Antique Catamaran?

[Stewart Davies]

I do not know enough about ship building to do this myself. and would like any help that any of you might be able to give.

I am writing a novel about a fictional history of an ocean going country that used Catamarans. I do not know enough to draw belivable plans myself and hope that some one here will be willing to help me. I would like drawings-plans and spec's such as crew, PAX, cargo and armament weights that each size could support for a serries of large ocean going cats that could have been built in the 1700-1900 time fraim, using traditional? wood construction. The prototype for this idea was ENZA the ocean racing cat. I suspect that much of the intirior will be filled with trusses/girders that might limmet cargo and passenger spaces? Sizes of 16, 20, 25, 32, 40, 50, 64, 80, 100 and 125M LOA would be nice, if possable! If there are technical problems that could not be overcome with inovative design and engineering but wood working technologies available in that time fraim, I would like to know about that too. Or if only the smaller sizes could be built back then. If possable, I would like to go back farther in time to the 15-1,600s to have a decent back story. I would also like to know the potential weaknesses of shuch designs. Also, I would like to minimise the crew required if possable buy using sloop rigging like ENZA or a 12 meter? I hope that such a ship could be faster than a traditional "CLIPPER" type. I would like to know the traid offs of speed verses capassity of a traditional clipper too.

If any of you can help I would appreciate it very much. If there is anything that I can do for you in return, just ask.

Sincerely, Stewart.

P.S. If you want to have a charicter in the book for your help, include a breef bio of that charicter. It's the least that I can do. SFD.

[tspeer]

I suggest you contact the proa list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proa_file/. They are into historical multihulls of various kinds.

There were Polynesians making long ocean voyages in catamarans in that time frame and before. They weren't as large as you describe, and the technology was completely different from Western naval architecture. Navigation was radically different, too.

There are reproductions of these ancient catamarans sailing today. Check out the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

James Warram designs contemporary boats for homebuilders that embody the concepts of traditional multihulls. He would be a good one to contact for professional help.

There's a video, The Navigators, Pathfinders Of The Pacific, that would give you a good introduction to how they accomplished their amazing feats of seamanship.

A book that might provide some background context for their voyages is Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel." It's a Pulitzer Prize winner - highly recommended read.