1984
Corsair Marine was established through a partnership between John Walton (son of Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart) who offered to finance the production of the uniquely designed F boat and Ian Farrier, the designer who patented and built the original prototype in Australia back in 1974. With the production facility located in San Diego, California together they produced and marketed the world's first trailerable and very fast, trimarans. This initial partnership thus set the stage for a boat, then little known, to take the monohull and multihull world by storm!
Since 1984
Corsair Marine International is a lightweight composite sailboat builder that specializes in building trailerable trimarans. Originally located in San Diego, California, (Chula Vista) the company was founded in 1984 by John Walton (son of Sam Walton, founder of the retail giant, Walmart) to build and market the Corsair F-27 trailerable trimaran designed by Ian Farrier. Almost immediately, this new design was a huge success. The sailing public loved the versatility of this new trimaran with its patented folding mechanism allowing the Corsairs to be easily folded to a width that enabled it to be trailered behind a family car or fit a regular marina berth. Once extended to its full width for sailing, this new design proved itself as an awesome performance sailboat. Over the next decade, new designs were added and the company expanded to offer a full range of folding trimarans from 24ft through to 37ft. The popularity of these amazing designs continued to grow – both in the United States and beyond with Dealers appointed worldwide. In 2006, the company relocated its headquarters and production facilities from San Diego, California to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. Chosen for its central location, political stability, a booming economy and a large pool of talented labor, a number of key staff relocated to Vietnam from California to facilitate the migration of the business and the setting up and running of the factory.
Seawind Catamaran Holdings Pty. Ltd acquires Corsair Marine International
In October 2010, the company was purchased by Seawind Catamarans, Australia’s most prolific and successful designer and builder of performance cruising sail catamarans. Seawind is a world leader in performance cruising sailing cats and exports its designs all over the globe. With over 30 years of experience manufacturing and designing multihulls, the company has grown from strength to strength since its inception in 1982 when owner and Managing Director, Richard Ward started building ‘off the beach’ catamarans. As an experienced yachtsman and ocean racer, Richard built Seawind Catamarans up from grassroots but always with a philosophy of building safe, strong and great performing sailing boats ideal for bay or serious “blue water” sailing. When Corsair Marine was acquired in 2010 the new owner commented, “This is a marriage made in heaven. Both companies have products and manufacturing processes that strongly complement each other; For Corsair and Seawind this signals new growth opportunities in the manufacturing and sales distribution areas and our loyal Seawind customers will benefit in technology transfers as well as cost benefits of a larger overall manufacturing base and the integration of some common componentry while our Corsair customers will gain benefits from strong management and greater financial strength. It’s an incredibly good fit for both companies allowing us to expand and remain competitive in a global market. Both brand products benefit from each other’s special expertise with a significant transfer of ideas, systems, and personnel.”Throughout the history of Corsair Marine, our dedicated team of dealers continues to represent and service Corsair Marine’s trimarans in 6 regions of the USA and 20 further locations around the world including Europe, Australia, and the Asia-Pacific region. Throughout North America where large fleets are found in most States, ask a Corsair dealer to show you first hand why the Corsairs are the most versatile trailerable trimarans existing today.
The company has impressively sold more than 2,000 trimarans through its global dealership network and continues to be innovative with new designs and construction methods. All Corsair trimarans are manufactured by hand using high tech composite construction and vacuum resin techniques in which it is a world leader. The Corsair Group continues its policy of constant improvement to increase its high standards of quality and design for which the Corsair Marine trimarans have always been associated.
The combined entities of Corsair Marine International and Seawind Catamarans employ more than 220 incredibly skilled and dedicated staff with both brands manufactured in the continuously expanding factory headquarters of Southern Vietnam.
