Historical multihulls

I believe his cat Rehu Mona was built by the Prout's.

 

That's correct. And it was launched in the UK by his then wife Fiona, using a Maori launching chant as part of a Maori voyaging canoe launching ceremony.

They trialled an A-shaped mast on the first trip to Iceland, but it failed so they went back to a standard Marconi rig.

What many people don't know is that the auxiliairy power on their round the world trip via Auckland in '63, 64 was a humble British Seagull 102 outboard, picked up in Scalloway where they called in to rig a jury mast on the way back from Iceland. The VW power pod had failed, and the Seagull was all they could find at short notice in Scalloway.

The first time his crew fired it up, it jumped off the transom and fell into the harbour. Fished out and refueled it fired up second pull - a typical Seagull trick - and so they kept it for amnouvering into and out of ports along their journey.

The first catamaran to circumnavigate carried the first Seagull to circumnavigate. I wrote about it forthe Seagull newsletter which you can download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/duda1doafkf99en/The_Gull_Issue_No3.pdf

 

And it was destroyed in Cawsand Bay, Cornwall, about a mile from my office, in 1982.

I knew the then owner. Not much was left of the boat, its a nasty leeshore to be embayed in, even if the weather isn't like it was a couple of days ago

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-26054393

(Kingsand and Cawsand are adjoining villages in Cawsand Bay)

Anyway, we acquired a winch from Rehu Moana and donated it to MOCRA for their cruising trophy

BTW although Prouts built the boat it was designed by Colin Mudie

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

And originally built with fixed vertical keels that were later removed, leaving it with neither dagger board nor centreboard, only the narrow V-shape of the hull to resist drift to leeward.

Richard do you know if it was this that caused the wreck?

 

Colin got on the map with the 19'6" lapstrake sloop Sopranino . The cork method of ocean crossing......

 

I remember Rehu Moana when it was here in Auckland (people of liberal views were in awe of him, his family and the catamaran) but really, like all David Lewis's boats it was a terrible nautical thing. He must have been a fine seaman to sail such abominations so successfully.

 

We saw this piece of multihull history while out watching the A class worlds yesterday, C-Class Bodicea looking like its had a lot of love (and $$) thrown at it on recent times, Im sure Cox's Creek can fill everyone on on its interesting history.
Sorry abut the crap pic quality, iPhones aren't the best for this kind of thing.

 

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I received a very kind reply yesterday, from the reference librarian at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

Good news, she had another photograph of 'Duster'!

This one bears the catalogue/file note "Catamaran Duster under way off the San Francisco Ferry Building; no date given".

What she sent me was a scan of the negative, which I've cropped, straightened, and rendered to positive (in such a way as to not lose detail).

Here's a thumbnail, click on it to see the full resolution.




Here are links back in this thread to the other two photos:

Duster Photo 1

Duster Photo 2

 

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The sailboat to leeward of Duster, has at least three people on its stern, and all their sail up, leading me to doubt that it is another catamaran? But that would have been cool.

Is there any photo of more than one catamaran racing during the late 1800's/ early 1900's?

We don't see the Ferry Building in the photo, but I read that there was a wooden ferry building until 1898, when the new Ferry building was completed.

Here's a photo of a very similar ferry on Wikipedia, which photo has a vague date... "The Southern Pacific Company's 'Bay City' ferry plies the waters of San Francisco Bay sometime between 1870 and 1900."



Then the ferry 'Tiburon' seen in this 1896 sketch is also the same type:


William Coulter was a maritime artist who also drew for the local press. This 1896 image depicts three whales inside the bay near a Sausalito-bound ferry. LINK

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We're always hearing about the hills of San Francisco. Would the lack of hills in the background of the photo (of Duster by the Ferry) indicate where this is taken?


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Comparing this 3rd photo of Duster to the other two, what differences are there? There's a Mainsail reinforcement you don't see in the other photos. And on the starboard side the linkages between the beams and hull have a different angle, or are changed?

 

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Thanks!

 

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Reading again in Wikipedia, I find that a certain railroad station in New York is referred to as 'Grand Central Junction', between three railroads, from 1871 to 1899.

Then in 1899 the 'Junction' was torn down and replaced by what was renamed 'Grand Central Station'.

And between 1903 and 1913 everything was again torn down to make room for the much larger 'Grand Central Terminal'.

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So now I am wondering if Dirk Kramers, who I think in 2009 was the first guy to use the term 'Grand Central' in regard to Alinghi V (and probably Le Black); whether he then had in mind a 'Junction', a 'Station', or a 'Terminal'?



Why do I wonder about this?

Because I thought it would be fun to describe 'Duster',
as the catamaran that had a 'Grand Central'...
before there was a 'Grand Central'.

 

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s-t-r-e-t-c-h-man you're on a roll today!

 

I was lucky today, and found a couple of images on the net which I've not seen before (and I fancy I've perhaps seen most of what is on the net regarding these old boats from the late 1800's).

Here's the first one. Who might know exactly which boats these may be? Names please, as we know they are Herreshoffs!

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Here is the other image, which was originally printed in the 'ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS', of August 7, 1880.



"An old engraving of a Duplex Catamaran built in Rhode Island USA, for Mr. Henry N. Custance, honorary treasurer of the Corinthian Yacht Club, August 1880. The engraving shows the vessel near her moorings on the River Thames at Erith. The catamaran was 33 feet long, with a draught of 3 foot, and had been recorded making 23 mph (with the tide) in the Lower Hope."

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The Herreshoff facebook page lists 'Duplex' as having been built in 1877, and being 31 ft long.

 

Thanks-really good stuff!