Waterworld Trimaran

by Lester Fink

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Silly Week 2009

 

One of the coolest movie props in U.S. cinema history, the trimaran from the 1995 movie "Waterworld" captured the thrill of sailing in a post-apocalyptic world. The trimaran used in the movie was a replica of the Pierre 1er racing sail boat built in the late 80's. For the film 2 replicas were built by Lagoon of France, one version was the sailing version and the other was the trawling version. The trawling version was
also the version used in the transformation scene's when the trimaran converted from trawling mode to sailing mode.
Today the sailing version of the trimaran sits at Universal Studios While the trawling version was sold to a private buyer in San Diego CA.

This is the toy produced by Kenner which I modeled to look like the movie trimaran. First I had to lengthen the starboard and port hulls as well as the bow by 5 inch's using alumilite super plastic. This is my first attempt at alumilite and I must say I love this stuff! After watching the movie over and over to gauge the color of the boat
I settled on a base color of light earth with camo green and flat brown spots then weathered with dark tan. The netting was spray painted light interior tan and suspended on the bow using kit string. As part of the ocean scavenger look I used extra parts or excess pieces used in the construction by which most were painted silver and scattered about the boat.

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The mast and boom are both made of wood, painted silver then weathered with camo green. Parts of the original toy mast and egg beater blades were used in the construction of the new mast and mast supports. The mast supports are 3 1/2 inch nails soldered together at the ends then painted silver for an even match. The original egg beater blades were cut in halve and lengthened using 3 layers of 3X5 index cards then painted silver and weathered along with the mast. The blades can be manually spun and are fully collapsible when in sailing mode. The jib and mainsail can also be removed to convert the model back into trawling mode.

The sail used on the movie trimaran was a composite of different colored sail sewn together. For the model I used canvas spray painted ruddy brown primer and hunter green for the base. Then using stencils I spray painted over the base using interior light
tan again for a weathered look.

To sum up this was a enjoyable build which involved watching the movie over and over again for ideas and a lot of trial and error, especially with colors! Any questions feel free to e-mail me.
Enjoy!

Lester Fink

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Photos and text © by Lester Fink