Design and Construction
Newick's Somersault 26 is a 26-foot trimaran with a 21-foot beam and a solid fiberglass hull and deck — no coring in either. The layout is fixed rather than folding: she does not fold, but instead goes together like a Tinkertoy, with Mastodon-tusk shaped akas fitting into sockets in the amas and main hull. Assembly or breakdown is a four-hour process. Critically, the amas and main hull are held together only by the shrouds and trampoline, a detail that one co-owner cites as the reason he treats her as a strictly coastal cruiser, since there is no redundancy in the cross-structure if a fitting lets go.
Rig and Handling
The boat carries a fractional sloop rig with 365 square feet of sail and a daggerboard keel giving a minimum draft of just over a foot and a maximum of 4.5 feet. On the water she is graceful and very fast, and the amas flex with every wave, giving the ride a living, organic quality that owners find distinctive. Raising the mast is a three-person job using a cut down Hobie 16 mast and a special tool that slides into the mast track — not a solo operation. The 1989 Small Boat Journal comparison placed her alongside the F-27, Dragonfly, and Firefly, which situates the Somersault among the performance-minded small trimarans of that moment rather than the cruising crowd.
Accommodations and Refits
With a displacement of only 1,500 pounds and a length on the waterline of 25 feet, the Somersault is a light coastal platform rather than a liveaboard. Owner refits show the kind of personalization a rare boat attracts: on Hull #5, the tiller was moved to above and behind the traveller to open up cockpit space, and a full paint job across amas, hull, and deck consumed three springs of work. The prototype, identified as sail number 1??, was in northern California and being restored, evidence that even the earliest hulls are kept alive by dedicated owners.
Known Issues
The central structural caveat is the single-point nature of the cross-arm connection. Because only the shrouds and trampoline hold the amas to the main hull, any failure in that chain leaves no backup — a condition inherent to the design and the reason owners self-limit to coastal waters. There is no second system of restraint, and the assembly depends on the tusk-shaped akas seating correctly in their sockets each time the boat is put together.
The Verdict
The Somersault 26 is a rare, quick, and characterful Newick trimaran for the coastal sailor who values lightness and a living motion over redundancy and volume. Few were built, and each surviving example carries a story of careful ownership. She rewards the hands-on multihuller but demands respect for her single-mode ama attachment.
Pros
- Very fast and graceful on the water with a distinctive flexing-ama feel
- Light 1,500 lb displacement and shallow 1.08 ft minimum draft for easy shore access
- Goes together like a Tinkertoy with no folding mechanism to maintain
Cons
- Amas held only by shrouds and trampoline — no redundancy, strictly coastal
- Four-hour assembly and three-person mast raising limit spontaneity
- Only ~12–13 built, so spares and comparable hulls are scarce
