New Tandem Cat Design launched in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands...

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by HueyCat, May 11, 2016.

  1. HueyCat
    Joined: May 2016
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    Location: US Virgin Islands

    HueyCat New Member

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  2. TheChillPrince
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    TheChillPrince Junior Member

    i dont know much about boats, but i wouldn't get in that thing, it looks unsafe to me. can someone tell me why they made basicly 4 hulls instead of having two long ones?
     
  3. HueyCat
    Joined: May 2016
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    Location: US Virgin Islands

    HueyCat New Member

    What can one say? The "boat" was designed by a person who is locally best known as a Hedge-Fund Manager, a former VI Gubernational candidate and a Boutique Sports Car Manufacturer...
     

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  4. SamSam
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    SamSam Senior Member

    Anything that can smooth out the ride down there is a plus.

    Gold Coast Yachts have pioneered a lot of innovative designs and processes and I doubt they would put their name on something without having thoroughly ciphered out all the problems.

    I'd probably pay more for a twenty minute flight than a two hour boat trip though.
     
  5. Rurudyne
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    Rurudyne Senior Member

    It almost seems like a pentamaran where the central hull has been nixed.
     
  6. JosephT
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    JosephT Senior Member

    For ferry boats maximizing displacement is typically a top priority. I'm a bit surprised he didn't run the twin hulls the full length of the boat. So long as their shape was optimized it arguably would have been a more sound design with full length hulls. Additinal features I would have added would have been multiple chambers within the hulls to add extra buoyancy in case of a hull breach.

    It's different though and that's obviously his statement. I wouldn't hop on board unless a) the owner never overloaded it and b) the operating area was suitable.
     
  7. serow
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    serow Junior Member

    It looks like the 4 hulls are similar, so maybe one smaller mould with modification could be used 4 times. The cabin is essentially a box section and should have great torsional stiffness; note the circular windows of moderate proportions situated halfway up the box. It looks rather a clever design to me. Of course the devil is in the detail and so that doesn't mean it can't come a cropper. It will be interesting to see how it performs through the sea, but as its effectively a long wheelbase vehicle it might give the passengers a more steady ride in reasonable sea conditions.
    Questions.
    What is the waterline length? Front to back of the whole thing or the sum of the parts? And clearly it can't tilt upwards to plane else the front hull will be out of the water, but with the right underwater shape could it lift up, hydofoil like and parallel to the sea and get a shift on?
     
  8. Jim Caldwell
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    Jim Caldwell Senior Member

    The forward hulls are Not the same as the rears. Look closely!
     
  9. SamSam
    Joined: Feb 2005
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    Location: Coastal Georgia

    SamSam Senior Member

    The four hulls are to make the ride smoother. Read all about it in the first column of the first page in the newspaper article that HueyCat posted in post #3.

    Read about the different sized hulls in the article posted in post #1.
     
  10. keysdisease
    Joined: Mar 2006
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    Location: South Florida USA

    keysdisease Senior Member

    As a US vessel taking passengers for hire this is USCG approved and inspected. This includes structural integrity and stability as well as safety features like passive fire protection.

    It is safe.

    Like SamSam said, Gold Coast has built lots of "out of the box" vessels and did a lot of pioneering on wave piercing ferries as well. Their "bread and butter" are passenger carrying day charter sailing and power catamarans and they are very well versed in multihull and composite construction.

    Way cool to see out of the box thinking hitting the water

    :cool:


     
  11. serow
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    serow Junior Member

    I said similar.Look closely
     
  12. serow
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    serow Junior Member

    Any news on how this is performing now its been in use a while?
     
  13. bajansailor
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    bajansailor Marine Surveyor

  14. Mani Kandasa
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    Location: Iowa

    Mani Kandasa Junior Member

    The ferry has been running for a while and I hear that the passengers rarely get sea-sick, the sober ones.
    One reason is that the vertical motion frequency of the tandem-cat remains close to its natural frequency, irrespective of the encounter frequency. The frequency of 'zero-wheelbase' hulls however is highly dependent on the encounter frequency. Motion sickness mostly occurs at 0.1-0.5 HZ, and the tandem cat's natural frequency is higher than that.
     

  15. kach22i
    Joined: Feb 2005
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    Location: Michigan

    kach22i Architect

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