From the following article on clcboats.com by John Harris
http://www.clcboats.com/life-of-boats-blog/Introducing-the-Outrigger-Junior.html
This didn't work out how it was supposed to. The big idea was that this compact and easy-to-build multihull would slip in on the heels of Madness-the-proa, capitalizing on the torrent of interest the big proa generated. The idea was good; for example, sales of our trimaran-conversion rig quadrupled during the Madness media cycle. But we got busy enough that the "mini-Madness" project moved along like molasses running uphill in January, and is only just now ready for sea trials.
This outrigger design predates the big proa by almost ten years. In 2003, a giant and very well-known national youth program got in touch, looking for a weekend boatbuilding project that would be exciting for kids. A committee was formed, which included some notables from the sailing community. I thought that adolescents were most likely to get excited by something genuinely fast and fun, a boat that would look right with shark's teeth painted on the bow.
The boat needed to be simple enough for unskilled adult-child teams to build, and since really scary numbers were in contemplation---say, a hundred boats the first year---it needed to be cost-effective.
After much discussion a small multihull was agreed upon, but this would be tricky. Catamarans require a lot of engineering and expensive hardware to support the masts on the forward crossbeam, and there was the issue of a trampoline having to be sewn up. One of the sailors on the committee mentioned the old Malibu Outrigger. This is an intriguing Warren Seaman design from 1950, of plywood, with a big lateen sail. It was much admired and some 2000 were built. The Malibu Outrigger has one big hull, in which the mast is mounted, and a smaller hull like a proa. Unlike a true proa, however, the boat tacks conventionally, with the small hull in the water on one tack and skimming the surface on the other.
read more here
The two class leaders have been constructed and launched and a photo gallery is on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152081108197398.1073741898.47629047397&type=1
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