Any new "Connector" boat ?

http://www.yeoldeeditor.com/FreakShips.htm

Connector was an articulated ship in 1850 designed by Henry BESSEMER
I know there is an articulated amateur catamaran sailing in Australia.

Are there any recent examples of articulated ship with what kind of benefit ?

 

On a somewhat smaller (kayak-size) scale, I have a couple of experimental projects underway for trials in the New Year, pending solution of the current hard water problems in the area of course-

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailboats/articulated-sailboat-24598.html
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailboats/sailing-directly-upwind-29981.html

 

Thanks for these links
What i was thinking of was larger boats, at least 35 feets like the australian one.

I found this pic from connector
Are there any more info about Connector or the australian sailing boat. The son of the owner i met in Southampton this year was a pro race sailor that used to take care of PROVU a F40 Tri

 

I thought you might be encouraged by some related activity, but I don't have more knowhow to offer. The real sailors and NA's haven't weighed in yet which is a pity, hopefully you will be able to hook one or two into the discussion. In the meantime I can give my opinion on benefits and pitfalls, for what it is worth.

In flat water you are dealing with 2 dimensions. In that case the extra flexibility of an articulated boat can have an obvious advantage in narrow waters. However, towing is needed rather than pushing unless every link in the chain is to have its own steering capability, and the towboat and barges must be designed as a system with heavy duty linkages in order to eliminate the towline and its attendant difficulties. On the other hand the mechanics of towing are well understood, the hardware is already in place and flexible, and it is lower in cost so market acceptance is the challenge, I think.

A sectional boat, by which I mean one that can be divided at its destination like a railroad train but is rigid for travelling, has the advantage of being able to drop off parts of its load at several ports without waiting for the unloading process. It is compatible with pushing. Seaports are not set up to take advantage of this so there would be an infrastructure cost that would have to be incurred, but it is a common practice on rivers.

Mention of seaports brings us to consider the use of such concepts on the high seas. Here you will be dealing with a 3-dimensional situation for an articulated vessel. Essentially this would be a series of small vessels linked together. This loses the stability advantage that a large vessel has over a small one in serious weather conditions, and creates problems managing a number of small vessels in close proximity, always an unsafe situation. There is the theoretical possibility on extracting wave energy for propulsion and other purposes, which has already been demonstrated I understand.

A hybrid, flexible in the horizontal plane but vertically rigid would, I suspect, pose insuperable engineering challenges even if some kind of advantage resulted, which I cannot see speaking for myself.

A sectional (rigid) vessel on the high seas will require massive linkages between sections and provision for passageways from one end of the total vessel to the other for maintenance and other purposes. There is no advantage even if it could be done safely, which I doubt, as the problem of containerization has already been solved by - er - containerization.



Just my thoughts on an interesting but IMHO doomed concept. I really hope someone will come along and prove me wrong, though.