ashore. The Man-o-War collision is the more telling case: a freighter strike removed 10 feet of ama and crushed the bow, yet the hull returned under sail. The damage events are discrete and external.
Refits and Ownership
The race-proven hulls tended to stay in committed hands. Scott McDiarmid took ownership of Endangered Species — the first Condor ever built — in early 2004, and the early newsletter records show named owners for the first 12 boats, from Jack Hunt's Crystal Catfish IV (hull #3) to Roy Church's C Plath Shooter. The small production run means each surviving boat carries a traceable story, and the Annapolis building location anchors a domestic paper trail that later owners can often reconstruct.
The Verdict
The Condor 40 Tri is a purpose-built offshore trimaran with a verified race pedigree and a light, daggerboard-driven hull that rewards a sailor who wants speed without surrendering the ability to explore shallow water. The tiny production count keeps her rare, but a hammered hull sailing 400 miles home from a freighter strike is a genuine testament to the structure.
Pros
- Light 6,800-pound displacement with 27.86 sail-area-to-displacement ratio for real performance
- Daggerboard gives 1-foot-10-inch to 7-foot-8-inch draft flexibility
- First production multihull to finish the OSTAR; 500-mile windward race winner
- Sold fully equipped from the factory, simplifying spec comparison
Cons
- Only 22 built, so finding one takes patience
- Wide 28-foot beam limits certain marina and haulout options
- Hurricane and collision damage on specific hulls demands careful individual survey
