trimaran v monohull

[scottscotland]

can someone tell me the advantages of one over the other thank from scott.

[Bergalia]

Ah weel Scottie ma wee loon - you're about to start WWIII. I'll toss the first grenade.
If you capsize a monohull with luck you'll merely end up wet and bruised. Capsize a trimaran and without doubt you're in the brown stuff without a bailer.

[kach22i]

Flipping in heavy seas is one consideration. I'm thinking that unless you intend on taking a great journey of many days, it's not your primary concern.

One big fat wide hull - lots of resistance due to the width to length ratio.

Two or three hulls with same buoyancy factor has more favorable ratio (narrower hulls). However will this be offset because of the increased (double and or triple) the surface area drag/resistance?

At what point does the multi-hull designs take over the mono-hull?

Water does not compress, which means that frontal area is a biggie when factoring in top speed for a non-planning hull (whether it be mono or multi).

Heavy seas

Top speed

Planning hull

Non-planning hull

Guess once you have answered some of these questions, a criteria can be developed to base additional choices on.

I'm not a Naval Architect, just a plain architect. I don't even own a boat, but I do own a hovercraft.

Are you interested in the performance envelop of a mono-hulled hydrofoil? That's another topic I'm not qualified to discuss - but that won't stop me.