"Chris" wrote in message om...
"gjoyce" wrote in message
m...
I figured this erudite group could point me in the correct direction.
I've been
cruising thru a variety of naval research sites, but was wondering
what you
designer-types might think.

Where do you see hull design - shapes, materials, coatings,
propulsion, etc. - going in the near - and not so near - future?


Thanks

Gary P. Joyce

Well, I think they'll be working alot more IR/Radar-defeating surfaces into
construction, stealth technologies, crew-automation...

I see afew multihulls on the design table, lots of efforts to reduce
ship/crew size, increase efficiency, defenses seem to be focusing towards
anti-missile lately. If you'll notice, alot more design-process proposals
are coming out for smaller naval vessels, with less focus on the larger
carrier vessels. The Aircraft Carrier of today doesn't look much different
than it did in WW2-era. Not so for the destroyer or frigate of today's
Navy.

Yeah, I've noticed that reading what lit is available...the military
is definitely looking at B-2 -looking boats to defeat radar ... they
also seem pretty serious about coatings to prevent critters, but I'm
wondering if - recreationally - what could/would/might trickle down.

Seems most of the work is being done in the submarine context ... the
Russians have this battleship-like design that works surface and sub
.... wild ... but they don;t have the cash anymore ...

I was reading something about hull technology and the guy said that
there is so little capitalization in the rec market, and so little
"real" R&D being done, that to expect anything coming out of the rec
market was pointless ...

then there is the reluctance of "hard core" boaters to change anything
(witness the resistance to multihulls in the sail community, and the
resistance to cats by the power community)...

I was just thinking that maybe some of y'all out there had some ideas
.... God know I won't laugh, 'cause anything you can describe is
waaaaay beyond anything I know anything about ...

just ruminating ...started surfing ... thought the topic was
intriguing ...

Gary