Historical multihulls

^^^

You're very welcome of course.

And by the way, I saw that completely inane comment from Alan Block yesterday, after you had written a much better argument re. Groupama C's features, than he had bothered to notice or remember.

And I was there.

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Here's the link to the Herreshoff Museum facebook page I mentioned above, which has this list of the earliest Capt. Nat catamarans (one of the details is that Amaryllis I is listed as being 6 ft shorter than Amaryllis II, so their current prominent photo titled 'Amaryllis' is probably not the original but the later quasi-replica?).

I think both of the engravings (or certainly the first, if you discount the dwarf to windward on Duplex) I posted above seem to make the boats look slightly larger than they were, in fact.

 

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Man, I didn't think anybody got that!! Thanks for mentioning it-I appreciate it. My stalker and clean are buddies so I took that that if I posted anything I'd get nailed. But I posted the GC32 stuff anyway. Amazing ! Talk about the inmates running the asylum!
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And,again, your historical stuff is just tremendous......

 

^^^

The historical stuff is kind of fun. While I was going through some old digitized San Francisco papers I came across my grandfather's name, in connection with some local boosterism, and at a time when he must thereafter very quickly have made a 2-3 month journey back to Scandinavia.

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Don't attach too much importance to what is posted in internet forums.

 

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Something I've been meaning to do for ages, is go on Google Earth and see where the 'Duster Photo 2' was taken.

Does this look familiar?



That's the streetcam view from the south end of the 'Bridgeway Promenade' in Sausalito, looking east towards Angel Island.



He was sailing in the direction of what would be the AC34 racecourse, nearby.

 

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I've been looking at more San Francisco ferries, wondering which of them is in the background of the Duster Photo #3.

Here's one, said to have been built in 1894.




And what is its name? 'Sausalito', of course. The longer name (and the longer plaque on the wheelhouse) matches our photograph pretty well? This ferry operated until 1930, initially ferrying passengers in the daytime and railroad cars at night. These days it is a charming clubhouse in a marina by the Antioch Bridge.

 

This most excellent post by MHP (his one and only post#738), ends with an equally excellent suggestion.

The records in question are accessible to the public at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (Historic Documents Department
Building E, Fort Mason, San Francisco) and it's a scandal that we haven't found anyone to go there and poke around in them yet.

the San Francisco Yacht Club records, 1880-1958

 

An interesting article on small trimarans blog. Initially a conversation between Jim Brown and James Wharram and later Jim's thoughts on the age old cat versus tri debate and wood/epoxy boat building.

http://www.smalltrimarans.com/r/cat-crazy.html

 

Video posted up on the excellent foilers blog.

Shows some interesting foiling multis from the 80's at the Weymouth Speed week.

http://youtu.be/nSx8JUz7cOI

 

foilers

Thanks,man! I've seen pictures of those boats in books and it's really something to see them sailing. I only wish the video had been longer!

 

A recent post from Kurt Hughes shows some pictures of friend Howard Apollonio's foiling catamaran design from 1966.

http://multihullblog.com/2014/03/howard-apollonio/

 

Apollonio's Cat Foiler

Thanks, Corley-I never like the looks of that boat but always admired the work and innovation it represented.

 

Actually, if you nthink about it, it's quite a clever design - for the time - with the extra lift provided by the angled foils to assist with getting the boat out of the water and once that drag is reduced, only the long vertical foils (presumably with an L, J or T on the end..???} are needed to support the boat.

Makes me wonder.....what if 'ordinary foilers' like Miranda et al had short canard 'wings' just below the static waterline near the bows....a puff of wind, a bit of lift and pop, up out of the water and rising onto the J foils....

What do people think? Has it been tried before?

 

How about making them like the DSS foils - make them retractable so they didn't have to drag all the time. They would only help with the transition to flying so it might not be worth the effort and weight.

 

I would have thought they would also be good for preventing nose-dives. As soon as they dip below the suface they'd start providing lift again.

And I guess the same goes for the Apollonio multi-blade foils as well, the deeper the bow drops into a wave, the more foil surface area is supplying lift to pop it back out again more quickly....

 

I looked up Apollonio's boat in my book "Icarus: the Boat that Flies" and the boat was named "Flying Feline",15' long and had wood and glass foils. The book said Apollonio tested the boat in 4' waves off the coast of Maine and was impressed with how it dealt with waves. With the substantial separation and forward foils that makes sense. There is a modern cat designed as a "seagoing" foiler that revisits the concept of very forward foils: http://www.c-fly.co.uk/concept_hydrofoil.html