View Single Post
  #4   Report Post  
posted to rec.boats.cruising
Jeff Jeff is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,301
Default Sail-powered SWATH catamaran

wrote:
Several navies have introduced SWATH catamarans and found benefits like
high speed, stability, and fuel efficiency. Worthwhile advantages, yet
no sailing versions of the SWATH concept seem to have emerged. Anyone
know of any examples sailing anywhere?
Reducing the scale of these military vessels down to regular sailboat
sizes would create a very tender boat since each hull would be only 50%
buoyant. So beefing up to perhaps 100% in each hull would be a first
design step. Apart from this pre-requisite, I see no serious drawbacks
to creating a superior performance and wave-piercing catamaran.
Anyone care to differ, ... or offer further design refinements that
might help make this the catamaran of the future ?

SailNut.

The Swath design doesn't look like a good match to sailboats. Wave
piercing has been used, though the most famous case was not a great
success:
http://www.solarnavigator.net/team_phillips.htm