72-470: The Hickman Sea Sled is an inverted vee planing hull invented by Albert Hickman . The Sea Sled is a direct forerunner of the modern high speed catamaran or tunnel hull . The reduced friction is due to a "trapped" gas film between the hull surface and water. A similar effect is seen in super-cavitating torpedoes where a gas generator creates a film separation to water friction. "A new type of vessel, which promises to revolutionize water craft and which takes
144-591: A moon pool between the hulls. Two Cold War-era submarine rescue ships , USS Pigeon and USS Ortolan of the US Navy , were also catamarans, but did not have the moon pool feature. The use of catamarans as high-speed naval transport was pioneered by HMAS Jervis Bay , which was in service with the Royal Australian Navy between 1999 and 2001. The US Military Sealift Command now operates several Expeditionary Fast Transport catamarans owned by
216-408: A boat. Choosing a catamaran offers increased speed at the expense of reduced load per unit of cost. Howard and Doane describe the following tradeoffs between cruising monohulls and catamarans: A long-distance, offshore cruising monohull may be as short as 30 feet (9.1 m) for a given crew complement and supporting supplies, whereas a cruising catamaran would need to be 40 feet (12 m) to achieve
288-465: A catamaran design to accommodate the vessel's stealth features. The Tuo Chiang-class corvette is a class of Taiwanese -designed fast and stealthy multi-mission wave-piercing catamaran corvettes first launched in 2014 for the Republic of China (Taiwan) Navy . Melanesia Melanesia ( UK : / ˌ m ɛ l ə ˈ n iː z i ə / , US : / ˌ m ɛ l ə ˈ n iː ʒ ə / )
360-582: A certain linguistic, biological and cultural affinity – a certain ill-defined sameness, which shades off at its margins into difference. Both Sillitoe and Chowning include the island of New Guinea in the definition of Melanesia, and both exclude Australia. Most of the peoples of Melanesia live either in politically independent countries or in regions that currently have active independence movements, such as in Western New Guinea ( Indonesia ) and New Caledonia ( France ). Some have recently embraced
432-414: A conventional catamaran. They are distinguished from SWATH catamarans, in that the buoyant part of the hull is not tubular. The spanning bridge deck may be configured with some of the characteristics of a normal V-hull, which allows it to penetrate the crests of waves. Wave-piercing catamaran designs have been employed for yachts, passenger ferries, and military vessels. A catamaran configuration fills
504-471: A distinct region evolved gradually over time as their expeditions mapped and explored the Pacific. Early European explorers noted the physical differences among groups of Pacific Islanders. In 1756, Charles de Brosses theorized that there was an "old black race" in the Pacific who had been conquered or defeated by the peoples of what is now called Polynesia , whom he distinguished as having lighter skin. In
576-576: A hero's welcome in France. In 1939, he published his experiences in a book, Kaimiloa , which was translated into English in 1940. Roland and Francis Prout experimented with catamarans in 1949 and converted their 1935 boat factory in Canvey Island , Essex (England), to catamaran production in 1954. Their Shearwater catamarans easily won races against monohulls. Yellow Bird, a 1956-built Shearwater III , raced successfully by Francis Prout in
648-405: A higher efficiency per unit of payload for monohulls. Two advances over the traditional catamaran are the small-waterplane-area twin hull (SWATH) and the wave-piercing configuration—the latter having become a widely favored design. SWATH reduces wave-generating resistance by moving displacement volume below the waterline, using a pair of tubular, submarine-like hulls, connected by pylons to
720-400: A lattice scaffold. The frame of the tourist catamaran can be made of both aluminum (duralumin) pipes and from felled tree trunks. The inflatable part has two layers—an airtight balloon with inflation holes and a shell made of dense tissue, protecting the balloon from mechanical damage. Advantages of such catamarans are light weight, compactness and convenience in transportation (the whole product
792-523: A monohull, and can give reduced wakes. Catamarans were invented by the Austronesian peoples , and enabled their expansion to the islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans . Catamarans range in size from small sailing or rowing vessels to large naval ships and roll-on/roll-off car ferries. The structure connecting a catamaran's two hulls ranges from a simple frame strung with webbing to support
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#1732800913621864-612: A multihull steel vessel named Binave (Twin Ship), a new type of catamaran which was constructed and tested in Bilbao ( Spain ) in 1918. The innovative design included two 30 HP Hispano-Suiza marine engines and could modify its configuration when sailing , positioning two rudders at the stern of each float, with the propellers also placed aft . In 1936, Eric de Bisschop built a Polynesian "double canoe" in Hawaii and sailed it home to
936-400: A niche where speed and sea-kindliness is favored over bulk capacity. In larger vessels, this niche favors car ferries and military vessels for patrol or operation in the littoral zone. Recreational and sport catamarans typically are designed to have a crew of two and be launched and landed from a beach. Most have a trampoline on the bridging structure, a rotating mast and full-length battens on
1008-426: A positive basis for contemporary subregional identity as well as a formal organisation". Additionally, while the terms "Polynesia" and "Micronesia" refer to the geographic characteristics of the islands, "Melanesia" specifically refers to the color of the inhabitants as the "black race of Oceania. The author Bernard Narokobi has written that the concept of the "Melanesian Way" as a distinct cultural force could give
1080-586: A seaway. The Swiss-registered wave-piercing catamaran, Tûranor PlanetSolar , which was launched in March 2010, is the world's largest solar powered boat. It completed a circumnavigation of the globe in 2012. The 1970s saw the introduction of catamarans as high-speed ferries , as pioneered by Westermoen Hydrofoil in Mandal , Norway, which launched the Westamaran design in 1973. The Stena Voyager
1152-508: A small amount of land. On average, there is one language for every 716 square kilometers on the island. This is by far the densest collection of distinct languages on Earth, almost three times as dense as in Nigeria, a country famous for having a very large number of languages in a very compact area. In addition to the many indigenous Melanesian languages, pidgins and creole languages have developed from trade and cultural interaction within
1224-533: A trimaran, replacing its soft sail rig with a towering wing sail —the largest sailing wing ever built. In the waters off Valencia , Spain in February 2010, the BMW Oracle Racing trimaran with its powerful wing sail proved to be superior. This represented a break from the traditional monohulls that had always been sailed in previous America's Cup series. On San Francisco Bay, the 2013 America's Cup
1296-600: A type of single-hulled raft made of three to seven tree trunks lashed together. The term has evolved in English usage to refer to unrelated twin-hulled vessels. Catamaran-type vessels were an early technology of the Austronesian peoples . Early researchers like Heine-Geldern (1932) and Hornell (1943) once believed that catamarans evolved from outrigger canoes , but modern authors specializing in Austronesian cultures like Doran (1981) and Mahdi (1988) now believe it to be
1368-423: A vast area with a long history of exchanges. The name Melanesia (from ‹See Tfd› Greek : μέλας , translit. mé.las , lit. "black", and ‹See Tfd› Greek : νῆσος , translit. nɛ̂ː.sos , lit. "island"), etymologically means "islands of black [people]", in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants. The concept among Europeans of Melanesia as
1440-814: A very modest degree with the indigenous populations there". The study did find a small Austronesian genetic signature (below 20%) in some of the Melanesian groups who speak Austronesian languages , but found no such signature at all in Papuan -speaking groups. Most of the languages of Melanesia are members of the Austronesian language family or one of the numerous Papuan languages . The term "Papuan languages" refers to their geographical location rather than implying that they are linguistically related. In fact they comprise many separate language families. By one count, there are 1,319 languages in Melanesia, scattered across
1512-629: Is (as of 2014) the fastest passenger ship in service. The first warship to be propelled by a steam engine, named Demologos or Fulton and built in the United States during the War of 1812 , was a catamaran with a paddle wheel between her hulls. In the early 20th Century several catamarans were built as submarine salvage ships: SMS Vulkan and SMS Cyclop of Germany , Kommuna of Russia , and Kanguro of Spain , all designed to lift stricken submarines by means of huge cranes above
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#17328009136211584-712: Is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean . It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea . The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji , Vanuatu , Solomon Islands , Papua New Guinea . It also includes the Indonesian part of New Guinea and the Maluku islands , the French oversea collectivity of New Caledonia , and
1656-493: Is almost entirely due to surface friction. When boat speed increases and waves are generated the resistance is dependent on several design factors, particularly hull displacement to length and hull separation to length ratio, it is a non trivial resistance curve with many small peaks as wave trains at various speeds combine and cancel For powered catamarans, this implies smaller power plants (although two are typically required). For sailing catamarans, low forward resistance allows
1728-484: Is no general agreement even among anthropologists about the geographical boundaries of Melanesia. Many apply the term only to the smaller islands, excluding New Guinea; Fiji has frequently been treated as an anomalous border region or even assigned wholly to Polynesia; and the people of the Torres Straits Islands are often simply classified as Australian aborigines. In 1998, Paul Sillitoe wrote: "It
1800-404: Is not easy to define precisely, on geographical, cultural, biological, or any other grounds, where Melanesia ends and the neighbouring regions ... begins". He ultimately concludes that the region is a historical category which evolved in the nineteenth century from the discoveries made in the Pacific and has been legitimated by use and further research in the region. It covers populations that have
1872-634: Is often made between the island of New Guinea and what is known as Island Melanesia , which consists of "the chain of archipelagos, islands, atolls, and reefs forming the outer bounds of the sheltered oval-shaped coral sea". This includes the Louisiade Archipelago (a part of Papua New Guinea ), the Bismarck Archipelago (a part of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands ), and the Santa Cruz Islands (a part of
1944-535: Is packed in one pack-backpack, suitable for air traffic standards) and the speed of assembly (10–15 minutes for the inflation). All-inflatable models are available in North America. A cata-raft design has been used on the Colorado River to handle heavy whitewater, yet maintain a good speed through the water. Cruising sailors must make trade-offs among volume, useful load, speed, and cost in choosing
2016-422: Is required. Catamarans typically have less hull volume, smaller displacement , and shallower draft (draught) than monohulls of comparable length. The two hulls combined also often have a smaller hydrodynamic resistance than comparable monohulls, requiring less propulsive power from either sails or motors. The catamaran's wider stance on the water can reduce both heeling and wave-induced motion, as compared with
2088-562: The Commonwealth of Nations and are also members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group . Melanesians were found to have a third archaic Homo species along with their Denisovan (3–4%) and Neanderthal (2%) ancestors in a genetic admixture with their otherwise modern Homo sapiens sapiens genomes. The frequent occurrence of blond hair among these peoples is due to a specific random mutation, different from
2160-474: The Comoros , retained the twin-hull and the single outrigger canoe types, but the technology for double outriggers never reached them (although it exists in western Melanesia ). To deal with the problem of the instability of the boat when the outrigger faces leeward when tacking, they instead developed the shunting technique in sailing, in conjunction with reversible single-outriggers. Despite their being
2232-609: The Lau Islands . From the geological point of view, the island of New Guinea is part of the Australian continent . New Caledonia is geologically part of Zealandia , and so is Norfolk Island . The names of islands in Melanesia can be confusing: they have both indigenous and European names. National boundaries sometimes cut across archipelagos. The names of the political units in the region have changed over time, and sometimes have included geographical terms. For example,
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2304-653: The Torres Strait Islands . Almost all of the region is in the Southern Hemisphere ; only a few small islands that are not politically considered part of Oceania—specifically the northwestern islands of Western New Guinea—lie in the Northern Hemisphere . The name Melanesia (in French, Mélanésie ) was first used in 1832 by French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville : he coined the terms Melanesia and Micronesia to go alongside
2376-434: The waterline length is too speed-dependent to be meaningful—as with a planing hull. It uses a reference length, the cubic root of the volumetric displacement of the hull, V , where u is the relative flow velocity between the sea and ship, and g is acceleration due to gravity : Calm water transportation efficiency of a vessel is proportional to the full-load displacement and the maximum calm-water speed, divided by
2448-544: The 1960s, is in the collection of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall . Prout Catamarans , Ltd. designed a mast aft rig with the mast aft of midships to support an enlarged jib—more than twice the size of the design's reduced mainsail; it was produced as the Snowgoose model. The claimed advantage of this sail plan was to diminish any tendency for the bows of the vessel to dig in. In
2520-683: The Solomons. In addition to the islands mentioned above, there are many smaller islands and atolls in Melanesia. These include: Norfolk Island, listed above, has archaeological evidence of East Polynesian rather than Melanesian settlement. Rotuma in Fiji has strong affinities culturally and ethnologically to Polynesia. The following countries are considered part of Melanesia: Melanesia also includes: Several Melanesian states are members of intergovernmental and regional organizations. Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu are members of
2592-557: The Tenasserim Provinces for several years". Later that century, the American Nathanael Herreshoff constructed a twin-hulled sailing boat of his own design (US Pat. No. 189,459). The craft, Amaryllis , raced at her maiden regatta on June 22, 1876, and performed exceedingly well. Her debut demonstrated the distinct performance advantages afforded to catamarans over the standard monohulls. It
2664-560: The US Navy commissioned the construction of a SWATH ship to test the configuration. SWATH vessels compare with conventional powered catamarans of equivalent size, as follows: Wave-piercing catamarans (strictly speaking they are trimarans , with a central hull and two outriggers) employ a low-buoyancy bow on each hull that is pointed at the water line and rises aft, up to a level, to allow each hull to pierce waves, rather than ride over them. This allows higher speeds through waves than for
2736-586: The US Navy; they are used for high speed transport of military cargo, and to get into shallow ports. The Makar -class is a class of two large catamaran-hull survey ships built for the Indian Navy . As of 2012, one vessel, INS Makar (J31) , was in service and the second was under construction. First launched in 2004 at Shanghai, the Houbei class missile boat of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has
2808-476: The area and with the wider world. Most notable among these are Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu in Papua New Guinea. They are now both considered distinct creole languages. Use of Tok Pisin is growing. It is sometimes learned as a first language, above all by multi-cultural families. Examples of other Melanesian creoles are Unserdeutsch , Solomon Islands Pijin , Bislama , and Papuan Malay . A distinction
2880-414: The bridge deck with a narrow waterline cross-section. The submerged hulls are minimally affected by waves. The SWATH form was invented by Canadian Frederick G. Creed , who presented his idea in 1938 and was later awarded a British patent for it in 1946. It was first used in the 1960s and 1970s as an evolution of catamaran design for use as oceanographic research vessels or submarine rescue ships. In 1990,
2952-490: The catamaran has an initial resistance to heeling that is seven times that of the monohull. Compared with a monohull, a cruising catamaran sailboat has a high initial resistance to heeling and capsize—a fifty-footer requires four times the force to initiate a capsize than an equivalent monohull. One measure of the trade-off between speed and carrying capacity is the displacement Froude number (Fn V ) , compared with calm water transportation efficiency . Fn V applies when
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3024-409: The corresponding power required. Large merchant vessels have a Fn V between one and zero, whereas higher-performance powered catamarans may approach 2.5, denoting a higher speed per unit volume for catamarans. Each type of vessel has a corresponding calm water transportation efficiency, with large transport ships being in the range of 100–1,000, compared with 11-18 for transport catamarans, denoting
3096-559: The country called Solomon Islands). The country of Vanuatu is composed of the New Hebrides island chain (and in the past ' New Hebrides ' has also been the name of the political unit located on the islands). New Caledonia is composed of one large island and several smaller chains, including the Loyalty Islands . The nation of Fiji is composed of two main islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu , and smaller islands, including
3168-452: The crew to a bridging superstructure incorporating extensive cabin or cargo space. Catamarans from Oceania and Maritime Southeast Asia became the inspiration for modern catamarans. Until the 20th century catamaran development focused primarily on sail-driven concepts. The word "catamaran" is derived from the Tamil word, kattumaram (கட்டுமரம்), which means "logs bound together" and is
3240-664: The findings of a genetic study published by Temple University in 2008. That study found that neither Polynesians nor Micronesians have much genetic relation to Melanesians. The study's results suggest that, after ancestors of the Polynesians, having developed sailing outrigger canoes, migrated out of East Asia, they moved quickly through the Melanesian area, mostly without settling there, and instead continued on to areas east of Melanesia, finally settling in those areas. The genetic evidence suggests that they left few descendants in Melanesia, and therefore probably "only intermixed to
3312-416: The first half of the nineteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent and Jules Dumont d'Urville characterized Melanesians as a distinct racial group. Over time, however, Europeans increasingly viewed Melanesians as a distinct cultural, rather than racial, grouping. Scholars and other commentators disagreed on the boundaries of Melanesia, descriptions of which were therefore somewhat fluid. In
3384-423: The island of Makira was once known as San Cristobal, the name given to it by Spanish explorers. It is in the country Solomon Islands, which is a nation-state and not a contiguous archipelago. The border of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands separates the island of Bougainville from the nearby islands of Choiseul, although Bougainville is geographically part of the chain of islands that includes Choiseul and much of
3456-553: The islands of New Guinea should not be included because only some of its people were Melanesians. Also, like Bory de Saint-Vincent, he excluded Australia from Melanesia. It was in these works that Codrington introduced the Melanesian cultural concept of mana to the West. Uncertainty about the best way to delineate and define the region continues to this day. The scholarly consensus now includes New Guinea within Melanesia. Ann Chowning wrote in her 1977 textbook on Melanesia that there
3528-399: The mainsail. Performance versions often have trapezes to allow the crew to hike out and counterbalance capsize forces during strong winds on certain points of sail. For the 33rd America's Cup , both the defender and the challenger built 90-foot (27 m) long multihulls. Société Nautique de Genève , defending with team Alinghi , sailed a catamaran. The challenger, BMW Oracle Racing, used
3600-567: The mid-twentieth century, beachcats became a widespread category of sailing catamarans, owing to their ease of launching and mass production. In California, a maker of surfboards , Hobie Alter , produced the 250-pound (110 kg) Hobie 14 in 1967, and two years later the larger and even more successful Hobie 16 . As of 2016, the Hobie 16 was still being produced with more than 100,000 having been manufactured. Catamarans were introduced to Olympic sailing in 1976. The two-handed Tornado catamaran
3672-477: The more "primitive form" of outrigger canoes, they were nonetheless effective, allowing seafaring Polynesians to voyage to distant Pacific islands . The following is a list of traditional Austronesian catamarans: The first documented example of twin-hulled sailing craft in Europe was designed by William Petty in 1662 to sail faster, in shallower waters, in lighter wind, and with fewer crew than other vessels of
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#17328009136213744-438: The much more ancient indigenous Papuan-speaking peoples. Some late-20th-century scholars developed a theory, known as the "Polynesian theory", that there then followed a long period of interaction between these newcomers and the pre-existing inhabitants that led to many complex genetic, linguistic, and cultural mixing and other changes among the descendants of all the groups. This theory was later called into question, however, by
3816-571: The nineteenth century, Robert Henry Codrington , a British missionary, produced a series of monographs on "the Melanesians", based on his long-time residence in the region. In his published works on Melanesia, including The Melanesian Languages (1885) and The Melanesians: Studies in Their Anthropology and Folk-lore (1891), Codrington defined Melanesia as including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, and Fiji. He reasoned that
3888-405: The opposite. Two canoes bound together developed directly from minimal raft technologies of two logs tied together. Over time, the twin-hulled canoe form developed into the asymmetric double canoe, where one hull is smaller than the other. Eventually the smaller hull became the prototype outrigger , giving way to the single outrigger canoe, then to the reversible single outrigger canoe. Finally,
3960-411: The part that is now New Guinea, while others continued south and became the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia . Another wave of Austronesian migrants , originating ultimately from Taiwan , arrived in Melanesia much later, probably between 4000 and 3000 BC. They settled mostly along the north coast of New Guinea and on the islands to its north and east. When they arrived, they came into contact with
4032-527: The people of the region a sense of empowerment. This concept has in fact been used as a force in geopolitics . For instance, when the countries of Vanuatu , Solomon Islands , Papua New Guinea , and Fiji reached a regional preferential trade agreement , they named it the Melanesian Spearhead Group . The people of Melanesia have a distinctive ancestry. According to the Southern Dispersal theory, hominid populations from Africa dispersed along
4104-426: The pre-existing Polynesia to designate what he viewed as the three main ethnic and geographical regions forming the Pacific. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Melanesia are called Melanesians . This is a heterogenous set of different genetic groups and ethnicities , different cultural practices ( mythology , music , art , etc.), and different unrelated language families . Yet together they form
4176-443: The racing versions recording well over 400 nautical miles (460 mi; 740 km) per day. In addition, they do not heel more than 10-12 degrees, even at full speed on a reach. Powered cruising catamarans share many of the amenities found in a sail cruising catamaran. The saloon typically spans two hulls wherein are found the staterooms and engine compartments. As with sailing catamarans, this configuration minimizes boat motion in
4248-410: The sails to derive power from attached flow , their most efficient mode—analogous to a wing—leading to the use of wingsails in racing craft. Catamarans rely primarily on form stability to resist heeling and capsize. Comparison of heeling stability of a rectangular-cross section monohull of beam, B , compared with two catamaran hulls of width B /2, separated by a distance, 2× B , determines that
4320-439: The same capacity. In addition to greater speed, catamarans draw less water than do monohulls— as little as 3 feet (0.91 m) —and are easier to beach. Catamarans are harder to tack and take up more space in a marina. Cruising catamarans entail added expense for having two engines and two rudders. Tarjan adds that cruising catamarans boats can maintain a comfortable 300 nautical miles (350 mi; 560 km) per day passage, with
4392-494: The same place on the water that the automobile does on land" - Scientific American 26 September 1914 This article about a type of ship or boat is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Catamaran A catamaran ( / ˌ k æ t ə m ə ˈ r æ n / ) (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast
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#17328009136214464-572: The single outrigger types developed into the double outrigger canoe (or trimarans ). This would also explain why older Austronesian populations in Island Southeast Asia tend to favor double outrigger canoes, as it keeps the boats stable when tacking . But they still have small regions where catamarans and single-outrigger canoes are still used. In contrast, more distant outlying descendant populations in Oceania , Madagascar , and
4536-422: The southern edge of Asia some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. For some, the endpoint of this ancient migration was the ancient continent of Sahul , a single landmass comprising both the areas that are now Australia and New Guinea . At that time, they were united by a land bridge, because sea levels were lower than in the present day. The first migration into Sahul was over 40,000 years ago. Some migrants settled in
4608-447: The term "Melanesia" as a source of identity and empowerment. Stephanie Lawson writes that despite "a number of scholars finding the term problematic due to its historical associations with European exploration and colonisation, as well as the racism embedded in these", the term "has acquired a positive meaning and relevance for many of the people to whom it applies", and has "moved from a term of denigration to one of affirmation, providing
4680-554: The time. However, the unusual design met with skepticism and was not a commercial success. The design remained relatively unused in the West for almost 160 years until the early 19th-century, when the Englishman Mayflower F. Crisp built a two-hulled merchant ship in Rangoon, Burma . The ship was christened Original . Crisp described it as "a fast sailing fine sea boat; she traded during the monsoon between Rangoon and
4752-424: The water and greater stability (initial resistance to capsize). Choosing between a monohull and catamaran configuration includes considerations of carrying capacity, speed, and efficiency. At low to moderate speeds, a lightweight catamaran hull experiences resistance to passage through water that is approximately proportional to its speed. A displacement monohull has the same relationship at low speed since resistance
4824-590: The water. Virtually all of the new mega-cats were built of pre-preg carbon fiber for strength and the lowest possible weight. The top speeds of these boats can approach 50 knots (58 mph; 93 km/h). The Race was won by the 33.50 m (109.9 ft)-long catamaran Club Med skippered by Grant Dalton . It went round the globe in 62 days at an average speed of 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h). Whitewater catamaran—sometimes called "cata-rafts"—for whitewater sports are widely spread in post-Soviet countries . They consists of two inflatable hulls connected with
4896-411: Was a circumnavigation challenge which departed from Barcelona, Spain, on New Year's Eve, 2000. Because of the prize money and prestige associated with this event, four new catamarans (and two highly modified ones) over 100 feet (30 m) in length were built to compete. The largest, PlayStation , owned by Steve Fossett , was 125 feet (38 m) long and had a mast which was 147 feet (45 m) above
4968-432: Was an example of a large, fast ferry, typically traveling at a speed of 46 miles per hour (74 km/h), although it was capable of over 70 miles per hour (110 km/h). The Australian island Tasmania became the site of builders of large transport catamarans— Incat in 1977 and Austal in 1988 —each building civilian ferries and naval vessels. Incat built HSC Francisco , a High-Speed trimaran that, at 58 knots,
5040-687: Was as a result of this event, the Centennial Regatta of the New York Yacht Club, that catamarans were barred from regular sailing classes, and this remained the case until the 1970s. On June 6, 1882, three catamarans from the Southern Yacht Club of New Orleans raced a 15 nm course on Lake Pontchartrain and the winning boat in the catamaran class, Nip and Tuck , beat the fastest sloop's time by over five minutes. In 1916, Leonardo Torres Quevedo patented
5112-486: Was sailed in 72-foot (22 m) long AC72 catamarans (craft set by the rules for the 2013 America's Cup). Each yacht employed hydrofoils and a wing sail. The regatta was won 9–8 by Oracle Team USA against the challenger, Emirates Team New Zealand , in fifteen matches because Oracle Team USA had started the regatta with a two-point penalty. Yachting has seen the development of multihulls over 100 feet (30 m) in length. " The Race " helped precipitate this trend; it
5184-731: Was selected for the multihull discipline in the Olympic Games from 1976 through 2008. It was redesigned in 2000. The foiling Nacra 17 was used in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which were held in 2021; after the 2015 adoption of the Nacra 15 as a Youth World Championships class and as a new class for the Youth Olympic Games. Catamarans have two distinct primary performance characteristics that distinguish them from displacement monohull vessels: lower resistance to passage through
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