History of the Modern Catamaran

[Sand crab]

I am also a participant of Cruisers Forum. One thing led to another and I started researching the history of the modern catamaran. That led me back to the 1600s and Petty to Herreshoff in the 1800s. What I didn't know was that Fulton designed and had built a twinhulled warship during the war of 1812. Rather than repost it all here I'll just link it here.
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ull-64796.html
Yes, I am Sand crab there, too. That link from the Smithsonian is fantastic with pictures, naval architect drawings and models of these largely forgotten multihulls. All this evolved from my other thread.
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...lls-71781.html
I figured some of you would be interested in this and I welcome more data on these older design and especially data, or pics on the boats by Bob Harris.
BOB

[bad dog]

Interesting. And Hereschoff's 1876 effort sure looks waaay ahead of its time.

[Richard Woods]

Fulton wasn't the first to make a power catamaran

"The increased power-to-weight ratio of the new engines also permitted their use for marine propulsion - in 1788 a steam-powered catamaran was taken across Dalswinton loch by William Symington. "

see here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Symington

while Bob Harris is still alive and well, living in Vancouver

http://sailboatdata.com/view_designe...esigner_id=384

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

[Sand crab]

Thanks Richard. I looked Symington up and found this.
http://museumvictoria.com.au/treasur...?Simg=1&PID=25
It seems a popular concept was to have the paddlewheel in the center of the 2 hulls.
I'm still looking for designs or pics by Harris.

BOB

[Richard Woods]

I assume you have already been here

http://www.outrig.org/outrig.org/OutRig.html

and here

http://www.ayrs.org/ayrs.htm

and here is a link that lists Bob Harris' email

http://www.bcms.bc.ca/index.php?p=1_14_Contact-Us

Don't forget the commercial catamaran ferry has a long history as well

In 1874 the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway built a twin-hulled ferry of 1,533 tons for their cross-Channel (Dover - Calais) service

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

[Ad Hoc]

The 4 obvious ones first designed/built by Sir William Petty that I know of are:

In 1662 called "Simon and Jude"
In 1663 "Invention II"
In 1664 "The Experimiment"
and in 1684 "St. Michael The Archangel".

[brian eiland]

Here are a couple more references to Amarylis that I put on my website.



Amarylis - How the Yachting Wonder of 1876 was Conceived and Built


Nathanael Herreshoff's revolutionary catamaran design of 1876, Amaryllis.


Had some more pics, but don't know where they are right now