Ocean passage of 1,800 nautical miles:

Thanks, John, for adding to the knowledge base with real-world
numbers. The Skookum obviously is a very slippery monohull. It's also
somewhat smaller.

But your numbers do point out that, for trans-oceanic passagemaking,
power catamarans don't offer as huge an advantage in performance as
many people would expect. Power cats do of course have other
compelling features, such as space, comfort, stability, shallow
draft, etc.

Very interesting indeed Georgs.  Would an ocean crossing power catamaran
smaller than 50 feet long still have all those advantages like space,
comfort, etc.?  I still stand my my rather offhand previous statement
that the ocean passagemaking power catamaran is presently limited to the
larger boats in the greater than fifty foot lengths, and most
significantly with six figure prices.

The smaller power catamaran will be limited to coastal cruising until
somebody comes up with a revolutionary improvement so that the smaller
hull can hold enough fuel for long passages.  Slipping over to Fantasy
Land here for a moment, I note that fighter jets carry drop tanks which
carry considerable amounts of extra fuel held outside the
airframe/hull.  I don't want to trust in towing a fuel barge that could
be lost in bumpy weather, but how about a semi-submerged, or fully
submerged tank, rigidly slung between the hulls, or alternatively a pair
of such tanks firmly affixed to the bottom of each hull.  It/they could
be a good deal longer than the boat if desired, and fitted with
adjustable trimming floatation and/or water ballast.  One could perhaps
drop the tank when arriving in a coastal cruising destination.  It might
look rather like a modern submarine, or perhaps a torpedo, or like the
hull of a beach cat (think Hobie), or even like the hull form of the
host power catamaran...  A temporary trimaran if you like....

Of course there are a lot of other design choices present in
contemporary power catamarans that seem to me to limit them to nearshore
work.  They have features that would likely not fare well over the long
term in deep water storms.  Features like large windows; lengths and
beams that seem easier to capsize in large waves; hull strengths perhaps
inadequate for the long open water passages; or high speed hulls with
large thirsty engines.

Could a contemporary power catamaran design be modified to carry
sufficient fuel and have the features needed?  If so, would anybody in
their right minds build and try to market it?
I also stand by my previous suggestion of modifying the fuel tankeage
etc. of a suitable under fifty foot sail catamaran to gain the range
needed.  I know, it's not a power catamaran anymore, but I don't see a
non-sailing catamaran design under fifty feet long that would give me
the confidence for ocean crossing bluewater cruising.

Kite sails?  Have any of our listees actually seen one of these?  I
haven't noted much activity their web pages seem to me to still be
showing the same images I noted several years ago.

Cheers,
Gary Bell

Gary Bell wrote:

Production power cats are definitely coastal and inland animals. I'm
not aware of any production boat that has the range--never mind other
capabilities--to cross an ocean.

All the pioneers in passagemaking in powered multihulls--Dennis
Raedeke with Wild Wind IV, the Petersens with Chrysalis, Steve
Shidler with Water Wizard--have been custom builds.

The only exceptions are the outboard-powered production cats--Glacier
Bay, World Cat, Renaissance Prowler--that have made record-setting
runs to Bermuda from New York.

Even if the jury still is out on ocean-crossing, for coastal and
inland cruising is there anything better than a power cat?

--Georgs

Georgs Kolesnikovs
Power Catamaran World
http://www.powercatamaranworld.com