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Sailing
By Linda Cullum, Thu Dec 8th
History -The catamaran is one of the oldest types of craftknown. The word Catamaran has its origin in Malayan language --Catu (to tie) and Maran ( log). Early Polynesians would lash twolarge canoes together and sail a whole village's worth peoplefrom one village to another, which usually meant fromone island to another. These people considered the stability ofa two hulled vessel to be safer than that of just one hull.Until two centuries ago Polynesia was totally isolated from therest of the civilized world, which was developing boats alongwhat we now think of as more traditional lines - single-hulledkeel boats, or monohulls. In the 1780s Captain Cook reportedseeing beautiful boats of up to 120 feet long which were builtof painstakingly painted and polished wood. Exposure to theoutside world brought European diseases to these people, who hadno immunities to them. The populations and societies wereravaged and these beautiful vessels rotted away. Outside of somenative activity in the Hawaiian islands the catamaran designdisappeared. Then, in the late 1870s, Nathaniel Herreshoffdesigned and built the 25 foot catamaran Amaryllis. In 1876 heentered it in the New York Yacht Club's Centennial Regatta andeasily beat every other boat in the fleet. That this upstartradical "new" design should win so handily was deemedunacceptable, and catamarans were barred from racing. Thisdecision stopped the further development of multihulls cold. Mr.Herreshoff and his son, L. Francis, continued to design andbuild them for themselves, adding centerboards to each hull forbetter maneuverability, but their designs never gainedacceptance. 1952 -- in England, the Prout brothers designed a Ushaped hull, instead of the V shape that had preceded it, andthey included centerboards. Now the boats would actually tack.They became popular in Europe because of their speed andcomfort, and the long slow process of design evolution took astep forward. By the late 50's there were quite a few sailorsexperimenting with new designs and building materials. With theadvent of fiberglass, resins, and marine plywood these boatscould be built light and strong. In the 1960's Rudy Choy ofHawaii was designing and building race winning, ocean capablecatamarans which are still viable today. During the 1960's and1970's an American designer named Arthur Piver was singularlyresponsable for the building of hundreds of trimarans in thebackyards of would-be sailors. Unfortunately, some of his claimswere not realistic- he maintained that anyone without carpentryor experience could quickly and cheaply build one of his"non-capsizable" designs and sail around the world. There wereso many of his boats under construction at one time that therewas no way he could even attempt to ensure that the builderswere using proper construction techniques, or even sticking tohis plans. This resulted in builders making major and oftenunsafe modifications to his designs, and in many boats beingbuilt poorly and with inferior materials. There are still manyold Pivers out that are safe and comfortable, but thereare countless others that rotted away, capsized, or broke up atsea due to shoddy construction. Piver himself disappeared at seaon a boat of his own design, albeit one that he did not buildhimself. All of this did nothing to help the reputation ofmultihulls, a legacy that unfortunately exists in the minds ofmany today. Jim Brown, a protege of Piver, started designing hisown trimarans, called Searunners. He designed them with a widerbeam for a safer, more stable platform, along with othermodifications. Soon Norm Cross, Lock Crowther, John Marples, andcountless designers from all over the world were building on thelessons that could be learned from previous designs, both withtrimarans and catamarans. These designers realized the need fordetailed, precise plans, and for the designer to be involvedwith the builder from day one of construction in order to helpto create a safe, fast, comfortable vessel. The racing world iswhere multihulls have had a real chance to show the world theirperformance potential . In the 1976 OSTAR Mike Birch came insecond place on the Third Turtle, Dick Newick's VAL design 31foot trimaran. The first place winner that year was Eric Taberlyon his 71 foot monohull. This was the last year in which amonohull won this race. Dick Newick's designs also captured theattention of Phil Weld, who won the 1980 OSTAR in the Newicktrimaran, Moxie. The high profile of racing, the money thatracing has brought into their development and improvement, aswell as the evolution of new, lightweight synthetic buildingmaterials have all contributed
to the high quality of multihullcraft that is being built today. They have gained worldwideacceptance. What are the advantages and disadvantages of multihulls? Advantages.
Stability -- It's almost impossible to sink a properly builtmultihull, short of blowing it up or burning it down. A commonmisconception is that trimarans and catamarans are easilycapsized. This is not true of cruising multis -- they are stiffand stable and usually need a very rare and extraordinary set ofcircumstances before they'll go over. It is true that once theygo over they stay over, but they will not sink, even wheninverted. The crew of a capsized multi still has the mother shipand the supplies aboard to sustain life for however long ittakes for a rescue. This is in contrast to a monohull, which ifholed or capsized with hatches open will very quickly sink,leaving its inhabitants swimming or in a life raft. Thelikelihood that a modern cruising multihulls will capsize isabout the same as the likelihood that a monohull will sink. Speed - Almost without exception, a modern multi will besubstantially faster than a monohull of comparable length. Speedis not only fun, it's an under appreciated safety feature. On asailing passage, the longer a boat is exposed to the sea and thevagaries of weather, the better are the chances that it willmeet with dangerous conditions. A North Atlantic crossing thattakes under 10 days is likely to be safer than one that takes 3weeks. A lot of weather can happen in three weeks, or a crewmember can become dangerously sick and need medical attentionfast. It's good to be able to step on the gas and get there. Jibing -- These boats are so beamy that in a downwind situationthe preventer can be secured far outboard, giving the main alead that results in a nice wide, flat sail area and absolutecontrol over the boom. Since multihulls move at such high speedsdownwind, there is less wind pressure actually behind the sail,making it easy to control it during the entire manuever. Theboat continues to sail flat and steering is easy. Jibing amultihull is a very smooth operation, and puts much less stressand strain on both equipment and crew than it does with amonohull in the same situation. In a jibe a keel boat will tendto roll and try to round up into the wind as the mainsail fillson the new tack, making steering tricky. Comfort - It's nice to be comfortable. After spending time on amodern multihull few people would argue that they are notconsiderably more comfortable than a keel boat. With their widestable platforms catamarans don't heel at all, trimarans verylittle, and most people find their motion to be easier than thatof single hulled boats. Comfort is also another very importantsafety feature. On a stable, smoothly moving boat it's easier toprepare and eat regular meals, and crew members can sleepwithout having to tie themselves in. A well rested, well fedcrew is a much clearer minded, safer and happier one than aseasick, exhausted, poorly fed one. Deck Space -- on a boat where 24 feet of beam is common, there'splenty of room to walk around. Dingy storage is not a problem. Shallow Draft --Most multihulls have a very shallow draft -- 2-4feet. What a luxury to be able to manuever through a crowdedanchorage and move up front into only 3 or 4 feet of water anddrop anchor. In water this shallow it's easy to see how well setyour anchors are, or to hand set them if necessary. So what ifall those big heavy boats behind you drag anchor? You're upwindfrom them all, and are safe from being crashed into by drifting,dragging boats. Many beautiful, private anchorages are out ofreach of deep draft boats, but are perfect for shallow draftvessels. Run aground? No problem. The boat will sit level andundamaged. Just wait for a rising tide, if you can, or perhapsyou can jump in and push the boat off. ( Be careful if you dothis -- wear shoes, and be sure that you can get back on board).You may also be able to walk out to deeper water and hand set ananchor that can then be used to kedge the boat off. About the author:Linda Cullum is from Cape Cod, MA, with a second home inVermont. She is the author of Learn to Sail! with Multimedia! anInteractive training CDROM which teaches all aspects ofSailing including Knots, Piloting, Rules of the Road, Weatherwith digital video from Sail Magazine, narration, animation andquizzes. Visit her site at http://learntosail.net HappySailing_/)__
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