Self righting multihull?

[Stephen Ditmore]

I feel the loss of Captain Donald Lawson gives this thread, and multihull safety in general, new urgency, and that US Sailing, in his memory, should take notice.
Captain Donald Lawson https://www.facebook.com/CaptainDonaldLawson/

Lowering the center of gravity, even a little, while raising the amas of trimarans relative to it would give them a much higher angle of vanishing stability, it seems to me.

I also see ways a development class could be created that would mandate stability @90 degrees like Class40 while leaving designers free to achieve that in a variety of ways. One solution might be narrow-ish catamarans with twin canting keels. I don't think you'd need a lot of ballast, just a little. Hulls could be round in section, allowing the ballast to fly as explored at Flying Canting Keel-Extraordinary Innovation! https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/flying-canting-keel-extraordinary-innovation.30806

 

[ALL AT SEA]

I feel the loss of Captain Donald Lawson gives this thread, and multihull safety in general, new urgency, and that US Sailing, in his memory, should take notice.
Captain Donald Lawson https://www.facebook.com/CaptainDonaldLawson/

Lowering the center of gravity, even a little, while raising the amas of trimarans relative to it would give them a much higher angle of vanishing stability, it seems to me.

I also see ways a development class could be created that would mandate stability @90 degrees like Class40 while leaving designers free to achieve that in a variety of ways. One solution might be narrow-ish catamarans with twin canting keels. I don't think you'd need a lot of ballast, just a little. Hulls could be round in section, allowing the ballast to fly as explored at Flying Canting Keel-Extraordinary Innovation! https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/flying-canting-keel-extraordinary-innovation.30806

The only thing Donald's disappearance should teach the world is the likely outcome when people go to sea in equipment that vastly exceeds their ability. He may well have flipped any multihull that he got his hands on, but taking an ORMA on the voyages he planned with his level of experience and competence was suicidal. ORMAs are incredible machines, but even the world's best sailors agreed that they were remorseless boats, especially shorthanded. His mission was a forgone conclusion.

 

[Paul Scott]

I feel the loss of Captain Donald Lawson gives this thread, and multihull safety in general, new urgency, and that US Sailing, in his memory, should take notice.
Captain Donald Lawson https://www.facebook.com/CaptainDonaldLawson/

Lowering the center of gravity, even a little, while raising the amas of trimarans relative to it would give them a much higher angle of vanishing stability, it seems to me.

I also see ways a development class could be created that would mandate stability @90 degrees like Class40 while leaving designers free to achieve that in a variety of ways. One solution might be narrow-ish catamarans with twin canting keels. I don't think you'd need a lot of ballast, just a little. Hulls could be round in section, allowing the ballast to fly as explored at Flying Canting Keel-Extraordinary Innovation! https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/flying-canting-keel-extraordinary-innovation.30806

FWIW, in the latest Seahorse, Julian Bethwaite mentions that 29er sailors wanted to sail them solo, so they added some lead to the daggerboard, which helped things.

 

[Stephen Ditmore]

I question your facts, All at Sea; Lawson was not inexperienced. In France, plenty of sailors enter the sailing of trimarans with less experience than Donald Lawson had. The difference is that they do so with corporate sponsorship, so the boats are actively maintained and there are shore teams supporting the racing and voyages.

I'm not saying Lawson was blameless - he's not. What I'm saying is I'd like to see a Tiger Woods or Williams sisters of sailing and a resurgence of American participation in high performance offshore sailing. We designers need to create pathways for people to develop in the sport safely.

 

[ALL AT SEA]

I strongly doubt any sailor, French or otherwise, has ever ever attempted solo records on an ORMA with the level of (in)competence that Donald displayed, funds were lacking but not the issue. The whole thing was a charade. His "Dark Seas Project" only set its cause back unfortunately -sailing, well top level racing could do with more diversity. The ORMAs were designed for max speed under a box rule, and for that they were highly successful. A self-righting multihull that was faster than a monohull could be built, but it wouldn't be as fast as a multi that wasn't self-righting. So for record setting, or even high level racing it's obvious which concept will prevail. For cruising, adventuring, and recreational racing, a self righting multihull may get some traction.