Looking for info on Asymmetric hulled boat.

I found a monohull online a few weeks back that was designed to sail equally forward or backwards but keeping one side to windward and the other to the lee at all times. The boat was a bit weirder still as it looked like two different hulls on the same keel-line. The masts were not inline with the keel.

Would be grateful if anyone knows any information on this boat, or boats like it.

Thx.

 

Usually such craft are multihulls with a main hull and a hull to windward or Leeward. Those are called Proas. The stop and reverse maniouver in place of tacking is called shunting. In many ways the concept combines the best points of trimaran and catamaran, but adds a couple of inconveniences of its own to redress the balance.

I'm not totally convinced about the usefullness of a monohull designed to work the same way but I can see how it would work.

 

Shunting monohull... have you seen it?

Yes, I am familiar with Pro-As

I am talking about a "monohull" vessel I saw on the interwebs a few days ago.

The practicality of it? I suppose that is for an individual to discern. Perhaps less heeling? Better stability? Lower windage and displacement while heeling. Less ballast needed? (with obvious downsides as well)

The post isn't to discuss the merits of such a creature. It is to find out if anyone else has seen it/anything about it, where to look etc?

I think it is an interesting piece of engineering on its own merits, whether it is practical, ehh.

 

Monoproa

Thanks for raising this subject-very interesting. Here's one I found:

http://proafile.com/view/weblog/comments/rozinante_ii/

click on image:

 

Thanks doug, this was exactly the boat I was looking for.

 

==================
I'd be interested in what you find out if you look into it....

 

Can do.

 

Interesting idea. I have never been uncomfortable with the idea of asymmetry and have created several such sailing prototypes, though they did not require shunting to change tack.

Despite the claims of the proa fan club, a shunting boat has some drawbacks, such as the extra space to tack (one of my efforts did not tack well and often had to be boxed, a similar problem) and the design compromise of requiring fore-and-aft symmetry instead of lateral symmetry.

 

There has been some discussion at various times on Proa-file (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proa_file/) about "monoshunters" or "monoproas". One of the group members has been building some small (and very cute, I think) working models of monoshunters and his work can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wind_Powered_Shunting_Craft/