Multihull Speedster

And PlayStation isn't even the fastest boat around. This past winter Club Med set a 24-hour speed record of 655 nautical miles on its way to winning The Race.

On the other hand we have volume-oriented cruising cats and tris, mostly cats, which are designed to offer the most living space for a given LOA. These boats are relatively heavy and while having the look of speed, seldom live up to the reputation enjoyed vicariously by all multihulls. Multihull designer Kurt Hughs made an interesting point while we were discussing cruising cats. He said that the cruising cat comes the closest to pushing an entire "house" through the water. I like that.

Whatever the draw, multihulls continue to gain in popularity. I suspect for some it is the lure of sailing without heeling. For others it might be the huge expanses of deck lounging area. For a special spartan group it is the promise of blistering speeds. So if we really use our peripheral vision we can see the performance of multihulls totally encompassing the world of monohull performance, i.e., they can be slower and they can be faster.

I reserve reasonable caveats. Me? I like cats and tris, and I've sailed quite a few. But I'm a monohull kind of guy. I like bow ties too, but I leave wearing them to Will Keene. It's hard to avoid or deny that element of personal style.

A Southampton-based speed sailing team is looking to build a craft capable of breaking the world sailing speed record, currently held by the Australian planing proa Yellow Pages Endeavour at 46.5 knots. (Whatever happened to names like Flying Cloud?) Designer Malcolm Barnsley has put 15 years of research and testing into this project. Models have been tested along with a full-size craft, with most of the work based on the ideas in the book The Forty Knot Sailboat by Bernard Smith, which was published 30 years ago. Performance targets call for speeds of 50 to 52 knots in 20 to 23 knots of true wind speed. The 1/5-scale model has already gone 14 knots, and this was done while experiencing control problems with the servo sheeting the sail. Speeds of 20 knots are expected from the model once this problem has been fixed.

The "hull" features a type of three-point suspension with a foil on the windward pontoon. I suppose the length of the weather ama is designed to give the vessel some directional stability. This boat will not tack, but will always sail on the port tack. The stubby leeward ama has no foil. The controllable angle of the rig is designed to create lift to reduce drag and to make up for the lack of buoyancy in the leeward ama.

Barnsley is looking for cash sponsors to help him complete this project. If we all send him $10 he would be sitting pretty. I'll do it. Maybe as a sponsor I would get a ride. Maybe for $20 I'd get to drive.