Tweaking a GHOST multihull design for a personal cruising watercraft

Do you guys think a smaller 28-34' version of this boat for personal use would be feasible? (Without the supercavation or anything fancy for those who are familiar with the specs.) Would you change anything about the design of this boat? I know that SWATH boats have some big challenges getting buoyancy and weight just right.

The only thing I think could be improved on is if the sides were not solid. The wind load would be decreased, and any waves hitting from the side would have less surface area to hit.

I'm not too concerned about the width of the boat, but I would need an easy way to anchor the boat, and to depart the boat via dingy or kayak. I would think that it would be able to handle the water conditions in the ICW, Great Lakes, Mississippi River, and Florida.

 

Nope

Look at the size of the 'tubes'. Pencil thin, ergo, not much buoyancy.

Personal use = lots of heavy bits of kit = not possible on such a small boat.

 

The only thing I would change would be to eliminate the too small in water bouyancy, reduce the "water wings" to a single center strut, stretch out and smooth out the passenger hull, add a mast and a sail.

In other words turn it into a real boat not a reject from the stealth development for the military.
Unless you are into drug running or invasion of Cuba (again).

Now that I got that out of the way, what do you want it for?
Is this like the Batman automobile - no real purpose but to have everybody look at your pile of money?

I'll probably regret this post, but really now - what is this thing going to do for you?

 

The power cat's work well on lake Erie. No advantage to reinventing and too many downsides.

 

Looks like it belongs to Darth Vader.

 

Side wings would work excellent as water slider or for evacuation.
But be careful boarding this stuff from the side in marina!

 

For several years hydrofoil ferries operated on Sydney harbour. They were fast and popular, but severe vibration caused many maintenance problems. These contributed to the decision to switch to fast catamaran ferries, which are still operating to this day.

 

What caused the vibrations. Was it the foils or something to do with the drive system.

 

That is interesting. The move from hydrofoils to fast cats for ferries in Europe was driven by fuel consumption vs. displacement, the fast cats achieving far lower relative fuel consumption, and still going fast enough, if not as fast as the foils.

However, the fast cats were much more prone to vibration causing fatigue issues, due to the hydrodynamic loads, construction methods, and the engine choices. Refinements in the detailed structural design has solved most of these issues.

Vibration in the hydrofoils was usually cavitation related, due to the foil profiles being pushed at speeds beyond their cavitation limits, and reducing speed would solve most of these issues. I did a research contract on this back in the 90's when the cats were starting to take over.