Brian Chiko brian@juvensa.com Tue Jul 4 19:54:45 EDT 2006 For people who are interested in the higher speed Passagemakers - you may want to check out the Earthrace boat as it tours the US over the coming months. Its just leaving New Zealand now on a preliminary fund-raising circumnavigation prior to then attempting a world speed record. http://www.earthrace.net/view.asp?webpage=69 Some good images of the boat here: http://www.earthrace.net/view.asp?webpage=171 It seems that the company that built the Earthrace boat is also working on consumer-oriented ships based on the same design: http://www.diogenemarine.com/in_production.htm as well as having designs on larger boats: http://www.diogenemarine.com/drawing.html For people less interested in pure speed - it seems that the trimaran design for consumer markets that is displayed in these two designs might be the best option: http://www.gizmag.com/go/4753/ http://www.austal.com/go/product-information/defence-products/multi-role-cor vette It seems increasingly that for the best performance/speed/efficiency - these new trimaran designs may be the future of passagemaking. Any thoughts? Brian