Go Go Gadget extendo mono/multihull?

Saw this post recently on a downunder boating board and thought it might raise some interesting discussions from a design perspective here.

I saw a prototype boat at my local ramp this morning that has left me shaking my head in wonder all day.
The owner is a guy who loves the ocean but gets seasick and decided to design a boat to solve the problem .....and what a boat.
If you can imagine a 26 foot hydrofield style hull (tri hull) with extremely high sides with the two side spronsons on hydraulic rams that fold out to 90 degrees giving enormous stability when converted to a tri hull.
The boat can be operated as a high speed mono with the "wings" retracted or as a planing cat hull with the wings partially extended. when trolling at low speeds or at rest the wings can be completely extended with the sides of the boat becoming non skid deck space and in effect outriggers.
He has built the boat for his own use but has patented the plans which he will sell for around $500 and I have already put in an order.
This boat is nothing short of revolutionary and I am betting someone will buy the design and we will see these in production sometime in the next few years.
I didn't have a camera with me at the time but he is sending me some pics of the boat which I will post as soon as I get them.
This thing looks like something out of a James Bond movie but the boat cost him only 20,000 to build although he estimates that price would now be double for materials only.
I am not trying to promote this boat, but I thought some of the site members would be interested in seeing the pics when they arrive because I am sure we are going to see a lot more of this design in years to come

and further

The great thing about this design, is that when the wings are fully extended the sides of the boat become extra deck space with a non slip surface that you can walk around on.
This guy has even thought to place holes at the edges that a pre fab side rail slots into so you can walk and fish right to the edge.
When you want to get underway again you just remove the side rails, hit the hydraulics and take it back to either a mono or Cat configuration. Bloody brilliant.
. It looks really wierd seeing the boat lift itself up out of the water when it goes into "Cat mode

I'm still waiting to see a photo - but the idea is something I've heard of once before, surely this isn't toally new?

Anyone care to chime in - is something old become new again?

Will we see more of these?

What would the possible benefits / drawbacks be?

The idea sure appeals to me for a mono to have offshore capability and to then morph into some super stable shallow water flats fl fishing sleuth once at offshore islands destination would be too cool!

Surely the owners name (or the boat name) HAS to be "McGyver????"

Anyone care to comment?

Cheers!

These two sketches are what sprang to my mind - has anyone got a different idea of whats being described?..and how it might work / look?

Just curious!

Cheers!

[yipster]

i've been playing with a similar thought for a swath concept boat, here a GZ graph. seems hydrolics arent popular and allthough interesting in design to my mind it wont be low cost building such ideas. keep me posted!

Interesting concept Yipster, I kinda wonder if the hysucat foil on a cat doesn't achoeve muct the same end result (with less engineering / moving parts) by reducing the wetted surface area...

All the same I like the look of yours more.

Damn - soon as I saw it Yipster - I said "the jetsons" dunno why - just has that 'futuristic' space the final frontier type look to it...

Well done..

Cheers!