In your post you are comparing catamarans built for speed with the comfort
of a 60 foot trawler. If you want to present a good comparison You should
look  at some of the many cats being built to provide the kind of comfort
and  accommodations of your trawler. I think you will find they are in many
cases  more sea friendly and can provide more living space.than  a
conventional trawler.

Bob Vincent
Endeavour Catamaran..

In a message dated 9/17/2010 10:11:32 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
bob@doylecaribbean.com writes:

<  Will power catamarans gain in popularity from the America's Cup being
raced  in 72-foot sailing cats? >

While the AC will focus attention on  multihulls, cats in particular, and
make
the terms more widely known, thus  generating more interest, the issues with
motion and living space geometry  will remain.  If all I wanted was an
efficient means of transport on  the water it would be a catamaran, as light
and low drag as is possible to  build, and there will be incredible
advances in
design, building techniques  and material usage coming out of the AC.

However, I wouldn't live on a  cat or tri because of the quick motion and
oddly
shaped spaces, neither of  which is likely to benefit from AC technological
advances.  Lighter,  more efficient, cats will exacerbate what I find to be
an
uncomfortably  quick motion while decreasing cost of operation and it will
take
quite an  increase in fuel cost before my preference will change from an
efficient  Wind Horse type vessel to a cat.

Keep in mind that I have started a  boat building company producing very
light,
very efficient 29' power cats,  www.cat-tech-bvi.com, for use as water taxis
and dive / snorkel  boats.  These boats, while weighing 2600 lbs with full
tanks and twin  50 hp outboards, 29' x 12', still plane with 5000 lb of
payload, as we  proved in sea trials last week.  We were certified yesterday
for  twelve passengers and three crew under the MCA Yellow Code and will
certify  for twenty under the Caribbean Code.  I like cats like this  for
running around and even going from A to B, so long as the distance is  less
than a days travel.

I did an overnight race back in the early  80's from Sarnia to Rogers City,
on
Lake Huron, on a Stiletto 30 catamaran,  doing upper teens and low twenties
speed wise most of the night.  I  tried to sleep at one point in the
windward
hull, but the noise and motion,  probably a lot like being in the cab of a
locomotive at high speed, kept  the adrenaline meter fully in the red.  No
way
to relax.  Yet I  have tens of thousands of miles ocean racing in monohulls,
some of it at  sustained speeds in the teens, where I was always able to
sleep

I like  the slow easy motion of my 60' trawler, into which went all of  our
household furniture and appliances, and doubt that will change,  regardless
of
what comes out of the AC.

Robert Phillips, Managing  Director
Doyle Sailmakers BVI, Ltd
Tel: +284-494-2569
Mobile:  +284-541-2206
VOIP US Tel: 423-285-8752
Skype:  doylebvi

Power-Catamaran  Mailing List

I'm the owner of a mono-hull trawler, but for the reasons pointed out in pure
efficiency moving through the sea, the advantages of 15 + knots when you need
it, and innovative companies that are determined to bring single floor living
to modern trawler cats, the development of cats as space and comfort
competitive alternatives, even in the mono-mindset of the American Market,
seems to me to be an eventuality.

Lawrence Giles
Berlin