cat formular

[wannabe]

could anybody tell me if there is a ratio on length to beam for completed catamarans and catamaran hulls ?
thanks

[SailDesign]

Each cat HAS a ratio , but No, there is no magic formula - all are different.

Steve

[tspeer]

See Shuttleworth's "Multihull Design Considerations for Seaworthiness". He has stability indices for both sideways wind-driven capsize and pitchpole. He recommends 40 mph as the stability factor for cruising cats.

Most cruising cats have a distacnce between centerlines near half the waterline length. The overall beam can be misleading because of flared hulls. See Kanter's "Cruising On More Than One Hull" for a discussion of the merits of different length/beam ratios in cruising catamarans.