Tricat 8.50

Folding, Fast, and Smart!

A specialist in sub-30-foot folding trimarans since 2002, Tricat has replaced its trusty 25 with the highly anticipated 8.50. Still foldable, of course, the new model is logically much more modern than its predecessor, adding a touch of comfort and agility. We got the chance to test one in the Gulf of Morbihan, just a few miles from where it was built...

You don’t need much wind for the Tricat to leave a long wake!

With a beam of over 21 feet and very large floats, the 8.50 is a much more powerful trimaran than you might think...

With its lifting daggerboards and pivoting rudder, the Tricat can easily take the ground and, of course, stay on the beach until the tide returns.

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Practical info

Boat Test price5.00€ Inc. tax

Purchase

Boat Test price5.00€ Inc. tax

Purchase

Test location: Gulf of Morbihan, France
Conditions: 0 to 15 knots of wind, flat sea

Following its trip to La Grande-Motte back in April for its world premiere, the Tricat 8.50 #1 ventured as far as the Hyères islands on the Cote d’Azur, before returning home to Brittany via road. But François-Xavier Tillier, the new boss of the shipyard, didn’t wait long before putting his trimaran back in the water at Arradon, in the heart of the Gulf of Morbihan. Unlike the particularly rough conditions that prevailed during our previous test of the Tricat 6.90 four years ago now, the weather for our test looked much more sedate. I (re)discovered the trimaran at the end of the pontoon, but even from up on the dock, the 8.50 already looked like a “big multihull,” an impression undoubtedly reinforced by its imposing beam (21’4” / 6.5 m!) and the black lacquered mast, which is already quite a respectable size.

Daggerboards on the Floats, Rudder on the Central Hull

In terms of architecture, the floats have significant volume and the central hull has pronounced chines, which help to keep the beam at the waterline to a minimum. The daggerboards are integral to the floats, while the single ...

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