>PROS >CONS >The above comes from a feature in the current issue of Motor >Boating. For the full article, go >http://www.motorboating.com/motorboat/features/article/0,12696,1180501,00.html To the Editor, Motor Boating Dear Sir, The recent article on power catamarans was excellent and very timely. However there were a couple of , not really inaccuracies,but more oversights, that showed up. The French were not the pioneers in series production sailing catamarans despite their current dominance. The UK had boats such as the Prout Snowgoose, the McAlpine-Downey Iroquois, the Catalac and the Heavenly Twins in volume series production some 20 years before the French juggernaut started to roll. The Manta 44 has protected propellers because Cortland Steck uses the "CS" hull shape we developed in 1983 [See our web site]. Mr Caswell's comments on anchoring may be true for some power catamarans but they are certainly not true of boats with our "CS" hull form. We often anchor off one bow. The boats do not hunt when anchored like this. But they do lie out to one side which can be a bit disconcerting for other boats. The shape of our hulls means that our designs are not sensitive to cross winds. A lot of power catamarans do, in fact, have a deeper draught than the equivalent monohull. Essentially because they have no rocker in the hulls, and have beaching skegs, our designs go wherever they are pointed irregardless of the wind direction and strength. Quartering seas are not really too much of a problem but beam ones certainly can be. On a lot of our designs [see; St John, NY51 and 57,IceBear, DeepSea and Pacific Harmony etc] the cabins are actually up on the bridgedeck and have walk around berths. For photographs and images concerning my comments see our web site. I hope this is of interest to you and I look forward to hearing from you. If you should require any further information do contact me. Yours sincerely, Malcolm Tennant. ARINA MA Malcolm Tennant Multihull Design Ltd PO Box 60513 Titirangi, Auckland 1007 NEW ZEALAND ph +64 9 817 1988 fax +64 9 817 6080 e-mail malcolm@tennantdesign.co.nz http://www.tennantdesign.co.nz http://www.catdesigners.com