Quick and Daring design/build/race challenge this weekend

Usually the ama is quite heavy and acts as floating ballast, or the seating is on the wing deck between the hulls, or a combination of the two.

Before the Hobie Cat (r) came along, there was the Malibu Outrigger. It had a single ama and a tramp deck between it an the main hull.

I have actually worked on the math of making a single outrigger safe enough to sail across an ocean.

The trick is to have a heavy ama and base the sail plan on this ama being one hull of a catamaran. So the weight of the vessel, in this calculation, would not be its actual weight, but double the weight of the ama and connecting beams.

This, of course, would call for a very small sail plan, in relation to the actual displacement of the vessel, so it would be no greyhound in comparison to other, more conventional multis.

But it would be both durable and cheap and there would be far less worries about structural failure do to overloading, as the ama would not have enough buoyancy to lever the main hull out of the water.

In your case, I do not agree it would be any easier, or take any less material to construct than the double outrigger you have drawn. This is because the ama would have to be either larger or be further from the main hull, which would probably spoil using it as a leeway preventer. Then you would need a keel or some kind of 'board. Also, you would need seating on the cross beam, which you do not need now.

 

Once you get over this gestalt clash, your mind will be free to absorb the principles at the proafile
Proa's have been the design of choice for fast sailing of ancient peoples for thousands of years using low tech natural resources. This should be an obvious source of inspiration to a contest like this. But more importantly, these paleolithic peoples did it with fun. Which is what this contest is also about.