From: "Malcolm Tennant" <malcolm@tennantdesign.co.nz> Dear Georgs, Here is an article I wrote on motor sailers.This discusses the catamaran as a motor sailer. I hope it isn't too long! MOTOR SAILERS IT HAS LONG BEEN MY CONTENTION THAT, AS A MOTOR SAILER, THE CATAMARAN HAS NO EQUAL. IT PROVIDES THAT MOST ELUSIVE OF QUALITIES; THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS I wrote this back in 1983 when we were first developing our motor sailers. However in the intervening 22 years I have not discovered anything to make me change my mind. What has changed in that time is that there have been tremendous developments in construction methods, materials and sail handling techniques. This can be seen in such developments as the in the boom roller furling and captive sheet winches. These, coupled with the continuing computerization of a lot of sailing functions, today make the motor sailer catamaran concept more viable than it has ever been. .....very big snip ______________________________________________________________ Brian responded: I think Malcom and myself are great believers in the catamaran motorsailer concept. But I believe this posting of his tends to be a little misleading in that not all of this discussion was a part of his 1983 document . Some of the vessels mentioned came well after that date. I might suggest that a number of these vessels are discussed and photos are supplied at this forum posting (LOTS of motorsailer talk): Monohull verses Multihull powersailers/motorsailers <http://boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4499> Brian Eiland beiland@usa.net www.RunningTideYachts.com distinctive expedition yachts