Windrider 16 Trimaran
Description
The Windrider 16 (also styled WindRider 16) is a compact, user-friendly trimaran daysailer designed by renowned multihull expert Jim Brown (with Windrider input) and introduced in 1995. It was built by Windrider (a division of Wilderness Systems, later merged with Nickels Boat Works) in the USA using rotomolded polyethylene construction for the three hulls, making it durable, low-maintenance, lightweight, and affordable. Production ran from 1995 until around 2020, with company records indicating approximately 1,200 hulls sold. The boat targets beginners and families with its extreme stability (wide 12 ft beam and claims of being nearly uncapsizable), innovative foot-pedal steering (hands-free tacking/jibing while seated in a central cockpit), wave-piercing main hull, and easy assembly/disassembly for car-top transport. It features a simple unstayed cat rig (boomless mainsail on a rotating or fixed carbon-fiber mast), shallow fixed keel, and no ballast for planing performance in a fun, dry ride suited to 1–3 adults (capacity ~500 lb).
Construction Details
| Designer | Jim Brown |
|---|---|
| Builder | WindRider LLC (USA) |
| Length | 16.580 ft |
| LOA | 16.800 ft |
| LWL | 15.670 ft |
| Beam | 12.000 ft |
| Displacement | 250 lb |
| Max Draft | 1.330 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.410 ft |
| Year Built | 1955 |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
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| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.
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