Pentamaran Ferry

Pentamaran
BMT ro-pax


RFI: If anyone has time to do some searching on Google or has information on this topic, please post it.

From what I've read BMT is in the advanced stages of design for an in the USA east and Gulf of Mexico coastal route 40 plus knot 175 trailer or 75 trailer plus 500 car and 1,800 passenger ship.

See the last page of this PDF:
http://media.bmt.org/bmt_media/resources/1/Focus2007Issue1.pdf

First found here:
http://www.bmt.org/Search/index.asp

More news (year old):
http://www.ngal.co.uk/News/?/0/0/135

A picture would be nice.

EDIT:
http://testngal.bmthq.com/?/344/256/175
Could be 4th one down?

 

Hi Kachi,

I used to work for BMT when the idea of a pentamaran was first mooted. My office worked on a frigate variant, but I was not directly involved.

http://www.bmtdsl.com/BMT/bmt_media/bmt_media/33/2007-09-26Concept-F5DataSheet.pdf

 

Thank you very much PI Design, I now have a much better idea of what is going on.

However I'm now puzzled on why the thin side wall sponsons are broken up in the middle like that. I suppose the craft may not be able to turn very well with just a single long sponson/fin each side of the main slender hull. That's just a first guess though.

I've seen pictures of this ship or something similar before, but it totaly slipped my mind. The other drawings were sketchy artist renderings or simple computer renderings (well done) if I recall correctly.

 

'Cos it would only be a trimaran otherwise . Seriously though, the idea is that the centre hull is quite narrow (for less drag) and the aft sponsons are just submergerged at the design waterline. The forward sponsons are above the static waterline and only sumberge (and hence provide stability) when the ship rolls/lists. This reduces the wetted surface area of the (upright) hull form and hence reduces drag. Its all about not having any more ship in the water than you need. Of course, you could have 3, 4 or 20 sponsons each side, each stepped slightly higher above the waterline than the previous one. Taking this to its logical extreme, you would have a single continuos sponson which raked up as it went forward. But that's a trimaran...

There are other advantages, such as good survivability charecteristics.

 

I saw on the drawing that the forward sponsons looked higher, but I did not know what to make of it.

Thank you once again for explaining the design intent.

 

No kidding...I've worked with Eddie, John, Nigel and crew for almost 20 years now..most recently on the USN X-craft project, but previously on their Beliyard and Samsung SES, etc. Their Pentamaran concept is being plugged for the Short Sea Shipping/Marine Highway iniatives that are gaining some momentum these days.

Sorry for hijack..

-Bill McFann

 

PDF on Pentamaran Hull Form

Here's an interesting PDF someone posted on another forum recently

 

Thanks, at 31 pages long I'll just view this document on-screen and not print it out. This is not the short haul coastal shipping thing, across the Atlantic 5-day fast shipping is intriguing.

I bet the design will do good against rouge wave too.