[archnav.de]

Lars,

Normal Cats and especially Power Cats have an awful behaviour in rough seas. There is an alternative called SWATH (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull), an innovative hull concept for smooth service in rough seas. The cross section at sea level is minimized and thus only a minimum is exposed to the lifting forces of the waves. Go to Abeking & Rasmussen to explore more about the SWATH. There you can even see movies comparing the behaviour of monohulls and a SWATH


http://www.abeking.com

Regards

Bernd

[AMG]

Thank you for this input Bernd,

Actually it was the first thing that I addressed in this project, and TRY will engage experts in this field. Since we only aim at cruising speeds between 15 and 20 knots, I think SWATH or something similar I have in mind will do the trick.
The loss in hull space is anyway well compensated by deck space...

/Lars

[TRY]

I fully agree to the diesel-electric technology where the propulsion and energy supply comes into discussion for my powercats, or for any other yacht for that matter.
Some weeks ago I started a thread in the technical discussion chapter on this.
Having looked at Solomon Technology's site, thy're OK but limited in power and therefore in size of yacht-application.
I know of a number of US companies building jet-engined gensets. They're lighter (very important on a cat), smaller (also very usefull) and requiring much less maintenance than a diesel.
I agree some problems have to be addressed, and that suitable electric motors have to be sourced.

[Tad]

In sticking with the TRY brief, at 30m, I submit the following.

I always start with a freehand pencil sketch to establish where we might be going. I will often submit 10-20 of these quick sketches to a client and see if any strike some interest. Often some will be judged terrible and some okay, then I'll try to combine features of the okay profiles. Then we start looking at arrangements, and end up re-doing the profile all over again. And so it goes.

Tad

[TRY]

Hi Tad,

The online design game is just for fun, see how people react to the powercat idea.
Nothing professional here.
Sorry if my previous reactions were misleading!

[Tad]

TRY,

I think I get your meaning.

If boat design was not fun, I wouldn't bother. The conceptual part is the most fun of all, as after that follows hundreds of hours of hard work. The simple pleasure of making a little sketch without regard for how to manage all the owner's requirements, the builder's budgetary problems, the regulatory requirements, the interior designer's demands, etc.

This is fun, a holiday in fact.

All the best, Tad

[TRY]

Hi to all contributors to this more-than-interesting thread!
In the ultra-conservative yachting environment it may be a pleasant brainstorming exercice to get some new ideas going, in styling & design of course, but also in various aspects of engineering.
It would then be usefull to separate the various threads to avoid confusion.
Maybe Carl could get us organized in a proper way?