Up to now, there are no satisfactory numerical methods for simulating wave resistance of trimarans, mainly due to the difficulty related with the strong nonlinear features of the piece hull wave making and their interference. This article proposes a numerical method for quick and effective calculation of wave resistance of trimarans to be used in engineering applications. Based on Wyatt’s work, the nonlinear free surface boundary condition, the time domain concept, and the full nonlinear wave making theory,using the Rankine source Green function, the 3-D surface panel method is expanded to solve the trimaran wave making problems,with high order nonlinear factors being taken into account, such as the influence of the sinking and trim, transom, and ship wave immersed hull surface. And the software is successfully developed to implement the method, which is validated. Several trimaran models, including a practical trimaran with a sonar dome and the transom, are used as numerical calculation samples, their wave making resistance is calculated both by the present method and some other methods such as linear (Dawson) methods. Moreover,sample model resistance tests were carried out to provide data for comparison, validation and analysis. Through the validation by model experiments, it is concluded that present method can well predict the wave making resistance, sinking and trim, and the accuracy of wave making resistance calculation is significantly improved by taking the trim and sinking into account, especially at high speeds.