From my arm chair it appears that rowing a tri from the center hull would be more efficient than a catamaran. Low freeboard would make it even easier but be much wetter, perhaps this is why Randy's boat is so well designed.
Perhaps one of these would be a good starting point.
http://www.warrenlightcraft.com/ultralight20.html Nice job Alan and Jake!!! Beautiful trimaran Alan, I'm really stoked it's worked out so well for you!
Bacho,
I can speak from some experience paddling my Hobie 18 with required watertribe gear and about 330lbs of crew weight roughly 5 miles. Boat probably weighed in about 150lbs heavier than a stock F18 in racing form, but it was an old, heavy boat to begin with. To say it was tough is an understatement. We ended up using a large wooden stick to pole ourselves across the bottom. I completely feel for Jake and Alan paddling upwind against the current for miles, and in shallow water would have jumped out as well! Timing the current is HUGE in these events.
My guess is 5% of Randy's speed advantage is pure sailing ability and knowledge, and the other 10% is having a design that is faster. On that front, I'd put my money down that he is leaving the beach with the lightest boat designed primarily for sailing, with some of the sailable trimarans coming in pretty close.
Having looked at the Warren Light Craft trimaran in person, I don't believe the speeds, it's very wide for paddling, and possibly a bit under built for this task. I much prefer the lines on Alan's boat, rig setup, sleep-ability etc. The Motive 25R is a really nice boat on the other hand (same builder), but offers very little below deck space (none if I recall) and is very expensive being an all carbon machine. There is something unique about building your own boat that makes the watertribe challenges special.
